My tribute to Diedel, D2X-XL, and Descent II! :D

D3Hack · Post by **D3Hack** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 8:32 pm

Note: The official thread is here, on PlanetDescent, but I'm mirroring it here for those of you who can't/don't want to post on PD.

Anyway, you're probably wondering what my \"tribute\" is. Here's what: It's Descent 2: Counterstrike, modified by yours truly just for D2X-XL! It now has colored lighting, semi-transparent walls, and a few extras, too!

Here's some screenies:

Ooh... Look @ all the purdy colors!

Level 9 never looked this hot (pun thoroughly intended)!

:P

Instead of water-/lava-falls w/ spots where you can see through, we now have semi-transparent water-/lava-falls!

(ones that you could fly through that were opaque remain opaque, though, for obvious reasons

)

The force fields are now semi-transparent, too!

It wasn't too hard to do, but it looks AWESOME!

And, what's more, I want YOU to be able to have it as well! Yep; I'd like to distribute it.

Unfortunately *obvious problem arises*, this means I'll be distributing DESCENT2.HOG, which I'm 100% positive is illegal unless you have a valid copy of Descent 2.

I'd still like to do it, I'd just have to be sure you have a valid D2 copy before e-mailing it to you. The problem is... I don't know how to do this. A picture wouldn't work, because it'd be too easy to counterfeit. Any ideas?

CDN_Merlin · Post by **CDN_Merlin** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 8:51 pm

I don't think there is a easy way to prove unless you mail a copy of the reciept or something.

Also, as D1/2 is so frigin old, I doubt anyone would care if you handed us the hog files.

Steel · Post by **Steel** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 9:15 pm

CDN_Merlin wrote:I don't think there is a easy way to prove unless you mail a copy of the reciept or something.

That wouldn't work because many people buy D2 off of EBay like I did.

Anyway, Great Work D3Hack! Is this complete? If not how much is left? Cna you post a changelog? And can't you just take the files you changed and compile another hog that would override the files in descent2.hog?

Diedel · Post by **Diedel** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 2:33 am

Hack,

awesome work!

I cannot see a problem in offering the mission file as ppl still need the pig files (and the changes are all in the hog).

I'd definitely love to have it!

Diedel

Pumo · Post by **Pumo** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 6:57 am

It looks coooool

And i think it shouldn't be a problem to distribute the main HOG, as Diedel said.

Neumaennl · Post by **Neumaennl** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 8:46 am

now imagine this with novacron's HiRez textures and the D4 ship model *slipping from chair droolingly*

D3Hack · Post by **D3Hack** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 10:15 am

Neumaennl wrote:now imagine this with novacron's HiRez textures and the D4 ship model *slipping from chair droolingly*

*destroys computer drooling*

Anyway, I've got the file zipped and ready; I'll just have to wait until I can get it uploaded. It should be ready by this evening (mountain time; GMT-7).

D3Phoenix · Post by **D3Phoenix** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 5:34 pm

First of all, you didn't include this option:

( ) I Worship the Almighty Diedel.

Secondly, WOW... I want. Now. Great work, man.

My suggestion is this:
Destribute the HOG renamed: D2-D2XXL.HOG or something similar. Remove all game files (except for the briefings, MSN, and levels of course) and destribute this file, so that it can be played as a regular \"add-on\" mission. I'm pretty sure that since you are adding on and not destributing game-critical data that way, It wouldn't violate copyrights or make people too angry.

Awesome work. Now all we need is to apply NovacroN's textures to it

, and then get Valin Halcyon's models imported... (Double

)

Yay for D2X-XL

Diedel · Post by **Diedel** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 6:07 pm

D3Phoenix wrote:First of all, you didn't include this option:

( ) I Worship the Almighty Diedel.

If you want to worship someone, worship the Almighty God.

You can bless me though - donations are always welcome ...

Steel · Post by **Steel** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 6:18 pm

Diedel wrote:If you want to worship someone, worship the Almighty God.

Amen to that.

Neumaennl wrote:now imagine this with novacron's HiRez textures and the D4 ship model

This is coming tonight, novacron is releasing a demo pack tommorrow. Now we need to bug Valin Halcyon and Deidel for models and support.
*watches keyboard start sparking while drooling*

I can't wait!

Mr. Perfect · Post by **Mr. Perfect** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 6:30 pm

The semi-transparent waterfall is possible the best effect I've seen the D2 engine pull off.

D3Hack · Post by **D3Hack** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 9:03 pm

Well, since it looks like I'll be distributing the main HOG file anyway...
Download it now!

Have fun!

P.S, I would've put it in a different hog file, but then it wouldn't have had the movies in it. (ie the system warp and exit sequence ones)

Also, Diedel, if you want to put this on your site, do so!

But please, host it on your site as well and link to that, so that our server doesn't have to shut down from getting too many hits.

D3Hack · Post by **D3Hack** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 9:03 pm

Uh-oh... somehow I ended up double-posting and it won't let me delete this one!

Seppel · Post by **Seppel** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 5:16 am

Hello D3Hack,

I really would like to test your special textures - but what compression did you used? Either the file you uploaded is corrupt or you managed to get the most unusual packer of the whole wide web (=WWW)

Thanx in advance,
Seppel

Aus-RED-5 · Post by **Aus-RED-5** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 5:28 am

Seppel wrote:Hello D3Hack,

I really would like to test your special textures - but what compression did you used? Either the file you uploaded is corrupt or you managed to get the most unusual packer of the whole wide web (=WWW)

Thanx in advance,
Seppel

Its a zip file. I d/l it today and the file is fine on my end.

Try clearing out temp internet folders and re-download file.

Seppel · Post by **Seppel** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 6:07 am

hmmm - I downloaded it with 2 different browsers, flushed the cache once - and Winzip/7zip/Winrar still mention that its an unknown compression format. (btw: size is 3.125MB ?!)
Only ZipGenius can handle it - but wants a password for extraction!?

Seppel

Weyrman · Post by **Weyrman** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 6:19 am

yes, same here

Aus-RED-5 · Post by **Aus-RED-5** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 6:30 am

Well I just download it again and once again the file is fine for me.

What version of winzip are you guys using?
I'm using WinZip 9.0.

So maybe if you are using an older version you'll need to upgrade?
Just a thought.

DIT: I also have WinRAR 3.20 and it opens the file as well.

Valin Halcyon · Post by **Valin Halcyon** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 6:36 am

WinRAR 3.x 4TW.

Weyrman · Post by **Weyrman** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 7:31 am

just grabbed winrar 3.51. It gives the error \"Unknown method in Descent2.hog\".

Aus-red-5, can you rezip the file and put it up somewhere?

Steel · Post by **Steel** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 9:33 am

I tried to open this zip in 7-zip 3.42. I didn't work. So I started to do some research. File is compressed using the PPMd algorithim. What is the PPMd algorithim? It is the proprietory new format used by Winzip 10.0. That is the only thing I can find that will open it.
http://www.winzip.com/

Suggestion to D3Hack: can you reupload the zip after rezippiing it using an older algorithim?

Weyrman · Post by **Weyrman** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 6:29 pm

Suggestion: grab zipgenius, it's free to all
http://www.zipgenius.it

Aus-RED-5 · Post by **Aus-RED-5** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 9:18 pm

Ok....
I'll host this for a short time only.
You can get the file here.

This should help thoughs of you who have ZipGenius6 or older versions of WinZip.

D3Hack · Post by **D3Hack** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 10:45 pm

Thanks, AUS. Teh file is huge, so I applied maximum compression. I didn't think it would cause problems like this.

Peter · Post by **Peter** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 11:13 pm

Here it is in .sitx format now! Only 2.7 MB compared to the ZIP 3.1 MB and 3.3 MB versions! So for all you modem users out there, rejoice as this is .4 MB smaller! Huzzah! o_O
http://idisk.mac.com/kendallp/Public/fi ... t2-XL.sitx

Diedel · Post by **Diedel** » Sat Mar 18, 2006 3:37 am

D3Hack,

I have changed a setting in DLE-XP that screwed up dynamic lighting e.g. in the start hall of the first room (if you shot out the lights hanging from the ceiling after re-lighting the level with DLE-XP, only the face with the lights got darkened, the one at its sides didn't).

I also have a version with a mn2 file (basically took the descent2.mn2 from the descent2.hog and renamed it).

Valin Halcyon · Post by **Valin Halcyon** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 6:22 am

Umm, though...will someone please tell me why I should be all excited about this? It looks the same as it always has on my PC.

Diedel · Post by **Diedel** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 6:56 am

It has colored lighting and transparency effects, which make it look nicer w/o taking the feel of the original game. I like it very much this way. I bet you just took a brief look at the first level and now think you have seen all. Tsk, tsk.

My tribute to Diedel, D2X-XL, and Descent II! :D

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My tribute to Diedel, D2X-XL, and Descent II! :D

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