Unreal v227 Manual/Frequently Asked Questions

Unreal v227 Manual
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Here are some of the most frequently asked questions about Unreal v227*.

Before you proceed

A word of warning

As any other patch before, 227 resets all settings, so if you want to keep your custom setup, be sure to backup your Unreal.ini and User.ini (in your Unreal/System/ directory) before installing!! Furthermore, If you want to transfer your settings to your new installation you have to copy specific lines manually. Do not take over old Unreal.ini and User.ini files from previous installations. Some settings have been changed and some settings are just missing then, this can cause weird side effects and even crashes!

General v227 FAQ

Why should I use Unreal 227?
Unreal 227 comes with a lot of new features like alpha blending and static meshes, many bug fixes, security fixes etc (such as built-in IP logging/banning systems). New D3D8/D3D9/OpenGL renderers, new sound and music output with OpenAL and FMod. A heavily fixed and improved UED2.1, just to name a few things. Also a native Linux port has been added (although it has to be installed with wine due to legal reasons).

The entire changelog can be found in the 227 release notes.

Your patch is shit. I tried it and my sound was messed and/or it crashed, or whatever!
Although this is not really a question, 227 was developed for a long time and we tried to fix any bug reported. Still the available patches may still contain bugs and the purpose of these releases is to find and fix these. Remember, even the original patches contained more than only a few bugs in the past.

The 227 project tries to work with the community to make the best possible patch. So instead of complaining, help and report any problems you encounter.

But I don't trust you because your patch was not made by Epic!
The OldUnreal v227 patch was made with knowledge and permission of Epic Games.

I've seen over the years that many pages that claimed to make a 227 patch and it was always a fake!
Yes, we've seen them too. But this one is different. It worked out over years with the full sources available. No other page or person ever had this chance before.

I found a bug! Where do I report?
Although we try to keep 227 as bug-free as possible, there's still the chance that we may have missed something (we're humans after all!). Please report in our forums (but have a look first if this bug maybe was reported already).

What Unreal version is 227 compatible with? (Client)
In short, it is compatible with every online-compatible Unreal version except 226f (which is highly warned against anyway, as far as servers are concerned). However, servers with older Unreal versions may kick you because older anticheat protections don't know 227 and assume it's some kind of cheat. It's not possible to "fix" this because older anticheat tools need to be updated, and most of these tools (if not all) are not being maintained anymore by their authors.

What version of Unreal can 227 be applied to?
The required base version is 226. If you have an older version, install the latest official patch first before installing 227.

227 (from a to f) is a patch for Unreal, and can also be applied to Unreal Gold and Unreal Anthology. However, in these versions, you'll lose the ability to use the Return to Na Pali extension. It will also fallback to the old classic menu, however the new UGold/UT style menu can be set again.

As for 227g-i, there are 2 versions of each. One for Unreal and one for Unreal Gold/Unreal Anthology. The Unreal version does behave like 227f. The Unreal Gold version fully supports the Return to Na Pali expansion pack, and can be applied to Unreal Gold or Anthology only. Users of the RTNP expansion pack should update their installs to v226b (latest official Patch from Legend) before applying the Unreal Gold v227g-i patch.

I want to use the Unreal Gold/Unreal Tournament menu interface instead of this old one (or vice versa)
In order to enable Unreal Gold/UT menu interface prior to v227j, just follow these simple steps: Go to Advanced Options, expand the "Drivers" group and change "Console" to "UMenu Browser Console". If you want to use the classic console instead of the Unreal Gold console you have to change it to "Unreal Browser Console". The third console available there, "Standard Unreal Console" is deprecated and NOT recommended to be used! After restarting the game the console is changed.

How do I access the Advanced Options menu? (Windows only)

• In order to enter the Advanced Options menu from the classic menu, go to main menu, select "Options", then "Advanced Options".
• In order to enter the Advanced Options menu from the Unreal Gold/UT-like menu, press Escape, go to "Options" and select "Advanced Options".

My sounds sounds all squeeky and messed up, what should I do?!
First, make sure you're using the latest driver for your sound system, since OpenAL and FMod may often require most recent drivers in order to work with any sound card. If this doesn't work, either change your sound settings or the audio driver:

• Expand the "Drivers" group in "Advanced Options" and change "AudioDevice". The available systems are "OpenAL 3D", "FMOD 3D", "Galaxy 3D" and "SwFMODEx". "Galaxy 3D" is no longer maintained and therefore not recommended to be used!

OpenAL usually works on most cards. Try FMod if OpenAL is causing trouble on your system. The new soundsystems try to match the original soundsystem as much as possible and even contain many improvements for it, such as EFX effects. If you still prefer to use the old, original soundsystem, or if the new audiodevices still cause trouble, you can always fall back to original Galaxy soundsystem, which is not supported anymore but still works. Also make sure to restart the game in order to update the changes.

A possible fix for ALAudio if it sounds messed up: enter Advanced Options:

• be sure to have your soundcard correctly set up - check your speaker settings and the preferred devices in Control Panel. Linux users should check Alsa settings and maybe need to install OpenAL-Soft instead of the pre-installed OpenAL.
• expand 'Audio' group, then 'ALAudio'.
• Try with different 'ALDevices'.
• Some soundcards seem to have problems with doppler effect alone. Try setting 'DopplerFactor' to 0.

How do I play Return to Na Pali with Unreal 227?
Patch versions 227a to f do not support RTNP.

227g/227h do have a separate patch version for UnrealGold/UnrealAnthology with full support for it. In this version it can simply be selected and started in the "New Game" menu. For Server Admins there is also some UPakFix included in the help directory which fixes the online UnrealCoop problems.

After installing the patch my Unreal(Gold) needs WAAAAY longer to get a Serverlist!
Recent events showed clearly what happens when the main masterserver goes down - the list is empty. 227 is slower because it queries not only one, but 3 masterservers before displaying the list. This reduces the chance of having no servers at all if one of these is down again. Aside from this, some servers may only appear on one of these masterservers, so they won't be displayed at all in unmodified UnrealGold.

If you don't want to wait and you want to speed it up despite the given explanations above, edit your Unreal.ini and remove the entries ListFactories[1] and [2] or comment them out with by adding ";" at the beginning of the lines:

[UBrowserAll]
ListFactories[0]=UBrowser.UBrowserGSpyFact,MasterServerAddress=master0.gamespy.com,MasterServerTCPPort=28900,GameName=unreal
;ListFactories[1]=UBrowser.UBrowserGSpyFact,MasterServerAddress=master.thenerdnetwork.com,MasterServerTCPPort=28900,GameName=unreal
;ListFactories[2]=UBrowser.UBrowserGSpyFact,MasterServerAddress=unreal.epicgames.com,MasterServerTCPPort=28900,GameName=unreal

After installing 227, Unreal freezes for a short time when I join a server!
Many servers running 227 have anticheat enabled. This causes a freeze the moment a server is joined, which may persist for a while. If the anticheat it set to be strict, these freezes may even happen during the game, but most server admins set it to join only to keep gameplay free of any disturbing side-effect.

After installing 227 I have problems with my mouse pointer appearing, especially in windowed mode
This can happen if DirectInput is set to True, to enable support for more than 3 mouse buttons. Unfortunately is a known and not currently fixable problem. If you don't need the additional mouse-button support, set DirectInput support to False in the advanced options. 227i provides RawHIDInput as a replacement which doesn't suffer these problems.

When switching from fullscreen to windowed mode, all graphics are messed up (OpenGL)
It seems to be some NVIDIA driver problem and happens with some drivers released after the 162.18 ones.

To fix it there are currently 4 different options:

1. Open Advanced Options -> Rendering -> OpenGL Support -> UseVertexProgram True -> Restart Unreal (may crash when setting)
2. Downgrade your drivers
3. Try D3D9 or D3D8 instead
4. Try a different video card, for example an ATI Radeon, if possible.

Is it possible to have multiple versions installed, like Unreal Gold or 225 and 227?
Its very easy to have 2 parallel installations - such as 225 and 227 together (or maybe Unreal Gold and 227, in order to keep one version with RTNP, doesn't matter, works with any version):

1. Install Unreal 225 patch
2. Make a copy of your Unreal/System directory
3. Name the copied directory something like (using it as an example): System225
4. Open the folder System225 and change the line Paths=..\System\*.u in [Core.System] to Paths=..\System225\*.u in Unreal.ini
5. Now install 227:

• • 227 can be started now from Unreal/System/Unreal.exe
  • 225 can be started now from Unreal/System225/Unreal.exe

This method only requires a copy of the System directory and needs maybe ~ 100MB diskspace. For easy access you might want to add a shortcut on your Desktop or Start Menu.

The Find Internet Games button doesn't work! It keeps giving "time out" messages!
This occurs if you have a firewall which prevents you from accessing the Master Server reliably. You need to open port 28900 in your firewall settings. Giving the program full permissions won't help in this case, so it's not necessary.

Opening ports is only a matter of entering those numbers in a place they have to be. The location of port management varies between different firewalls, so you will have to explore yours to find where you need to enter them. Once you find a place where it asks you for a port number, enter 28900 and make sure it is set to Allowed or Privileged.

Every time i try to start the game, it starts, the screen goes black, and then it crashes with the error UFireTexture::ConstantTick<-UTexture::Tick<-(FireTexture NALIFX.SHANEFX.TORCHES2)
The fix is simple. Right-click on My Computer, Properties, Advanced, Performance Settings, Data Execution Prevention, select "Turn on for essential Windows programs and services only" or add a specific exception for Unreal. What exactly is causing this is unclear yet. Maybe because of the high amount of assembly code in fire.dll.

After installing 227 it's all laggy / bad performance
The new shadows may eat up a lot of CPU, even on nowadays machines, and get top notch computers to their knees. The related settings to use Projectors instead of Decals, which also need more power.

Unreal still handles a lot of things in the Engine, not in the GPU, as modern games do, and this couldn't be easily changed without rewriting major parts of the Engine and Renderer from scratch again. That is why we kept it the way it was and implemented the shadows in the same way (pretty much no choice here). This also makes the graphics card almost unimportant, leaving up most things to be purely made by the CPU. Also important for the performance is the speed of one core, Unreal can only make use of one (the core can be selected in the Unreal.ini (227h and newer only) or via the start up parameter -USECPU=X). So you don't really benefit from Quad- or Hexcore CPUs, only the performance per core is vital.

As for the shadows themselves, we use a smoothing mechanism which makes the shadows very realistic even at Med-Res, so High or even Ultra are not really needed. Indeed 227, in most situations, works way better than any previous version, up to 2 times faster (if you compare the plain performance with older versions without the new 227 features), but due to the shadows, people have the impression it makes their PC lag to a crawl.

Be aware that shadows are entirely optional, and if you turn them off you will lose nothing compared to older versions!! So if your machine can handle it, try it, but be careful if you want to play mods with massive amount of monsters, like Monster Mash or Monster Hunt. For normal DM or Coop, a setting of MedRes should be working flawlessly on most (not high-end) machines.

Also be aware that maps and mods using the new emitters may cause bad performance when AA is enabled and set to a high value. Try lowering AA or disable it entirely if you encounter bad FPS with these.

Trying to load old savegames doesn't work or even crashes the game
Like every other patch ever since the release of Unreal, old versions savegames will not work. Savegames are very sensitive to changes, so there is unfortunately nothing we can do. The easiest way is to start over or to use cheat codes to get to your previous position and continue from there.

I don't like the new EntryII map / it eats up to much performance on my System
The new EntryII map was included to make the players and mappers aware about some of the new 227 features. If you don't like it you only need to change EntryMap=EntryII.unr to EntryMap=Entry.unr in Unreal.ini.

You can either use the classic patch on Unreal only, or combine your games before patching the result with the UGold Patch.

I want to make a composite Unreal Gold From Unreal and RTNP, is it possible?
Yes, it is. 227g and later allows you to play Return to Na Pali with the new tools offered by OldUnreal. Prior to the g release, a 227 installation would break compatibility with Return to Na Pali in Unreal Gold and Unreal Anthology. If you don't own one of these packs, you have to install both the game and the expansion pack separately from their respective CDs. From there, you can either use the normal 227 on the Unreal installation and keep on using Legend's latest patch with Return to Na Pali, or make a compound installation and use the Unreal Gold 227g or higher to have only one installation that allows you to play both games.

First, install both games and patch each of them with their lastest patch: they are 226 for Unreal and 226b for Return to Na Pali. Unreal versions older than 225 will be unable to use the 227 patch properly. You should have two folders with identical subfolders. Now, simply select all folders in the Na Pali installation and put them inside the Unreal folder. A prompt should ask you to erase similar files or cancel the action. Choose to erase present files. If you are using Windows Vista or 7, this prompt should also appear: it allows you to combine two folders instead of replacing one by the other, which is exactly what you want. In order to check if everything went well, open your compound Maps folder. It should contain both the Unreal maps and the Upak folder containing the Return to Na Pali maps.

Your resulting installation is virtually the same as Unreal Gold, but would not work that way: launching the Unreal.exe located in your /system folder will in fact launch Unreal: Return To Na Pali. Now, apply the UnrealGoldPatch227. You can now completely delete your /NaPali folder and keep only the compound /Unreal folder: for all intent and purposes, it is now an Unreal Gold installation. In order to make sure it works properly, launch Unreal and start a new game: you should be given the choice between playing the Unreal Single Player campaign or the RTNP one.

When joining some servers Unreal crashes with an error like: Critical: Bad name index -50/55
This can be caused by a crippled cache file. In 227i you can remove the suppress entry Suppress=DevLoad and see which file was loaded before the crash (and probably the cause):

DevLoad: Create new linker for ..\Cache\CrippledCacheFile.uxx
Critical: appError called:
Critical: Bad name index -50/55
Critical: Windows GetLastError: The operation completed successfully. (0)
Exit: Executing UObject::StaticShutdownAfterError
Exit: Executing UWindowsClient::ShutdownAfterError
Log: DirectDraw End Mode
Critical: ULinkerLoad<<FName
Critical: (LinkerLoad Transient.LinkerLoad 1683457))
Critical: FObjectImport<<
Critical: LoadImportMap
Critical: ULinkerLoad::ULinkerLoad
Critical: UObject::GetPackageLinker
Critical: VerifyPackages
Critical: UGameEngine::LoadMap
Critical: AttemptLoadPending
Critical: TickPending
Critical: UGameEngine::Tick
Critical: UpdateWorld
Critical: MainLoop

In older versions you only can try to find the file manually.

My joystick has an R-Axis problem, and my character is continuously looking up/down, sometimes with small pauses, what should I do?
Turn on deadzone for axis R, U and V.

Server administration FAQ

What Unreal version is 227 compatible with? (Server)
Basically, a 227 Server can be used for all versions of Unreal. A special case is 226f because of an old compatibility issue caused by Legend with Unreal Gold and Unreal 226 -this problem was created years ago, and requires a client update to be fixed- which leads again to 227. Its not possible to fix it server-side only. A hack was added in 227i which creates a workaround for this problem and it seems to work without problems so far in all tests, but clients are still encouraged to update because it can't be guaranteed to work in any situation or with any mod.

However, if you want to use a 227 Server for the older versions 224, 225 and Unreal Gold, you need to know that there are some restrictions:

• By default a 227 server denies older clients. There are two ways you can allow them:
  • Advanced Options -> Networking -> TCP/IP Network Play -> AllowOldClients=true
• You must use maps and mods which don't feature any of the 227 features. Mods made with 227, maps with 227 content (like ParticleEmitter or any of the new weapons and items) are proscribed. Any mod or map made with 226 or earlier will run without problems.
• 227's anticheat system works only fully with 227 clients, and so does the banning feature. If you want to use 227 with older clients, the anticheat is limited to scripted bots and hacks, so if you are planning to run a 227 Deathmatch server, it's probably better to restrict your server to 227 only. Running a coop server without the anticheat system is not a problem, but that's a decision the admin must take himself.
• 227i has a new option called OldClientCompatMode. This enables a hack which fixes the connection issues with 226f clients, meaning that every old version (224, 225, 226b, 226f) can connect to 227 servers now. Epic and Legend broke the compatibility between classic Unreal 226f and Unreal Gold, where both versions were conformed against 225, which made 225 the only server version for both these two and the following versions. 227 suffered all the time from this, but since the mistake happened long in the past there was no suitable fix for it yet.

Why is 226f (Unreal classic version without Return to Na Pali) crashing on 227 servers without OldClientCompatMode?
In order to understand why this problem exists, here's a small explanation: Any new version has to be "conformed" with the previous version in order to make it compatible. That's what Epic Games did from any version to the following one. The procedure to do so is called conforming. It's necessary to align the so called "name table", so that any entry in the previous version matches its corresponding place in the newer version. Now, if you have a new version, which adds new things (like 226 did too), they are placed at the end, after the entries which match the previous version. This is a quick summary and it is technically not 100% correct, but you get the point.

What happened, then, is easy to understand: Legend and Epic forked after 226, with 226b (Unreal Gold, and later also Unreal Anthology) and 226f. They both conformed their versions of 226 against 225, thus the new 226 specific entries are out of sync and causing these known problems - 226f clients crashing in v226b servers, etc. It would have been easy to avoid if they just conformed it against the previously existing 226 version. However, they followed the same "We don't care" policy with Anthology, which itself needs to be patched again in order to make it network-compatible at all. With Anthology, they broke it just to add some advertising logo.

Due to this given situation we can conform 227 only to one version: either to 226b or 226f. The decision to take 226b for conforming was a pure logical one. 226b has a lot of less bugs compared to 226f, AND it is nowadays more often in use than classic Unreal. 227 servers, therefore, are compatible with: 224, 225, 226b and 227i with the provided 226f workaround.

What about Nephthys (server protection mod by Zora), does it work with 227?
No, the current versions of Nephthys do not work with Unreal 227. Also 227 doesn't need an additional server protection anymore, all currently known exploits and hacks are fixed.

I want to run a server from Linux, what should I do?
Create a script like this one inside your Unreal/System directory:

until ./UCCLinux.bin server DMDeck16?Game=Unrealshare.Deathmatchgame; do
    echo "Server 'UCCLinux.bin' crashed with exit code $?. Respawning.." >&2
    sleep 1
done

This way, the server is restarted automatically in case of a crash, but won't do it if the server is shut down nicely.

In order to start it from remote and being able to disconnect, use the following:

nohup ./serverstart &

This writes the log in the file nohup.out. However, keep an eye on it, because it can grow very big over time.

Linux FAQ

How do I install Unreal in Linux?
First you need to download the latest patch. Bear in mind, however, that due to legal limitations (we're not officially allowed to use a Linux specific installer) you must rely on the windows .exe patch. If you want to use Linux only, you need to run the installer from CD and then the patch with Wine to install it. Install it in Windows and copy the directory over. After installing (or copying it over) you can run it native without Wine f.e. in console with ./UnrealLinux.bin (in the Unreal/System directory or create a shortcut to start it from somewhere else). UCC also exists and is fully functional except font import, so you can start a server like in Windows with "./UCCLinux.bin server ...". If you start it from console you can enter any command like in the windows version, but directly in the console window.

On which distributions is Unreal 227 running on?
In theory, any recent Linux system should work.

On which graphic card is Unreal running on?

• NVidia: Currently all cards seem to run fine with NVidia drivers installed. Tested and working with: GeForce 4 Ti4200, Geforce 5900XT, Geforce 8400M GS, Geforce 9800 GT, Geforce 9800 GTX, GTX260.
• ATI: Should run fine with FGLRX (Catalyst) drivers installed. Tested and working with Radeon HD 4890.
• Intel: Integrated Chipset like GM965 with Mesa works but there seem to be some problems with OpenGL (f.e. adjusting Brightness doesn't work in some cases).

Unreal segfaults at startup
Currently the following reasons are known:

• Missing libraries: Unreal requires 32-bit libraries to run. In particular, it requires libSDL 1.2 32-bit and freealut 32-bit. It also requires FMod, but it should already be provided with the patch (make sure to unpack all convenience libraries from Help/ directory to System/). On openSUSE, you can install the missing libraries by using sudo zypper install libSDL-1_2-0-32bit freealut-32bit
• A messed up ini: Remove or rename UnrealLinux.ini and let Unreal create new one
• Sound Issues: Try to start Unreal with -nosound option to confirm.

On some distributions, needed dependencies for libSDL are missing, so please make sure to have the packages "svgalib-bin", "libsvga", and "libsdl-gfx" installed. If your system doesn't provide all libraries, there is a package called linux_convenience_libs in the Help folder which should contain all the necessary files. If you get something like this:

Processors / Cores 2
XDM authorization key matches an existing client!Couldn't initialize SDL: Couldn't open X11 display

History: 
Exiting due to error

Write xhost + before launching Unreal or delete System/libSDL-1.2.so*

Another reason for segfaults at startup could be that the requested fullscreen resolution is higher than your monitor supports (you switched your monitor maybe or took over the UnrealLinux.ini from another system).

After deleting libSDL.so.0 Unreal shows me black screen!
Do not panic. Hit ~, type quit. Unreal will exit, but your image on screen can be corrupted, just restart your X and downgrade SDL to version 1.2.13

How do I access Advanced Options? (Linux)
There are no Advanced Options for Linux users. You need to edit the UnrealLinux.ini instead. All possible options are already in the file and commented with a semicolon (;). You just need to change the commented lines.

I use tiled WM, and Unreal doesn't work properly in fullscreen mode
Run Unreal, then switch to another tag without windows on it.

I want to use the Unreal Gold/Unreal Tournament menu interface instead of this old one!
Open your UnrealLinux.ini and change the following lines in section [Engine.Engine]:

Console=UBrowser.UBrowserConsole
;Console=UMenu.UnrealConsole

into

;Console=UBrowser.UBrowserConsole
Console=UMenu.UnrealConsole

Is there no UED for Linux?
Old UED is built in visual basic and UED2 is completely based on Windows. A complete rebuild of UED2 in QT or GTK would be necessary to port it. So not planned at the moment. However, UED2 is running in wine and 227f's version does support OpenGL for the viewports, so it should be possible to run UED2 completely. Reports are showing that there is still a problem with selecting, so you can see anything, but not work in it yet. No solution is found so far.

Does 227 need Wine to run?
No, 227 version is having a complete native port. Wine is not needed to run it. However, since there is no Linux installer yet with permission from EPIC, Wine is needed to install the base game and the patch itself. After installing it Wine is no longer needed and the game can be run with UnrealLinux.bin.

Sound issues
If you have any problems, try first to change the sound output to OpenAL (or if you set it up first to OpenAL then try FMOD):

[Engine.Engine]
;AudioDevice=FMODAudioDrv.FMODAudioDevice
AudioDevice=ALAudio.ALAudioSubsystem

to

[Engine.Engine]
AudioDevice=FMODAudioDrv.FMODAudioDevice
;AudioDevice=ALAudio.ALAudioSubsystem

Default is FMOD.

227 offers OpenAL, FMOD and SwFMOD for sound output. OpenAL is only capable of playing sounds, not tracker music, thus if you choose it, you will need to configure FMOD or SwFMOD in addition. However, OpenAL generally tends to work better out-of-the-box.

When using FMOD, since 227g you can choose between ALSA, OSS and ESD (and maybe more) outputs. When using OpenAL, you can choose between PulseAudio, ALSA and OSS. The available devices can be seen in UnrealLinux.bin.log, and are set up in UnrealLinux.ini, using the variables FMODOutputs for FMOD and ALDevices for OpenAL.

If your Unreal segfaults at startup because of sound you can set "ProbeDevicesOnly=true" in UnrealLinux.ini in order to determine the available devices in a failsafe way.

FMOD: Sound starts but stops after a few seconds playing
Lower the number of channels. OpenAL uses FMOD for music output and if using OSS it can be that OpenAL is blocking /dev/dsp for FMOD then. This seems to be system specific and the only recommendation is: if possible use ALSA.

The music doesn't play
If your system is using PulseAudio, you need to enable timer-based scheduling for FMOD to work correctly. This is normally on by default, but in case you set it otherwise or your distribution ships with different defaults, this change can be done by editing the /etc/pulse/default.pa file and removing any occurrences of tsched=0.

If you are not using PulseAudio, or if the above did not help, you can try using another FMOD output, such as OSS or ESD.

Music/sound doesn't play or stop playing after a while. Nothing helps.
Run EsounD with $esd &, then change FMODOutouts property in UnrealLinux.ini under [ALAudio.ALAudioSubsystem] or [FMODAudioDrv.FMODAudioDevice] sections to FMODOutputs=ESD. Run the game and see if the problem has been solved.

I don't have EAX/EFX effects / the environment ambients like "Underwater etc" do not work!
Check if your OpenAL libraries and the patch are up-to-date. EFX support on Linux was added in 227g. Note that OpenAL does not closely emulate the echo/reverb effects of Galaxy, but it offers 112 ambient presets which are used for zones like "Underwaterzone", "Slimezone" etc. and some replacement for the echoes. So its way more functional, but if you want an exact matching reverb like in the first days of Unreal, you have to use FMOD.

Serverbrowser stalls entire system, taking very long
Check that your local hostname can be resolved, add it to /etc/hosts if necessary (can be checked with ping <hostname>). 227j will have a sufficient error message to identify this issue.

UnrealEd 2.x FAQ

If I don't like UnrealEd 2.x, can I switch back to 1.0 UnrealEd? For that matter, can I have both editors at the same time?
No, UnrealEd 2.1 automatically replaces UnrealEd 1.0. Though it has been used for more than 10 years now for Unreal, UnrealEd 1.0 is really lagging behind in features, crashes a lot more, and as a rule, is a lot less efficient than UnrealEd 2.0 and 2.1. Therefore, UnrealEd 1.0 will no longer be supported or updated; it was used in all versions before 227, but it needed a replace since it was written in Visual Basic, which isn't suited to the task at hand. From 227 onwards UED2 is used, mainly due to feature enhancements and improved scripts, which was necessary, and a hard decision to make.

Despite this, some people may not want to change their habits, preferring to keep UnrealEd 1.0. In this case, you will have to keep a second installation of Unreal in it's 226 version (or before).

If I make a map in UnrealEd 2 with v227 features, will it be portable?
Maps created with older versions of 227 shouldn't cause problems on newer 227 versions, especially when created using 227f+. However, maps made with 227 will only be backwards compatible with earlier versions of Unreal when no 227 content is used. 100% compatibility can't be guaranteed, so be sure to test the map with older versions before you release it. If you want to avoid any trouble, you have to use 225 with UED1.

What version should I map with?
Maps created with 227 may work on older versions once the LevelSummary feature is stripped out (same problem as with UGold maps). If you use any of 227's new features, it won't work on older versions.

In short, if you need your maps to be playable on all versions of Unreal, you should continue mapping with 225, if however you want to use the new features, 227 is the way to go.

What changes are present in v227?
Almost everything requested, especially for server admin and mappers/scripters, has already been added, most work now goes towards finishing these features. We may strip the UScript based ParticleEmitter because the native C++ version requires a lot less CPU time, but we will probably keep it since the added flexibility may prove useful, and it doesn't cause any real harm anyway.

A detailed listing about all fixes and additions are in the UED2.1 Release Notes and 227 release notes.

Are we locked to Software Rendering on the Editor? Is there a possibility to use a more advanced renderer?
Yep. The Texture Browser in UED2 uses the renderer defined in Unreal.ini, option WindowedRenderDevice in [Engine.Engine]. In order to switch it to OpenGL for better previews, set in Unreal.ini:

[Engine.Engine] WindowedRenderDevice=OpenGLDrv.OpenGLRenderDevice

Zoning doesn't work as before and/or you get the following Log: Moving zone 0 to the bad place (63)
Zoning was changed in 227 was taken over from the method used by Legend in UGold:

// ZoneInfo-based zoning
//
// An alternative zoning algorithm developed by Legend to help control 
// merged zones.  Level designers must manually place ZoneInfo actors 
// (or subclasses) in all "real" zones.
//
// All zones that do not contain a ZoneInfo actor are forced to iZone==63.
//
// In levels with more than 63 zones, this algorithm can be used to allow
// the level designers to control exactly which zones are merged, and
// which are mapped to their own iZone.

Importing 24/32bpp bmp for DXT (S3TC) Textures crashes UED
UED2.1 is using libsquish internally for DXT compressing which uses SSE2 to speed up things. If your CPU doesn't support SSE2 it will crash on that. Only current solution is to switch to a more modern PC or to rely on 8bpp bmp.

Can't find Autoplay.unr
UED2 uses a command ShellExecute to launch the Autoplay.unr map. This function indeed looks up at first the already mentioned registry entry.

Unreal:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\Unreal.exe]
@="C:\Unreal\\System\Unreal.exe"
"Path"="C:\Unreal\System"

Without checking for UT it is probably:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\UnrealTournament.exe]
@="C:\UnrealTournament\System\UnrealTournament.exe"
"Path"="C:\UnrealTournament\System"

So although Unreal itself doesn't use any registry entries for that, the Windows function does. The problem only appears if you have more than one installation of Unreal (or UT). This maybe happens too if you have one regular installation and some copied over installations. It starts the version which is set in the registry key above - and is looking into the Maps folder of this version then.

If it doesn't find such an entry it falls back to the current working directory (means wherever where the UnrealED you are currently working with is installed) and uses the right Unreal.exe. So in order to make it work with every of your installations you can just delete the entry (maybe export it first if you ever want to restore it again for whatever reason). Of course it is also possible is to change the entry to the installation you are currently working with.

Other questions

Will you include full dynamic shadow/stencil shadows/bump mapping/parallax mapping?
Unreal was created in a time when not all computers featured a 3D chipset. This means the main APIs used today were not a given for the creators - Epic in our case. In order to provide maximum compatibility, the engine could run in software rendering (all calculation done by the main CPU), and most of the rendering code is processed by the processor.

However, this means new techniques and technologies which extensively use the OpenGL or Direct3D APIs cannot be fully used in Unreal, including advanced dynamic shadows, bump mapping and other complex technologies. To do so would require moving large parts of the rendering code from the CPU to the GPU, which would require rewriting large parts of the renderer from scratch. This would require time, efforts and people. The agreement with Epic prevents Smirftsch from sharing the source code with anyone, which pretty much means this cannot be done.