About D2X-XL

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

HUD Improvements
  • Target and damage indicators
  • Weapon and equipment icons
  • Zoom scope
  • Radar dish

Custom Music
  • Supports high resolution music in ogg and flac formats
  • Replace the original game music with high resolution versions of its songs
  • Let D2X-XL play your own songs via playlists

Bigger, Better Levels
  • Sophisticated level editor "DLE" with OpenGL renderer, 1st and 3rd person views, flexible interface, and many advanced editing functions
  • Massive level building enhancements allowing for bigger, better levels with new elements and mechanics and non-standard objectives
  • Full modding capability, allowing to change all game elements (models, AI, textures, sound, music)

Simple Installation
  • Drop D2X-XL in your existing Descent installation and it will automatically create the environment it needs
  • Have D2X-XL detect and download program updates from the internet
  • Simply download and extract add-on content archives to your D2X-XL folder to make it work