Visuals (Advanced)

Next, go into Advanced options & select the Display options.

Brightness. Use this setting to adjust the brightness level in the game, setting it higher may well improve visibility, although can the game look washed out if you set it too high. It is better to set this in the game menu itself (mentioned earlier), where the effects can be seen immediately.

CaptureMouse. Set this to True if you use are using mouse (which most of you will be).

CurvedSurfaces. This should be set to False. This will improve performance & the difference to models is fairly unnoticeable anyway (only player models are affected). When set to True player model meshes are smoothed out.

Decals. Set this to False to improve performance, particularly on TNT cards. Decals are the blood splatters or bullet holes that get left in terrain during a game. If you have a fairly new graphics card you should be able to set this to True for improved visuals with little performance difference.

MinDesiredFrameRate. Set this to equal to whatever you feel is the minimum for a playable game. 30 should be the ideal minimum frame rate for most users. This specifies the frame rate threshold below which Deus Ex will start dropping detail - reducing model detail and not drawing optional effects. If this is set higher than your normal frame rate, then you will never see reduced graphics almost always, but get the best possible performance. The ideal setting for this is about 10 frames below your average frame rate.

When benchmarking it would be best to set this to 0 to give a more accurate indication of real performance (see later on in the guide for how to benchmark).

NoDynamicLights. Set this to False for better visuals, e.g. the light surrounding an explosion. Set this to True to improve performance a little.

NoLighting. Set this to False. Otherwise the game will look quite ugly. The difference in performance between both is very large, turn the lighting off if you are totally desperate for a frame rate boost.

ScreenFlashes. Set this to True, this is used to change the screen colour, e.g. when you get hit, or are underwater. Setting is to False will marginally improve performance.

SkinDetail. I’d recommend setting this to Medium, the difference between High & Medium is fairly small, added to the fact this will free up video memory & you generally won’t be too close to player models this gives quite a nice performance improvement.

SlowVideoBuffering. Ignore this setting, unless you are using Software rendering. Set it to True if you are.

StartupFullscreen. If using a 3D card then you'll have no choice other than running in full screen, it is faster than running windowed anyway. Leave it set to True.

TextureDetail. Set it to High if you can, although a lower setting is advised if you need the extra performance (specifically cards with low texture memory, e.g. TNT1), it will give a more blurrier look to the game though. Setting TextureDetail to High will improve visuals more than setting SkinDetail to High (& also have a greater effect of frame rate).

In the case of TNT1 cards, do not to set texture detail to high, you could easily run out of texture memory & the game will crash. Try Medium instead.

UseDirectDraw. Set this to True. It will improve performance on most systems.

UseDirectInput. Set this to True. It'll performance/smoothness with Input devices. Although, should you experience any problems with input devices, e.g. mouse, try set it to False.

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