Difference between revisions of "Nexus: The Jupiter Incident"

Nexus: The Jupiter Incident
Developers

	Mithis Entertainment
Publishers
Retail	Sierra Entertainment
Retail, original digital	HD Publishing
Current digital	HandyGames
Engines
	Black Sun
Release dates
Windows	November 5, 2004
Taxonomy
Modes	Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	Free-roaming camera
Controls	Multiple select, Point and select
Genres	RTS, Strategy
Themes	Space, Sci-fi

Contents 1 Availability 1.1 Demo 2 Essential improvements 2.1 Patches 2.2 Mods 2.2.1 NEXUS Skirmisher 3 Game data 3.1 Configuration file(s) location 3.2 Save game data location 3.3 Save game cloud syncing 4 Video 4.1 Widescreen resolution 4.2 Field of view (FOV) 4.3 Windowed 5 Input 6 Audio 6.1 Localizations 7 Network 7.1 Multiplayer types 8 VR support 9 Other information 9.1 API 9.2 Middleware 10 System requirements 11 Notes 12 References

Nexus: The Jupiter Incident is a Real-Time Tactics (RTT) game where the player commands a group of spaceships in a fully 3D-space throughout a singleplayer campaign (multiplayer skirmish battles are also possible). Unlike most games of its type, Nexus doesn't feature base building, instead the player gets a pre-set number of ships for each mission (but this can be somewhat influenced by choices in previous missions). Ships can have one or several officers on board who influence their efficiency. Ship crews gain experience over the course of the game. A ship which gets destroyed won't carry on to the next mission, but sometimes the player will get a (worse) replacement for it.

The gameplay for each mission is unique, with some focusing on exploration and intelligence gathering, some on combat between small groups of ships, some on large-scale space battles, some on protecting a target, some on hijacking another ship, some on stealthy infiltration (but players can always fight their way out if they fail at stealth) etc. The player usually commands a smaller number of ships than in most other space RTS, but the level of simulation is much deeper, with a wide array of possible commands, a deep energy-distribution system and a large number of tactical options. Many missions also feature optional side-quests and a number of different outcomes that can influence later missions.

Between missions, the player can change the hardpoints (weapons, shields, engines, sensors, ECM etc.) of their ships, with better systems becoming available later on and sometimes based on completed sidequests - equipping systems costs points out of a limited pool that simulates the time that the ship could spend in a dock, and is influenced by the skill values of the commanding officer. The game is notable for its deep attention to detail, with all ships having animated maneuvering thrusters in all directions that activate while turning, a fully Newtonian physics that require ships to activate frontal engines to slow down, each weapon turret being animated on its own, smaller ships automatically trying to dodge shots (within the limits of their player-given commands) and more. For example, players can individually control the target of each turret on each ship, but this is only necessary on higher difficulties, with more general command options also being available that are usually sufficient at lower difficulties.

Key points

The GOG.com and Steam versions have been updated with support for higher resolutions, improved multiplayer, and better compatibility with modern systems.^[1]^[2]

General information

GOG.com Community Discussions

GOG.com Support Page

Steam Community Discussions

Modding Forum

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		SafeDisc v4 DRM^{[Note 1]}.

GOG.com
Green Man Gaming
Humble Store
Steam

SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows Vista and later (see above for affected versions).

Demo

A free demo can be downloaded here.

Essential improvements

Patches

The v1.01 Patch updates the retail release to the latest version. The GOG.com and Steam versions are already patched.

Mods

Mods for the game are available in Steam workshop, on moddb and on Gamepressure.

NEXUS Skirmisher

This tool allows full Skirmish battles against the AI.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Mithis\Nexus - The Jupiter Incident^{[Note 2]} %APPDATA%\Nexus - The Jupiter Incident\
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/6420/pfx/^{[Note 3]}

The retail version uses the registry while the GOG.com and Steam versions use the %APPDATA% location.

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\save^{[Note 4]}
Windows	%APPDATA%\Nexus - The Jupiter Incident\save
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/6420/pfx/^{[Note 3]}

The Steam and GOG versions uses the %APPDATA% location.

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
GOG Galaxy
Steam Cloud

Video

General settings.

Graphics feature	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution		Native for GOG.com and Steam;^[1]^[2] for retail see Widescreen resolution.
Multi-monitor		Native for GOG.com and Steam;^[1]^[2] for retail see Widescreen resolution.
Ultra-widescreen		Native for GOG.com and Steam;^[1]^[2] for retail see Widescreen resolution.
4K Ultra HD		4k can not be directly selected in the options menu, instead you have to set your desktop resolution to 4k and then select "Desktop" in the graphics menu. HUD can be scaled up in the same menu.
Field of view (FOV)	See Field of view (FOV).
Windowed	Native for GOG.com and Steam; for retail see Widescreen resolution.
Borderless fullscreen windowed
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)	See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Vertical sync (Vsync)	GOG.com and Steam versions only. Enabled by default (toggle in-game).
60 FPS and 120+ FPS
High dynamic range display (HDR)	See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

Widescreen resolution

These steps are for the retail version; the GOG.com and Steam versions have native support (use the Desktop or other resolution choice in-game, or set in %APPDATA%\Nexus - The Jupiter Incident\Display.ini)

Change settings in registry^{[citation needed]}
Change the resolution once in the Game's Options Menu. Go to `HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Mithis\Nexus - The Jupiter Incident` Change `Display_Height` and `Display_Width` to your resolution in Decimal mode (e.g. for 1920x1080 set `Display_Height` to `1080` and `Display_Width` to `1920`). Test your settings. Notes For windowed mode, change `Display_Mode` value to `2` in decimal mode. For multi-monitor resolutions set `Display_Width` to the single-display width (not the width of the group) and set `Display_TripleHead` to `1` to fix most UI issues.^[5]

Change settings in registry^{[citation needed]}

Change the resolution once in the Game's Options Menu.
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Mithis\Nexus - The Jupiter Incident
Change Display_Height and Display_Width to your resolution in Decimal mode (e.g. for 1920x1080 set Display_Height to 1080 and Display_Width to 1920).
Test your settings.

Notes

For windowed mode, change Display_Mode value to 2 in decimal mode.

For multi-monitor resolutions set Display_Width to the single-display width (not the width of the group) and set Display_TripleHead to 1 to fix most UI issues.^[5]

Field of view (FOV)

Edit rendering.ini^{[citation needed]}
Extract `nexus_00.dat` using daTool if you haven't already. Go to `universe\engine` in the installation folder. Edit `rendering.ini` Change the `FOV` value accordingly. Try `FOV 90 45 46.826` for 16:9 resolutions or `FOV 80 45 46.826` for 16:10 resolutions. There are some display issues with briefings and in-game titles, but everything else works as expected.

Edit rendering.ini^{[citation needed]}

Extract nexus_00.dat using daTool if you haven't already.
Go to universe\engine in the installation folder.
Edit rendering.ini
Change the FOV value accordingly.

Try FOV 90 45 46.826 for 16:9 resolutions or FOV 80 45 46.826 for 16:10 resolutions.

There are some display issues with briefings and in-game titles, but everything else works as expected.

Windowed

These steps are for the GOG/Steam version.

Set game to windowed mode^[6]
Add parameter `/win` to the game shortcut. Start the game from the `mod_tools.exe` file and select `NEXUS windowed`. This can be found in `<path-to-game>\mod_tools` folder.

Input

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support

Audio

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Sound Effects, Dialog, Music.
Surround sound
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
French
German
Hungarian
Italian
Hungarian
Russian
Spanish				Fan translation, download.

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Players	Notes
LAN play		12
Online play

VR support

3D modes	State	Notes
vorpX		Z3D User created game profile, see vorpx forum profile introduction.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	8, 9	The GOG.com and Steam versions do not include Direct3D 8 support.^[1]^[2]

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Audio	Ogg Vorbis
Cutscenes	Bink Video

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	XP, Vista, 7, 8	XP, Vista, 7, 8
Processor (CPU)	1.8 GHz	1.8 GHz
System memory (RAM)	512 MB	1 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	2 GB	2 GB
Video card (GPU)	DirectX 7 compatible	DirectX 9 compatible

Notes

↑ SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows 10^[3] or Windows 11 and is disabled by default on Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 when the KB3086255 update is installed.^[4]
↑ Applications writing to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE will be redirected to other locations based on various criterias, see the glossary page for more details.
↑ ^3.0 ^3.1
Notes regarding Steam Play (Linux) data:
- File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data.
- Use Wine's registry editor to access any Windows registry paths.
- The app ID (6420) may differ in some cases.
- Treat backslashes as forward slashes.
- See the glossary page for details on Windows data paths.
↑ When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later (more details).

@@ Line 33: / Line 33: @@
 |introduction      = '''''Nexus: The Jupiter Incident''''' is a Real-Time Tactics (RTT) game where the player commands a group of spaceships in a fully 3D-space throughout a singleplayer campaign (multiplayer skirmish battles are also possible). Unlike most games of its type, Nexus doesn't feature base building, instead the player gets a pre-set number of ships for each mission (but this can be somewhat influenced by choices in previous missions). Ships can have one or several officers on board who influence their efficiency. Ship crews gain experience over the course of the game. A ship which gets destroyed won't carry on to the next mission, but sometimes the player will get a (worse) replacement for it.
-The gameplay for each mission is unique, with some focusing on exploration and intelligence gathering, some on combat between small groups of ships, some on large-scale space battles, some on protecting a target, some on hijacking another ship, some on stealthy infiltration (but players can usually fight their way out if they fail at stealth) etc. The player usually commands a smaller number of ships than in most other space RTS, but the level of simulation is much deeper, with a wide array of possible commands, a deep energy-distribution system and a large number of tactical options. Many missions also feature optional side-quests and a number of different outcomes that can influence later missions.
+The gameplay for each mission is unique, with some focusing on exploration and intelligence gathering, some on combat between small groups of ships, some on large-scale space battles, some on protecting a target, some on hijacking another ship, some on stealthy infiltration (but players can always fight their way out if they fail at stealth) etc. The player usually commands a smaller number of ships than in most other space RTS, but the level of simulation is much deeper, with a wide array of possible commands, a deep energy-distribution system and a large number of tactical options. Many missions also feature optional side-quests and a number of different outcomes that can influence later missions.
-Between missions, the player can change the hardpoints (weapons, shields, engines, sensors, ECM etc.) of their ships, with better systems becoming available later on and sometimes based on completed sidequests - equipping systems costs points out of a limited pool that simulates the time that the ship could spend in a dock, and is influenced by the skill values of the commanding officer.
+Between missions, the player can change the hardpoints (weapons, shields, engines, sensors, ECM etc.) of their ships, with better systems becoming available later on and sometimes based on completed sidequests - equipping systems costs points out of a limited pool that simulates the time that the ship could spend in a dock, and is influenced by the skill values of the commanding officer. The game is notable for its deep attention to detail, with all ships having animated maneuvering thrusters in all directions that activate while turning, a fully Newtonian physics that require ships to activate frontal engines to slow down, each weapon turret being animated on its own, smaller ships automatically trying to dodge shots (within the limits of their player-given commands) and more. For example, players can individually control the target of each turret on each ship, but this is only necessary on higher difficulties, with more general command options also being available that are usually sufficient at lower difficulties.
 }}

Revision as of 15:29, 22 December 2021