Alpha 3
New version. Been working on new features but it’s taking longer than expected so here’s a bug fix release in the mean time :
- Picking up a vulcan canon ammo auto-switched the primary weapon to the vulcan cannon even with auto select disabled
- Brightness setting changes in menus without being asked
- Wrong aspect ratio on death/escape sequence (see pictures below)
- Robot animation
- ambient sounds not working properly
- static in some sounds
- master volume is saved properly
New :
- Part of the work for rendering robots has been moved to hardware and should help improve speed when multiple robots are on screen.
- New sound engine
Original Descent Screen Shot :
Old DScent Perspective :
New DScent Perspective :
June 4th, 2007 at 1:09 pm
This release works great on my DS. Framerate actually seems a lot smoother, and it keeps the brightness settings. No bugs to report yet, but I’ll check back with any issues. Congrats on the release!
June 4th, 2007 at 5:24 pm
When homebrew is of this quality, it really underscores the number of wasted opportunities there are in commercial gaming. Descent DS would’ve been just the thing for Interplay at a time like this when they’re in bankruptcy protection. It’s like free money - the work of porting compared with developing an original game is almost nothing.
Not to slight your work or anything, it’s still remarkable that a lone person could pull this off, and with such high quality, especially given that you have no real DS development tools. Just a real bummer to realize that Interplay and so many other early companies have a massive back-catalog that’s going completely to waste. Especially in Interplay’s case, where they need an extremely good work-to-profit ratio.
Another example would be Baldur’s Gate. I’ve never played it, and now my computer’s too fast to do so. But if it was released on DS, I’d be all over it, it’s practically a legend among RPG players.
June 4th, 2007 at 5:28 pm
Descent icon!!! YOU RULE!!!!
June 4th, 2007 at 5:29 pm
Darn, level 15 still doesn’t load. Ah well, I can skip it for now.
June 4th, 2007 at 5:31 pm
May I suggest that at the New Game, Save Game, and Load Level dialogue boxes, A means “enter”, B means “backspace”? If you backspace completely, it functions as ESC. Just an idea. I’m getting used to A meaning “yes” now that the menu functions that way.
June 4th, 2007 at 5:32 pm
New aspect ratio is CRAZY, man! I’m not sure if I mean that in a good way or bad way yet, hehe. I’ll get used to it, I’m sure.
June 4th, 2007 at 5:39 pm
The new aspect ratio is really great functionally, I can now see a proper field of view. I didn’t realize it was bad before until I saw your screenshot, but now that I look back, it WAS really really hard to see the stuff going on around me. Level 7 boss fight in particular seemed difficult because I couldn’t see well enough to dodge things properly.
I love the new sense of speed. Feels like you’re rocketing through the levels! The “fisheye” effect is certainly tolerable for the improved gameplay.
Honestly I think maybe you got it a little too wide though, like maybe 5-10%. It’s a WIP, I know, so you probably realize all this and I’m just spamming up your site…
June 4th, 2007 at 6:09 pm
Great update, but I still can’t save on Supercard Lite no matter which dldi patch I try. With scsd.dldi, save appears to work, but the game crashes when I try and load the save game, so it looks like the data is getting corrupted while writing to the MicroSD card.
I’ve gotten saving to work with other DLDI homebrew (SNEmulDS), so this should be fixable
June 4th, 2007 at 7:41 pm
Cloaked and 4-armed melee robots still can’t attack properly, but the 4-armed ones now at least don’t look like they’ve had one too many while they try to attack you.
I’ve gotten used to the perspective now, it still seems a little fisheyed IMO but it’s worlds better than it was before.
Just beat levels 1-7 nonstop on Rookie, looks like it took just about 3 hours. Obviously still the odd slowdowns in certain areas you’d expect but the performance is generally superb.
The level 7 boss fight is much easier now that I can see my surroundings better. Can’t emphasize that enough. Hard to believe that boss used to give me trouble when playing on trainee difficulty so many years ago!
Odd thing I noticed about the sound system, often when there’s more than one sound being played, other sounds will suddenly become tinny, as if lacking treble. On the other hand, maybe it’s my imagination but I don’t often hear sounds cutting each other off nearly so often now, I’m guessing your new sound system increased the number of channels. Maybe just a placebo…
Great effort overall, I wish I had your skill. I hope you can get background music running and briefing alignment fixed. Aside from that, I think the only thing anyone could want is multiplayer. Great work.
June 5th, 2007 at 9:25 am
Congratulations for your superb work. I’m enjoying a lot with the incredible smooth DScent you’ve released, and I want to report some possibly bugs.
Sometimes before loading a previously saved game there’s a problem with the trigger (it can’t be stopped until your energy runs to 0), but I wasn’t been able to localize the conditions of this bug properly.
Another issue is that in some robots the texture of the “eyes” overlaps with the body’s texture, you can see it in the green robots of the third stage. I think that is the same problem that the 2d objects half-stuck in walls.
My flashcart is a microninja, and I haven’t experienced any problems with it. Let me thank you again for your work, I’ll keep an eye on your blog for future implementations.
P.D. I’m an spaniard trying to improve its english, I hope I didn’t have commited too much mistakes, sorry for the inconvenience
June 5th, 2007 at 8:36 pm
Your english is excellent, Alzberto! Personally I had no idea english wasn’t your first language in fact!
You mention a bug to do with loading games, your trigger gets stuck down. Does this affect all weapons, or just primaries/secondaries/flares? What happens if you change your weapon?
I know a previous version had a similar problem, and I haven’t tested it recently to see if it was fixed. Perhaps it’s related? What happened is, if you drained all your energy but held down your firing trigger, then entered an energy center or picked up an energy charge, your weapons would fire ULTRA-FAST, completely draining your energy again. But it stopped if you changed your weapon.
I hope that helps in the meantime before it gets fixed.
June 5th, 2007 at 8:51 pm
I have some (very) limited video editing skills, I’m going to see if I can make a trailer of some kind for DScent to put on YouTube, etc. This thing needs more exposure. I’m sure I’m not the only Descent freak out there who’d consider buying a DS just for Descent
June 5th, 2007 at 8:55 pm
low priority, but extreme coolness factor: Could you see if you can find a way to rip the graphical shield indicator from Descent 2? You know the one, it shows on the standard HUD? In a firefight, you don’t have time to check the exact shield percentage, it takes too long to focus on it. You need something that you can see from the corner of your eye and still understand.
An energy indicator of the same sort would be good too, but it’s nowhere near as important.
Keep up the fantastic work!
June 6th, 2007 at 1:28 am
This works perfect on the MMD.
I haven’t played through all the levels yet though.
This is actually the first time I’ve played Descent.
I never played it on the computer.
You should definitely post it on YouTube. That way more ppl will start homebrewin. Ports like this, Doom, and Quake are as good as comercial DS games.
So when do you think we’ll be seeing a Wifi multiplayer version?
June 6th, 2007 at 3:05 pm
Don’t take this as certainty, since I’m not the developer, but I know other homebrew has successfully implemented wifi. It should be possible here too. The developer has also been dropping hints here and there about multiplayer, so I think he’s planning on giving it a shot at least.
Joe, can you load level 15?
June 7th, 2007 at 1:56 am
Yeah I can load level 15 perfectly.
Sound, graphics, and controls all work.
No graphical glitches that I could see.
If wifi comes out for this you can always ask me to test it.
I got a router 2 DS’s and 2 MMDs.
June 7th, 2007 at 4:02 am
Wow. What a great release.
The best game now for DS… n1
iam just missing the music on my R4 for DS.. the other things work ok.
It would be nice if the weapon wich is currently selected get a little shiny / another color.
June 7th, 2007 at 10:50 am
Awesome AWESOME homebrew!
One quick question though. Is there a way to have the minimap displayed on the touchscreen like it used to on the original release of this homebrew?
It’s much more useful to have it up on the touchscreen than to have it displayed only when you hit the map button.
Alternatively you can have it set to display a small version on the touch screen, and have the map button bring up the dual screen zoomed in version.
I dunno.. maybe this is already a setting that exists that I’ve overlooked.
June 8th, 2007 at 5:24 am
Caydr said:
You mention a bug to do with loading games, your trigger gets stuck down. Does this affect all weapons, or just primaries/secondaries/flares? What happens if you change your weapon?
First of all I have to apologize for taking so much time to answer. I’ve been showing DScent in all the spanish communitys I know, in forums, etc, and I just came to this web to check the new versions. I’m sure the downloads have been incremented in the last week, muhuhahaha
The problem only appears with the main weapon selected. It’s really strange because you can’t change your weapon, it just doesn’t react at the tactile commands, you can press start to go to the menu, but when you return the trigger problem is still there. I won’t worry about this problem because I’ve been playing a lot more and didn’t experienced it again. Maybe it was a problem with my trigger…
Thank you Cadyr for your courage to continue learning english ;-D
June 8th, 2007 at 5:29 am
Speaking of videos, there are at least two of them in youtube:
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riZYKq1BbhQ (music added, no sound)
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLK5xZs16Ks (low performance, maybe it was the first version, no sound)
June 8th, 2007 at 7:18 pm
Dude, seriously. I love you.
June 8th, 2007 at 7:20 pm
Oh yeah, I mean @kayvenm
June 9th, 2007 at 10:19 am
[…] has released verstion Alpha 3 of DSCent, a DS port of the classic PC space shooter […]
June 9th, 2007 at 12:10 pm
Hi,
I’ve just discovered DScent and this is a really nice piece of work!
I ‘ve one problem however: on the first level after entering the left tunnel, screens become suddenly white and red. Game is frozen.
Any idea ?
Config:
DESCENT version 1, upgraded to 1.4a and then to 1.5.
supercard sd
Automap on
June 9th, 2007 at 6:08 pm
Holmes, does that happen on any other levels/areas? Can you complete level 1 without going down that tunnel? Do you notice any other unusual behavior?
June 10th, 2007 at 2:02 am
Hi Altor,
Yes this happens on other areas (wide areas), is independent of DESCENT version (1.4 or 1.5). I removed the automap on lower screen (from the .csk file) and it seems the problem is solved (I was able to complete level one).
June 10th, 2007 at 9:31 pm
Hmm, so I tried the new version and it’s still no go with my Supercard DS (ONE) on the DSLite:
“Error: Cannot allocate space for Polygon_models!!”
~Shawn
June 12th, 2007 at 4:49 am
hey kayvenm,
great work! i just discovered that the pixel-error screen on startup doesn’t mean the game froze. i turned it off for like 2 weeks and didn’t know what to do. today, i left it switched on for a minute and the game just started. stupid me.
but this isn’t my question!
could you please add a little bit of code so the game can run if i put it in a “descent” folder on my ds-x. it looks a bit messy when i put like 4 homebrew-games directly on the card without having the option to use folders… that would be great!
thanks for this great piece of homebrewed fun!
cmd.rbt
June 13th, 2007 at 3:00 am
Great work mate, I cannot wait to see the rest of the progress on this port…especially the multiplayer part. keep up the good work.
June 13th, 2007 at 9:47 pm
I fixed the problem with save games on Supercard!
Go here for details:
http://forum.gbadev.org/viewtopic.php?t=12866&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=180
June 22nd, 2007 at 12:04 am
Oh man I love this! This version works on my R4 with the auto DLDI patching - meaning, this worked without patching the nds file!
June 23rd, 2007 at 9:54 pm
Does anyone else crash when trying to load level 15? I wonder if this could somehow be an EZV-only problem, I haven’t seen anyone else with this crash.
June 27th, 2007 at 3:54 am
Been trying to play this since v1 with my DS-Link (which is usually excellent for homebrew) - but Dscent always hangs/crashes during gameplay on the first level, often while destroying enemies. I can rarely get more than 10-20 seconds gameplay before this happens
I really hope there’s a solution for this as this is one of the best homerews around!
July 13th, 2007 at 9:29 am
I have a suggestion for the controls dilemma.
In response to one of Caydr’s comments from a few blog entries ago, he says not to use the stylus because it deprives you of access to too many buttons. At worst you lose R, A, B, X, Y, and you resort to using L, Up, Down, Left, and Right to perform any leftover actions. At best, if you’re dextrous enough, you can still use R (I can, but others may find that uncomfortable).
If you don’t use the stylus you end up using UDLR arrows for aiming, L or R to switch between strafing, your 4 main firing buttons are on the ABXY side of things, and R could be used to cycle weapons or some-such. My main gripes with this:
* No access to ‘roll’. This is a big one for me, as I hate auto-leveling, and when you’re trying to look around a cavern it’s difficult to maneuver if you can’t orient yourself quickly. No access to roll means more limited moving options.
* Movement isn’t very fluid when you’re forced to alternate between altering pitch/yaw and strafing. This may not sound like a big deal, but if you’re playing on hotshot, ace, or insane skill levels, you REALLY need agility of movement.
* In order to cycle weapons you either give up another button (R), hold the stylus in an awkward position while you press buttons, then quickly orient the stylus to tap the icon, or tap the icon with your finger — either of which will create a momentary delay that could get you killed.
I’m sure there’s others I’ve thought of, but those are the biggies.
The two schemes I’ve come up with so far are:
* Use the stylus for directional controls, L to alternate between strafing and directional control, R to accelerate, and arrows for firing.
* Setup similar to Caydr’s but with R set to activate roll, a/b for accelerate/reverse, select for flares, and nothing does bombs (they’re nearly useless in single player most of the time anyway).
So, some of the ideas I’ve come up with are along these lines:
* An inner circle is added to the center of the stylus pad that is used for one type of movement (say, aiming), and on the outer rim you have another type of movement in a different circle (maybe roll). Past some threshhold the two get mixed. When you’re within the boundary of the inner circle, none of the outer circle takes effect. Once you cross the boundary, you get some of each. Past another boundary you only get the outer circle’s effects. Both circles would operate on the premise that the nearer you are to the inner rim (or center) of a given circle, the stronger the effect is. In other words, a little off from the center and you turn slowly, and keep turning. A little more and you turn faster.
** I’m still trying to think through how this one would work. If you did directional/strafing for the two circles, sliding right from the center would start turning either left or right, then begin strafing right. What if you want to be turning left and strafing right?
* As an alternative, you might have roll on the outer rim, and it’s more linear than circular. The inner circle controls direction or strafing, and sliding far enough out to the left or right causes you to begin rolling.
* A single circle on the DS pad that controls an axis of movement, and a slider just above for roll. Additionally, all around the circle would be other buttons you can assign actions to for less used purposes (flares, bombs, switching to particular weapons, etc).
* You might also add the ability to change all the controls based on different control sets, where each control set would be quickly accessible on the DS pad. One might be battle controls, another might be adventure controls, another might be an ad-hoc amalgamation of the two, etc.
* Add the ability to shift more controls than just strafing and rolling. For example, instead of using two buttons for velocity, I’d rather be able to do something that switches between them. Perhaps if I tap the accelerate button two times and hold it down the second that means reverse (configurable of course, that might annoy some people).
Anyway, I think you can see where I’m going with these ideas. Feel free to email me if you want to discuss it.
-Brian
July 19th, 2007 at 5:36 am
When I try to run DScent on my nds-lite with r4ds, I get a white top screen with nothing on it and a red bottom screen with:-
Error: Cannot open file DESCENT.TEX or DESCENT.TXB
on it.
Am I doing something wrong?
July 20th, 2007 at 1:15 pm
I think using your finger to switch weapons is perfectly reasonable. You need to take your hand off the controls momentarily in order to do it, but you have always needed to do this. Using a mouse for instance, you’d need to switch between aiming (right hand) or moving (left hand), and in some people’s case, needing to look away from the screen momentarily.
One suggestion I’d make though, would be to split up the primaries and secondaries on the display, put primaries on the left, secondaries on the right, in vertical rows at the edges of the screen. That way, once you get used to it you could probably switch weapons with just your thumbs, only losing partial control for a second at the most. As it is, you need to let go completely with one hand, unless you’re using a stylus.
If/when DScent gets some form of multiplayer, some form of restriction will have to be placed on stylus use. Either the ability to host no-stylus games, no stylus use at all… it’s just too much of an advantage in *most* situations, and too much of a disadvantage in others. You really, really need those buttons.
Another suggestion I have is, add a modifier-only button to the config menu. Something similar to ctrl or alt in operating system use… like, push c, nothing happens, push ctrl c, you copy. If you could have a button you hold down which allows you to make alternate key mappings for all the buttons, it would probably help some people… IMHO, there’s exactly enough buttons as it is, if you use the same control setup as me.
July 24th, 2007 at 2:56 pm
mm:
You need the descent data files in order to play DScent. If you have them but it’s still not working, make sure you’ve put them in the SD card’s root directory (ie, “D:\”)
July 24th, 2007 at 2:57 pm
And you need the DScent files in your root directory too.
July 25th, 2007 at 10:05 pm
Hey there, Carydr
Crazy. Simply crazy. It’s too bad modern computers have trouble running these DOS gems, Descent is certainly one of those games I would love to go back to, and now I can w/ my DS. Keep up the excellent one-man job.
Do you think DII will be out there in the future? (yeah, one thing at a time, neh?
Just a random question.
Gordon
July 30th, 2007 at 4:05 pm
I’m not the developer, just a Descent junkie
Descent 2 could probably be done, the main difference between them is overall level size, but not really room-to-room complexity. There’s roughly the same number of polygons per “room” area, is what I mean, and that’s what matters. Descent uses an early version of the sort of rendering you see in Metroid Prime, for example. Each “room” area is loaded by itself while you’re in it, but the rest of the level basically doesn’t exist unless you’re looking at it. This is called a portal system… anyway, the point is, it should be doable without a great deal of effort, compared with the effort involved in making Descent run in the first place.
There ARE exceptions, I mean, the D2 ending boss room is extremely complex for example…
One thing I proposed for that problem, which you can sometimes see even in Descent 1, where you have like one room in an entire level that’s too much for the DS to render efficiently, was to just remodel that one section. I wouldn’t mind doing it… I’m a fairly experienced level designer. But the developer (kayvenm) hasn’t gotten back to me about it.
July 30th, 2007 at 4:40 pm
I’ve played up through to level 11 so far without experiencing any major glitches anywhere, until I enabled the automap during the secret level after 10, to figure out how to get into a secret room. With the automap enabled i get the red/white screen/hang glitch at seemingly random intervals.
The settings I use on the automap don’t seem to matter, so-long as the parameters place it within the viewable area. It has a cow if I accidentally give it width/height x/y values that make it draw outside the screen.
The values I’m using currently:
[automap]
x = 50
y = 242
w = 100
h = 75
type = automap
I originally had it covering nearly the entire bottom screen, but I thought, perhaps if I lowered the size it would fix it … no go.
-Brian