A long-simmering project to run Deus Ex through Unreal Engine 5 looks to introduce a VR mode, modern lighting, and more previously impossible transformations to the PC classic

pcgamer.com:

I've never had the space in my life or my house for a VR setup, but the promise of having an all-time favorite like Resident Evil 4 or Jedi Academy transformed by the tech always gives me pause. The DXU24 mod project for the original Deus Ex seems set to offer that and more.

DXU24's anonymous creator put out a massive development update for the project clocking in just shy of 27 minutes on YouTube. Rather than offering a straight engine port like Daggerfall Unity or one of those «Nintendo, hire this man!» UE5 recreations of a classic gaming locale, DXU24's bedrock is a custom solution to translate Unreal Engine 1 into UE5 at runtime. DXU24 explains it far better than I could on the project's Patreon page:

"You need a copy of the original game for this to run at all. 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."

Running the O.G. Deus Ex this way opens up the potential for all kinds of advanced rendering techniques and features that were previously off-limits, like Lumen global illumination and VR support, the latter of which is a primary focus of DXU24.

An older video showing DXU24 running in VR at the Paris hub's La Porte de l'Enfer nightclub really captures my imagination, this potential to be immersed in one of my favorite fictional worlds like never before. DXU24 is also committed to getting the gameplay right, to the point of fully reimplementing Deus Ex's weapons for the VR mode. DXU24 shows off that kind of sick VR tactility you're used to