D2X-XL Forum

D2X-XL doesn't come with the original game files, as these are still copyrighted. Simply extract the archive into your regular Descent 1+2 installation. D2X-XL will copy the original game files it needs to its own subfolders when you start it for the first time.

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D2X-XL 2.0 beta 9 (~2.5 GB)

10-08-2026 (2)

• Fixed: HUD windows (rear view etc.) weren't rendered at the proper positions in cockpit views
• Fixed: The in-game timer was rendered using the wrong font size in cockpit views when no HUD windows were shown

10-08-2026 (1)

• fixed instabilities that could be caused by malformed level data (segment, vertex, wall, trigger and object tables); a level that fails to load leads back to the main menu
• made level changes more stable: exit and secret exit triggers change the level at the end of the frame, failed loads of levels and secret levels are handled
• made trigger, wall and door handling more stable (invalid targets and texture numbers, trigger cascades, wall, door and exploding wall records from level files, savegames and network messages)
• fixed potential instabilities in object handling (segment object lists, attached objects, guided missiles, markers, reactors, object pool limits)
• fixed potential problems in robot AI and path finding (segments that do not exist, segment changes and claw attacks of the parallel robot pass, guide-bot messages)
• fixed potential problems in physics and collision handling (object lists, unknown object types and models, thread safety of hit box and texture tests)
• made weapon handling more stable (invalid weapon and gun numbers, weapon and powerup tables, fire delays, earthshaker without guide-bot)
• networking: made the transport layer more robust (packet processing, datagram floods, multicast and Linux sockets, shutdown of the network thread)
• networking: fixed problems when joining games (player numbers of simultaneous joiners, sync packets, object sync, game browser, mission download and upload)
• networking: game messages with invalid or forged contents are ignored (player, object, weapon and texture numbers, non finite values, messages naming the local player); fixed the length of the robot powerup message
• multiplayer: fixed buffer overflows in chat, kill and team messages and potential problems in powerup respawn, score handling and entropy games
• made savegame handling more stable: invalid or foreign savegames are refused without destroying the running game, savegame contents are validated, secret level saves are handled correctly
• fixed instabilities that could be caused by malformed game data files (HAM, HXM, PIG, HOG, hoard.ham, mission files, d2x.ini, over-long paths)
• made level mesh building and its cache files more robust
• fixed instabilities that could be caused by malformed texture, image and font files (PIG, POG, TGA, PNG, DDS, IFF/BBM, PCX), made text output more robust
• fixed instabilities that could be caused by malformed model files and model caches (POF, OOF, ASE, HXM), fixed hit box and sub model handling
• made rendering more stable (invalid texture, model and object numbers, missing viewer, shadows, cameras, radar, automap, screenshots)
• made dynamic lighting and light precalculation more stable (lights without object, flickering lights, headlights, light and lightmap cache files, aborted precalculation)
• fixed potential problems in effects (particles and smoke, moving and omega lightning, explosions, splash damage, shockwaves)
• fixed potential problems in cockpit and HUD (text formatting, gauges, cockpit windows)
• made menus more stable (progress windows, menus rendering the game behind them, leaving menus in multiplayer games, file selector)
• player profile and input: profile values are limited to their valid ranges, invalid control bindings are ignored, fixed key configuration reset and mouse joystick simulation
• fixed potential problems in briefings, movies and subtitles; texts from text files and mods can no longer break the formatting of built-in texts; corrected German texts
• made program start, error handling and the thread pool more robust
• demos: made recording and playback more stable (truncated or corrupt demos, level changes, full disk, multiplayer recordings, conversion to the old format), fixed rewinding over very large frames (demo version 21)
• Simplified sound and music handling
• Sound and music are now handled separately and shouldn't interfere with each other
• Fixed bugs and potential instabilities in sound handling that could cause crashes

10-07-2026 (1)

• Fixed: Areas behind doors with a custom texture weren't rendered
• Fixed: Reactor exits could close five seconds after having opened

10-06-2026 (2)

• Fixed: Triggers in D1 didn't work (so exits didn't open)
• Fixed: Damage lightning was rendered in the player's view on his ship when it was damaged
• Fixed: D2X-XL would crash when being closed with ALT+F4

10-06-2026 (1)

• New: Cartoon style smoke and smoke trails
• New: Option to turn cartoon style smoke off in the cartoon style renderer

10-05-2026 (2)

• fixed: Scene elements were placed wrong and distored in cockpit views
• new: command line switch raytracing 0|1 allows to completely disable raytracing code

10-05-2026 (1)

• fixed: Removal of a raytracing related flag from Vulkan shaders potentially causing crashes when compiling these shaders
• new: I added d2x-xl-directx.exe. Same performance, potentially less issues like the one above. Try that one if the Vulkan version keeps crashing.

10-04-2026 (2)

• fixed: Editing mouse and keyboard bindings was very sluggish and you couldn't enter anything

10-04-2026 (1)

• fixed: The mouse could leave the window after opening and closing a dialog in-match
• fixed: Static smoke didn't work well anymore
• new: Added an option to show the spawn effect in 3rd person view (off for normal spawn)
• Improved: Now logging shader creation and active shader during crashes