Hi Dave & crew (referring to HDTP guys),

Firstly, truly thank you for what you do; I (and many other Deus Ex fanatics I am sure) truly appreciate what you do...thank you. As for my questions, I have two of them: firstly: Dave, do you plan on perhaps in the future releasing new vision with the hotfix "built in", i.e. as a single "complete package download" instead of having to download the first part and then the hotfix separately. Second question: Dave, are you and HDTP perhaps going to launch a "combined package" with a single installer; i.e. a "mega-mod"/package that conveniently integrates HDTP and New Vision and installs both or will the mods remain separate and be installed manually (as is now the case)?

If you would be so kind as to answer these questions, I would greatly appreciate it and again thank you for all your hard work.
-pl1982

There will be a complete release at some point, yes, combining the 1.0 release and the hotfix. It should also include a few more textures that I missed in that release.

I doubt we'd combine HDTP and New Vision though, simply because of the download size of New Vision. I think they're best left as separate mods.

The 'final' release of New Vision will have an installer, though.

Thanks for the feedback DaveW, appreciate it. Really looking forward to the final New Vision release!

-pl1982

We all are...

Sorry for a late reply, but I just saw this. I prefer to play with new vision but not HDTP, it replaces too much of the artwork and, in my mind, interferes with me enjoying the story. If you were considering putting them together, please leave the option to install one but not the other.

We're not, so don't worry.

Not sure what you mean by "replaces too much of the artwork" though - New Vision replaces a hell of a lot more of the visible game world.

only thing i can think of is he is getting HDTP and revision mixed up but thats not really artwork.

Well, I could understand him not liking the HDTP replacements. I think they're generally an improvement, although a lot of them are quite a bit brighter than the originals which makes them stand out more.

To each his/her own I guess. Personally, I prefer playing with all the original art content.

DaveW, I do not understand.

If you like better to play with the original content why did you even start New Vision? I played a big part of the game with the original content and a small part of the game with New Vision and I must say I could not go back to the original now.

I just suspended to play because I knew you'd polish New Vision some day. And also because I wanted to see how the game'd look with HDTP.

Well, I started out with the opinion that graphic enhancement mods were a great way to improve games, in particular Deus Ex. But not long after that I decided that enhancement mods were a really bad idea - because what makes playing old games great is seeing the original artwork and playing the game how the developers intended it. Ultimately New Vision improves on Deus Ex (a lot) - the environments feel like they're a part of this worn-down dystopic world like they were intended to be, for a start, but it still doesn't feel 'right' to me.

I've only really continued New Vision because people seem to like it and - well, I started it so I may as well finish. Plus it's all been great practice doing texture work.

But, I don't play with it on, and I don't use any graphics mods for other games. I always play with the original art content.

To be fair here, graphical quality isn't just about designer intent; it's about the technological limitations at the time. I'm sure their intent, ideally, would be to have had the highest-quality graphics possible insofar as it fits what they're trying to do with the game.

I definitely think there's value in seeing old games as they were produced, but straightforward graphical updates don't necessarily step on the toes of the original design much. Of course, that really depends on the nature of the modification. For example, a higher-resolution texture that looks essentially identical to the original is one thing, whereas a new character model in a somewhat different style from the original (see: HDTP) has more of a "new design" element to it, not just a "better quality" element.

Of course, there are some games I really don't like to play without graphical enhancements, but they're few and far between. For instance, System Shock 2 is a lot scarier to me when the hybrids have more than six polys each.

Perhaps intent was the wrong word to use. "How developers made it" would be more accurate.

But I agree that graphical quality mods are better when they stick with the intent of the designers - I think/hope New Vision does this more or less. But personally, I prefer playing with the original graphics.

personally i think projects like new vision have succeeded when the game looks like how you remember it in your head which after a few years is never actually how it looked. personally i think new vision is a success.

Well, sort of needless to say, but the originals will always be the originals. However, mods like DX:NV and DX: Revision do a splendid job in interpreting the originals in a new way, and that's why I think they are quite enjoyable to play (especially after playing the originals so many times before). DX:NV in particular has remade the existing textures most excellently that (out of the graphical updates I've tested) only Duke Nukem 3D's High Resolution Pack is the only one that really has done the remake job better. Major props to DaveW!

On the same subject, my mod is made with DX:NV textures in mind, which is why in some parts it's a bit jarring to have high-quality DX:NV textures next to the custom textures ranging from 64x64 to 4096x4096 (but mostly in the 128x128-256x256 range) in resolution. Sadly there won't be time left to have the custom ones remade up to the same standards, and to save time even further I've also taken advantage of DX: Revision's "You can use all the stuffs contained in this pack for your own mod. We just hope that you mention our name in your readme file." clause for a lot of the auxiliary architecture in the mod, so I can focus more on the gameplay issues.

In other words, DaveW, I extremely much appreciate you remaking the remaining textures since it's nigh impossible for anyone new to undertake such an enormous task for an old game like Deus Ex. Naturally these things take a lot of time but luckily DX:NV is mostly finished anyway. Looking forward to the new updates!