OldUnreal (Engine)

The UT3 Setup Guide.


I know this is abit off topic, but the same UT3 questions keep coming up in different parts of this forum. So I thought having my answers located in one spot would be nice.

Here it is ...

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I just have to comment. I've got a 4.5 year old PC and UT3 runs fantastic. Real quick. I've got one of the first AMD 64 cpu's, 1.5 gig of system RAM, a nVidia 7600 video card with 512 MB, and I use XP Pro.

I've found a few things are a must do ...

First, grab the August 2008 redistribution for DirectX. Just google it. This allows DirectX 10 type drivers to run on a DirectX 9 video card, which all of them are. Of course, I'm talking in a very general sense. But this really does help.

Second, nVidia bought out Aegia. So make sure to update the physics engine to the latest version.

Third, patch up UT3 and immediately after its 1st run make the 5 changes to the UTEngine.ini file in the Config folder. I've mentioned this previously. Doing this will fix any crashes and get the movies to run great.

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There are a few settings in the UTEngine.ini file that need to be changed. So using Notepad open it up. Its location is ...

My Documents\My Games\Unreal Tournament 3\UTGame\Config\UTEngine.ini

Near the top of the file you will see a section called [Engine.ISVHacks] which has only 4 things listed in it. Make any changes so it looks like the following ...

[Engine.ISVHacks]
UseMinimalNVIDIADriverShaderOptimization=True
bInitializeShadersOnDemand=True
DisableATITextureFilterOptimizationChecks=False
PumpWindowMessagesWhenRenderThreadStalled=True

There's just one more to find. Scroll down about 3 quarters of the way through the file and look for the [SystemSettings] section. You just have to change one thing in this one ...

[SystemSettings]
OnlyStreamInTextures=False

It should be about half way down the stuff listed in that section.

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Fourth, don't crank up the setting too far. It's not really needed to increase the visual quality. At least not all that much. Use the following as a basis of what to set them as ...

Post Rendering: Use Default or Vivid at most. Trust me about this.

Vertical Sync: On, always on. This locks the FPS to the Hz of your montior. So do just that.

Render Percentage: 100. Having it down means engine does more math rendering it down from 100.

Resolution: 1280x1024x32 is the natural res of the engine and editor, so I've found it works best.

Detail Settings: There's 2 of them. Don't put them past 3. No need to. The game will look great, and it will run better.

I know it don't sound like much, but doing all this using an average PC can achieve surprising results. I'm getting 50 frames/sec with a 4.5 year old computer. Better than the 30 on newer rigs, eh.

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Let's keep it Unreal.

- Buster
gatherstone@shaw.ca

why don't you guys put such questions just into the wiki?
especially you, buster, who promised me a long time ago...
lol, didn't mean to be harsh, just a side-note

Vertical Sync: On, always on. This locks the FPS to the Hz of your montior. So do just that.

Resolution: 1280x1024x32 is the natural res of the engine and editor, so I've found it works best.

Detail Settings: There's 2 of them. Don't put them past 3. No need to. The game will look great, and it will run better.

Vertical Sync: Off, always off. It prevents you from having better frame rates. Although that also depends on personal preference, I have my ATI Control Center set to Force VSync Off at all times.

Resolution: The same as your desktop has. You can make it smaller, but it won't look as good and you'll see odd lines on textures. The most important part of this is: keep the aspect ratio! If your aspect ratio is 1,6:1 then keep it like that! Otherwise you won't see a thing! Also, no custom resolutions from the INI, as they will revert the next time you load UT3.

Detail settings: Just as you wish. Try experimenting with everything. The default, 3 and 3, is quite good IMO.

Ever tried playing in a window..? My experience in running games full-screen, you have less chance of getting screwed over if it crash's when you play in a window....

When it's not in fullscreen, it performs worse.

Ever tried playing in a window..? My experience in running games full-screen, you have less chance of getting screwed over if it crash's when you play in a window....

Yeah, I personally learned that when I got BSOD'd at my map.

unreal crashes more in fullscreen easily, why?.. not sure really heh

About the Vsync "on" ...

I wrote out this guide for the purpose of better performance of UT3 being played on the "average" system. The key word is "better," not doing the max just because you can. Keeping the FPS at a steady 60 (no higher, no lower) will result in a far smoother visual rendering than it would jumping from 40 to 90 evey few seconds.

Also, the engine rendering faster than the monitor is putting out can cause wierd stuff to happen. It's not pleasing to the eye. The trick is to have the smoothest rendering, not the fastest. Here's a few points about the topic of FPS and the human eye.

1). If you have a LCD with only 60 Hz (which mine is), it's only going to do 60 FPS anyways, so who cares if the enging/card is pumping out more. Save the engine/card the extra work of doing the math for frames not seen.

2). If you have a LCD that does 90 Hz+ then locking it down to 90 FPS is more than enough. It's not going to give you that much anyways. The FPS an engine/card can do isn't always what you see.

3). The normal human vision doesn't see 90 FPS. Not even close to that many. The average is closer to 60-75, and that's it.

Having the ability to render 120+ FPS doesn't mean a thing to your eyes. They're only seeing every 2nd frame. Doing so many FPS benefits the ego, not the eyes.

I have seen UT3 on my system at a steady 60 FPS (no higher, no lower), and I have seen it on a buddy's monster $4000 gaming rig. But the reality is there's no difference. Not really. His is just a wee bit smoother, but that's only because my eyes see abit more than the 60 FPS of my older LCD.

From 70-120 FPS there is NO difference I can see. In other words, 70 FPS looks identical to 120 FPS. At least to these 42 year old eyes. But if you think you're better off with Vsync shut down, well go for it. But there are reason why it's "on" by default. Good reasons. In the end peeps will do whatever they think is better, and just thinking it so must make it right.

And my last point. About 90% of the forum, FAQ and support posts for UT3 all say the same thing I'm saying about the Vsync being on. So there must be some truth in it.

You're welcome for the tidbit about getting the movies to work. The info wasn't all that easy to put together. Many different sources had different solutions. Sometimes the opposite (False instead of True for a setting, etc). I just posted what has worked for 4 different rigs.

Have fun.

Actually, if your system can't handle 60FPS? he will do as much as he can, but will not reach 60, even if VSync is on. It will prevent, although, some weird things : when you turn too fast, half the pictur turns but the other half (usually the down one), is a quarter of a second behind and it looks like the screens has been damaged. When the movement is over, everything is okay.

If your machine can handle more than 60FPS, then depending on the game, it may be useful to keep it off. Why ? Well if your cfg can handle 300 FPS, it can also handle 300 Inputs per seconds, often as much as your mouse and keyboard wires cand send at a given time, so you have a quicker response. Say you are playing UT, Quake3 or Warsow, 0.0125 seconds can seal your doom, so you might as well turn it off. Moreover 150HZ and 200HZ LCD screens are starting to appear on desktops, so maybee Vsync will not be so useful in the future.

As far as your eyes are concern, human eyes are stranges light traps that behave wirdly when in front of a very quick sequence of still images.

Do all of these setting apply to anything a bit older? Like a 6200? I mean, I AM getting a better card soon, but I'd like to be able to play UT3 at least once a day before that.

Know what, when I go to my dad's place in Sunday, I'll take the UT3 DVD and install it on my PC. I think it won't work, but it's worth a shot. (I didn't say I'll actually play it, I'll just test it. W/e.)

The changes to the UTEngine.ini are the fix to get the movies to run. The other stuff is to get the best ratio of quality and performance from an average 2-3 year old rig.

There's 2 things a rig needs to play UT3. At least 2.5 GHz of cpu and a mid-range video card. At least a 7600 series or so. My cpu is an AMD 64 socket 768 2800+, which is only a 1.8 GHz. But it's 64 bit, so runs a 32 bit OS at approz 2.8 GHz.

I'm not really sure if all that's correct or not, but that's what I've been told. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that UT3 runs at all, nevermind as well as it does.

So, if a pc is fairly new, its cpu is clocked atound the 2 GHz range and has some sort of video solution, it should run great. As for the movie crashes. They've happened to peeps with newer gaming rigs, so that fix is a real gem to know.

Last comment on Vsync. Having it on or off makes no real difference with the higher refresh LCD and CRT monitors. But with older LCD ones it's a must to have set on. For more reason than just what the monitor can do, but also for how the engine renders stuff.

Forum after forum, support and support, FAQ after FAQ. The vast majority mention to have the Vsync on. You get better results no matter the system or monitor.

wiki?

Hellkeeper is right. My PC is 1 year old, and it just can't get anything over 50FPS no matter what it does. And with VSync I would have only 30-15, and that's really not good.

Yes, VSync will make your FPS = your refresh rate AT MOST (or lower).