TechnologyEdit
Deus Ex used theUnreal game engine, which was designed for first-person shooters
The game was developed on systems including dual-processor Pentium Pro 200s and Athlon 800s with eight and nine gigabyte hard drives, some using SCSI. The team used “more than 100 video cards” throughout development.[35] Deus Ex was built usingVisual Studio, Lightwave, and Lotus Notes. They also built a custom dialogue editor, ConEdit.[35] The team used UnrealEd atop the Unreal game engine for map design, which Spector wrote was “superior to anything else available”.[52] Their trust in UnrealScript led them to code “special-cases” for their immediate mission needs instead of more generalized multi-case code.[41] Even as concerned team members expressed misgivings, the team only addressed this later in the project. To Spector, this was a lesson to always prefer “general solutions” over “special casing”, such that the tool set works predictably.[41]
They waited to license a game engine until after preproduction,[31] expecting the benefits of licensing to be more time for the content and gameplay, which Spector reported to be the case. They chose the Unreal engine as it did 80% of what they needed from an engine and was more economical than building from scratch. Their small programming team allowed for a larger design group. The programmers also found the engine accommodating,[52] though it took about nine months to acclimate to the software.[40]Spector felt that they would have understood the code better had they built it themselves, instead of “treating the engine as a black box” and coding conservatively.[52] He acknowledged that this precipitated into theDirect3D issues in their final release, which slipped through their quality assurance testing.[52] Spector also noted that the artificial intelligence, pathfinding, and sound propagation were designed for shooters and should have been rewritten from scratch instead of relying on the engine. He thought the licensed engine worked well enough that he expected to use the same for the game’s sequel and Thief 3.[36] He added that developers should not attempt to force their technology to perform in ways it was not intended, and should find a balance between perfection and pragmatism.[41]
MusicEdit
30 second sample from the theme song of Deus Ex.
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The soundtrack of Deus Ex, composed byAlexander Brandon (primary contributor, including main theme), Dan Gardopée (“Naval Base” and “Vandenberg”), Michiel van den Bos (“UNATCO”, “Lebedev’s Airfield”, “Airfield Action”, “DuClare Chateau” plus minor contribution to some of Brandon’s tracks), and Reeves Gabrels (“NYC Bar”),[53] was praised by critics for complementing the gritty atmosphere predominant throughout the game with melodious and ambient musicincorporated from a number of genres, including techno, jazz, and classical.[54][55][56]The music sports a basic dynamic element, similar to the iMUSE system used in early 1990s LucasArts games; during play, the music will change to a different iteration of the currently playing song based on the player’s actions, such as when the player starts a conversation, engages in combat, or transitions to the next level. All the music in the game is tracked – Gabrels’ contribution, “NYC Bar”, was converted to a module by Brandon.
A compact disc of the Deus Ex soundtrack was included in the Game of the Year edition and is not available for separate purchase. Notably, the soundtrack is not a direct audiorip from the game itself, however; it is a “remastering” of the soundtrack with added instruments and audio production. Originally only thirty tracks were included with the re-release, with tracks thirty-one through forty-one considered as extras.[citation needed] The PlayStation 2 port featured live, orchestral renditions of some tracks.[citation needed]Deus Ex: Game of the Year Edition SoundtrackNo.TitleLength1.“Main Title” 2:262.“Intro Sequence” 2:193.“Liberty Island” 2:264.“UNATCO” 2:095.“Battery Park” 1:496.“NYC Streets” 2:197.“Lebedev’s Airfield” 2:068.“Airfield Action” 1:229.“Enemy Within” 1:5010.“Desolation (Hong Kong Canal)” 1:3011.“The Synapse (Hong Kong Streets)” 2:2012.“Hong Kong Action” 1:0113.“Majestic 12 Labs” 1:5314.“Versalife” 1:3915.“Naval Base” 1:2816.“Paris Streets” 1:2117.“DuClare Château” 3:1918.“Paris Action” 1:2619.“Return to NYC” 1:3620.“Oceanlab” – 01:35″ 1:3721.“Ocean Action” 1:2622.“Oceanlab Complex” 1:5023.“Vandenberg” 1:5624.“Begin the End (Bunker)” 1:4425.“Area 51” 2:2526.“Ending 1” 1:1827.“Ending 2” 1:2128.“Ending 3” 1:5329.“The Illuminati” 2:4130.“DX Club Mix”
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