[potterman28wxcv]

I know Descent and Freespace series are both been made by the same company. But I do not know why the original Freespace was called Descent : Freespace.

Is the story supposed to be set in the same universe as Descent ?

[The E]

No. The reasoning is pretty stupid.

You see, back in the day, there was a disk space utility called "Freespace" (no intercaps). They had a trademark on that name. So when it came to registering the trademark for FreeSpace, additional qualifiers were needed to distinguish the two programs. Given that Volition and Parallax were sort of sister companies, the "Descent" name was slapped on for brand recognition in the US (Elsewhere, FS was marketed as "Conflict: FreeSpace").

[Snarks]

So as a bit of an aside, why the name Freespace to begin with? I suspect it had to do with the whole no more confined quarters aspect they were advertising, but that's just my speculation.

[Dragon]

IIRC, what we call Subspace was called Freespace during the development. That might be where the name came from.

[Luis Dias]

IIRC, what we call Subspace was called Freespace during the development. That might be where the name came from.

Exactly, and also as put, a reference to the six degrees of freedom.

[BirdofPrey]

A bit more history about the company.

Descent was created by Parallax and published by Interplay (interestingly Descent 2 was originally supposed to just be an expansion pack).  The founders decided they wanted to live in different places, so the company split into Volition who produced Freespace and continues making games to this day (mostly known nowadays for Saints Row) and Outrage who produced Descent 3 then folded.

As mentioned there was a disk utility called Freespace, so they had to come up with a different name, the Descent part of the title is likely an attempt by Interplay to tie it back to the previous, well received, title.  My understanding is that part of the reason for the name Freespace was also a comparison to Descent.  in descent you travel around in claustrophobic mines and twisting tunnels, but Freespace is out in the open.
In free space

[AdmiralRalwood]

As I understand it, there was also a lot of Descent source code reused for Freespace.

[deathspeed]

The introduction of the "Descent Freespace: The Great War Reference Bible" starts out with "When scientists discovered what used to be called “FreeSpace” (now referred to as “subspace”), an alternate plane of existence allowing ships to traverse great distances of space in little time, our minds reeled with the possibilities. When humans first discovered they were not alone in the universe, there was dancing in the streets."

[karajorma]

As I understand it, there was also a lot of Descent source code reused for Freespace.

I don't know if it's a lot, but there definitely is some.

Code: [Select]

class object
{
public:
class object *next, *prev; // for linked lists of objects
int signature; // Every object ever has a unique signature...
char type; // what type of object this is... robot, weapon, hostage, powerup, fireball

in object.h is one of the best examples. Robots? Hostages? Powerups? Doesn't sound like FS to me. But objects are pretty low level so it makes sense they'd simply copy that from Descent.

[BirdofPrey]

Reuse of code is not uncommon.
Why do something you've already done?

[Mongoose]

My naive non-coding self always wondered if there was any leftover AI code in there that would allow other ships to actually, y'know, not endlessly run into solid objects and such.

[Goober5000]

Well, there's this little snippet in aicode.cpp...

Code: [Select]

// MK 10/4/97 - We don't need this anymore since we're not fighting underground in corridors.
#ifdef 0
    ai_avoid_crashing_into_things(&Ai_info[Ships[Pl_objp->instance].ai_index]);
#endif


[Vrets]

Ye olde #ifdef 0.

What happens if you bring that function call back to life?

[Snarks]

Ye olde #ifdef 0.

What happens if you bring that function call back to life?

My guess is nothing. I have a hunch that that line of code is specifically for dealing with collision with the world map type stuff like a static wall as opposed to entity type stuff like fighters, asteroids, or destroyers. IIRC, in an interview with the Volition developers, they discussed how they had to write new AI code to stop fighters from ramming themselves into the Orion. Presumably, they couldn't just use this same type of AI code.

[potterman28wxcv]

No. The reasoning is pretty stupid.

You see, back in the day, there was a disk space utility called "Freespace" (no intercaps). They had a trademark on that name. So when it came to registering the trademark for FreeSpace, additional qualifiers were needed to distinguish the two programs. Given that Volition and Parallax were sort of sister companies, the "Descent" name was slapped on for brand recognition in the US (Elsewhere, FS was marketed as "Conflict: FreeSpace").

The introduction of the "Descent Freespace: The Great War Reference Bible" starts out with "When scientists discovered what used to be called “FreeSpace” (now referred to as “subspace”), an alternate plane of existence allowing ships to traverse great distances of space in little time, our minds reeled with the possibilities. When humans first discovered they were not alone in the universe, there was dancing in the streets."

Aw. I thought the naming would have been something smarter.. Especially considering that Freespace gameplay has nothing to do with Descent's

Why didn't they just call it Subspace in the end, if "freespace" was supposed to be the name of "subspace" ?

[deathspeed]

Why didn't they just call it Subspace in the end, if "freespace" was supposed to be the name of "subspace" ?

I always wondered why they didn't stick with the term "freespace" instead of the rather generic "subspace".  The only other place I fouond freespace mentioned as other than the name of the game is here:

The Shivan’s familiarity with Jump Node locations and their desire to gain control of them leads Terran Intelligence to believe that they know more about FreeSpace than anyone else.