Deus Ex, Steam, and You: THEY KINDA WORK TOGETHER
Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2007 6:39 am
As a good lot of you may know, Deus Ex is available on Steam for the paltry sum of $10. As some of you may know, this version of Deus Ex does NOT, for reasons unknown, work with many (if not all) mods out there. The question has come up many times, "WHY I CAN NOT HAZ DX MODZ?!". Well, boys and girls, read up and be learn-ed (Note: Most of the information in those post are copy-pasted from previous threads, so don't be surprised if it feels like you've read it before):
WHY does the Steam Deus Ex not work with mods?
The why is unknown to me, but I can speculate. It appears that Eidos modified the DeusEx.exe file to only run if it is called through Steam. The filesizes are the most obvious give-away; the retail copy of DeusEx.exe weighs in at 248KB, while the Steam copy of DeusEx.exe is only 62.5KB. It's anyone's guess what the exact differences (at a code level) between the two are; all I know is that if you try to run mods with a vanilla install of Steam DX, you'll get bupkiss. I also found out that the Steam DeusEx.exe doesn't like OpenGL mode at all, even with the new renderer in place; it's like Eidos enforced D3D functionality when they released it on Steam.
Well, that kind of sucks. How do I get mods to work, then?
Well, the long and short of it is, you need a copy of DeusEx.exe from a non-Steam copy of the game. Find yourself one (PLEASE NOTE: Hosting this EXE file for download is NOT LEGAL IN ANYWAY) Replace the Steam DeusEx.exe with the retail DeusEx.exe and it should work.
If you're trying to use a mod like HDTP or TNM through Steam, you'll need to replace the exe that shares the mod's name with a retail DeusEx.exe renamed to <mod name>.exe (for example, replace Steam 'HDTP.exe' with retail 'HDTP.exe'). The reason for this is that most full-conversion mod installers make a copy of DeusEx.exe that's found in the ./System/ folder; since the DeusEx.exe in the Steam folder is broken to only work through Steam, HDTP.exe is also broken.
I mentioned earlier that OpenGL doesn't work with the Steam install of DX. If you replace DeusEx.exe with retail DeusEx.exe, you'll gain back that functionality.
EER asked in another thread, "Isn't hdtp.exe just deusex.exe with some parameters strapped in? And if so, couldn't you just add the parameters through steam?" Technically, yes, HDTP.exe (and mods that used copies of DeusEx.exe) is just DeusEx.exe. When you add an external game to your Steam game list, Steam creates a shortcut to that game. When you click on that, it acts as though you just clicked a shortcut on the desktop. You CAN add in parameters to the Steam shortcut entry just like a desktop shortcut; right-click the game in the list, select Properties, and place "Target" from the desktop shortcut into the Steam shortcut's "Target". After doing that, you can launch games like HDTP and TNM from Steam. Note that this method must be done in conjunction with replacing DeusEx.exe with a retail copy
What mods work with the method described above?
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say all of them. The ones I've tested and know for sure work are listed below:
- HDTP Release 1
- The Nameless Mod
- Shifter 1.8
- Zodiac Mod (thanks Dead-eye!)
I've got a lot of stuff to do right now, so this was a bit rushed. If you have any more questions, I'll answer them and add them to the OP.
WHY does the Steam Deus Ex not work with mods?
The why is unknown to me, but I can speculate. It appears that Eidos modified the DeusEx.exe file to only run if it is called through Steam. The filesizes are the most obvious give-away; the retail copy of DeusEx.exe weighs in at 248KB, while the Steam copy of DeusEx.exe is only 62.5KB. It's anyone's guess what the exact differences (at a code level) between the two are; all I know is that if you try to run mods with a vanilla install of Steam DX, you'll get bupkiss. I also found out that the Steam DeusEx.exe doesn't like OpenGL mode at all, even with the new renderer in place; it's like Eidos enforced D3D functionality when they released it on Steam.
Well, that kind of sucks. How do I get mods to work, then?
Well, the long and short of it is, you need a copy of DeusEx.exe from a non-Steam copy of the game. Find yourself one (PLEASE NOTE: Hosting this EXE file for download is NOT LEGAL IN ANYWAY) Replace the Steam DeusEx.exe with the retail DeusEx.exe and it should work.
If you're trying to use a mod like HDTP or TNM through Steam, you'll need to replace the exe that shares the mod's name with a retail DeusEx.exe renamed to <mod name>.exe (for example, replace Steam 'HDTP.exe' with retail 'HDTP.exe'). The reason for this is that most full-conversion mod installers make a copy of DeusEx.exe that's found in the ./System/ folder; since the DeusEx.exe in the Steam folder is broken to only work through Steam, HDTP.exe is also broken.
I mentioned earlier that OpenGL doesn't work with the Steam install of DX. If you replace DeusEx.exe with retail DeusEx.exe, you'll gain back that functionality.
EER asked in another thread, "Isn't hdtp.exe just deusex.exe with some parameters strapped in? And if so, couldn't you just add the parameters through steam?" Technically, yes, HDTP.exe (and mods that used copies of DeusEx.exe) is just DeusEx.exe. When you add an external game to your Steam game list, Steam creates a shortcut to that game. When you click on that, it acts as though you just clicked a shortcut on the desktop. You CAN add in parameters to the Steam shortcut entry just like a desktop shortcut; right-click the game in the list, select Properties, and place "Target" from the desktop shortcut into the Steam shortcut's "Target". After doing that, you can launch games like HDTP and TNM from Steam. Note that this method must be done in conjunction with replacing DeusEx.exe with a retail copy
What mods work with the method described above?
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say all of them. The ones I've tested and know for sure work are listed below:
- HDTP Release 1
- The Nameless Mod
- Shifter 1.8
- Zodiac Mod (thanks Dead-eye!)
I've got a lot of stuff to do right now, so this was a bit rushed. If you have any more questions, I'll answer them and add them to the OP.