Hard Light Productions Forums
General FreeSpace => FreeSpace Discussion => Topic started by: DaBrain on July 04, 2008, 04:48:00 pm
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I've found my copy of Descent 3 and played a bit.
The engine is quite unusual for the time the game is from. According to Wikipedia it features bumpmapping... well I didn't see any bumpmapping, but I saw the motion blur. Wait... motion blur in 1998?
I didn't notice it back then, but now I think it works quite good for explosions.
The motion blur effect on the stars reminded me a lot of Freespace. Actually it even looked quite a bit better.
How closely related is the FS2 engine to the fusion engine?
(http://i29.tinypic.com/2mq4zt5.jpg)
(http://i32.tinypic.com/nb6n1w.jpg)
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Yes, it has bump mapping. See the small screenshots here? (http://sectorgame.com/d3/) Those were taken in a bump-mapped D3, although the pictures are slightly altered (a grain was added) but it's there. I recommend checking out this mod (http://sectorgame.com/d3/files/TrailerLarge.wmv) for Descent 3, which takes it into space combat playable in multiplayer as Team Anarchy.
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As far as I know, the Fusion engine is essentially unrelated to the FS2 engine; the original FS engine was derived from the engine developed for the first two Descent games, but Descent 3 used a completely new codebase. The interesting thing about the Fusion engine is that it combined a flight-sim-based engine for outdoor areas with a room-based engine for indoor structures, providing the instantaneous movement between indoors and outdoors that the game allows.