Anonymous edits have been disabled on the wiki. If you want to contribute please login or create an account.


Warning for game developers: PCGamingWiki staff members will only ever reach out to you using the official press@pcgamingwiki.com mail address.
Be aware of scammers claiming to be representatives or affiliates of PCGamingWiki who promise a PCGW page for a game key.

Descent II

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
Revision as of 11:09, 7 August 2018 by Garrbot (talk | contribs) (updated template usage)
Template:Infobox game/row/macporter
Descent II
Descent II cover
Developers
Parallax Software
Publishers
Interplay Entertainment
Release dates
DOS March 13, 1996
Windows March 13, 1996
Mac OS (Classic) 1997
macOS (OS X) October 26, 2012[1]
Descent II on Wikipedia
Descent
Descent 1995
Descent II 1996
Descent 3 1999
Descent (cancelled) renamed to S.T.F.U (Ships That Fight Underground) April 2024

Key points

Engine is open source with modern multi-platform ports available. It is highly recommended to use either DXX-Rebirth or D2X-XL.

General information

Official game site
GOG.com Community Discussions for game series
GOG.com Support Page
Steam Community Discussions
Descent II source code download page

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
Disc check (requires the CD/DVD in the drive to play)
Startup disc check
DOS
Windows
Mac OS
GOG.com
DRM-free
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Steam
Icon overlay.png
Windows

Version differences

The Infinite Abyss and Definitive Collection have slightly remixed versions of the game's sound track.[2]

DLC and expansion packs

Name Notes
Vertigo Series
DOS

Essential improvements

Patches

Official patch to v1.2
Unofficial Unauthorized D2 Sound Patch - Corrects D1 robot sounds in D2.

Source ports

There are four (five technically) source ports available for Descent. These ports are major upgrades to the game and will improve almost all aspects of the game. Most notably, these ports support Windows, OS X, and Linux natively without the need for DOSBox.
Name Description
DXX-Rebirth Focused mostly on maintaining original gameplay and being authentic. Feature List
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux
D2X-XL Focused mostly on graphical and gameplay improvements. Changelog/Feature List
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux
DXX-Retro Based on DXX-Rebirth. Focused mostly on improving multiplayer. Source & Changelog
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Project D2X Very old source port, hasn't been updated in a long time. This project was the base for DXX-Rebirth & XL
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux
DOS

Descent: Maximum

Descent: Maximum was the PlayStation version of Descent II. An unofficial total conversion can be downloaded here.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
DOS
Windows <path-to-game>\[Note 1]
Mac OS (Classic)
macOS (OS X)
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/273580/pfx/[Note 2]

Save game data location

System Location
DOS
Windows <path-to-game>\[Note 1]
Mac OS (Classic)
macOS (OS X)
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/273580/pfx/[Note 2]

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
GOG Galaxy
Steam Cloud

Video settings

In-game video settings.
In-game video settings.
In-game screen resolution settings.
In-game screen resolution settings.
300px
Graphics settings (GOG.com version)

Template:Video settings

Input settings

In-game key map settings.
In-game key map settings.

Template:Input settings

Audio settings

Template:Audio settings

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English

Network

Multiplayer types

Type Native Players Notes
LAN play
8 Co-op, Versus
Online play
8 Co-op, Versus

Connection types

VR support

3D modes State Notes
Native 3D
Use D2X-XL (anaglyph, 3D TV).[3]
Headsets
SteamVR
This game might be playable with the Revive Compatibility Layer (compatibility list).
Oculus VR (LibOVR)
Use D2X-XL.[3]
Windows Mixed Reality
This game might be playable with the Revive Compatibility Layer.
Devices
Tracked motion controllers
Traditional controller
Keyboard/Mouse
Play area
Seated
Standing
Room-scale

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
DirectDraw 2.1
OpenGL 1.0 Requires a source port or official OpenGL patch from interplay. Also is a selectable rendering option in DOSBox.
Glide
Requires an official patch from interplay. Also require a fork of DOSBox with Glide support if being player in DOSBox.
Software renderer
Default mode in source ports and only mode without graphics patch from interplay
DOS video modes VGA, SVGA
ExecutablePPC16-bit 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Mac OS (Classic)

Middleware

Middleware Notes
Audio Human Machine Interface (HMI) audio drivers

System requirements

DOS
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) 5.0
Processor (CPU) Intel 486DX 50 MHz
System memory (RAM) 8 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 50 MB
Video card (GPU) SVGA video card
Mac OS
Minimum
Operating system (OS) System 7 (classic)
Processor (CPU) PowerPC 601 90 MHz
System memory (RAM) 8 MB (3 can be virtual memory)
Hard disk drive (HDD) 18 MB
Video card (GPU) 640x480 display with 256 colors
Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) 95
Processor (CPU) Intel 486DX 50 MHz
System memory (RAM) 16 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 700 MB
Video card (GPU) SVGA video card
macOS (OS X)
Minimum
Operating system (OS) 10.6.8 "Snow Leopard" (runs in DOSBox)
Processor (CPU) Intel Core Duo 2 GHz
System memory (RAM) 1 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)
Video card (GPU) 64 MB of VRAM

Notes

  1. 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. 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>/273580/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (273580) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

References