D2X-XL v1.8 now offers improved real time lighting using the same algorithms OpenGL uses. The lighting is entirely software driven. This was forced by the great number of static lights that are typically around in Descent levels, not to speak of dynamic lights (weapons etc.).

Other benefits of the new lighting method are improved object lighting and a decent headlight that now acts like a spotlight. It has a pretty wide cone, but still only lights the area ahead of the ship.

This lighting method will also give you full colored lighting in every Descent level (also the legacy ones). Descent 1 levels haven't been tested yet, so if you find flaws please report them in the D2X-XL bug tracker on SourceForge.net.

Since the lighting is entirely computed by the CPU, it can cause quite a performance hit; particulary with hires models due to their great number of visible faces. The code is heavily optimized to minimize computing overhead though. If that is not enough, you can turn off real-time hires model lighting. If you chose to do so, D2X-XL will apply simplified lighting to hires objects based on the average light at the objects' location.

During level load, for each segment (cube) of the mine D2X-XL determines the lights closest to that segment. To further improve performance, you can decrease the number of lights D2X-XL takes into account for each segment of the level. With 8 lights or less, you may notice lighting flaws. With 12 lights or up everything should look alright.

You can enable and adjust improved real-time lighting in the render options menu. Ambient and weapon light options there will work with the new lighting method.