Thanks this looks great!

Sneak peak of next version, 3DFX Glide DOS renderer with cockpit mode enabled! Its running fine with no glitches, just missing test on real 3DFX hardware.

Hey vetz,

I have been looking for something like this for a long time. Being able to benchmark Descent is a welcome feature, imo, and it would be nice if this were adopted for various benchmarks done for systems and video cards as it evolves.

In addition to using it as a benchmark on real hardware, I wanted to drop a note of encouragement and thank you for sharing your modifications.

Here are the results running the first demo on Highest details on a 486DX4-100 with a Diamond Stealth 64 VLB (Vision868) -

1DESCENT BENCHMARK RESULTS
2========================
3
4Frames: 1868
5Total time: 96.19 sec
6
7Average FPS: 19.41
8Minimum FPS: 5.97
91% low FPS:  11.43
10
11Average frametime: 51.49 ms
12Worst frametime:   167.44 ms
131% low frametime:  87.47 ms
14
15Renderer: Software

A few notes:
1: I saw what I believe was leftover debug output (40 column mode) written on top of the graphics at one point in menuing.
2: Imo, it would be nice if we had a bit more verbose output for the benchmark log for the purpose of reference. It mentions software rendering, but including the video resolution and mode would be nice. I mention "mode" (chained, unchained, VESA, resolutions, etc) in advance of #3 below -
3: I do wonder if Descent could be adapted to use other low resolutions such as Mode X and low res VESA modes. I am honestly not too familiar with the modes it supports - most of my experience with it was with plain Mode 13h running on the shareware version many years ago.

That said -

The graphics include in the source code does mention various modes. I assume they were part of the graphics library either created or used by the developers, but the math was designed around 320x200 and later 640x480 - at least for Descent 1.

The game does have separate 2D and 3D directories and perhaps separate graphics work for menuing versus gameplay. I am really not that familiar with it aside from a google search just a few minutes ago.

1// Num Cols Rows Bpp Mode Pages Aspect
2// --- ---- ---- --- ---- ----- ------
3// 0   320  200  8   C    1.0   1.2:1
4// 1   320  200  8   U    4.0   1.2
5// 2   320  240  8   U    3.4   1.0
6// 3   360  200  8   U    3.6   1.4
7// 4   360  240  8   U    3.0   1.1
8// 5   376  282  8   U    2.5   1.0
9// 6   320  400  8   U    2.0   0.6
10// 7   320  480  8   U    1.7   0.5
11// 8   360  400  8   U    1.8   0.7
12// 9   360  480  8   U    1.5   0.6
13// 10  360  360  8   U    2.0   0.8
14// 11  376  308  8   U    2.3   0.9
15// 12  376  564  8   U    1.2   0.5
16// 13  640  400  8   V    4.1   1.2     (Assuming 1 Meg video RAM)
17// 14  640  480  8   V    3.4   1.0
18// 15  800  600  8   V    2.2   1.0
19// 16  1024 768  8   V    1.0   1.0
20// 17  640  480  15  V    1.0   1.0
21// 18  800  600  15  V    1.0   1.0

Thanks for the feedback!

I have actually done some improvement in the benchmark output in the new build I'm working on, but I really like your suggestions to include more detail, so will take a look into it.

The engine can use alot of different resolutions, the main problem is the 2D assets as they were made for 320x200 and this require scaling and new x,y coordinates. I've done so now for 6400x400, 640x480 and 800x600 in preparation for the 3DFX Glide tenderer. The game works without Z buffer, so a Voodoo1 can run it in 800x600 and 1024x768 on a single Voodoo2.

The more you scale up the 2D cockpit assets the worse they look, so I'll see if I could backport some upgrades from Descent 2 (the main issue is that Descent 2 cockpit doesn't exactly match Descent 1)

vetz wrote on 2026-04-26, 21:00:

I have actually done some improvement in the benchmark output in the new build I'm working on, but I really like your suggestions to include more detail, so will take a look into it.

Hey, I look forward to it. Hopefully other people are reading your thread and taking interest. I feel like benchmarking Descent is perhaps one of the best tools to use when building systems that push from early mid-90s into late mid-90s. I'd love to try it on my Pentium MMX 200 machine with a Voodoo 2 and see how that goes once you have a 3dfx-compatible build.

The engine can use alot of different resolutions, the main problem is the 2D assets as they were made for 320x200 and this require scaling and new x,y coordinates. I've done so now for 6400x400, 640x480 and 800x600 in preparation for the 3DFX Glide tenderer. The game works without Z buffer, so a Voodoo1 can run it in 800x600 and 1024x768 on a single Voodoo2.

Wow. Those resolutions. They'll be something to try...

The more you scale up the 2D cockpit assets the worse they look, so I'll see if I could backport some upgrades from Descent 2 (the main issue is that Descent 2 cockpit doesn't exactly match Descent 1)

Hmm. Perhaps the Descent 2 cockpit graphics could serve as a placeholder.

I have noticed the 640x480 renderer in Descent 1.4 has some issues with texture mapping that don't exist in the standard 320x200 mode. They are most visible in the blue area just past the start in level 2. I want to try this version to see if they still occur.

vetz wrote on 2026-04-26, 21:00:

The more you scale up the 2D cockpit assets the worse they look, so I'll see if I could backport some upgrades from Descent 2 (the main issue is that Descent 2 cockpit doesn't exactly match Descent 1)

I was just thinking, the mac version of Descent has officially created high resolution art assets and fonts for the 640x480 display mode. It should be possible to extract those and use them with this patch? The high res assets even cover the mission briefing and planetary screens. The fan made 3DFX version for windows seems to use them for the menu and mission briefing, but not for in-mission.

On a side note (wishful thinking), it would be absolutely wicked if there was the ability to create a hybrid image with the PC DOS version and the Mac redbook soundtrack. With the mac assets, redbook soundtrack, frame consistency fixes, additional resolutions and 3d acceleration it would be the Ultimate DOS Edition (UDE)

Edit: I finally got to try this on my K6-2+/550 running DOS7 and unfortunately it can't start. I get the error "Can't run DOS/4G(W)" and the program quits. The 1.4a registered version works fine.

Can you pull a copy of DOS4GW from another directory and drop it into your Descent directory? You most likely have a copy floating around with another game.

CkRtech wrote on Yesterday, 04:53:

Can you pull a copy of DOS4GW from another directory and drop it into your Descent directory? You most likely have a copy floating around with another game.

Thanks for the tip, I pulled a copy of DOS4GW from the Warcraft installation and the game launched. Everything seems to be OK, the HUD in 640x400 mode looks great actually.

I'm not sure if it's something specific to my hardware, the increased mix rate seems to be making the sound effects play at double the speed (and pitch). I tried with both GUS and SB16.

NeoG_ wrote on Yesterday, 03:43:

I was just thinking, the mac version of Descent has officially created high resolution art assets and fonts for the 640x480 disp […]
Show full quote

vetz wrote on 2026-04-26, 21:00:

The more you scale up the 2D cockpit assets the worse they look, so I'll see if I could backport some upgrades from Descent 2 (the main issue is that Descent 2 cockpit doesn't exactly match Descent 1)

I was just thinking, the mac version of Descent has officially created high resolution art assets and fonts for the 640x480 display mode. It should be possible to extract those and use them with this patch? The high res assets even cover the mission briefing and planetary screens. The fan made 3DFX version for windows seems to use them for the menu and mission briefing, but not for in-mission.

On a side note (wishful thinking), it would be absolutely wicked if there was the ability to create a hybrid image with the PC DOS version and the Mac redbook soundtrack. With the mac assets, redbook soundtrack, frame consistency fixes, additional resolutions and 3d acceleration it would be the Ultimate DOS Edition (UDE)

Edit: I finally got to try this on my K6-2+/550 running DOS7 and unfortunately it can't start. I get the error "Can't run DOS/4G(W)" and the program quits. The 1.4a registered version works fine.

I should have mentioned you need to provide DOS/4G on your own, this is due its not statically linked in this source port. I'll add support for DOS32/A as well (should provide some performance benefit).

Great tip on the Mac version assets. I'll look into it!

In the 3DFX version I have cockpit working in 640x480 and 800x600. 1024x768 also supported, but haven't done cockpit there yet, but should be doable. Cockpit assets do not render with bilinear filtering, but look the same as on the software version. The main issue on the 3DFX version is there is a very significant performance drop on large sprite drawings (explosions) which I haven't figured out yet.