Since it is a never ending story that users are having problems to properly setup D2X-XL, either failing to create the required subfolders, to move or copy files to those folders or identifying and extracting the required additional data files, I have taken a few measures to ease this process for newcomers to D2X-XL and make trouble shooting easier for veterans.

New Installation

Instead of the previous installation where you have to download a rar file and extract it to the intended D2X-XL main folder, I will now offer a self extracting rar file only requiring you to enter the D2X-XL main folder. That file will also contain all required additional data files to avoid people having to download several files just to get a working D2X-XL installation. To ensure the installer's integrity it has been built with integrated authentication information.

Setup and Trouble Shooting

D2X-XL will now check whether it finds all files it needs at the proper locations. If it does not, it will create any missing folders and try to locate the required files in the folder where it got installed (or where the -userdir parameter points at), and copy these files to the proper subfolders.

If D2X-XL cannot find all files that are vital for its operation, it will display an error message explaining which files are missing and from where they can be obtained, and terminate. If D2X-XL doesn't find optional files, it will inform the user about these files and about any features that will be unavailable due to their absence, but will continue to run.

To avoid spamming users with warnings about missing files each time they start D2X-XL, that check will only be performed once when a new program version is installed. You can however force D2X-XL to redo it by calling it with the parameter '-setup'.

Version Checking

To make it easier to keep track of program updates, the Windows version now can check whether a newer program version is available and if this is the case download it and run the installer. This will not happen automatically, but can be triggered via a new main menu item.

I hope this will make setting up and maintaining a D2X-XL installation easier for both new and veteran users, and maybe convince the one or the other Descent fan who couldn't be bothered to manually reorganize his Descent files for D2X-XL to finally try this program.