Legal Stuff:
THE COMPUTER CODE CONTAINED HEREIN IS THE SOLE PROPERTY OF PARALLAX SOFTWARE CORPORATION (“PARALLAX”). PARALLAX, IN DISTRIBUTING THE CODE TO END-USERS, AND SUBJECT TO ALL OF THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS HEREIN, GRANTS A ROYALTY-FREE, PERPETUAL LICENSE TO SUCH END-USERS FOR USE BY SUCH END-USERS IN USING, DISPLAYING, AND CREATING DERIVATIVE WORKS THEREOF, SO LONG AS SUCH USE, DISPLAY OR CREATION IS FOR NON-COMMERCIAL, ROYALTY OR REVENUE FREE PURPOSES. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE END-USER USE THE COMPUTER CODE CONTAINED HEREIN FOR REVENUE-BEARING PURPOSES. THE END-USER UNDERSTANDS AND AGREES TO THE TERMS HEREIN AND ACCEPTS THE SAME BY USE OF THIS FILE. COPYRIGHT 1993-1998 PARALLAX SOFTWARE CORPORATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
We make no warranties as to the usability or correctness of this code.
About the Source Code:
Included is almost all the source code to Descent 1, ver. 1.5. We removed all code to which we did not own the copyright. This mainly involved low- level sound and modem code.
Have fun with the code! Parallax Software Corporation Jan. 12, 1998
Victor Rachels is supporting the code base currently through his website at http://d1x.warpcore.org. If you have questions or comments about the code, please go there. Please do not contact Parallax Software, its employees or its affiliates.
Any executable created using files or code taken from this source tree MUST be open source. By using this source, you are agreeing to this term, in the interest of the descent and descent programming communities. The only exception is if the writer of the original source gives explicit permission for the code to be used otherwise.
Read compile.txt for instructions to compile. —
Interview with Matt Toschlog and Mike Kulas regarding the release of the Descent source code:
Q: Why are you releasing the source code?
Mike: The main reason is we figured a lot of people aspiring to work in the game industry would like to see production “quality” code. There are two reasons for this. One, you can learn a lot by looking at working code. Two, people will see that you can write a decent game without writing beautiful code.
Matt: That’s a good thing?
Mike: Not really, except that it might make people think writing production quality code isn’t that hard.
Matt: That’s a good thing?
Mike: Well, not really, unless they learn that they have to focus on designing a brilliant game, rather than writing brilliant code.
Matt: Ah, that’s a good thing.
Mike: Yeah, I don’t think I understood that until we started working on Descent. At first all I cared about was writing technically good code.
Matt: Then we ran out of money and all we cared about was finishing our game.
Mike: Right. Our code got ugly, but our game got done.
Matt: Writing code is easy. Finishing is hard.
Q: Is there any code you’re particularly proud of?
Matt: No.
Mike: No.
Matt: I’m most ashamed of the vector intersection code.
Mike: Yeah, that’s pretty bad.
Matt: Mike’s AI code is the worst I’ve ever seen.
Mike: Only because you program with your eyes closed.
Matt: I’m proud we managed to finish without going bankrupt.
Mike: Yeah, finishing is all. Who said that?
Q: Seriously, what should people look at?
Matt: I really don’t know. It’s not like there’s a lot of reusable code in there. Some low level stuff could probably be used. The vector-matrix library is probably fairly instructive.
Mike: The AI is an example of how not to write an AI system.
Matt: You’re doing it the same way in FreeSpace, right?
Mike: Yeah.
Matt: The texture mapper is worth looking at, not that you’ll be needing a software texture mapper much longer.
Q: You’re including the editor, right?
Mike: Yeah, people will be able to use our editor. On the whole, I doubt it’s any better than DMB2. And it doesn’t run under Windows.
Q: What enhancements do you hope to see people make?
Matt: If an aftermarket sprouts for it, we’d be very happy. People ask for lots of little features that we just don’t have the time to add.
Mike: People could probably roll in some of the D2 multiplayer features without too much difficulty.
Matt: I don’t think we can guess what people will do. We had no idea how much would be done with third party levels.
Q: The license states that people can’t use the code for commercial gain. What if some kid develops something and wants to recoup some of the cost through shareware?
Mike: We’re not opposed to that in principle. They need to get written permission from us, though. And, it would have to be after the thing is done so we know what we’re permitting to be commercialized, if you want to call it that.
Q: Any plans to release the D2 source code?
Matt: No definite plans. Though, I guess I don’t see why all our source code wouldn’t eventually get released.
Mike: Me, too. It loses commercial value in just a few years. And, releasing it brings us closer to our customers, which is a very good thing to do.
Q: Any final comments?
Mike: Yeah, have fun with the code.