Hi,

in case anybody here doesn't know: I am the D2X-XL maintainer.

D2X-XL has made major progress in two areas recently:

1. Performance on weaker hardware

I have identified and removed the single main bottleneck making D2X-XL unplayable on low-end graphics hardware.


2. Multiplayer Stability

After having been plagued by problems here for a long time (mostly side effects of my attempts to make it more robust), D2X-XL's multiplayer code finally seems to work rock solid. We have had both anarchy games with 12 players (D2X-XL supports up to 16) and coop games with 4 players (two behind the same DSL router), and no problems with de-synchronized games or players not able to join or complete the transition from one level of a mission to the next.


Physics

D2X-XL does not screw with game physics unless you tell it to. In the original game turn rate of homing missiles had been framerate dependant (the more frames, the better homers turned). Both XL and Rebirth have fixed that. So actually homing missile performance and behavior is more consistent and reliable with both ports than it was with the original version.

D2X-XL allows you to improve both physics and bot AI by offering more precise collision detection, different ship types with different speed and capacity, an enhanced damage model for the player ships and robots that maneuver better and see further. This is all optional though.


Installation

Particularly on MS Windows installing D2X-XL is very simple. I recommend taking a look at this article: http://forum.descent2.de/viewtopic.php?p=24841#p24841

Installing on Linux sounds harder than it is. You basically need to install a few libraries via your distribution's packet manager, install 7zip v9, download and build the source code using the scripts provided for that purpose, and put the game data into the proper folders. The data downloads already contain the right subfolders, so all you need is to extract them to the main data folder ("/usr/local/games/d2x-xl" by default).

Linux Installation

Find the latest installation instructions for Linux here: http://descent2.de/installation.html

You can get the soundtracks here

Just put them in the main installation directory and they should work.

For all who like eye candy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQYuhLC-GHY

I have one question for you---The download page for D2X-XL. It "requests" donations. But there is no download option. In other words you are forced to "donate" in order to get something that is supposed to be open source.

I have no problem donating to the project, I have before, and I would happily do so again. But you might want to fix your page. Forcing a "donation" is the same thing as selling, and the goes against any copyright legality stuffs that may be out there.

First of all, there *is* a download link, and usually it works. Take another look.

Second, there is an alternative download on Sourceforge.net.

Third, you can download the entire source code from an SVN repository on Sourceforge.net.

So next time please make sure you know what you are talking about before posting rubbish like in your above post.

No reason to get hostile man. If that is the case then obviously I could not find the link. Could you please post the link?
Searching sourceforge for D2X-XL only nets me a DLE-XP download, which is obviously only the level editor.

If I had been hostile I would have sounded different. Don't tell people I would be trying to force others to pay for open source software, and I won't call your posts rubbish. You have deserved the comment, like it or not; even more since you gave me the full "legal stuff" broadside.

Btw, Heise online has D2X-XL, too, and so does SoftPedia and a bunch of other file hosters. Googling will give you a page full of links to such sites. Clicking "files" on Sourceforge's D2X-XL page doesn't seem to be too far off when looking for a file to me as well. Apparently you didn't try more than the bare minimum to find a download before complaining.

What about the donations button was it that suggested to you that you had to donate before getting a download? Nothing on my entire site says anything like that. So if you are having problems with the D2X-XL download (problems a few thousand D2X-XL users do not have), please have the courtesy to register on the D2X-XL forum and ask for help there instead of making insinuations like the above one here.

Jesus man, I say again. No reason to be hostile.

I relayed what I saw. What I found. I had no intention of causing you to go nuts on me and start blasting me and insulting me by making me feel and/or look like an idiot.

Fact is, whenever I went to attempt to download it directly from the D2X-XL website, I was met with nothing but a donation page with no actual download link. Is it possible that I was in the wrong place? YES. FACT of the matter is, I TOLD you out of CONCERN that it might LEAD to something like legal matters, and the last damned thing I want is your project getting shit-canned because of a simple webpage mistake! Jesus!

This is not the first time I've tried D2X-XL and it won't be the last, it's AMAZING work and like I said I have donated before and I will donate again. Just CUT the damned hostility--it was nothing personal.

Anyways--As for the download link that never showed up, I finally located after digging around on the sourceforge site.

For anyone else that doesn't know how to navigate the internet, here is the direct link for the 32bit .exe. If there's a 64 bit I'd like to know, because that might explain why mine isn't working right.

http://cdnetworks-us-1.dl.sourceforge.net/project/d2x-xl/Windows/d2x-xl-win-1.15.187.exe

So I went to www.descent2.de, clicked on the "D2X-XL" link, scrolled down the page, and there were a whole heap of download links for Windows, Linux, and OSX, plus Sourceforge, and a bunch of other stuff too, all clearly labelled. Failing to find those links does seem to indicate a lack of effort.

Still, if you wanted to make it even easier to navigate, you could add a bunch of in-page anchor links at the top of the page for the headings below, one of which would be "D2X-XL Releases".

There is a scrolling menu at the left border of the page containing such a link.

THIS is exactly what I asked you guys NOT to do! I'm not gonna point a finger at either one of you...but please...just calm down!

Thanks! :)

So what is your problem?

Lol! My problem? :)

Well it just kinda makes me sad that the Descent community is so fractured...I mean it's an AWESOME game, yet quite often we're all jumping down each other's throats. I don't think there are enough of us left to be doing that! lol!

So I really just would like if we all (myself included) kinda took what everybody said with a grain of salt, and waited awhile before posting personal comments or whatever. This community can be (and in some places, at sometimes IS) an absolutely AMAZING one!

I think the game is good enough that it should never die...but we as a community can kill it, if we keep bickering amongst ourselves.

Just my 2 cents! Lol!


BTW karx...great job on D2X-XL...I personally use Rebirth cause I like the original feel, and my crappy graphics card can't handle your port...but I think you've done an awesome job at remaking this old game! So thanks.

:)