Descent 3

What works

• Installing the base game, the expansion pack and the v1.4 patch.
• Playing the game with the Direct3D renderer.
• Completing all single player levels.
• Cutscenes.
• Controlling the game with the keyboard, mouse and a joystick.
• Online multiplayer.

What does not

• When the installer asks you for the next disk, click browse. Then, use the “Drives” drop-down menu to switch drive letters. On Windows, this will update the “Path” text box. In Wine, it won’t.
• Draw order is reversed when using the OpenGL renderer.
• Controls that are bound to the mouse wheel sometimes don’t work.
• Cut-off text at the bottom of the setup window’s DirectX tab (it gets cut-off by the Visit Microsoft's DirectX Download Page button).

Workarounds

• For the installer disk change bug: instead of using the “Drives” drop-down menu to select a different drive letter, type the path into the “Path” text box manually.

What was not tested

• Not using a virtual desktop. I did all the testing in an 800x600 virtual desktop.
• “Minimum” and “Standard” installations. I only tested “Full” installations.
• The Glide renderer.
• The Controller Options in Descent 3 setup.
• The “Always disable FindFast” option.
• Mindspring.
• The level editor.
• The “Install Drivers” option in the Descent 3 Launcher.
• Every multiplayer connection type except for direct TCP/IP.
• Multiplayer game modes other than Anarchy.
• Hosting a server.
• These command-line options:
  • -himem
  • -mouseman
  • -chpro
  • -highvidmem
  • -gspyfile
  • -gamespyport
  • -useip
  • -dedicated
  • -useport
  • -audiotauntdelay
  • -httpproxy
• Registering the game via Modem.

Hardware tested

Graphics:

• GPU: AMD
• Driver: open source

Additional Comments

Step by step installation procedure for the Dual-Jewel version of Descent 3:

1. (Optional) Determine if you’re going to be affected by a bug with Descent 3’s installer, and potentially apply a workaround:
   1. Download Environment Size Checker.
   2. Run wine environment-size-checker.exe
   3. If that program tells you that your environment is more than 32,724 bytes large, then you’ll need to unset or shorten environment variables before running Descent 3’s installer. If you don’t, then the installer will page fault.
2. Install Descent 3:
   1. Insert disc 1.
   2. Make sure that disc 1 is mounted.
   3. Determine which drive letter Wine is using for your CD drive. (Hint: try running wine explorer).
   4. Run wine '<drive-letter>:\Setup.exe'
   5. Follow the installation wizard’s instructions until it asks you to insert disc 2.
   6. Switch to disc 2:
      1. Run wine eject <drive-letter>:
      2. Make sure that the disc was unmounted and ejected.
      3. Insert disc 2.
      4. Mount disc 2.
   7. Follow the installation wizard’s instructions until it asks you to insert disc 1 again.
   8. Switch back to disc 1. Follow a similar procedure to the one that you used to switch to disc 2.
   9. Finish the installation wizard.
   10. When the installation wizard finishes, it will open an explorer window. Close out of that window.
   11. Unmount the disc.
   12. Eject the disc.
3. Install Descent 3: Mercenary:
   1. Insert disc 3.
   2. Make sure that disc 3 is mounted.
   3. Run wine start /d <drive-letter>: setup.exe -autorun. WARNING: If you forget to use the -autorun option, then you’ll have to manually create registry entries later.
   4. Follow the instructions in the installation wizard.
4. Install the v1.4 patch.
5. (Optional) Install the NOCD patch.
6. If you didn’t to use the -autorun option while installing Descent 3: Mercenary, then you’ll have to create a registry entry manually. See this forum post for details.