The ENBSeries mod for the game, made by the same community responsible for Grand Theft Auto IV’s stunning visual overhaul, is only for Nvidia cards, but if that’s you, you’re in for a treat.
Not only is the gold filter removed, letting you see everything in its own, natural colour, but the lighting has been improved, smoke effects have been tweaked and the game just generally looks better.
Be warned, though, the improvements come at a cost in performance, so only those with powerful PCs should apply. In the gallery above you’ll see some comparison shots; for more, head to PC Gamer.
Deus Ex / ENBSeries [ENBSeries, via PC Gamer]
Neo-Kaiser
Friday, September 23, 2011 at 5:47 PMSo artistic themes and colouring identity are now bad?
Chazz
Friday, September 23, 2011 at 5:51 PMOnly when it’s done to try and cover up the use of a crappy graphics engine and low-res texturing.
Velnica
Friday, September 23, 2011 at 7:00 PMYou’re speaking as if that’s the thing every game should aspire to :/ What’s wrong with adding a filter if in the end it masks these ‘low-res’ness and improves the look of the end product?
Better a hazy filter that doesn’t detract experience than half-baked try hards.
Chazz
Friday, September 23, 2011 at 7:10 PMWell they could’ve just gone for higher res textures and used a better engine.
Blaghmang
Friday, September 23, 2011 at 7:47 PMAnd while we’re running around with infinite money, why don’t we cure all forms of cancer, and end the food crisis?
Jamie
Friday, September 23, 2011 at 7:55 PMIn my opinion, it was really nice that my “old” core 2 duo and 8800GT graphics card could run the game smoothly and nicely. If they had gone the ‘ohhh shiny’ route, beyond how long the game was in development, it would be just another overly pretty game only people with expensive rigs can play. :P
stue
Saturday, September 24, 2011 at 7:17 AMthe nvidia 8800 is almost 6 years old, you cant just buy a budget card, then half a dozen years later call anything made after it expensive, computer parts are dropping, and it costs roughly 500 to buy a pc that will run MODERN games at around 40-50fps. still, it would be nice if developers gave that extra level of detail in graphics, so if you have a good rig,you can flog it, if you dont you can run it in poverty mode. doom 3 when it came out was crazy because nearly every home pc could run it
Chazz
Friday, September 23, 2011 at 8:07 PMEidos and Square Enix aren’t exactly indie companies…
kkagari
Friday, September 23, 2011 at 8:22 PMno, but props to them for using a gimped engine and low res textures and STILL making a aesthetically pleasing experience. even if its smoke and mirrors.
Chazz
Friday, September 23, 2011 at 11:15 PMFor those of us who aren’t okay with being bent over the barrel with console ports it’s far from aesthetically pleasing.
Velnica
Friday, September 23, 2011 at 9:17 PMYou are forgetting that they are supporting a large portfolio. Deus Ex is certainly NOT the only game those two companies are investing in.
Once multiple medium is involved as well (Console AND PC) you may as well find a bar that works across all 3 to maximise output and minimise downtime.
Chazz
Friday, September 23, 2011 at 11:16 PMWhat happened to the days when gamers didn’t make excuses for shoddy work?
Wolvieboy
Saturday, September 24, 2011 at 12:50 AMWhat happened to the days when gamers and fanboys didn’t have a platform for petty gripes other than the people physically in the same room as them?
706
Saturday, September 24, 2011 at 2:12 AMThis isn’t shoddy work, no one is making excuses.
You can complain that it is disappointing that the game will be a multi-platform release and therefore the graphics on the PC will not be as great as they could be. It is a sad fact but you cannot expect a game company to recreate all assets for the different platforms they create their game for. Unless you want to see one released (probably the console version) years before the other. No one will blame you for making such a complaint.
However there is no point complaining that the PC version doesn’t look as good as it should, when you already know the reason why. It makes as much sense as complaining that you can’t use your keyboard and mouse to play the console versions.
Bigtones
Saturday, September 24, 2011 at 9:17 AMOh my god people, just get over it an enjoy what is an awesome game!
Velnica
Saturday, September 24, 2011 at 9:40 AMIf that’s shoddy work Chazz, I’m not sure anything is high enough for you to see form your horse ;/
I rest my case.
Chazz
Sunday, September 25, 2011 at 4:52 PMHow about games that actually excel in something? What does DXHR actually excel at?
Graphics? Without a doubt, NO.
Story? Maybe.
Gameplay? It’s standard, average at best.
Art style? Nope.
Sound design? No.
Voice acting? It was ok.
Dmoli
Monday, September 26, 2011 at 10:12 AMJust because you don’t like it Chazz doesn’t mean the art style isn’t actually impressive. I think the texture style on some of the clothing is very cool indeed.
Pretty sure it all comes down to opinion in the end.
Arata
Monday, September 26, 2011 at 2:55 PMYea, but the general opinion seems to be that it looks pretty bad. The general opinion also seems to be that the Batman voice acting is good. So, what do I know?
Still, if this mod makes people happy, great!! No complaints there.
Pinkerton
Thursday, May 17, 2012 at 3:03 AMOh man, a game full of yellow filter ? SO FREAKING ARTISTIC!
kkagari
Friday, September 23, 2011 at 5:52 PMwell, whilst the detail and fog etc might look better, the gold theme > filtered anyday. it gives the game individuality and atmosphere. such a tasteless mod.
Rob
Friday, September 23, 2011 at 5:52 PMYeh, i like the gold better
Richard James
Friday, September 23, 2011 at 6:09 PMJust imagine how good silent hill would look if you removed all the fog?
Average
Friday, September 23, 2011 at 9:20 PMLiking the gold better. It gives the game more character; a better atmosphere. This mod makes it look sterile.
Sam
Friday, September 23, 2011 at 6:10 PMYeah prefer the original thanks, without the gold it looks that little bit closer to every other first person game out there. Even if the change was made to “cover up the use of a crappy graphics engine and low-res texturing” it certainly worked in my book and was a good choice. Personally I thought HR was one of the best looking games this gen, but admittedly I’ve always favoured art direction over horsepower.
4len
Friday, September 23, 2011 at 7:37 PMI agree entirely! Just had that conversation with a collegue. It looks good, but it just looks like every other game then. The gold is at least, very recognisable as a HR thing :)
Scott
Friday, September 23, 2011 at 6:15 PMSun glasses…no sun glasses.
Milton
Friday, September 23, 2011 at 8:48 PMNow here’s a thinker.
sumlolz
Saturday, September 24, 2011 at 3:08 PMSir, you need an award for your brain.
Code47
Friday, September 23, 2011 at 6:29 PMLooks worse. the original gold theme is far better, it suits the game and feel of the high-tech world.
Chrissomerry
Friday, September 23, 2011 at 7:24 PMMeh, I like the gold filter off. Looks more relatable, which always helps for me when it comes to sci-fi. It does feel like something’s missing though. Alas I don’t have the game, but if I did I’d probably try this mod out due to my own tastes in sci-fi.
Sam
Friday, September 23, 2011 at 7:28 PMCyberpunk =/= sci-fi. So I do see your point, I just think the original is much more suited to the actual theme :D
Chazz
Friday, September 23, 2011 at 7:44 PMCyberpunk, sci-fi…doesn’t really matter when their colour scheme doesn’t match :P
Drunkin Punkin
Friday, September 23, 2011 at 11:14 PMSorry mate but what is =/=?
I’m aware of =, ==, !=, +=, *=, /=, -= etc.
Unless you are attempting to say that you are assigning the value of sci-fi divided by itself to cyberpunk. But then you used one too many =!
Chazz
Friday, September 23, 2011 at 11:17 PMCome now, let’s not be obtuse. We all know he meant /=.
Drunkin Punkin
Saturday, September 24, 2011 at 12:19 AMFair enough but what is the value of sci-fi? Is it a int, float, double, char, string…..? What algorithm does this relate to? Does this solve any np-complete problems?
Intrepeting this a literal sense, cyberpunk is less than sci-fi. I think not!
That is all.
Chazz
Sunday, September 25, 2011 at 8:42 PMHow on earth did you get the impression that he meant cyberpunk was a lesser genre than sci-fi?
caska
Saturday, September 24, 2011 at 5:40 PMI’m pretty sure he meant ‘does not equal’ or in your case ‘!=’ It’s maths not programming, simple maths…
Edward
Friday, September 23, 2011 at 8:40 PMReally really really prefer the gold filter!
And so what if its to hide the bad engine? More PCs can run it! Still looks amazing.
tsengan
Friday, September 23, 2011 at 9:40 PMHow silly. The gold theme matched the high Renaissance inspirations of the artistic styling. It would be like relighting Bladerunner so it wasn’t so dark.
Velnica
Friday, September 23, 2011 at 9:42 PMFunnily enough that’s my first thought when I saw this mod. Kept trying to imagine Blade Runner where there’s no large expanses of shadow, it’s ruining my memories!
Supreme
Friday, September 23, 2011 at 9:48 PMI thought it looked better WITH gold filtering on….
Kyron
Friday, September 23, 2011 at 10:04 PMWhatever the colour is, this games great story and gameplay surpasses any minor argument against its aesthetic.
RavidGamer
Friday, September 23, 2011 at 10:05 PMI’m surprised there hasn’t been a mod to make Invisible War look more like the original. What would the graphic card requirements be for that?
oggob
Friday, September 23, 2011 at 10:22 PMSo the general consensus is that the game looks better with it’s Gold filter intact.
Certainly agree with that, removing it simply makes it look like any other game out there.
Jolly Rancher
Friday, September 23, 2011 at 10:31 PMI have to agree with the vast majority here; I liked the gold theme. It looks generic without it. It may as well have been any old shooter without the filter.
Darth Guybrush
Friday, September 23, 2011 at 10:43 PMNVidia only.
Only wusses have NVidia cards.
Chazz
Friday, September 23, 2011 at 11:18 PMYes, how silly of us to prefer the brand that isn’t renowned for shitty drivers.
mattroe
Saturday, September 24, 2011 at 1:37 AMWusses and people who like to have products that are actually reliable.
weresmurf
Saturday, September 24, 2011 at 6:40 AMwusses who prefer their cards to consistently benchmark higher and perform better for less money… dawwww did I go there???
coolguy
Saturday, September 24, 2011 at 7:26 AMYes we all know ati cards are faster and cheaper than nvidia, more bang for buck.
Both cards suffer from shitty drivers sometimes but it is always fixed.
Chazz
Sunday, September 25, 2011 at 6:29 PMYou clearly haven’t been looking at benchmarks lately. On top of that, unless something has changed in the lowest of low budget cards, nvidia has owned both price/performance and best card on the market title for a while now.
Leigh
Friday, September 23, 2011 at 10:49 PMWhat about the floaty mouse, huh modders, huh?
Cameron
Friday, September 23, 2011 at 11:02 PMThat gold filter really annoyed me. It went far beyond “artistic styling” or anything like that, it just made everything look the same. What’s wrong with having different areas of the game look different? Yeah have a gold filter, but only use it in Jensen’s apartment and maybe Shanghai, everywhere else could really use it’s own personality.
James T
Sunday, September 25, 2011 at 8:07 PMYeah, the yellow filter was direly overused. (Almost) every location in the game was poured full of choking yellow smog, no matter where it was, no matter what it was, no matter who owned it… Giving the game an overarching colour scheme isn’t so bad an idea, but letting it penetrate into everything, from Tae-Yong to the Sarif building to the sewers of Detroit to the Hengsha docks to Singapore to Picus to Panchaea just looked silly. Did everyone hire the same interior designer?
Femto
Friday, September 23, 2011 at 11:36 PMI like the gold! I just finished it then… anybody else end up with a hug stockpile of weapons and ammo at the end?
Sparkles
Friday, September 23, 2011 at 11:48 PMWhat happened to the days when gamers cared about more than a games graphics?
Sparkles
Friday, September 23, 2011 at 11:49 PMWoops wrong article.
Lobo
Saturday, September 24, 2011 at 12:27 AMDid your goldfish die Chazz? You seem agitated.
I guess changing the smoke effects is ok, but changing the aesthetic style of a game doesnt fly in my book. Why not remove cell shading from games next?
Chazz
Sunday, September 25, 2011 at 6:42 PMOh no, I enjoyed DXHR. I’m on my third playthrough after a bug or something cost me my pacifist second playthrough. But the praise it’s getting is what annoys me. See, I never played the first Deus Ex so I’m one of the very few with the gift of not wearing the rose-tinted glasses and DXHR on it’s own is a thoroughly mediocre game that doesn’t have anything that it particularly excels at. It just reaches the average mark in everything and coasts along using the Deus Ex title. That’s all.
AerintheADEQUATE
Saturday, September 24, 2011 at 1:37 AMI prefer directed art and design over ‘pure-graphical realism’ any day. I’d see using this on a second play through or something, but playing the game through vanilla is usually what I’d go with for at least the first time.
I’ve seen people mod Borderlands to turn off the dark-edge shaders and replace textures with ‘realistic’ ones… I feel like they just don’t get it. But hey, to each his own. Can’t dictate the preferances of others.
Kind of reminds me of a ‘Rotoscope’ mod I used for the first PREY game several years back… totally absurd looking but completely awesome at the same time ;-P haha
But still, it took away from the originally intended atmosphere, I just thought it was kinda fun to see it that way.
Otacon
Saturday, September 24, 2011 at 2:30 AMI’ll stick with playing the game how it was orignally intended.
Scott
Saturday, September 24, 2011 at 9:55 AMIt makes it look less generic, but still fairly generic overall.
Matthew K
Saturday, September 24, 2011 at 11:58 PMWhile I think the game looks cleaner and ‘better’ without the filter, I also think it kind of looks like every other game out there.
I approve of the gold filtering.