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USAGE.md

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Descent 3 Open source usage instructions

Important note: This open source distribution of Descent 3 DOES NOT CONTAIN GAME ASSETS. Assets must be acquired separately from an official copy of the game, and copied as describe in the next section.

This is the first release of the Descent 3 open source engine, that should be considered a beta version. If you find a bug that has not been reported before, please open a new ticket it on our online issue tracker.

  1. Make sure that you have a copy of Descent 3. You can purchase a copy of Descent 3 from GOG or Steam.

  2. Install Descent 3. Note for Steam users: If you own Descent 3 on Steam, then it’s recommended that you install the Windows version of the game even if you’re running macOS or Linux, otherwise movies will not work due to current lack of OGV support. You can use either Steam Play or SteamCMD to install the Windows version of the game on macOS or Linux.

  3. If your version of Descent 3 is older than v1.4, then update it to v1.4.

  4. Find the installation location of Descent 3. Using the Steam client, you can find it from the library page using the Manage > Browse local files context menu.

  5. Create a new folder named D3-open-source.

  6. Copy the following files from your installation of Descent 3 to D3-open-source:

    • All .hog files
    • The missions folder
    • (Optional) All .pld files
    • (Optional) The movies folder

  7. Create the custom/ folder in D3-open-source

  8. Obtain new Descent 3 engine files:

    • If you want to use pre-built binaries, then download the latest release. For a more cutting-edge experience with the latest features, use the artifacts from the latest automated build. You can find the list of automated builds here.
    • If you want to build the engine files yourself, the follow the instructions in BUILD.md. Once you build the engine files, they’ll be put in builds/<platform>/build/<build-type>/. For example, if you’re using Linux and you create a “Release” build, then the files will be located at builds/linux/build/Release.

  9. Copy all the new engine files into D3-open-source and overwrite any conflicts.

  10. Special notes:

    • D3 Open Source compiles level scripts in their own hogfiles. Make sure you copy and overwrite d3-{platform}.hog.

  11. Run the game:

    • On Windows, run D3-open-source\Descent3.exe from a command-line or double-click on the Descent3 executable.
    • On Linux, cd to D3-open-source and run ./Descent3. Wayland users may need to set environment variable SDL_VIDEODRIVER=wayland before launching the game.
    • On macOS, the .app bundle is currently not signed, so your operating system will not let you run it by double-clicking it. To remediate that, open your terminal and cd to D3-open-source. Run xattr -c ./Descent3.app, xattr -c ./netgames/*, chmod +x ./Descent3.app/Contents/MacOS/Descent3, and then run the game using ./Descent3.app/Contents/MacOS/Descent3

Troubleshooting

Descent 3 Message(Error: Couldn't find the string table.)

This error means that game data could not be found. Make sure you copied all game files to the D3-open-source folder, and that you're running the game from this same folder.

Command line options

Here brief usage of command line options, supported by game.

Option Type Default Platform Description
-dedicated, -d boolean Off all Run game in dedicated mode
-fullscreen, -f boolean On all Run game in fullscreen mode
-logfile boolean Off all Enable file logging to Descent3.log
-loglevel <LEVEL> string INFO (on Release), DEBUG (on Debug) all Set log level (NONE, VERBOSE, DEBUG, INFO, WARNING, ERROR, FATAL)
-nomousegrab, -m boolean Off all Disable mouse capture
-service boolean Off all Run game in service mode
-winconsole boolean Off WIN Enable windows console (off by default)
-windowed, -w boolean Off all Run game in windowed mode