OpenGL patch/D3D problems!

[DannyB]

Great to know this place exists and people still love Unreal One of my favourite games next to System Shock! In fact I just re-installed Unreal after playing that insult of a game Unreal 2

I hit a few problems with Unreal so I searched a bit and found Old Unreal and wondered if someone could help.

Firstly some machine specs:

XP1900+
WinXP Pro (SP1 + DX9)
512mb RAM
Asus GF3 Ti200 (Det 42.68 )
Unreal patched to 226F

Now the problems

1.) In D3D mode, any SHADOWS appear almost PITCH BLACK, even after adjusting Gamma/Brightness? Firing the Dispersion Pistol into a Shadowy area lights it up and shows textures are there, not just permanent darkness! How do I 'lessen' the ammount of darkness shadows have?

2.) The OpenGL patch 2.1.0.6 causes the game to make textures break up and appear on top of other textures making them flicker in and out (Is DX9 the problem?) It also exhibits the same 'Dark Shadow' problem as in D3D :-/

Any suggestions/.ini tweaks to ease/cure these problems please?

Thanks, Dan

[Kerilkkorn]

try to install latest OFFICIALY RELEASED detonators (41.09 I guess) and see if it works better. Or Maybe a problem with DX9.

[DannyB]

I've tried nearly all current BETA/CERTIFIED versions of Detonator drivers with no luck either way, the 41.09's currently available from Nvidia are NON WHQL ones! I must point out that the game is very bright & clear in Non Shadowy areas, just anything that has a hint of shadow to it and 'it's lights out'.

Coincidently, these problems also manifest themself in Quake2 as well, because I just tried.

I also remember In Return to Castle Wolfenstein I had to use console commands to solve it, r_ignorehwgamma 0 & /r_overbrightbits 0 and that was with DX8.1 & Det 30.82 WHQL.

So changing Det's doesn't seem to help, but I'll try the 30.82 and 40.72 WHQL's just to see!

Dan.

[Kerilkkorn]

The OpenGL patch sould work because I have the same type of material/software and it works flawlessly. the only difference is the directx version. Or maybe some option you turned on or off.... anyway, always prefer OpenGL over D3D (better quality/perfomance) and make sure your desktop color depth is 32bit.
Anyway ttry with the patch found at this adress
http://www.oldunreal.com/tmp/
I remember having the problem while testing every option of the driver so you should be able to fix it.

[DannyB]

Well, I totally reinstalled XP

Went back to Det 30.82 and DX8.1 and the 2.1.0.7 OpenGL patch (Thanks for the link) didn't flicker anymore so it was either the Det 40 series or DX9 causing the flicker? I also kept getting an Assertion Failed: MinLogTextureSize

[Kerilkkorn]

I believe shadow appear correctly for me, but I don't know what you call dark, but in order to play I need to push the brightness a bit.

I play with the detonator 41.09 and no problems so far.

I hope it's not DX9 cause I'll have to install it one day or another and if the patch doesn't work with it we won't be able to correct this bug....... I'll make some experimetation with it....

[DannyB]

I installed Mobile Forces which I think is an Unreal Engine game and that's fine with dark areas, although I forgot to find out if it was in D3D or OpenGL

Interestingly, I found the 'GammaOffset' setting in 'unreal.ini' and changed it to 0.500000 and loaded the game, jesus was it bright! Except shadows were not brightened at all, they were still pitch black?

I think it's just a quirk with Unreal and my system, it's running fine now in OpenGL so all I can do is carry on playing 'Unreal - Dark Shadows Edition'

Thanks for your time to reply and your help

[DannyB]

Just a small bit of info regarding the problem I had with OpenGL mode, namely the screen flickering badly.

I thought it was DirectX 9 at fault but I've found it was an option in my Nvidia Detonator drivers causing it!

If I left Buffer-Flipping Mode at the default setting of Auto-Select in the OpenGL Options section, I get the flickering problem.

BUT!! If I change Buffer-Flipping to: Use Block Transfer, then the problem disappeared

Still have the black texture problem, but I can live with that now I know why OpenGL gave me a problem.

Hope this may be useful to someone

[Kerilkkorn]

Thanks for your input, still the problem is strange. maybe it is a combination of Buffer flipping mode and UseAGPTexture.
But I think I know people having this kind of problem that will be happy of this solution.

[DannyB]

Isn't UseAGPTextures specific to Direct3D, not OpenGL? I ask because that option is not available in the OpenGL Rendering options.

I did revert back to Direct3D mode and set UseAGPtextures to both True and False, and set Buffer Flipping to Auto-Select and Block Transfer, but the game ran fine no matter what combination of those options I set

[Kerilkkorn]

Well I believe things got messed up in my mind. not much to worry about, working too late these times.