This modding tool aims to bring the original Deus Ex to Unreal Engine 5

Those who were around when the original Deus Ex released will no doubt have an appreciation for this pretty innovative RPG. While we’re still not 100% sure whether a new game is in development or not, there’s something interesting happening with the OG.

As spotted by PCGamer, a modder is taking the 2000 Deus Ex title and putting it through an Unreal Engine 5 filter. That is to say, the quarter of a century old game is being given a bit of a boost, and it’s all possible thanks to a toolkit called DXU24.

The software is a fan-made project that aims to convert older releases (in this case, games that run on Unreal Engine 1) into ones that run through UE5. The above video shows how far things have come, with the modder expecting to implement VR into Deus Ex as well.

A sort of new lease on life

It should be pointed out that this is not an unofficial remake or remaster of the game. The DXU24 Patreon page describes the toolkit thus:

The general idea is the original game is booted as it normally would be, and through my software, communicates with another running instance of Unreal Engine 5. Through this communication link the games state, assets, everything, is communicated to Unreal Engine 5 and reinterpreted as a modern game asset, all at runtime.

So it’ll still be the original Deus Ex, but with some modern features, such as advanced lighting and upscaled AI. The fact that it’s being filtered (I know it’s more complicated than that) through Unreal Engine 5 is what makes this special.

The developer says they expect the software to work on any game that was built on UE1. Here’s a recent video of it rendering a fly-through of Unreal Gold. It may even run other classics, such as Unreal Tournament or possibly Thief.

As for when DXU24 will be out, the creator is anticipating a mid-2024 release. The project has been in development for some time now, so they’re hoping to launch it as soon as they can.