I love the old-schoolness, but with an LCD widescreen monitor gameplay is negatively impacted by the resolution. I've seen a few options in other threads, but there's no GoG-certified D1&2 mod sticky?
Are there any stable, compatible ways to change the aspect ration to 16:10 (if not outright increase the resolution), maybe even increase the fov and improve kb+m controls? Sticky-worthy ones?

While I doubt that GOG will "certify" a mod as you describe, at least in the short term, it really couldn't be much easier to get D1X Rebirth working. It has all of the features you requested: high resolution, widescreen (with appropriately adjusted FOV), it is quite stable, and works flawlessly in multiplayer (though perhaps not with the original version). I don't know about improving keyboard and mouse controls except that you might find it to be a superior experience given it is running natively instead of in an emulated environment. As far as support, there is an active forum associated with the development. Have you given it a try?

Nope, just wanted verification of stability. D1X Rebirth is one of the things mentioned that I've bookmarked. If another GoG gamer thinks it's fine, that's good enough for me to proceed. Thanks.

D1X Rebirth for Descent I is AWESOMELY FANTASTIC!!! So is D2X Rebirth for Descent II. A "must have" in my repertoire of "ports/addons/updates" for games that I have.

Yep, now that I tried it and tweaked it, it's fantastically smooth. Fixing the aspect ration really makes the controls "feel" right now.
And I'm also amazed at how sexy this game can look with a few simple additions like texture filtering and anti-aliasing. AA is especially a shock to me, because for new games I tend to have it off by default because I just assumed the performance hit would never be worth it.
But hot damn, does it make a difference. I never new :/
Score one for gaming, I think the DXX rebirth projects deserve a GoG sticky.

I agree. These mods are definitely a must have for gamers wanting a visual update for their favourite old games.

Here's a quick link to the DXX - rebirth files for new players looking to update the looks of Descent 1 and 2
[url=]http://www.dxx-rebirth.de/?Downloads[/url]
... there's a handy readme in each zip that explains what files you need to copy. Its the best 5 megs a descent fan can download.

You can also try D2X-XL which will give you a lot of extras compared to Rebirth, like colored lighting, high resolution textures and 3D models, smoke and gun effects, and and and.