Deus Ex Theme
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Assembled by Neil Morford
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Done for the most typical of reasons - I couldn't find any Deus Ex themes on the internet.

The original backdrops (set3_1024x768, set3_1024x768b and Deus Ex #3 1024) were downloaded from the Eidos/Deus Ex site. I thought that JC's coat in set3_1024x768b looked to dim compared to the background so I merged the coat from the other one. The result was the NJM_* version.

In case anyone cares, the 1280x1024 versions were scaled up from the 1024x768 ones in Paint Shop Pro.

The icons and pointers were taken from the game files using the SDK and turned into icons and cursor with Microangelo. The samples were likewise taken with the SDK and mostly used unchanged. The Windows start and exit samples were taken out of the MP3 version of the Deus Ex theme music, again downloaded from the Deus Ex site.

The Webview images were knocked together by me from bits cobbled from the various image files in the game. I'm not an arty person, so they don't look as good as they could have. I've also included a paler version of the wvleft image in case anyone thinks it's too dark to read the text over it.

I chose a dark window background because I think it looks better than the ordinary bright white when the rest of the theme's colours are dark - the full white washes out the rest of the colours as your eye adapts to it. The overall dark nature of the themes does, however, lead to some more problems:

When the window background and window text are close to the same shade, some of the text in Windows becomes unreadable and the text cursor tends to disappear against the grey background. Also, because Windoze (at least my version) doesn't take into account the colour of the background chosen by the user, the left side of any Explorer window in "view as web page" mode stays white all the time. This means that the pale grey text I sometimes use is unreadable due to lack of contrast. Also, if the wvleft webview image is mainly white, it sticks out like a sore thumb against the darker grey colour I chose. Unfortunately, if you then change the test to a darker grey or black, you can't read it against the dark webview image (hence the paler one I did which I don't think looks as good). I leave it up to anyone downloading this theme to change the colours to their own preference.

Installation
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I suspect that most people downloading this will know what to do anyway, but here goes:

Unzip the files to your themes directory (default c:\program files\plus!\themes) using your favourite Zip application. 

Copy the .theme files into your themes directory.

The fonts (fradm.ttf and ocraext.ttf) will decompress to your themes directory, NOT into the new Deus Ex directory. I couldn't see an easy way around this, so I left it that way. Copy the fonts to your Fonts directory (c:\windows\fonts) by hand if you want to do it the quick way, or open the fonts control panel, select menu "file/install new fonts..." and browse to the directory to which you extracted the files. If you're lucky, windows will recognise the fonts automatically and add them for you.

If you are using Desktop Architect (and maybe some other Theme managers which aren't produced by M$, but I don't use them, so I don't know) then you can leave the startup, wait and shutdown logo files where they are. This is what I suggest, since it's easier and tidier. If not, then you will need to copy them to the appropriate places: Logo.sys goes to c:\ and both logow.sys and logos.sys go to c:\windows.

That should be everything


(Even More) Boring details
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I used the theme manager Desktop Architect (http://www.desktoparchitect.com/) to assemble this theme. It's the best of the many managers I tried, and it's Freeware (Yay!). It manages startup/shutdown screens and theme rotation as well, plus has the neat little built in trick of removing the icon text background to make your desktop look groovier. Highly recommended.

I tried Microangelo to knock up the icons (www.impactsoft.com)

Minor adjustments to the samples were made in Creative Wave Studio. The EmptyTrash sample was made from two other samples combined, but all of the others were taken as is from the game. The Windows start an exit samples are sections from the main Deus Ex title music, by Alexander Brandon (downloaded from the official game site). These two samples are compressed in MPEG laver-3 format, so you may have trouble playing them back, apparently. I never have had any problem with other themes I have downloaded, so most people probably won't either. If you do, take a look at http://themedoctor.com, specifically the Emergency page for how to fix it. The original .wav PCM compressed start/exit samples are over 10 and 4 MB each, so I didn't include them. The duration of these samples is quite long. It makes no difference starting Windows, but shutting down waits until the exit sample has finished, so the Out sample may be too long for your preference. I've included my suggestion of an alternate, very short exit sample - the Death sound. I prefer the long one, though.

Amateurish image manipulation done in Paintshop Pro 7. I make no apologies for my lack of artistic talent. Since I don't spend much time using graphics programs, the little bits I did also took ages as I tried to fumble my way through the process.

Due to icon scaling, some of the icons, notably Cloak and Radar transparency, look poor at the standard size. There's not a lot I can do about that, except suggest that you check the "use large icons" box in the Display Properties/Effects control panel. If you're using a screen resolution of 1024x768 or lower, the icons will probably then look too big (that's what I think anyway). Your choice.

There is no screensaver. I make no apologies for this. 


Very brief links section
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http://themedoctor.com is good for themes and theme creating info.
http://themeworld.com has lots of themes and an OK search engine, plus some ratings

Any questions, email me at neil@morfs.freeserve.co.uk and I'll try to help.

All images and samples (C) Ion Storm  (http://www.deusex.com/)
Fonts (C) the Monotype Corporation, apparently.
All other files (C) whoever made them. 


