some Unreal OpenGL commands?

[Skaarj Master]

I decided to join this forum after checking stuff over the past week. Hi everyone!

OK, I went through all my notes and all the commands for OpenGL in Unreal (and UT for that matter) and I'm still confused on a few. Anyone have any ideas on these?

1. RefreshRate - do I leave this out completely with my LCD monitor and just let it do whatever the monitor is doing?

2. MaskedTextureHack - has anyone figured out if this needs to be enabled or not? Most people online seem to say leave it as False as it could result in incorrect textures sometimes; although, it may fix a minor texture problem. Does this have anything to do with Hellscrag's Fix For Masking Bug (unrealsp.org)?

3. DescFlags - what's the deal with this command? Should it be 0 for ATI cards and 1 for Nvidia cards or does it matter at all?

[GreatEmerald]

If you see masking problems (black colour on textures where you should see through completely), enable MaskedTextureHack. If you don't, disable, anything that has a word "hack" in it is coded poorly and hell could theoretically break loose under some circumstances.

[Skaarj Master]

hehe, I have most of the experimental/hack stuff disabled but not all. I think I'll leave it as False on my old UT install, but make it True on this UnrealGold and the UT-GOTY installs on my new system and see what happens. Does anyone have any examples of something specific it fixes? Thanks.

[[§Ŕ] ŤhěxĐâŕkśîđěŕ]

On my PC, which I'm gonna backup this or next week (transfer sh!t from two old HDDs to a new one), I simply changed everything. Boolean values were laughable. I simply used notepad to replace every False to Krblz, every True to False, and, finally, every Krblz to True. (Temporary values ftw?)

[Skaarj Master]

Well, I guess I'm done configuring. I'll download a few maps and actually play now. Never played RTNP.....should be interesting once I get there. I'll post my settings once I know they work and stuff.

[Skaarj Master]

Almost forgot to post my main Unreal.ini settings, here they are (more than just OpenGL):

[WinDrv.WindowsClient]
WindowedViewportX=1024
WindowedViewportY=768
WindowedColorBits=32
FullscreenViewportX=1920
FullscreenViewportY=1200
FullscreenColorBits=32
Brightness=0.500000
MipFactor=1.000000
UseDirectDraw=True
UseJoystick=False
CaptureMouse=True
StartupFullscreen=True
CurvedSurfaces=True
LowDetailTextures=False
ScreenFlashes=True
NoLighting=False
SlowVideoBuffering=False
DeadZoneXYZ=True
DeadZoneRUV=False
InvertVertical=False
ScaleXYZ=1000.000000
ScaleRUV=2000.000000
MinDesiredFrameRate=20.000000
Decals=True
NoDynamicLights=False
UseDirectInput=False
SkinDetail=High
TextureDetail=High
ParticleDensity=0
NoFractalAnim=False

[Galaxy.GalaxyAudioSubsystem]
UseDirectSound=True
UseFilter=True
UseSurround=True
UseStereo=True
UseCDMusic=False
UseDigitalMusic=True
UseSpatial=False
UseReverb=True
Use3dHardware=True
LowSoundQuality=False
ReverseStereo=False
Latency=40
OutputRate=44100Hz
EffectsChannels=32
DopplerSpeed=9000.000000
MusicVolume=160
SoundVolume=192
AmbientFactor=0.700000

[OpenGLDrv.OpenGLRenderDevice]
UseGammaExtension=True
UseModulatedGamma=False
GammaOffset=0.000000
GammaCorrectScreenshots=True
UseS3TC=True
UseTNT=False
MaxLogUOverV=8
MaxLogVOverU=8
MaxLogTextureSize=8
MinLogTextureSize=0
MaxTMUnits=0
LODBias=0.000000
TexDXT1ToDXT3=False
UseMultiTexture=True
UsePalette=True
UseAlphaPalette=True
MaskedTextureHack=True
SmoothMaskedTextures=False
ShareLists=False
AlwaysMipmap=False
AutoGenerateMipmaps=False
UsePrecache=False
Translucency=True
VolumetricLighting=True
ShinySurfaces=True
Coronas=True
HighDetailActors=True
DetailTextures=True
UseDetailAlpha=True
DetailClipping=False
DetailMax=2
SinglePassDetail=False
SinglePassFog=True
ColorizeDetailTextures=False
ZRangeHack=True
UseTrilinear=True
OneXBlending=False
RequestHighResolutionZ=False
SwapInterval=0
FrameRateLimit=100
UseAA=True
NumAASamples=2
AAFilterHint=0
NoAATiles=True
MaxAnisotropy=4
NoFiltering=False
Use16BitTextures=False
Use4444Textures=False
UseBGRATextures=True
UseFilterSGIS=True
UseVertexSpecular=False
UseVertexProgram=True
UseZTrick=False
UseCVA=False
UseMultiDrawArrays=True
BufferClippedActorTris=False
BufferTileQuads=False
UseSSE=True
UseSSE2=True
UseTexIdPool=True
UseTexPool=True
DynamicTexIdRecycleLevel=100
DisableSpecialDT=False
SupportsLazyTextures=False
CacheStaticMaps=False
NoMaskedS3TC=False
DescFlags=0
Description=Nvidia EVGA GTX 280 1GB

(Of course, this may change based on new info in the future; this is now my pre-final settings until I decide on AA and AF-now set to 2x and 4X respectively)

That's all folks!:)

[GreatEmerald]

Hmm, actually, what about putting optimised defaults for various cards to the Wiki here? Might prove useful.

[Skaarj Master]

I just saw the WIKI thing in another thread, so I'll post there once I tweak my games. I'm still installing games on my new system and adding stuff and tweaking between time dealing with a 4-year old boy (I call him the SkaarjKid). Right now I'm dealing with UT2004. I'll be back here to ask more questions about some OpenGL settings I might change in Unreal and UT. Also, I only have AA at 2 and AF at 4 right now for all games until I figure out how much of a hit my system will take with it any higher (Unreal has all high-res textures and so does UT).

[medor]

MinDesiredFrameRate=20.000000  

set like your pc monitor maybe 60.000000 to 85.000000 if you don't know set it :
MinDesiredFrameRate=60.000000

[GreatEmerald]

60 is too much, 30 is optimal. It's not FrameRateLimit, that's the amount where less makes the game remove visual effects. For example, here on this PC it would constantly be below that...

[medor]

60 is the minima for a destok crt or lcd you don't lost anything.

i know FrameRateLimit ..i don't speak about. he had 100 ; i have se.

[Skaarj Master]

I ran across a couple threads in this forum where a couple different Unreal OpenGL setups were either posted or linked to.  I would like to know reasons for the commands being different with any advantages or disadvantages if anyone has any ideas. Thank you. Here is one just showing the commands different from mine:

Hyper.nl's Unreal Alternative OpenGL from Wiki:
RequestedHighResolutionZ=True  (thought this was only for 16-bit mode)
FrameRateLimit=0  (looks like no limit here)
SwapInterval=-1  (why default buffer swapping method?)
UseFragmentProgram=True  (thought this was only used for UT)
UseVertexProgram=True  (since experimental, I have it False)
BufferTileQuads=False  (this is supposed to improve text rendering)
BufferClippedActorTris=True  (I have this False because not supposed to make much difference)
SinglePassDetail=True  (must be False for 2 levels of detail, mine is)
SinglePassFog=True  (mine is True as well for better fog, but it says it requires 3 texture units-what does that mean?)
DetailedClipping=True  (since experimental, I set to False for now)
DetailMax=4  (I read the other thread, but I'm still confused on this one; mine is 2)
UseS3TC=True  (S3TC tex enabled just like mine)
UseAlphaPalette=False  (should be True unless it causes problems)
UsePrecache=True  (I have precaching set to False)
UsePalette=False  (maybe we don't need paletted tex anymore today?)
MaxLogTextureSize=12  
MinLogTextureSize=0
MaxLogVOverU=12  (why are 3 out of 4 of these 12 instead of 8?)
MaxLogUOverV=12
FullMeshRendering=True  ???
SceneNodeHack=True  ???

- these last two commands are new to me and I've never seen them before.

Here's the link to the full Alternative OpenGL setup:
http://www.oldunreal.com/wiki/index.php?title=INI_templates/GeForce_8800GTX

[GreatEmerald]

No way, your eye can see 30 frames per second and it won't complain. 60 is rarely seen by any people, and it's the maximum that LCDs can show, NOT minimum.

Strange that FrameRateLimit is 0 there, SkaarjMaster. It really should be higher, knowing that SwapInterval is -1...
Buffer Tile Quads, at least for me, makes text disappear and later on reappear, so I have it off. Not what I'd call "improved" text rendering
Single Pass settings should be off if you have a powerful PC. They are the highest performance option, not sure why Hyper has them on.
Texture sizes that are higher support higher resolution tetxtures without having S3TC on. Not much difference either way.
Full Mesh Rendering means that meshes no longer disappear when you don't see their centre.

[medor]

http://whisper.ausgamers.com/wiki/index.php/How_many_FPS_human_eye_can_see

[GreatEmerald]

http://www.100fps.com/how_many_frames_can_humans_see.htm

[Skaarj Master]

For those that don't know how I stand on the FPS/LCD issue (or just vsync/FPS/etc. in general), I'll not take a side here but maybe this would be a good topic for a new thread in this section. Thanks for all the information so far in this thread everyone!

Based on comments here and other places, I'll change UseVertexProgram back to True, but I'm still investigating (or reinvestigating) the following:

BufferTileQuads
BufferClippedActorTris
DetailedClipping

If the following are in my preferences in the console, then I'll investigate (if not then I'll leave them out of my INI file for Unreal):

UseFragmentProgram
FullMeshRendering
SceneNodeHack

Everything else will remain the same as I had them before. I was wondering about FrameRateLimit for Unreal. Is 100 good because I've seen some people with 120 and 150? I know this is more of a personal preference thing, but I was just wondering.

[medor]

http://www.100fps.com/how_many_frames_can_humans_see.htm

To old mercredi 19 mai 2004 05:33:54

[medor]

Everything else will remain the same as I had them before. I was wondering about FrameRateLimit for Unreal. Is 100 good because I've seen some people with 120 and 150? I know this is more of a personal preference thing, but I was just wondering.

for my UT it's for limit my speed game duble-corps processor.
Under 190 i'm ok and more my play whas to speed aout server and on server it's to speed to but at moment stop to recal.

[Skaarj Master]

Nevermind about FrameRateLimit, I'll just leave it at 100 as this is supposed to be the ideal setting for this in Unreal. As I suspected before, for offline play it probably won't make much difference; I won't be playing Unreal online (only UT, UT2004 and UT3).

[GreatEmerald]

FrameRateLimit is a matter of preference. If 30 < FrameRateLimit < 255, the less you set it the slower the textures will animate, and the opposite: at 200 limit textures will be fast animating. Anything more than 255 makes the game choppy.

[Skaarj Master]

Unreal is easy as UseFragmentProgram and those last two new commands are not present in AdvancedOption/Renderer/OpenGL; although, UseFragmentProgram and SceneNodeHack are present in the same section in UT (OGL UTGLR 3.5) and both are set to True right now. I'm still investigating the other 3 commands for Unreal (obviously same settings will be considered for UT); decided to set these to False.

EDIT: no more changes now until I make a decision on AA and AF. See Ya!:)

[Masterman]

This is a tutorial I made for those wishing to get better performance out of their PC. If you guys see anything that is not correct, or needs improvement/revision let me know.

BTW, these are my settings and they work best for my PC (Alienware M9700 SLI Notebook)







This little and easy tip will give you a significant performance improvement in Unreal as far as gameplay is concerned.

THIS IS FOR OPENGL USERS ONLY

If you don't have it, get it. You are missing out bigtime.

What are framerates and all this technical mumbo-jumbo? Well, FPS (Frames Per Second) is how quickly images are processed by your PC. Think of how they draw cartoons; one drawing at a time right? Then when you flip through the individual drawings quickly, it makes a semi quasi-video. Now think about the speed at which you do this. Slower would make it appear choppy and faster would make it smooth.

They say the human eye can only process around 60 FPS. Well this may be true in some situations, but certainly not in online gaming. All video cards have whats called VSync which is by default, enabled. This driver Syncs the framerate with the max "Refresh Rate" of the monitor you are using. My monitor is LED and limited to a 60Hz refresh rate, which is the standard for almost all LCD and LED monitors. CRT monitors (the big clunky one that weighs a 100 pounds, lol) can sometimes have refresh rates of over 100Hz. Do not worry about this aspect though, as you can "trick" it.

Now that that has been explained, it's time to make the modifications necessary to get the best performance out of your PC.

Step 1: Do a control. Go onto a server and hit Tab and type timedemo 1. Look at your average FPS as you move about the map, now you have a value to go by. To get rid of it, hit tab and type timedemo 0.

Step 2: Now hit Tab again and type Preferences. Once the window comes up, expand the Driver tree and make sure the following is correct:

[img]http://i287.photobucket.com/albums/ll125/Masterman86/pic1.jpg[/img]

While you are in the preferences window, perform the following Under the Rendering tab at the bottom:

[img]http://i287.photobucket.com/albums/ll125/Masterman86/setting.jpg[/img]

Step 3: Exit Unreal, and navigate to your Video Card's main menu. Do the Following (may be different for older or newer cards/Drivers, but look and you'll see) ATI users, I don't know what you'll need to do.

[img]http://i287.photobucket.com/albums/ll125/Masterman86/Vsync.jpg[/img]

Apply everything, double check blah blah, fire up the game. Enter a server, and hit Tab Timedemo 1. Check your FPS now, it should be twice or more of what it used to be. Be careful though, if it is jittery, play with the FrameRateLimit described in Step 2 (turn it down) if it runs smooth, you may be able to get even more out of it.

Here is my current FPS running Gold, 1024x768 pixels

[img]http://i287.photobucket.com/albums/ll125/Masterman86/FPS.jpg[/img]



Like I said, this is what works best for my PC. Some people have done this only to recieve negative results (Using VGA CRT monitors and not having a higher version of SSE [mine is SSE3/AMD 3DNow!])


Here is my specs Wiki:

http://www.oldunreal.com/wiki/index.php?title=INI_templates/GeForce_Go_7900#Card_specifications