Descent³

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Descent³

Developer(s)	Outrage Entertainment
Publisher(s)	Interplay Productions
Engine	Portal Rendering System
Latest version	1.4
Release date(s)	May 26, 1999
Genre(s)	First-person shooter
Mode(s)	Single player Multiplayer
Rating(s)	ESRB: Teen (PC-13)
Platform(s)	PC, Mac OS, Linux
Media	CD-ROM
System requirements	Minimum 200 MHz Pentium Processor 32 MB RAM 3D accelerator video card with 4 MB of texture RAM 4x CD-ROM drive 210 MB hard disk space DirectX 6 certified sound card DirectX 6.1 (for Windows operating systems only) Service Pack 3 or greater (for Windows NT)
Input	Keyboard, Mouse, Joystick, Controller

Descent³ is the third and final game in the line of Descent computer games, well known for the use of six degrees of freedom and true 3D rendering technology.

It constituted a major technical upgrade of the first two program versions, introducing many ground breaking graphical techniques like portal rendering, procedural texturing, advanced lighting, etc. and was probably the graphically most advanced game of its time. The problem with this was that it was very taxing for the hardware. Plans to create a sequel to Descent³ were scrapped due to the dissatisfactory sales numbers of the game and issues concerning ownership rights.

1 Story
2 Changes from Descent and Descent II
3 Expansions
4 Related Articles
5 External links

[edit] Story

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Previously in Descent II, Material Defender 1032 had narrowly escaped the destruction of an alien planetoid he was investigating on orders of Post-Terran Mining Corporation's (PTMC) Samuel Dravis. He had set the warp core coordinates on his ship for Earth, but without warning, a malfunction occurred in the warp core...

At the opening movie, we see the Material Defender's ship drifting, unfortunately, into the sun. He was unconscious at this point. At the very last moment, just as his ship began to burn up due to excess heat, what seemed to be a salvage vessel of sorts saved the ship, as well as his life. After using some bizarre tools including a drill and saw, the Material Defender was extracted from his ship, and it - or rather, what was left of it - was disposed in the sun.

The Material Defender finds out later that a research team on Mars, the Red Acropolis Research Team, were the ones who had found him by chance. He also finds out to his grief that his ship - the only part of the PTMC that he liked - was destroyed.

A little while afterwards, the Material Defender sits with the director of the research team, Katelyn Harper. She tells him of strange things that were happening in the PTMC, as well as the fact that one of her acquaintances, Jerry, a worker in the PTMC, was killed by a robot. What made the Red Acropolis Team suspicious of the PTMC was when they denied that they had ever employed Jerry, even though he had worked with them for years. The Red Acropolis Research Team had tried to notify the Collective Earth Defense (CED), a large anti-terrorist and police group, of the PTMC's actions, but according to her, the CED did not listen to the Red Acropolis Research Team - the PTMC was so great that it even overshadows the CED.

Katelyn Harper also tells the Material Defender that while he was clearing the PTMC's mines of the virus, the PTMC were actually testing and modifying it. The virus, she said, was extremely advanced nanotechnology, capable of reprogramming a robot in just seconds. She wants to stop the virus, and she wants the player for the job. After some persuasion and offers from her, including a new ship, a few weapons at the Red Acropolis Team's disposal, and even a GuideBot, the Material Defender gives in:

"Okay, okay, I'll go. But only this once, understand? The PTMC owes me a lot of money and I intend to collect it."

At this point, the Material Defender is shown an animation. Katelyn Harper says that the PTMC had deliberately sent a signal with a pre-programmed overload sequence to his ship, causing its warp core to malfunction and release huge amounts of radiation - too large an amount for the Material Defender to handle. Her team had followed this signal and found him.

[edit] Changes from Descent and Descent II

The player engages a Squid in the sewer tunnels of Seoul.

[edit] Source Code

Descent³ utilizes an indoor and outdoor engine in tandem, collectively called the Fusion Engine. The engine supports bump-mapping (a revolutionary and eye-catching feature at the time) dynamic colored lighting, relatively complex environments, and weather effects. Unlike contemporary first-person shooters such as Unreal or Quake, Descent³ does not rely on brushes (three dimensional bodies forming the level walls, doors, etc), but on basic vertex/face modeling (where two dimensional planes form the walls). It is said the original levels are mostly developed in 3D Studio Max.

This new engine allowed seamless transition from mines out into open atmosphere and vice-versa.

[edit] Gameplay

Because of the Fusion Engine, the minefights of Descent³ have extended out into the open atmosphere of levels. The game is no longer restricted to just an indoor mine; it has been brought into the open.
Objectives are now more diverse. Instead of a single objective of destroying a reactor, there may be other kinds of objectives that range from escorting a cargo ship to defending five reactors simultaneously. Objectives are now also categorized into two categories: primary objectives and secondary objectives.
The sound effects have been remade.

[edit] Robots

Many robots in Descent³ are completely new or redesigned. Familar robots like the Thief look even more menacing and mischievous than ever, while new robots such as the Stormtrooper can deliver huge amounts of damage with ease and are extremely difficult to destroy, particularly in larger numbers. In addition, robots have an improved Artificial Intelligence over the robots in Descent and Descent II, capable of dodging weapon fire, working in teams and calling for backup if outgunned or outnumbered.

[edit] Ships

There are now three ships to choose from:

The default ship, the Pyro-GL, is a versatile craft that has standard shields and can carry an acceptable amount of ordnance.
Available at Level 7, the Phoenix is an extremely agile ship that has weak shields and a small amount of ordnance as a drawback.
At Level 10, the Magnum-AHT becomes available. Although ponderous in fast-moving dogfights, it can carry the largest amount of ordnance out of the three ships, and also has the heaviest shields.

Once the game is completed, the player may choose any of the three ships when re-playing it. In multiplayer, the player may choose any ship, even if he or she has not completed the game yet.

[edit] Weapons

Most of the "classic" Descent weapons have been replaced with completely new weapons. Only a handful of primary and secondary weapons were redesigned and brought over into Descent³. Unfortunately, a good number of these new weapons were either too underpowered or overpowered as compared to the weapons of Descent and Descent II. This was probably one factor that led to poor sales figures of the game.
A third category of weapons, known as countermeasures, are added. However, the difficulty of handling three weapon types at the same time meant that very little attention was given to them.

[edit] Expansions

Although the official source code for Descent³ has not been released, several players have managed to work their way into and around the code, creating new game variants apart from the official ones. Some notable examples follow.

Descent³ has an official expansion pack, titled Descent³: Mercenary. It adds a new campaign with seven complex levels, a new ship, three more multiplayer game modes and a number of fan-made levels.

A user-made mod, titled Pyromania, is an attempt to bring the gameplay of Descent and Descent II into Descent³ by replacing most of the weapons in Descent³ with several weapons from Descent and Descent II and with newer, more evenly-balanced weapons. Pyromania also introduced seven ships into the game, one of which is the Pyro-GX, the original ship from the first two games.

Olympia Gold is a multiplayer racing mod for Descent³, created by the now-defunct Orbital Design Studios. It adds a slew of ships and levels specifically designed for multiplayer racing.

The WindMine series is a collection of six colossal singleplayer levels made by Ron Lester. These levels boast new robots and textures, as well as a modified Homing Missile in one of the levels and a modified Proximity Mine in another. Consistent throughout all six levels, however, is the replacement of the Black Shark Missile with the Earthshaker.