D2X-XL is a modification of the original Descent 1 and 2 source code allowing to play these two great games on modern hardware. With D2X-XL, you can revive these two games and either make them look (almost) like the original, or activate a whole slew of enhancements that have been added to D2X-XL and give it a vastly improved appearance.
D2X-XL allows you to play both Descent 1 and Descent 2 with a single program, using appropriate game elements and behaviour for each of the titles. Despite its enhancements, D2X-XL is 100% true to the original games, allowing you to turn off all extras and play Descent 1 and 2 just the way they looked back in the day when they were new.
Due to its many enhancements, D2X-XL offers a greatly enhanced single player experience as well as improved and expanded multiplayer capabilities.
D2X-XL offers enhancements in every area of the game. Here is a short, incomplete list of what you can expect from D2X-XL:
Visual Improvements
- High resolution textures, models, sound
- Colored, lightmap based illumination and per-pixel lighting
- New effects: Smoke, lightning, glow, volumetric glare, improved explosions
- New gun effects: Light and smoke trails, tracers, lightning bolts, bullet cases
- New ship effects: Dynamic shield effects, thruster flames
Stereoscopic Rendering
- Oculus Rift support
- Supports 3D TVs
- Anaglyph rendering
Multiplayer Improvements
- UDP/IP networking making matches directly over the internet possible
- Match making via built-in game tracker
- Up to 16 players per match
- New game modes: Real CTF, Entropy, Monsterball, Darkness
- Automatic download of missing multiplayer levels
- Special competition mode
Physics Enhancements
- Improved collision detection and physics
- framerate independent weapon behavior
- Flexible weapon physics
- Slow motion and bullet time