Off Topic Productions

I prefer things separate and compatible. Years ago I had a plan of someday making a virtualmachine HD image with all the mods installed and configured, to make Deus Ex playable when every OS dropped support.

Well the fan patch is most likely going to modify the maps to fix mapping mistakes and not only coding mistakes, thus the NV Map Pack will be incompatible with the fan patch. Sure, the "patch" is now more than fixing bugs, but I think that most of the graphical and gameplay enhances that could be gained from implementing Dave's ideas are too awesome to not be done.

I actually think that joining forces with the fan patch would be a really good solution, provided yukichigai is still actively modding DeusEx.

IMO, its best to think what we can do with what we have and not what we can't and wishing we had other things to edit this with. I have a quad core Intel CPU, 6GB RAM and Geforce Fx 9800GTX 1GB, 21 inch widescreen, so I could help with one or two maps if I can be told what is needed to be done.

This could be tied into the fan patch, could it not?

That's if its still being worked on, no info on whether its still active or not. In the mean time can't tie this in with something that may or may not be finished until we know the status. We can assume its still in works and not do anything that could change how that fix is going to work.

Morpheus wrote:I have a quad core Intel CPU, 6GB RAM and Geforce Fx 9800GTX 1GB, 21 inch widescreen, so I could help with one or two maps if I can be told what is needed to be done.

That would be cool, could you PM me your e-mail address?

I wish I could learn....I have a pretty decent pc but I don't know how to do anything....if you ever need something simple to be done that just needs a more powerful pc then feel free to ask.

Maybe I'll try learning some modding when school starts up again and I have more free time. This summer I'm spending most of my time volunteering at a research lab on campus. The computers I use for bioinformatics......soooo good.

home specs: core i7 920, 12gb ram, radeon hd 4850, 23 inch wide screen. I'm not really sure how the video card stacks up but I would think it'd work for modding older games.

To be honest UEd ran fine on mid-range computers back in 2000 - computer specs aren't an issue (especially because you're only dealing with the original textures in the editor).

ok. That being said, if you need easy work done anyway then feel free to ask.

DaveW wrote:This got mentioned in another thread but I thought I would make a dedicated post here to explain in full.

The New Vision textures undoubtedly help add a lot of detail to the maps in Deus Ex, unfortunately it also makes a lot of mapping errors alarmingly obvious. Upside down doors, major texture misalignments, book ends used for lights etc. etc.

These are things I can't alter or account for within the texture files themselves, so I need the help of a mapper - but I don't just want someone to come and fix some texture alignment issues. I could probably figure out how to do that. No, I want someone to go through each map and based on my instructions (and your own ideas) fix and graphically enhance them by using the new textures.

-- CUT --

Though there might be other cool things to add; doors on other buildings, maybe some fire escapes scaling some of the skyscrapers - that kind of thing. The problem is the original maps were very undetailed and relied on huge, repeating textures. These would need to be broken up with lit/unlit windows, ledges and the like. All of this would really help sell the environments as "lived in" spaces. This isn't a small task and would take months to complete - it's not going to be released with New Vision but as a separate, optional download.

So - if you're a mapper and have lots of spare time please get in contact with me. In the ideal situation there would be a team of us working together on this to speed things along.

Did you see the Revision mod?
http://www.moddb.com/mods/deus-ex-revision

Peppigno wrote:Did you see the Revision mod?
http://www.moddb.com/mods/deus-ex-revision

From the other thread this was mentioned in:

DaveW wrote:I've been thinking that it might be cool if a mapper (there seems to be plenty still around) altered the levels in DX to make them more suitable for New Vision. Not under the remit of Revision, which is about expanding the maps - but I mean fixing the horrible skyscrapers in New York, Hong Kong etc. - adding a few ledges and breaking up the textures and the like. And fixing mis-used textures (such as the book-ends that are used as lights in the 'Ton hotel). And generally fixing mis-aligned textures that show up very, very obviously with the high resolution textures.

DaveW wrote:Yeah, the full Revision will probably make better use of New Vision textures - but I don't think everyone will always want to play the modified maps. I'm thinking the exact same gameplay for the maps, just ones that look slightly better. I could probably do texture alignments but some issues like fixing the size of the lit windows, breaking up the tiling buildings etc. requires more skill than I care to have in UnrealEd. If it were Hammer, I'd be fine - but I've never understood or liked UnrealEd.

Revision is awesome for taking Deus Ex, and giving us re-imagined maps, playable right now.

DaveW is proposing a sort of HDTP for Deus Ex maps. Errors in the original game would be fixed. Detail would be added to maps that were rushed or simplified for ancient computers. Where Revision is like a new world, NewVisionMapEdition would be the same world looking better. No new rooms, no turning left when it was originally right, just things made more realistic.

Yes, the whole point of NV and HDTP is to make the game what it could have looked like if made today instead of over 10 years ago. The gameplay and feel is still good enough, just graphical updates that are needed to make Deus Ex modern and up to date. We want to do this by not adding anything completely new such as extended maps with areas never in the original maps or changes to gameplay etc...

Will you be using the April 2000 maps that came with the v1.110 or the older May 2000 ones that came with the GOTY v1.112f?
http://www.dxm.be/navigator.php5?lang=en&content=202

flib wrote:Will you be using the April 2000 maps that came with the v1.110 or the older May 2000 ones that came with the GOTY v1.112f?
http://www.dxm.be/navigator.php5?lang=en&content=202

I didn't know about this before you pointed it out in the other topic, so I'd suggest using the newer maps from the 1.110 patch - simply because it would save us time fixing some of the bugs. It's pretty clear this was just a mistake on Ion Storm's part so it makes sense to use the newest versions of the maps as a base.

hm maybe i've got some infos about the maps an their "actuality" in meaning of latest date,
not version because i cant tell if this it true: youngest date = latest version.

i have two original versions of Deus Ex:
1st: DeusEx v1.002f - original release copy of DesuEx (without Multiplayer) JUL 06 2000
2nd: DeusEx GotY v1.112fm - original release copy of DeusEx Game of the Year Edition MAR 28 2001

I used a tool call WINMERG to compare the file dates and binary identity, and thats the result:
1st: left v1.112fm vs right v1.002f
result: 00_TrainingCombat.dx, 00_TrainingFinal.dx, 02_NYC_Smug.dx, 04_NYC_Smug.dx,
08_NYC_Smug.dx, 09_NYC_ShipFan.dx, 99_Endgame4.dx, DX.DX, DXONLY.DX;
are Binary identical, all other maps are Binary differnt;
in fact, all this differnt files at v1.002f are the more current once
-> so GotY comes mostly with old (maybe beta?) maps!

2nd: left v1.112fm vs right GotY fix Map Patch aka v1.110
result: like 1st, but this files named at 1st are not included on the map fix pack (i guess because the are identical);
except Entry.dx which is also not part of the map fix pack because the GotY version is the most current one.

3rd: left v1.002f vs right GotY fix Map Patch aka v1.110
result: looks like only 3 files a different form 1.002f to v1.110;
10_Paris_Metro.dx, 12_Vandenberg_Cmd.dx, 12_Vandenberg_Tunnels.dx;
the 1.110 files have a newer date stamp, and are binary differnt.

MP files are not part of the Fixpack, so i guess the GotY aka v1.112fm files are the only source of them.

so it looks like the GotY Map fix patch has got the most up-to-date map files.
-> imo: good base for the Map Enhancment project of DaveW

Edit: So how to be sure to play with the most current files?
1st: GotY version: install DeusEx, overwrite all files form the GotY map fix pack with in your maps dir -> done!
2nd: pre GotY DeusEx versions: Install DeusEx, update game with latest patch v1.112fm,
overwrite all files form the GotY map fix pack with in your maps dir -> done!

Thanks to a very cool guy from france (sorry didn't find a name) the DeusEx Maps Patch can be found here:
http://www.dxm.be/navigator.php5?lang=en&content=202

Hope that helps to clear the maps confusion ION Storm got us all in with the GotY release.