This is the Descent 3 open source engine, licensed under GPL-3.0. It includes the '1.5' patch written by Kevin Bentley and Jeff Slutter several years ago and brought to a stable condition by the Descent community.
In order to use this, you must provide your own game files. See the Usage section for details.
There is no "release" yet. The current milestone is "1.5 Stable", which is meant to more or less be Descent 3 as it might have been if the 1.5 patch had made it to retail years ago. Artifacts can be downloaded from the Actions tab. The milestone needs testing on all platforms. Please report issues when found.
Purchase Descent 3 from a reputable source and install it, then replace the main binary with your build. See your platform below:
In the install folder, rename main.exe
to main.old
and take your built Descent3.exe
, name it main.exe
, and add it to the install folder.
Right-click Descent3.app, click Show Package Contents. Back up your Descent3
binary and drop your built Descent3
binary into the install (Contents/MacOS) folder.
Back up your Descent3
binary and drop your built Descent3
binary into the install folder.
Build steps below assume you have already cloned the repository and entered it locally.
Requires Visual Studio C++ Tools (cmake and nmake)
cmake --preset win
cmake --build --preset win --config [Debug/Release]
brew bundle install
cmake --preset mac
cmake --build --preset mac --config [Debug/Release]
sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386
sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y --no-install-recommends ninja-build cmake g++ libsdl1.2-dev libsdl-image1.2-dev libncurses-dev libxext6:i386
cmake --preset linux
cmake --build --preset linux --config [Debug/Release]
Anyone can contribute! We have an active Discord presence at Descent Developer Network. If you are interested in maintaining the project on a regular basis, please contact Kevin Bentley.