Glitching the game using the demo feature

(I post this guide just as a report of some recent findings about the game)

In Descent 3 there's a possibility to record in game demos (default key f5). They're not videos but simulations in the game engine. For some reasons it's possible to save and load while watching a demo, and this can glitch the game in some ways that might be useful for a speedrunner.

In his tutorial video on the subject, d3maniac explains how to exploit the glitches and use them as a teleportion, and to get out of bounds :
https://youtu.be/0eLi7SullHg

He gives two methods:
- recording a demo of yourself loading a level (achieving a coordinates shift)
- loading a level while watching a demo (achieving a level shift, or let's call it parallel universe trick because it sounds cool)

I tried these methods in the whole game and so far I found that the following skips exist:
- (NEW) lv2 fully skippable from lv1: in the upper room of the first building
- lv4 tube section skippable to reach the sewers directly from the spawn point of lv1-2-3
- (NEW) lv4 tube & sewers skippable to reach the final part of the level, from lv1: in the upper room of the first building
- lv5 fully skippable from the spawn point of  lv2 
- lv6 boss room reachable from the spawn point of lv3
- lv8 fully skippable from the spawn point of  lv5 or lv6
- lv10 final C.E.D. reachable from the spawn point of lv1-3-6
- lv11 fully skippable from the spawn point of lv6-9
- lv12 fully skippable from the spawn point of lv5
- lv15 lava countainers room reachable from the spawn point of lv2-10
... and there might be a lot more...

At this point I guess the speedrun can be divided in two categories, either use this trick a lot and go full OOB, or trying to actually run the game without skipping too much of it (of course, skipping the level 5 would be fine, as nothing happens in it anyway)

But there's more to it, because you can also use the demo glitches to backtrack inside a level. I show how in this video:
https://youtu.be/jaSCNbhCj44

Once again this possibility splits the run in two categories, either use this feature or not.

Toturial for the first levels

by d3maniac

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0D3bhw3NRZA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHBxm_jPa6g

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEhyoANG_aY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eOqGDaUmug

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrwVLcwA4GQ

lv03: I'll add that there is a uad laser right next to the labo key, so it might be useful to take it
Also it is easier to destroy the lignthing device if you aim at the farthest pillar first with a frag missile, then the closest, and then destroy the two last with laser. This way both frag missiles burst at the same time, so there is less shaking, and that makes aiming easier. Also you don't have to be very precise with the frags, so you can aim for the big part of the pillar instead of the thin one. With that setup you are sure to destroy the lightning device in one cycle.

Nome	Autore
Glitching the game using the demo feature	ISlide 6 years ago
Toturial for the first levels	ISlide 5 years ago