Shifter? In my GameTap? It's more likely than you think...

[Y|yukichigai]

Okay, so, as many of you know GameTap offers the Game of the Year edition of Deus Ex for free through their service. This has produced a pretty sizeable influx of new fans, but unfortunately they haven't been able to fully participate in the DX community. Why? Because they can't load any of the numerous mods that people have been citing as undeniably awesome.

That is, until now.

I finally got off my tookus and loaded up the old lappy running 32-bit XP long enough to check out GameTap's version. After a little poking and prodding I figured out a way to shoehorn in something to allow the game to load outside resources. It's actually surprisingly simple.

Step 1: Load Deus Ex via GameTap. The game will have to be running in order to do this.

Step 2: Press "T" to open the chat prompt..

Step 3: Press backspace a few times to remove the word "Say", then type in "preferences".

Step 4: Hit enter to bring up the Advanced Preferences window. The game will probably drop out of fullscreen mode at this point.

Step 5: Navigate to the following location (click the "+" to expand the categories): Advanced -> File System -> Paths -> [0]. "[0]" should not have a plus sign next to it.

Step 6: Press the "Insert" button to the far right of "[0]". This will move everything down one and create a new, blank "[0]" entry. You will need to select "[0]" for the button to appear.

Step 7: Select the new "[0]" and enter the path to a folder on your hard drive in the text box. This is just as it would appear (mostly) when viewing the files in Windows. I recommend something really, really simple like "C:\DeusEx".

Step 8: In that same text box, add "\*.u" to the end of whatever path you entered. You should wind up with something like "C:\DeusEx\*.u".

Step 9: Close the Advanced Preferences window by clicking the small "x" in the upper right.

Step 10: Exit Deus Ex.

Step 11: Download Shifter and extract the "DeusEx.u" file to the folder you entered in Step 7 (e.g. "C:\DeusEx").

Step 12: Run Deus Ex via GameTap again. Enjoy the Shifter awesomeness.


CAVEATS (a.k.a. "the catch")

This probably will not work for getting TNM to run with the GameTap version. Certainly TNM will not be able to create or access the proper ini/dll/etc. files it needs to run. The same is true (to a slightly less insurmountable extent) for mods like Burden of 80 proof, Zodiac, RedSun, Hotel Carone, etc. etc. The difficulty is that GameTap will NOT allow you to make separate shortcuts for each mod, which means that in order to use that mod's specific resources you will have to either do/undo the above 12 steps each time you want to initialize the mod, or you will need to set up multiple folders and swap/rename them depending on which mod you want to load. Very awkward to do every time.

The GOOD news is that this will work just dandy for most rules-set and expansion mods like Smoke's Mod, Hardcore, Minty's Mod, and of course Shifter. (EDIT: Oh! And HDTP. The only difference there would be adding entries for paths to other file extensions like *.utx, etc.)

UPDATE: the earlier method I suggested to get the game not to load up localization files was flawed (it makes the game un-runnable). Still looking....

So... umm... rock on!

[Jane_Denton]

I used Shifter with the GOTY DX.... Was it just me or was the save times longer with Shifter! I like to use quick save a lot and without Shifter my quicksave was instant, but with Shifter installed my quicksave took about 20sec long! It was a nice MOD but the save times really tested my patience...

I removed Shifter before TNM since I didn't want saves that took long...

[JC_Helios]

I removed Shifter before TNM since I didn't want saves that took long...

... and then you visited all the maps you could prior to DXI

I never really noticed longer save times with Shifter. Shifter did have screenshot, time stamp, and save count problems... I think there also used to be small sound hiccups. All small stuff, and all were eventually fixed.

Were you using HDTP too? Since Shifter supports it that might cause a tin bit to the save times.

[Jane_Denton]

I removed Shifter before TNM since I didn't want saves that took long...

I never really noticed longer save times with Shifter. Shifter did have screenshot, time stamp, and save count problems... I think there also used to be small sound hiccups. All small stuff, and all were eventually fixed.

I had the latest version of Shifter. I think it's a great MOD, but I was just impatient with the long time it took me to save. I'm still hoping to figure out a way to shorten them. My usual quick save time is no more than 2 seconds, but waiting almost 20 seconds for a quick save, it gave me too much time for my mind to drop out of the game...

If you didn't notice any longer quick save time, all I can say as I wish I was in your boat.

[Y|yukichigai]

The long save/load times ARE an issue that I am aware of, but they typically only present themselves on hardware that is only, say, doubly overpowered to run Deus Ex, versus 20x overpowered like most modern hardware. The issue is with the way Shifter loads and unloads HDTP resources: there's a function that every object has to run in order to temporarily unload HDTP resources, save the game, then reload them. (That way if you try to load a savegame without HDTP running it will work) I'm looking into ways of disabling that when HDTP isn't detected, or through a configuration menu, something. In the meantime... yes, I'm aware of it, and I apologize for the inconvenience.

[Jonas]

This is what you get for being awesome. You need to be even awesomer just to make up for being awesome.

[DDL]

(That way if you try to load a savegame without HDTP running it will work)

That is very impressive. Excessive, I suspect, but impressive.