Descent: FreeSpace - The Great War

FreeSpace
Descent: FreeSpace - The Great War	1998
FreeSpace 2	1999

Descent: FreeSpace - The Great War is a singleplayer and multiplayer first-person and third-person action, FPS, shooter and vehicle combat game in the FreeSpace series.

The game was released as Conflict: FreeSpace – The Great War in Europe.

General information

GOG.com Community Discussions for game series

GOG.com Support Page

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail
GOG.com
Steam

A demo is available.

Monetization

DLC and expansion packs

Name	Notes
Silent Threat

Essential improvements

Patches

The latest version is v1.06. Digital distributions are up-to-date.

Playing via Freespace 2 SCP

If the player also owns FreeSpace 2, its FS2Open source-port includes an updated, graphically improved version of the first game's campaign.

Game data

In-game general settings.

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\Data^{[Note 1]}
macOS (OS X)
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/273600/pfx/^{[Note 2]}

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\Players\Single^{[Note 1]}
macOS (OS X)
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/273600/pfx/^{[Note 2]}

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
GOG Galaxy
Steam Cloud

Video

In-game video settings.

Graphics feature	State	Notes
Widescreen resolution		Hardcoded to 640x480. Widescreen is possible with Freespace Open (via FreeSpace 2) or dgvoodoo.
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Borderless fullscreen windowed		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Vertical sync (Vsync)		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
60 FPS and 120+ FPS

Launch problems

If the keyboard can not skip the intro, that means that the desktop resolution is too high. Set the desktop resolution to something like 1920x1080 and launch the game again. 4K is too high.^{[citation needed]}

Input

In-game control settings.

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion		Options - Control Config - pitch axis - enable invert
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support
Controller remapping
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers

PlayStation controllers

Generic/other controllers

Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
Digital movement supported
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

Audio

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound
Subtitles		Cutscenes not subtitled.
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
EAX support		A3D 1.0,^[5] EAX (only available with a patch)
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
German				Retail only; download for digital versions

Network

In-game multiplayer settings.

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Players	Notes
LAN play		12	Co-op, Versus Disable Parallax Online in multiplayer options.
Online play		12	Co-op, Versus Parallax Online no longer functions.

Connection types

Type	Native	Notes
Matchmaking
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated
Self-hosting
Direct IP

Ports

Protocol	Port(s) and/or port range(s)
TCP	unknown
UDP	unknown

Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) support status is unknown.

Issues fixed

Game crashes after intro

Use dgvoodoo

Download and unzip dgvoodoo
Copy the files from <dgvoodoo>\MS\x86 to the FreeSpace game folder (where the FreeSpace.exe is).
(optional) Copy the dgVoodooCpl.exe and dgVoodoo.conf from the dgvoodoo folder to the Freespace game folder.
(optional) Execute dgVoodooCpl.exe in the game folder. Go to DirectX tab and deactivate the watermark at the bottom.
After you launch the game, you might have to press the mouse or another button once to focus it (otherwise it runs very slow & no sound). After that it should work fine.

Mission bugs

Several missions have a chance of capital ships not hitting their waypoints correctly. For a fix install these files.^[6]

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	5
Glide	1.2

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	95	98
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium 133 MHz	Intel Pentium 200 MHz
System memory (RAM)	32 MB	48 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	210 MB
Video card (GPU)	DirectX 5.0 compatible

Notes

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later (more details).
↑ ^2.0 ^2.1 File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data (use Wine regedit to access Windows registry paths). Games with Steam Cloud support may store data in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/273600/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (273600) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

References

↑ Volition on X - last accessed on 2023-10-16
"It's our own in-house engine that we call CTG after our Core Technology Group."
↑ Volition on X - last accessed on 2023-10-16
"It's been updated and changed over the years, but certain aspects of the engine like slew mode have been the same since the Freespace days."
↑ New Releases (retrieved) - last accessed on 2023-10-29
"New releases for Friday include Talonsoft's The Operational Art of War, Interplay's Descent: FreeSpace, and Microsoft's Baseball 98."
↑ January Mac Game Update: 10 New Additions - GOG.com (retrieved) - last accessed on 2023-06-06
↑ A3D Support for Descent: Freespace - Gamespot.com - last accessed on May 2023
↑ https://www.gog.com/forum/freespace_series/freespace_1_mission_bug_in_paving_the_way/post12

[gamedir-5] 1.0 ^1.1 When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later (more details).

[Proton_path_note-6] 2.0 ^2.1 File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data (use Wine regedit to access Windows registry paths). Games with Steam Cloud support may store data in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/273600/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (273600) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

[1] Volition on X - last accessed on 2023-10-16
"It's our own in-house engine that we call CTG after our Core Technology Group."

[2] Volition on X - last accessed on 2023-10-16
"It's been updated and changed over the years, but certain aspects of the engine like slew mode have been the same since the Freespace days."

[3] New Releases (retrieved) - last accessed on 2023-10-29
"New releases for Friday include Talonsoft's The Operational Art of War, Interplay's Descent: FreeSpace, and Microsoft's Baseball 98."

[4] January Mac Game Update: 10 New Additions - GOG.com (retrieved) - last accessed on 2023-06-06

[7] A3D Support for Descent: Freespace - Gamespot.com - last accessed on May 2023

[8] ttps://www.gog.com/forum/freespace_series/freespace_1_mission_bug_in_paving_the_way/post12

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[Note 1]

[Note 2]

[5]

[6]

Developers

	Volition
Publishers
	Interplay Entertainment
Engines
	CTG^[1]^[2]
Release dates
Windows	June 5, 1998^[3]
macOS (OS X)	January 23, 2013^[4]
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase, Expansion pack
Modes	Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	First-person, Third-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Action, FPS, Shooter, Vehicle combat
Vehicles	Space flight
Art styles	Realistic
Themes	Sci-fi, Space
Series	FreeSpace