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.
-
Make sure that you have a copy of Descent 3. You can purchase a copy of Descent 3 from GOG or Steam.
-
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.
-
If your version of Descent 3 is older than v1.4, then update it to v1.4.
-
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. -
Create a new folder named
D3-open-source
. -
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
- All
-
Create the
custom/
folder inD3-open-source
-
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-type>/
. For example, if you’re using Linux and you create a “Release” build, then the files will be located atbuilds/linux/Release
.
-
Copy all the new engine files into
D3-open-source
and overwrite any conflicts. -
Special notes:
- D3 Open Source compiles level scripts in their own hogfiles. Make sure
you copy and overwrite
d3-{platform}.hog
.
- D3 Open Source compiles level scripts in their own hogfiles. Make sure
you copy and overwrite
-
Run the game:
- On Windows, run
D3-open-source\Descent3.exe
from a command-line or double-click on theDescent3
executable. - On Linux,
cd
toD3-open-source
and run./Descent3
. Wayland users may need to set environment variableSDL_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 andcd
toD3-open-source
. Runxattr -c ./Descent3.app
and thenchmod +x ./Descent3.app/Content/MacOS/Descent3
, then run the game using./Descent3.app/Content/MacOS/Descent3
- On Windows, run
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.
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 |