From http://www.dxx-rebirth.com/news/dxx-rebirth-v0-57-released/

June 19, 2011

Hello folks!

Finally the wait is over: DXX-Rebirth v0.57 is now released. This time I can safely say it really was worth all the 9 months of development since it’s probably the most feature-rich release we’ve pulled out so far.

Here is a small overview of the most important changes and additions:

* OpenGL ES Support by Florian Feucht and Oliver Haag
* Anisotropic texture filtering
* Improved transparency effects
* Colored Lighting effects
* A wide collection of Reticles is selectable including settings for Reticle size, color and transparency
* Expanded Sensitivity and Deadzone settings for Mouse and Joystick
* New optional control type for Mouse – FlightSim. Provides Mouse movement with an absolute center similar to Joystick-like control
* Improved weapon cycling/selection options (for Mouse mostly)
* Many improvements for the ingame menus such as scrolling via Mouse wheel, closing menus via right Mouse button, key repeats, Numlock support and more
* Support for keyboard layout-specific keys for game controls
* Find and join online games via Tracker server created and hosted by Matt “1360″ Vandermeulen
* D1X-Rebirth now supports Descent 2 Multiplayer features such as fixed Play Time, Kill goal, Bright Players and Invulnerability when respawning
* Option to disable Friendly Fire in Multiplayer Team games
* Bounty game mode for Multiplayer by Matt “1360″ Vandermeulen. Goal is it to kill the targeted player to score and become the new target
* Possibility to save and restore Cooperative games
* The game will automatically remember previously set Multiplayer rules
* M3U Playlist support for the Jukebox
* Random playback mode for the Jukebox
* Slightly improved wall collision handling
* Expanded possibilities for level authors: Support for custom descent2.ham inside missions (D2X-Rebirth). Support for Levels with up to 9000 segments (cubes). Support for Textures bigger than 64×64 pixels
* To prevent type-kills the game HUD will show “TYPING” below a player when a chat message is composed
* Free flight controls for the Automap
* Many Bugfixes and further improvements. Check CHANGELOG.txt for a full list of changes

I hope you’ll have much fun with our newest release. Get it while it’s hot!

http://www.dxx-rebirth.com/download-dxx-rebirth/

Yeah...this is AWESOME!!! I've been beta-testing this release for several months now...it's amazing!! :)

I tried 0.57 while playing with the Descent Rangers as an associate, and we loved the server browser. Very appropriate to hear this since Rebirth's mod spotlight was posted today.

Tell me more. Does it alter the controls to something like the vehicles in Red Faction 1, where you could strafe left and right?

You always could strafe in Descent. It's known as sliding. In fact my general key setup is W/S for throttle, A and D for side strafing and the joystick for aiming/fire control.

DXX-Rebirth does it's best to not alter anything gameplay-wise. It's mainly just to improve graphics, and fix old bugs in the original code, and make it work on modern systems :)

And you have full 6 degrees of freedom in descent. You can move in any direction! :)

Just downloaded the latest release, and it's a great update.

This is a really classy source port, much thanks to the DXX-Rebirth dev team and beta testers.

Hey does this cover both Descent 1 and 2 in their entirety? The reason I ask is because the download is only 2 megs or so. How do you squeeze improved textures in there?

I must be missing something on this Rebirth mod. I bought Descent 1 & 2 copied all the pig, hog files etc to Rebirth. Upon launch though it always brings up Descent 1. How do I get it to play Descent 2?
Ah a bit of searching and I discover that I have to download the other file d2x rebirth to play D2.

silly me.

I also looked over at the Rebirth forum and saw that a user posted my question there and it was answered. Thanks. So the executable is just the improved game engine with no added graphics. Are there any mods out there that make the graphics look even better?? I'm thinking like the way people did with Freespace Open project. Any support for bump mapping / normal maps?

Well here's the "problem".

All of the textures and everything are built into the game...so Rebirth simply uses anti-aliasing and such to improve graphics real time. But because of that it also has the most authentic game experience, cause it doesn't change anything about the actual game content.

Now if you want all the bells and whistles I would suggest D2X-XL...it's another source port that has more what you're looking for! :)

actually I don't mind the original graphics look. Granted its a bit colorful but I can appreciate the theme. I was playing doom when descent first came out and never got past the demo. If I had had this joystick then though.....

I just found the Map key LOL TAB key that isn't listed in the controls on F1. Maybe I should read the manual. I love the way the map works though so much better than what doom had!

Indeed! Also in rebirth...I think in misc. options...there's an option for "free flight map controls"...the difference is in the original map controls it's always centered on the player, and the controls are relative to your ship's orientation.

With Free Flight controls you can fly through the map, just like you fly in the game :)

What are the system requirements for this source port?

I have a laptop with a 1.3 GHz Core 2 Duo CPU and Intel 4500 mhd GPU. It runs some source ports well (ZDoom, Eduke 32 without polymer renderer) - and some not so much - Dark Places, KMQuake 2.

The GPU does not support anti-aliasing at all.

That should be just fine!!! :)

Yes I playing with dosbox and d1x-rebirth v0.57 8-)