Descent 3 (Piccu Engine)

Game: Descent 3 → (Windows, 1999)

Piccu Engine: a new engine for Descent 3 based on the version 1.5 source code released in April 2024, which incorporates almost every change from InjectD3. It can be dropped straight into the game’s folder or into a separate one with the data files copied over, and it covers the campaign, the Mercenary expansion, and multiplayer, with a dedicated server. It adds a centered window mode, scaling in windowed and fullscreen modes, a fullscreen mode that doesn’t change desktop settings, new mouse code that reads the mouse at its native rate instead of the original’s 20 Hz, an adjustable field of view that expands automatically in widescreen, with a cockpit that works at that aspect ratio, restored OpenGL features (specular highlights, mipmapping control), OpenAL sound with no crackling, environmental reverb, and Doppler, HUD text scaling, menus at 60 fps, MSAA, videos that fill the screen width, and XInput controllers. Savegames, demos, and pilots go to the user’s Saved Games folder unless you use portable mode. Version 1.2 (September 9, 2024) added an OpenGL 3.3 renderer, which 1.2.1 made optional because it ran poorly on Nvidia cards, game listing on trackers that speak the Gamespy protocol, and mission downloads over HTTPS. The latest stable release is 1.2.2 (September 12, 2024), for Windows; since June 2025 there have been 1.3.0 test builds that move input, window, and graphics context handling to SDL, the latest from July 25, 2025, and the latest commit is from August 27, 2026. Like the released source code, the repository includes data from the Descent 3 Linux demo (four levels, graphics, sounds, the menu music, and text, about 15 MB) and the full game’s text tables.

You needThe files from your own copy of Descent 3 updated to version 1.4: d3.hog, extra.hog, and extra13.hog, and in missions d3.mn3, d3_2.mn3, d3voice1.hog, d3voice2.hog, and training.mn3, plus merc.hog and merc.mn3 if you own the Mercenary expansion; the Steam release’s data works too. Multiplayer also needs the netgames and online folders, Fury.hog, and bedlam.mn3; the movies are optional. Plus Windows.

How it gets to PC

Port of the released source code

Console

Microsoft Windows

Original studio

Outrage Entertainment

Year

1999

Author

InsanityBringer

Stars

166

Last activity

2026-08-27 · 2 months ago

Latest version

v1.2.2 · 2024-09-12

License

GPL-3.0

Language

C++

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