Now that we've dispensed with the system-level tweaks, we're going to get in-depth with the in-game tweaks. Before we do that though, let's cover some basic items. The original Unreal engine was designed around Glide, with less focus getting put on D3D and OpenGL. Even through the assorted patches to the Unreal code base, OpenGL support is still not on par with D3D. Comparatively, performance under Glide is still above both OpenGL and D3D. This same Achilles' heel plagues Unreal Tournament - and consequently Deus Ex.
For users of non-3dfx products, you'll want to utilize D3D mode and
steer clear of OpenGL due to the incurred performance hit. And, for
those folks using D3D you'll want to make sure and grab the latest
patch from off the Deus Ex website
and grab the specifc D3D patch right here [D3D patch superseded by
latest patch -Ed]. This patch fixes a small bug that makes D3D performance
take a serious dive with Detail Textures enabled. Since these increase
the visual quality tremendously, we urge everyone to download it.
While we're on the topic of patches, we'd also like to recommend that you install the latest audio and video card drivers for your system. The latest drivers from both Aureal and Creative Labs reduce the amount of strain that their cards put on a system's CPU. Likewise, the latest drivers from the popular video card companies (NVIDIA and 3dfx) also help to speed up performance. NVIDIA released their Detonator3 drivers this week (available here) which can help to improve performance by up 40-50% as compared to their older detonator drivers.
Ok, so you've gotten the latest drivers installed along with the patch, and now it's time to jump into actually tweaking Deus Ex. First on our list is the actual installation process, where you'll want to choose to install everything to your hard drive for the best possible performance. If you don't have the space for everything, you'll want to install the game content and maps to improve general game play and load times. Also make sure to have plenty of drive space wherever you decide Deus Ex to, because the game uses up 20MB per each save game - which can drain disk space rather quickly if you don't delete your older saves.
In Deus Ex you can tweak the visual settings in two ways: through the basic menu system available from within the game, or by getting into the advanced options section by using the console. We'll go over the first method first before we get into the advanced settings. To get into these settings, you'll need to pull the pull up the Display menu from under the Settings menu, and you should get a menu that looks like this:
From within this menu you can set resolution, color depth, texture detail, and the ability to turn dynamic lights and decals on/off. Resolution is perhaps the biggest stepping-stone in terms of levels of performance. Many cards can handle the lower resolutions of 640x480 and 800x600, but it takes a fairly new card to handle the fill rate demands of 1024x768 and up.
Deus Ex is no different in this respect, requiring gobs of fill rate to render all those gorgeous visual effects. The moral of the story here is that you'll need some fairly decent hardware to make the game run smoothly at 1024x768 and up (with the default effects on that is). Unless you have a GeForce level card or higher, combined with a 500 MHz CPU and 128 MB of RAM, you'll want to stay at 640x480 or 800x600. Even if you have a fairly hefty system, we don't recommend going beyond 1024x768 - Deus Ex is just too much of a system hog to make these resolutions playable.
Color depth is the next option we'll cover, and Deus Ex allows you to choose between 16 and 32-bit modes. As is always the case, opt for 16-bit if you're looking to improve performance, and go 32-bit if you're looking for the best visual quality. At this point in time though, we personally have a hard time going the 16-bit route - 32-bit just looks too good. The Voodoo3 series of cards, as well as the earlier Voodoo1 and Voodoo2 generations, can only do 16-bit color. The TNT and TNT2 chips could handle 32-bit color, but performance was generally cut in half as compared to 16-bit rendering. So, if you are using one of these models, you'll want to opt the 16-bit route.
Next up is the World Texture Detail setting, which can be set to High, Medium, or Low. We recommend leaving this setting to whatever Deus Ex has defaulted to (generally High), unless you're looking to increase performance. If that's the case, just bump down to medium - so long as you're at 800x600 or higher. Below that resolution, Medium and Low detail levels tend to look the same, so you might as well choose Low. The Object Texture Detail setting has the same options, and you'll generally want to have this set at the same setting as World Texture Detail.
Bloody Decals
The Decals setting can be turned on or off, and tells the game whether or not to apply blood/bullet marks/etc. on the floors and walls. Un-checking this box will remove them from the game, and detract a bit from the visual quality, but might be worth it in a quest for improved performance. But, being able to see blood splats on the floors from the UNATCO scum you just capped is a must in our opinion (not to mention the blast marks left from launching that rocket at the MIB).
The Detail Texture setting can be turned on/off, with those holding visual quality above performance wanting it on. These textures are placed over other textures/surfaces in a level, which gives the base texture a more realistic look. So, when you go up against walls you no longer get a blurry looking stone texture, but instead a stone texture with a grit look to it. As we discussed above, there was a problem with this feature with the initial release of Deus Ex where the game would stutter with these enabled while in D3D mode. The released patch fixes this problem, and makes this a viable feature to have turned on. Those with newer graphics cards won't even notice the small performance hit these cause, but those with older cards or optimizing for performance will want this feature off.
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