---
name: "descent3"
section: "6"
platform: "linux"
package: "descent3"
version: "1.5.0+ds-1"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/descent3"
---

# descent3(6)

3D space shooter game

## NAME

descent3 - 3D space shooter game

## SYNOPSIS

descent3 \[options\]

## DESCRIPTION

This manual page documents briefly the **descent3** command.

**Descent 3** is a space first-person shooter video game developed by Outrage Entertainment and originally published in 1999. The game data needs to be installed independently using the 'game-data-packager' program, and by default it will be looked for at */usr/share/games/descent3*

## OPTIONS

- **Audio Options**

  - **-nomusic**

  Disables music.

- **-nosound**

  Disables all sound, including music.

- **Display Options**

  - **-aspect** \<value\>

  Specifies the screen aspect ratio for non-standard displays, such as wide-screen TVs.

- **-height** \<height\>

  Sets the screen resolution to the specified height, if possible.

- **-width** \<width\>

  Sets the screen resolution to the specified width, if possible.

- **-NoRenderWindows**

  Causes all windows to be fully transparent. Use this option if your card does not correctly render partially-transparent windows.

- **-vsync**

  Turns on Vertical Sync. The flag will be enabled in the registry so it will be on when the game is run again.

- **-windowed**

  Runs the game in a window.

- **Input Options**

  - **-deadzone** \<k\>

  Specifies the size of the deadzone for a joystick.

- **-mlooksens** \<scale\>

  Determines how much the player moves when the mouse is moved.

- **-mousesens** \<scale\>

  Adjusts the sensitivity of the mouse when not using mouselook mode.

- **Performance Options**

  - **-fastdemo**

  Causes a demo to play back at the highest speed your computer is capable of.

- **-forcelightmaps**

  Forces the use of lightmaps, even the Default Detail Level is set to Low in the launcher setup.

- **-framecap** \<fps\>

  Limits the framerate to the number of frames per second specified.

- **-himem**

  Forces normal operations even when low memory conditions are detected.

- **-lowmem**

  Uses scaled-down textures and lower quality (8-bit) sounds to conserve memory.

- **-superlowmem**

  Uses the **-lowmem** settings and further scales down textures to conserve memory.

- **-nolightmaps**

  Disables lightmaps. This will improve performance on low-end video cards.

- **-nomotionblur**

  Disables motion blur on robots.

- **-nosatomega**

  Disables alpha saturation on the omega cannon effect.

- **-nosparkles**

  Disables powerup sparkles.

- **Multiplayer and Network Options: TODO**

  - **Other Options**

  - **-logfile**

  Generates a logfile *d3.log*.

- **-makemovie**

  Causes the demo system to save a screenshot of every frame during playback.

- **-mission** \<name\>

  Loads the specified mission file at startup.

- **-pilot** \<name\>

  Specifies the pilot to use, skipping the pilot selection dialog when the game starts.

- **-setdir** \<path\>

  Specifies the working directory for Descent 3.

- **-useexedir** \<path\>

  Tells Descent 3 to use the directory in which the executable is located as the working directory.

## FILES

- **/usr/share/games/descent3/**

  Game data files.

- **$XDG\_DATA\_HOME/Outrage Entertainment/Descent 3/**

  defaulting to **~/.local/share/Outrage Entertainment/Descent 3/**

  Configuration, savegames, demos & logfile

- **$XDG\_CACHE\_HOME/Descent3/**

  defaulting to **~/.cache/Descent3/**

  Temporay files

## AUTHOR

Descent 3 was written by Outrage Entertainment. The Descent community continues the development at https://github.com/DescentDevelopers/Descent3

This manual page was written by Sébastien Noel \<sebastien@twolife.be\>, for the Debian project (but may be used by others).