GMDXv9.0 Release

[Defaultplayer001]

Success!

Deleting HDTP's DeusEx.u from the C:\DeusEx\HDTP\system directory caused it to load up perfectly!
Loaded/edited and saved a map no problem!

Should have mentioned for the VM I reacquired the DX files fresh from steam every time but oh well not important now.

Thanks so much!
Really excited!

Gonna make a quick walkthrough of what it took to get the editor running for the sub. Anything else I should know?

[Cybernetic pig]

Anything else I should know?

I'll elaborate upon it once you post it, and then you can edit where necessary.

If you're inexperienced with Unreal Ed and are serious about working with GMDX's maps and assets: use this period before v9.0's release to learn the editor's kinks and to get good, because your early work will always be crap until learned. I've had to refactor and/or scrap a lot of early level design work I did because it was simply not good enough.

Two common crashes to avoid:

moving the 3D viewport through complex areas can cause a crash. Don't let the viewport render these complex areas by switching to wireframe view or just moving the camera through the area while looking at the floor/not making it render the complex scene in full.
It's not that common really, only if you make really complex areas or are working with existing complex areas. One such example of this consistently happening is the middle of the Hong Kong Canal map.

The "nothing selected" crash. This one is very common until you learn to avoid it. Right clicking an object brings up its properties window. Then left clicking elsewhere on a non-actor will result in the window displaying "nothing selected". If you then close that window you'll get a guaranteed crash. To prevent it just select another actor before closing the window.

I'll add advanced tips and general stuff that tacks lab and other such tutorials do not cover and post it to the subreddit soon.

[Defaultplayer001]

Posted it to the sub, https://www.reddit.com/r/gmdx/comments/ ... barebones/

Also did some minor updates to the css. Still a couple bugs but I fixed most of the issues.

[Cybernetic pig]

Good guide.

-Will need a small edit when v9.0 is released.
-Is it stickied? I assume the different colored box means it is, I'm just checking.
-Will add every tip I can immediately think of shortly.
-The new CSS is good. I really like the style.

CSS? Hey, can I ask you a favor? Can you add a nice background to the moddb page? All I want is a background like this but with a DX theme, nothing overly fancy like some mod pages have. I started learning HTML and CSS a while back but I lost interest. Spoiled by the fun in game programming.
No pressure. You've done enough for GMDX as-is.

[Cybernetic pig]

Expanded upon your guide by linking tacks and providing some advanced tricks. I'll have to remember to expand upon it further at a later date.

Learn how to use the Unreal Editor for Deus Ex here: http://www.offtopicproductions.com/tacks/

Now some advanced tips and tricks. Do not pay attention to these until you have some experience with the editor and have followed the tutorial linked above.

Crash Avoidance

Moving the 3D viewport through complex areas can cause a crash. Don't let the viewport render these complex areas by switching to wireframe view or just moving the camera through the area while looking at the floor/not making it render the complex scene in full. It's not that common, only if you make really complex areas or are working with existing complex areas. One such example of this consistently happening is the middle of the Hong Kong Canal map.

The "nothing selected" crash. This one is very common until you learn to avoid it. Right clicking an object brings up its properties window. Then left clicking elsewhere on a non-actor will result in the window displaying "nothing selected". If you then close that window you'll get a guaranteed crash. To prevent it just select another actor before closing the window.

General Tips

Stay on the brush grid! Whether the grid size is 1 or 32 (can be changed in "Level Properties". It's a vector - just give each three grid variables a value of 1), make sure you stay on the grid. Use a grid size of 1 to add fine detail. For everything else the default grid size is good.

Multi-select: you can select multiple objects by holding ctrl while left-clicking. Beware when selecting many objects, sometimes the selected objects will move very subtly. this is a problem when selecting multiple brushes in particular. Watch out for it, and whenever it happens just ctrl+z (undo) until they move back into the original position, then continue multi-selecting.

Lighting: Avoid usage of very bright lights in almost any context. Generally don't go above a brightness value of 128. It often looks bad and Deus Ex maps generally never go above that value. Don't use tons of special light effects or dynamic lights as it can affect performance and cause bugs. Everything in moderation.
For shadows, enable the "high shadow detail" surface flag of the surfaces that have a shadow cast across.
Remember Deus Ex's stealth gameplay is somewhat light-based! Don't make maps completely dark and conversely don't make maps too well lit everywhere. Create shadows for the player in high traffic areas. This isn't Thief though, it's not as heavily light-based and the player has many tools and skills at his disposal, so don't give the player too many shadows or hiding points (especially vents which AI fail to handle appropriately).
Don't use shiny surfaces (Mirror + translucent surface flags enabled). They look bad unless the player has DX10 with "simulate multipass texturing" enabled, which is not a given. Exceptions can always apply but there's enough "shiny surfaces" in DX as-is.

Unreal Wiki: refer to the Unreal Wiki website for plenty information regarding use of the editor. In your desired search engine search "Unreal wiki legacy [your query]", "Old Unreal [your query]" to avoid getting results for later versions of unreal (3 and 4 in particular).

Advanced Tricks

Search Function: Unreal 1 doesn't support a search function to find actors in a map. However, I came up with a crafty alternative: Place down a new instance of the class of actor you want to find. Say you're looking for a ZoneInfo actor. Place down a new one -> Right Click -> Click "Select All ZoneInfo Actors" -> Right Click it again and go into "properties" then the "display" options -> Change "DrawScale" to 20.0 -> Now use the overhead viewport and all ZoneInfo actors in the map will be HUGE and easy to spot right away. Once found, immediately delete the newly-placed zone info actor and then select all again and set the drawscale back to normal.

Lighting issues: Occasionally you'll get geometry that doesn't light up properly. First thing you should do is place a light in front of it to confirm if it actually is a bug! If it is, second thing to do is to consider optimizing brush placement. If that's not an option, then third is to check the "surface flags" of the geometry by clicking on the texture. Try changing High Shadow Detail, Low Shadow Detail (or enable both for ultra-low detail), and/or the Bright Corners flag. Usually the Bright Corners flag alone will fix the problem. If THAT doesn't work then you must either use the "Special Lit" surface flag in conjunction with a "Special Lit" light, or a GMDX special: place down a CageLight, set it's collision booleans to false, set it's DrawScale to 0.000005 and place it in front of whatever is failing to light. Don't forget to change it's lighting properties too. You won't be able to see the actor in the viewport or in the game. Only in the overhead viewport will it be visible as a tiny dot, so don't lose it's location! This method almost always works and if done right is extremely subtle, but should be considered a last resort due to its hacky nature.

Copy-paste from map to map: more than just duplicating actors, this is the act of copying a bunch of actors and/or brushes from one map to another. Useful for maps of different chapters, e.g UNATCO visit 1 to UNATCO visit 2. You must open two instances of the Unreal Editor program, multi-select the actors in one, click the "edit" tab -> copy. then with both instances of UnrealEd still open, in the second unrealEd (with the desired destination map loaded) click the edit tab again and then click paste. Then move all the copied actors into position.
For brushes, make sure you have loaded the texture packages beforehand for all the surface textures to appear when you rebuild.

Get Gud

Your early work is likely to be shit, even if you are experienced with level editors. This is mostly because UnrealEd has many kinks that need to be learned, many of which I'm describing here. Don't be reluctant to scrap your early work as Deus Ex is a professional work of great talent and you need to match that level of quality. If you don't want to do scrap anything as you think you are experienced enough with other level editors then be very cautious to get it right the first time around: stay on the grid, beware of editor and engine bugs (and ask/search about if you encounter any), learn the appropriate use of solid, semi-solid, non-solid and subtraction brushes (big tip: avoid brush intersection, especially between semi-solid and non-solid brushes. Solid (blue) brushes and semi-solid (crimson red/pink) brushes are OK to intersect in moderation), and so on.
Experiment with the existing Deus Ex/GMDX maps. Best way to learn is to see how ion storm/myself did it.
Lastly, beware Deus Ex was built with a bunch of design principles and rules that defined it as the fantastic experience it still is today. Ask yourself if any cool new idea you have actually fits the experience. If not, consider making an optional game mode independent of the campaign.

That's enough for now. May be updated later.

[Made in China]

I have a suggestion for a medical advanced/master perk - allow the use of medkits or biocells (haven't thought biocells through though) as secondary weapons. This can support non-regen aug runs, and will streamline intense combat. If you don't want to unequip your weapon, you have to go to the inventory to use them, and it's just cumbersome - on the other hand, you won't be able to choose which body part to heal when used on-the-fly, so it's sort of balanced. Maybe even lower heal amount per medkit to boost balance.
The way I'm thinking of it is that it'll heal you without even showing the medkit on screen, but arguments for and against it can go either way.

This will also benefit real-time inventory runs (especially Hardcore mode) as it actually makes you able to regen without the regen aug, offering an alternative for a pretty indisposable aug.

[Cybernetic pig]

Good idea. May make it a default thing.

Medkit
Biocell
Flare

As secondary options. All other pickups would not be appropriate.
Or Medkit and Biocells need a perk, but flare can be set by default.
Big maybe though, as you can already have those things in the toolbelt but you need to switch weapon to use them (so you can't just tank everything with medkits in particular, could be more OP than regen with max medicine skill as you can spam the button for instant full heal).

[Made in China]

Maybe have it heal half or a third of what it heals when used normally. It could be justified by saying that you're using it hastily and not applying it properly or fully. This will also make it a tactical use and will retain the importance of healing via inventory and via health screen.

The way I'm proposing, when you're a master it'll have the healing power of untrained (1/3) - meaning that you can't fully heal all the time (2 HP - one for torso, one for head, and with a max amount of 20 medkits), and it'll be widely inefficient. It can get you out of a bind though. This also why it makes sense to have it available only for higher medicine levels - not because it's overpowered, but to protect the player from doing something stupid.

I'm thinking that using a perk to unlock it is the best solution. That way new players won't naively use the medkit as a secondary weapon when they're untrained and waste it - you're also certain that players will read the perks they buy, while reading the item description is far less common.


Biocells are problematic, because they can enable a wide variety of augs for any number of situations - so it might be completely unbalanced, but it could also work. It'd remove a lot of the tediousness related to aug use, even though it's comparatively a little amount. I'm unsure if they should be tied to a perk or not, or if they should be less effective when used as a side weapon.


I agree with the flares. It will also make them far more useable as a tool and should be enabled by default.

[RoSoDude]

I can't see why it'd be a super big deal to allow full healing off of medkits equipped as secondary weapons, if it's from a high-level perk. At that point you've already invested a lot of skill points into it, and while medkits are common they're still a resource. The only difficulty where it's more than a quality of life adjustment is Hardcore with the real-time inventory. In every other difficulty, a lower heal from a secondary-equipped medkit a pretty terrible alternative, because it's a strictly worse option in gameplay terms than just going into your inventory (while slightly less annoying). That means can only be a dump perk in those difficulties, which doesn't seem like great design to me.

In any case, I think flares as secondaries by default is a great idea. Would really streamline their use. Biocells could be the same perk as medkits, as there's already a perk for improved biocells in the Medicine skill.

[Made in China]

No player that cares about immersion will open their inventory screen during combat - maybe only after they've found cover. By assigning the medkits as a secondary weapon, the player essentially replaces another quick-use weapon that's used for combat, and therefore that use should be balanced for combat.

Healing 90 points of health per use (without a buffer - so it can be used continuously and quickly) will make it superior in every way to the regen aug - and I'm talking about the vanilla version, which was very overpowered. Having 30 HP per sec still makes it equal to the vanilla regen aug, and my suggestion is relying on the medkit inventory cap as a limiting factor so it won't become overpowered (full inventory use = 20 secs of vanilla regen aug, and a lot of button presses).

So, yeah. My suggestion is designed to be an inferior way of using the medkits - I'm not denying it, but it also keeps immersion, is consistent in its use across pause-inventory and RT-inventory, and gives the medkits a mid-combat use. The player should be made clear (by the perk description) that whenever possible, medkits should be applied properly and not hastily.

[RoSoDude]

It's only one additional button click over spamming the medkit from the toolbelt. You have to put away and re-equip your weapon, but it's not a huge difference. In both cases, you can get an insane amount of HP regeneration in a very short amount of time, depending on your number of medkits. I don't think the fact that the medkit is floating in front of you while you apply it is central to the believability of applying it correctly and not hastily.

As for "No player that cares about immersion will open their inventory screen during combat", that's not much of an argument. The implication is that you won't abuse the inventory screen pause if you're playing the game properly, but in a game with so many items to equip and use, in addition to augmentations that less experienced players often won't use the hotkeys for, the reality is that there will be pausing during combat, and it should be considered in the design of the perk. My concern is that the perk will seem like a waste for players who notice that there's no benefit over pausing and not a huge benefit over equipping them from the toolbelt. It doesn't seem like a huge balance issue, frankly, and not much of a difference in immersion either. The other problem is that it would be the only case of an item working differently as a secondary item, where in most cases it's a straight, but small, bonus (not having to equip a LAM before throwing it is about the same buff as not having to equip medkits before spamming them, for instance).

A potential compromise could be to have secondary-equipped medkits apply a heal over time rather than a burst heal, as that would prevent extremely easy-medkit tanking. Not sure that's a great idea either, as it's still working differently than expected.

[Made in China]

I think that secondary weapons have the benefit of being equipped and unequipped quickly, which goes both for the primary and the secondary, but I may be wrong about that - if I'm correct, this will make it faster to set medkits as the secondary.

As for opening the inventory screen mid-combat, I can't really offer a fix for that without breaking the game structure. RT-inventory use is the best compromise, but forcing that on all players is a bit extreme and will deter some people from playing GMDX.

Weighing the pros and cons of both suggestions:
Full healing:
+Is more consistent.
+Makes the perk valuable even for pause-inventory.
-Makes the perk overpowered for RT-inventory.
-Makes regen aug semi-obsolete for trained+ skill level.

Third healing:
+Retains original inventory use viability.
+Is less immersion breaking.
-Is inconsistent with the rest of the weapons*
-Makes the perk useless for pause-inventory abusers**

*might be justified.
**could be coupled with secondary weapon biocell.

Seeing as I've added notes as patchwork solutions for the negative aspects, you could argue the same for your idea - but I'm biased for my own implementation because of obvious reasons. But hey - if you could fix the negative aspects of your suggestion, Cybernetic Pig will have more to work with.

Testing and experimentation with bringing up the medkit or not, amount of healing per use and interplay with the medicine levels will probably yield the best results.

[RoSoDude]

As before, I don't think there's a strong difference in how overpowered it is compared with equipping it from the toolbelt. However, here are two proposed solutions, if it really is a problem:

1. Make it a heal over time rather than a burst heal. Applying more could extend the duration rather than stacking the rate, so the regeneration aug can still have a better heal/sec.

2. When the medkit/biocell are used from the secondary slot, they are quickly equipped and utilized as is the case with grenades/melee weapons. That is, the button press actually causes you to quickly unequip your weapon, equip the medkit, and use the medkit all in one button press. If you keep spamming the button, the medkits should stay out rather than forcing you to keep re-equipping them (this is how it works for melee weapons, for instance). This means there's only a small bonus when compared with putting medkits/biocells on the toolbelt, and no loss of immersion whatsoever (equipping the medkit in both cases = same healing). This means that the perk can still be useful in all difficulties, while not being a larger change than other secondary weapons are.

[DevAnj]

I think we're again entering navel gazing territory here. What made the health regen aug over powered in the original was not just the speed at which it healed you but also the incredibly efficient trade of bioenergy for health. Medkits, on the other hand, are limited even at Master level, you can only have 15 of them at a time and if you try to spam them during a fight you're guaranteed to run out rather quickly. Besides, JC Denton has a total of 500 HP(600 actually, but head HP drains so fast it barely matters) and so spamming 90 HP heals is not really a great trade. In fact, I would argue that it is good exactly for emergencies and nothing more.

As Rosodude pointed out, this is not very different from just holding the medkit in JC's hand and then pressing the "Use" key over and over. The only thing you gain through this method is some convenience through faster healing, which a player can get if they want to rush through a section currently anyway. Anyhow, I think this needs to be tested further before more opinions are passed on how over powered it is. Rosodude's second option is also a safe bet in case you want to reduce workload while implementing this feature.

[Defaultplayer001]

Good guide.

-Will need a small edit when v9.0 is released.
-Is it stickied? I assume the different colored box means it is, I'm just checking.
-Will add every tip I can immediately think of shortly.
-The new CSS is good. I really like the style.

CSS? Hey, can I ask you a favor? Can you add a nice background to the moddb page? All I want is a background like this but with a DX theme, nothing overly fancy like some mod pages have. I started learning HTML and CSS a while back but I lost interest. Spoiled by the fun in game programming.
No pressure. You've done enough for GMDX as-is.

It wasn't stickied, but that's a good idea and it is now.
There is a color error under RES right now, did you have that installed? If not I'd love to know about it, been checking out fine vanilla for me in firefox/chrome.

I loved your tips! Especially the level design ones!

Glad you like it! I'm really loving the /r/naut theme, As far as the actual looks I referred largely to your work!

I'd love to help on the moddb page! Not too familiar with how they do themes but I just skimmed and it doesn't seem extraordinarily difficult.
You're referring specifically to the borders on that link right right? A quick Idea I had would be to use the official art, for example, take this : http://i.imgur.com/J0LyltQ.jpg, segment it into 2 pieces (left/right), something like this example of the right side : http://i.imgur.com/x19NZdn.jpg.
Edit out title/shoulders, size appropriately.
I could also use the border art from your website http://i.imgur.com/hLwZPWI.png

I also took your advice and jumped right into unrealed. despite still knowing next to nothing I found it still possible to poke my way through making it do a few things I wanted. I'm thinking as a crash course into unrealed I might make a 1 level only concept version of the "maximum immersion", realism above all mod idea.
It would let me focus on the fun of overwhelming freedom and instead of the consequences of setting binvincible=false....

I also noticed you mentioned

In the official HDTP release there was toggling of the character models, but I removed that for a variety of reasons, the primary one being massive, incredibly jarring inconsistency.

I was just going to set everything back to vanilla by hand(or at least what I could easily figure out/do at this point), but i thought I'd ask if it was possible to easily re-enable that? Would save me the work for the character models at least. Similarly is it possible to more easily change the models to vanilla? I'm fine doing it manually but I thought I'd ask.

Thanks again so much! It's really impressive seeing all your work first hand in the editor!