Following up on MOTSNUP and TODOA - Edition of Magnitude, the time has come to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Nihilum (11th anniversary of its release) in 2024 with an ESRGAN/krea.ai-upscaled DDS texture pack for the DirectX 10 renderer - recommended to be used in conjunction with the New Vision textures, HDTP models, unifiedDeusEx UI upgrades and the Helios Texture Overhaul upscaled textures.
(These mods are not automatically included in the DXN download because the combined filesize would be quite enormous, and most people have these mods or a combination of them already installed)
The 20th Anniversary Upscale also features the following changes:
- The custom Glock pistol from the December 2018 Final Anniversary Update has been removed and replaced with the standard DX one
- An exploitable skillpoint trigger in the Platz Der Republik (XVA HQ exterior) level has been fixed
- The frames and lenses of Mad Ingram's sunglasses should now be matched more appropriately
- Original voice acting from the Final Anniversary Update, replaced in 2021 with an attempt at using AI for some of the dialogue, has been restored
- A ham sandwich line from the original May 28th 2013 release of the mod has been restored
However, not all of the original textures have been upscaled for a variety of reasons (e.g. datapad images not warranting it in my opinion, some textures just being plain text on a single-color background, textures from the common TITAN.utx package having already been upscaled by other mods etc.), while some have been replaced or altered from the previous releases. Most of the original hi-res DDS textures that were already included in the original 2013 release have been retained.
If you already have the previous Final Anniversary Update installed and don't want to download the DDS textures, you can download this patch instead and extract it to the root of your Deus Ex directory (e.g. C:\DeusEx) to update the other files.
In case you only want to download the new DDS textures, you can download this pack instead (also needs to be extracted to the root DX directory).
(In other words, if you want to upgrade the previous Final Anniversary Update into the latest version without downloading the full installer, you need to download both of those files and extract them as stated above)
And as always: Enormous thanks to everyone who had a part in making the mod - RetroXor and fender2k1 above anyone else - and to everyone who played it! I hope you'll like this update.
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
- Will the voice acting ever be replaced?
No. The only change seriously considered, but scrapped, was getting a voice actress to re-record the lines for the scientist in Dynamene Inner Section, who was originally supposed to be a woman named Satyakova (you can see remnants of the original plan in the Mission67.con and 67_Dynamene_Innersection.dx files even in the original version of the mod). - Will the dialogue ever be improved? Will at least the sound quality of the voice acting ever be improved? Will you ever patch the BSP holes? Will the gameplay ever be improved? Will you ever become familiar with the scope? Will you ever make a .UTX version of these new DDS textures? Will you replace the paintings in the White House level since they're based on the virtual tour layout from 2012? Can you disable the HDTP version of Mad Ingram in the DLCs?
No. - Will you ever replace the XVA and paratrooper guns?
No. However, if you know your way around recompiling DX's UC packages, here are the raw files for sgweap.u so you can edit the WeaponPara17.uc and WeaponAssault17.uc files to point to a different weapon instead (use WeaponBRGlock.uc for reference), and recompile sgweap.u afterwards. No further tech support will be given by me on this matter! ;) - Will you ever fix any of the dodgy architecture or texture alignment issues - regardless of whether or not they've been present since the beginning?
If I'm ever going to address any texture alignment issues or make additions to and rebuild the architecture (which I intentionally avoided this time), it will only be for the DLCs as I want the main mod to reflect its original release and retain most of its original faults and oddities (admittedly the same applies to the DLCs for the most part). - What about simple bug fixes?
If a major reason to update the entire mod (i.e. having to recompile the installer) surfaces, and if the bugs are as simple to fix as the skillpoint trigger was in the Berlin level, they'd probably get fixed. I'm not actively involved in editing games these days, and am not maintaining or updating my previous editing skills, so no updates are ever actively planned. On top of that, there are other mods that have edited or adjusted DXN's content and have fixed many issues (possibly even ones I've fixed in this release) far better than I ever could.
RECOLLECTIONS OF THE PAST
2004 - The Birth of Deus Ex: Nihilum: As seen in the 2004 intro, the initial premise for Nihilum was more or less about J.C. getting sent to Finland for some reason - also dipping into Glace Bay in Canada and XVA's premises in Arkansas, as well as meeting Anthony Stafford and Wesley Cutter at some point. Aside from the two screenshots on the top row of the following collage, the rest of the screenshots were taken by me in October 2004 when I applied for the UNATCO Born level designer position after getting frustrated and bored with Nihilum itself.
2007-2008: As real life got in the way and production on UNATCO Born stalled, I was inspired to start "FastGamerr's Hong Kong Project" (FGRHK) in its stead, which eventually morphed into the second major incarnation of Nihilum. In this iteration, Mad Ingram was a Chinese special agent who was teamed up with the American UNATCO agent Wesley Cutter to solve crimes in Hong Kong. In early 2008, after once again getting frustrated with DX editing, I donated the 2007-2008 levels to WildcatPhoenix from the Man in Black mod, as seen in some of its screenshots from 2008-2010: Moddb.com
2010-2013: Returning to DX editing for the third (3rd) and final time in mid-2010, about half a year after finishing TODOA, I once again reshuffled the plans for the mod and turned Wesley Cutter from the previous builds into Mad Ingram. As seen in these screenshots, the pre-release designs for the Forichi, Kowloon, Queens and Berlin levels were also quite different from the final versions, getting redesigned (sometimes multiple times) for various reasons (for instance the original Forichi design was scrapped since it was incredibly laggy in-game).
Nice to see this masterpiece get updated once more! 😺
I've gotta play this again at some point.