So you've seen the Announcement of GMDX v9.0, which promises to deliver a faithful Enhanced Artistic Direction to Deus Ex. This news post will focus on developments in that regard, and the recruitment of additional artists to further that goal.
Future news posts will cover other aspects of design, such as further Artificial Intelligence updates.
To truly deliver the best quality Deus Ex deserves further assistance will be needed. Here with GMDX is where Deus Ex's potential is to be fulfilled with faithful, integral accuracy.
2D Art:
The Optimization of New Vision
GMDX takes the excellent New Vision mod and optimizes its application to Deus Ex by evaluating how textures are applied to the game world and making improvements accordingly. For example where texture tiling was extremely obvious, now it no longer is. Textures are scaled and aligned where appropriate. In addition, GMDX seeks to address vanilla textures that New Vision did not update, or updated unfaithfully.
Here are some examples:
NYC Billboard (vanilla):
NYC Billboard (GMDX):
Not only is this an excellent high resolution faithful update of the original texture, it also adds new realistic details not originally possible, such as the faded paint and dirt. Details you'd expect from Deus Ex's dystopian New York.
Decals
GMDX adds numerous decals to the game world to diversify environments, obscure obvious ugly texture tiling, and to simply make each appropriate scene look prettier.
The Skybox as seen from Versalife data entry in GMDX v9.0:
In this image some decals can be seen. Focus on the shack to the left. Note the spots of rust on the roof? decals. More are in view if you know where to look.
Can you make high detail 2D textures? If so, Send me a message
3D Art:
The optimization of HDTP
HDTP is unfinished, more notably so than New Vision. Generic decorations, animated effects, weapons, each category has assets in need of an update. Currently GMDX has one 3D modeler lending support. More are needed.
As another example of the work being done, and the work expected from future artists: HDTP did not update the fire extinguisher mesh and skin. GMDX has:
Weaponry Overhaul
Something that is not set in stone yet, but a talented modeler by the name of Mortecha has proposed to redesign the game's weaponry in aesthetically pleasing and logical style. The assault gun for instance was neither a logical design nor (in my opinion) an aesthetically-pleasing one. Here's a untextured preview of what Mortecha has in store:
As you can see it's a divergence of style, but still remains relatively faithful to some extent. It is also a more realistic, functional and aesthetically-pleasing design.
For partial purism or plain variety's sake, there will likely be the option to play with HDTP's weaponry should you desire.
Animation Update
Did you know NPCs in Deus Ex have no reloading animation while moving or crouched?
Find the lack of NPC death animations to be a disappointment?
Find the awkward NPC running animations to be immersion-breaking?
Notice that NPCs with melee weapons can only attack while standing still?
To truly update Deus Ex to the extent it deserves is to address these issues and more. Yet not so vital advancements would be beneficial: An animation to accompany GMDX's mantling? New intricate weapon reload animations? What about dogs? Notice that they never sit or lie down, and their attack animation is lackluster? NPCs also have what is essentially one universal idle standing stance, adding more would be an immersive delight. I could go on...
Requirements:
An artist contributing to GMDX should strive to faithfully update vanilla assets, and any new assets should be created with conscious consideration for the game's design intricacies. For example, new generic interactive objects should be just that: generic. Generic so that they can subtly fit in to a variety of diverse locations without breaking player immersion. Conversely, unique location-specific objects should be wary of the themes, events class and culture of where it is attempting to fit.
The majority of meshes should be geometrically simplistic as the old version of the Unreal Engine Deus Ex runs on uses primitive collision cylinders. You get the idea.
If your skill set matches any of what is needed, Send me a message
Not an artist but still wish to help? Donations can be made on GMDX's website by clicking the paypal icon in the top right hand corner.
-Totalitarian
Ok, this is turning into quite the monster project.
**** yeah
The ambition of this project is huge! Here's to hoping all your plans eventually get realized.
Thanks for all your hard work :)
Will we still be able to disable it though?
New gun remind me Battle rifle from Halo.
It's nice that you have a modeler helping out your project. Let's hope more people take interest!
What you're showing so far is great! Keep up the good work.
Man, just when you think this project couldn't get any better than it already is... Looking forward to see what new people can bring into the mod, especially excited for the animation updates. That would go a long way to making Deus Ex feel far less clunky and outdated and more modern.
Mortecha's Assault Gun looks like the SC-20K (F2000). I like it.
That bilboard is magnificent, i love it!
I won't say anything cause I learned my lesson to never underestimate you. Good luck!
I hope you don't remove my Holy Smokes Texture from NV, I had a lot of fun making that texture and would hate to see it go. Your Big Top replacement looks fantastic.
Big point to note is that we tried years ago to get the Assault Rifle design changed in HDTP. It resulted in a massive fight in the forums which is why you see the attempt at preserving that design in the HDTP version that Dave did a fantastic job designing. I will say tread lightly on that, you're lucky that the Deus Ex community died down a lot because during its peak they'd gut you for making changes like this. (people lost their **** over the Gunther colour pallet swap as well).
I look forward to seeing what you decide on.
Holy Smokes will stay.
GMDX actively strives to remain faithful to the "Immersive Sim" school of game design, as well as updating old assets like textures and weapon models faithfully while respecting the original developer's intentions.
like I said an option to stick with HDTP will remain as these new weapons are somewhat unfaithful. I tried to convince the artist to just focus on HDTP assets that were left behind, as well as some of the poorer HDTP redesigns (e.g sawed-off), but he didn't want to. Nonetheless his redesigns are cool and look high quality so I still want to (optionally) support them.
Can you yourself contribute? Every bit of help is needed, and so far this news post has not had any results.
Thankyou.
Unfortunately I'm presently a full time developer part time Game Art teacher. Its actually the reason why I left New Vision part way through (most of my textures are in the New York portions). At this stage my priority is to focus on commercial games so sadly I cannot contribute.
I would consider posting a recruitment post in the ModDB forums and even consider posting on Polycount for help.
I'd think even if Deus Ex community was as strong as it was in it's hey day there would be no issues as my redesigns are not being forced upon the player, as they will optionally be able to use HDTP remakes. The same applies to Revisions audio remakes. Definitely no need to tread lightly and opinions of select purists should definitely not affect the creative process, especially when the designs are still in their infancy.
No worries, just do your thing. Your redesigns are high quality and intended to be optional so indeed I doubt anyone will complain. People still complained about Revision's soundtrack despite the fact that it was optional, but that is more down to most people perceiving there was no need to remake Deus Ex's soundtrack at all in the first place, which is understandable as there's a lot of emotional attachment to it and, well, Deus Ex's music is just classic. This is different, as there is a very real need to update Deus Ex/HDTPs weaponry. You spend most of the game with those things staring you in the face, so it is important they are immersive high quality and without inconsistency of style between them as it is in HDTP currently.
Couldn't agree more. Also the Revision soundtrack was a bad example as they tried to fix something that wasn't broken in the first place, and was terrible when compared to the music it was replacing.
Interesting discussion here ! actually, some tracks in revision OST are pretty good, but they made a pretty big mistake : mastering. generally speaking the soundtrack is lower volume than the original, so if there is an original song it will sound higher volume and you will have to spend time into the sound options to adjust volume so that you can hear people speaking (lol).
Nonetheless, there is the possibility to (in 98% of cases) blend both soundtracks and keep just the ones that we want, by simply deleting or moving the ones from the remaster, and it will use the original as a fallback.
I spent time to chose to keep the ones that I felt were respectful enough of the original material, or the ones that were better (in some cases, the remaster is really better because some songs of the original aged badly).
It might not be the best place to post that but here is my music folder : Mega.nz
What I originally did was to play the entire game and move the tracks I didn't like in a separate folder but since there are quite a lot I prefer delete this folder so the archive is lighter.
What you have to do is just delete the music folder in the revision folder, and replace with this one (and of course having the remastered ost active in deus ex).
tell me what you think of it when you have some time :) except for the conversation in lucky money there is no problems ! (fully tested !)
To provide context to the rest of the community behind the redesigns and their characteristics, my intention is not to create exact replications of the original weapons, you also have HDTP for that:p I however am completely redesigning them to be more believable in their function, and to look appropriate, be visually interesting, be subtly influenced by HR and MD designs, and possibility maybe even be considered beautiful from a design standpoint:P
There will however be limitations placed upon their designs to portray unique Deus Ex weapon design elements where appropriate. For example, the Assault Shotguns hollow magazine and the Assault Rifles form factor. This means that will be complete redesigns, but distinctly Deus EX at the same time.
This mod really is turning out to be one of the best Mods for Deus Ex.
I actually love Revision for creating completely new environments, but I want to have some Nostalgia, but also a new touch at the same time, which GMDX is just fantastic for!
Really looking forward to 9.0!
By the way, Do you guys accept offers from the community? I work as a 3D artist, Sound Designer and Composer in the game industry, and if I would like to contribute some new sounds, models or something like this, can I just drop you a message showing some Models / Sounds I made for you to use?
If you want to keep Models, Sounds etc. internal, that's fine. Just wanted to ask!
I made the two NYC Skylines for New Vision. If you need these sort of work let me know.
I'm absolutely loving the new rifle design! Great work Mortecha!
If it's possible, please don't make the charging handle reciprocating.
In real world, the left side charging handle of bullpup Assault rifle like the F2000, Tavor, Steyr AUG, VHS-1 & VHS-2 doesn't move back-forward ( reciprocating ),
heck even the FAMAS-FELIN choose not to do so because it can snag the user hand
Subtle detail, but increasing realism in firearms design and functionality.