Which Renderer Is Truly Best?

[Francisè von Spitroast]

I seem to be making a lot of threads lol...

Which renderer is truly the best renderer? Of the ones I know, they all have considerable issues:

Direct3D: Default. Ancient. Way out-of-date.

OpenGL: Terrible mouse input. No anisotropic filtering possible without visual bugs.

Enhanced OpenGL: Fixes the aniostropic filtering bug from above but looks terrible. Lighting doesn't look right and there's no texture detail depth when you get close to walls.

Enhanced DirectX9: Seemingly no anti-aliasing, no texture detail depth, slightly off mouse input, less than perfect lighting.

Direct X10: Easily the best... or, at least, it once was. Comes with optional (awful) visual filters. Mouse input is good. Anti-aliasing, texture detail, 4K support, anisotropic filtering, FOV, more advanced visual tweaks, etc. to make it the best looking version of the game whilst maintaining the original look. It was definitive in my books until somewhat recently as the game stutters a fair bit with it, even on hardware that's good for today, let alone 20 years ago. This is acknowledged on the Deus Ex guide on PCGamingWiki but its recommended solutions don't work for me. It's playable, but not smooth anymore. Still the best option.

Direct X11: Same as above except with worse stuttering and seemingly in a different way. The framerate drops from my limited 99 to as low as 60 for a second regardless of scenario and settings and I'm not sure what's causing it, making for a very jittery experience that I can't deal with. It also has mouse acceleration that can't be disabled.

And that's about it that I know of. All of the other defaults are even worse than Direct3D. Anyone have fixes for DX10 or 11 or another renderer they know that works?

[Francisè von Spitroast]

Bonus question so I don't end up making another thread:
Since Revision can be used to play essentially the original version of the game (og maps, ost, gameplay, etc.), is it worthwhile? Does it offer any actual improvements such as bug fixes and whatnot to the original game?

And for my specs if anyone's curious:
RTX3060
Windows 10 x64
i5 10400f
16GB RAM

[seedee]

software

[Francisè von Spitroast]

Originally posted by seedee:

software

lol

[Thermal Lance]

I usually just use direct3D. "Dated" for sure but I highly doubt a large amount of modern features would really make a substantial difference when most characters looks like sex dolls anyway and the levels have a dozen polygons or so. :P

[Francisè von Spitroast]

Originally posted by Thermal Lance:

I usually just use direct3D. "Dated" for sure but I highly doubt a large amount of modern features would really make a substantial difference when most characters looks like sex dolls anyway and the levels have a dozen polygons or so. :P

The difference between even Direct3D and OpenGL, let alone DirectX10, is colossal.
Plus, you get to play at widescreen resolutions, and old games (regardless of texture res and polygon count) benefit as much from 4K as new games do.

[KillerBeer01]

Plus, DX10/11 allow for Helios Texture Overhaul, which makes a huge difference, even if you're already into New Vision and/or HDTP.

Yes, Revision is worth at least trying. It allows for much smoother experience, and with recent update allowing to play with original maps, it leaves very little reason for controversy.

[Francisè von Spitroast]

Originally posted by KillerBeer01:

Plus, DX10/11 allow for Helios Texture Overhaul, which makes a huge difference, even if you're already into New Vision and/or HDTP.

Yes, Revision is worth at least trying. It allows for much smoother experience, and with recent update allowing to play with original maps, it leaves very little reason for controversy.

There's still plenty of reason for controversy.

[KillerBeer01]

Originally posted by Davies Hung:

There's still plenty of reason for controversy.

Namely?

Originally posted by Pharnham:

Assuming you like utter and total darkness. I'm not a big fan of blindness simulators.

Huh?
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2762512458

[Francisè von Spitroast]

Originally posted by KillerBeer01:

Originally posted by Davies Hung:

There's still plenty of reason for controversy.

Namely?

Originally posted by Pharnham:

Assuming you like utter and total darkness. I'm not a big fan of blindness simulators.

Huh?
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2762512458

I also don't have much in the way of brightness issues with the default DirectX9 renderer on Revision.

And the controversy's a whole kettle of fish I don't want to bring up lest this thread turns into another Revision hate thread.

[Francisè von Spitroast]

Originally posted by Pharnham:

Originally posted by KillerBeer01:

Huh?

How about a screenshot somewhere underground? Take a screenshot when you're in the last twenty feet of the tunnel coming out of the MJ12 Ocean Lab right before the Simons fight.

Your screenshot from outdoors intentionally using the brightest backdrop in the entire game doesn't prove anything except how bad at trolling you are. What a belly laugh.

There's plenty of people who have issues with the darkness of Revision besides me. The cure for Revision is easy: uninstall and use Kenties launcher. Then it's perfect again.

Calm down. I think Revision's garbage, too, and that screenshot was a bad example, but I don't think that means he's trolling. Relax.

[KillerBeer01]

Originally posted by Pharnham:

How about a screenshot somewhere underground? Take a screenshot when you're in the last twenty feet of the tunnel coming out of the MJ12 Ocean Lab right before the Simons fight.

I thought you were talking about non-adjustable brightness in settings. Which *was* a problem for me with DX9 renderer, but not with 10/11. If you're talking about brightness changes made by Revision to specific maps, then playing with vanilla maps should take care of *that*.

Originally posted by Davies Hung:

I think Revision's garbage, too

[shrug] Then why asking if it's worthwhile?

[Francisè von Spitroast]

Originally posted by KillerBeer01:

Originally posted by Pharnham:

How about a screenshot somewhere underground? Take a screenshot when you're in the last twenty feet of the tunnel coming out of the MJ12 Ocean Lab right before the Simons fight.

I thought you were talking about non-adjustable brightness in settings. Which *was* a problem for me with DX9 renderer, but not with 10/11. If you're talking about brightness changes made by Revision to specific maps, then playing with vanilla maps should take care of *that*.

Originally posted by Davies Hung:

I think Revision's garbage, too

[shrug] Then why asking if it's worthwhile?

I think it's garbage for its map changes. That's made irrelevant if we're talking about the original maps.

[BadMojo]

Originally posted by Brett Cuggerbunt:

Which renderer is truly the best renderer?

Glide running through a 3dfx wrapper like dgvoodoo... hehe
but in all seriousness, enhanced opengl is my goto, so Im probably gonna rant a little about it.. sorry for the wall of text :)

Enhanced OpenGL: Fixes the aniostropic filtering bug from above but looks terrible. Lighting doesn't look right and there's no texture detail depth when you get close to walls.

When you say the lighting doesnt look right... are you comparing that to other modern renderers like dx10 and 11 that enhance the lighting to some degree and adds that atrocious post processing fx? or are you comparing it to how the original game looked from when it released?
because for me, opengl is and will always be how I remember the game looking, and that dx10/11 are the ones that "dont look right".. even after turning off the effects and setting classic lighting to true.

Also, as for the detail depth.. your probably thinking the parallax effect that the dx10/11 renderers added to the textures, deus ex never originally had that, so again, for me it doesnt look right either.

Direct X10: Easily the best... or, at least, it once was. Comes with optional (awful) visual filters. Mouse input is good. Anti-aliasing, texture detail, 4K support, anisotropic filtering, FOV, more advanced visual tweaks, etc. to make it the best looking version of the game whilst maintaining the original look. It was definitive in my books until somewhat recently as the game stutters a fair bit with it, even on hardware that's good for today, let alone 20 years ago. This is acknowledged on the Deus Ex guide on PCGamingWiki but its recommended solutions don't work for me. It's playable, but not smooth anymore. Still the best option.

All of those features, minus the post processing effects (indeed awful), are present in the enhanced opengl renderer...
-you can get anti aliasing with the UseAA and NumAASamples options in the ini file.
-FOV can be changed in kenties launcher or in game with the fov command.
-opengl supports detail textures, which adds some extra detail to the textures by applying another texture over the top of the other one like extra wood grain, or scratches on metal etc.. this was an original feature in deus ex. The parallax in dx10/11, which Im gonna assume your thinking of here, its all part of that awful post processing, its random and looks weird imo, if new vision had normal maps and proper heightmaps included, Ill probably consider changing my mind on this one... I have a soft spot for bump mapping.
-4k support... well I dont have a 4k monitor at hand, but 2560x1440 at 165hz works a treat, otherwise you do have anti aliasing support if you find yourself looking hard enough for those jagged edges.
-Mouse lag.. turn off vsync, set SwapInterval=0 in the ini

All that being said, every pc is different, but for me direct3d10/11 has always had a performance hit, or moments of mouse lag, never had an issue with opengl in the 20 years Ive had this game.

And that's about it that I know of. All of the other defaults are even worse than Direct3D. Anyone have fixes for DX10 or 11 or another renderer they know that works?

If you really have your heart set on dx10, you could always downgrade to a version of it that worked better for you: http://www.kentie.net/article/d3d10drv/files/

[Tobias Rieper]

I use Glide on vanilla Deus Ex original Voodoo 3 card. :) I would like to get the voodoo 4500 so I get 32 bit textures and colour depth