Read here to get better graphics in UT! (No BS!)

The Dopefish · Jun 16, 2000

First of all, a few things. One, thanks for your help Rooster.

Two, I am going to present you with the settings I have Unreal Tournament at. I do not recommend you mirror them exactly, unless you have about the same, the same, or better specs than I do (not bloody likely that you have better

). But, feel free to change any of the following settings as you see fit. You may want to cut and paste all this into another document and print it out.

First, I am going to shove my specs list (+monitor, +sound card) in your faces so you can see what I'm dealing with.

<UL TYPE=SQUARE>
<LI>AMD Athlon 650MHz
<LI>128MB RAM
<LI>3Dfx Voodoo3 3500
<LI>ViewSonic Professional Series PF790 19"
<LI>Sound Blaster PCI512
</UL>

Now, go in to UT, and, if you want, make your weapon hidden, if it isn't already. I tried the following with it hidden and not, and I actually thought I saw better fps with it on. Hm.

Anyway, go into the console (~) and type in "preferences" (yup, we're going into the advanced properties place!). We're only going to be concerned with three menus: Audio, Display, and Rendering.

In Audio, I made the following changes:
EffectsChannels: 32
OutputRate: 48000Hz
SoundVolume: 255
MusicVolume: 0
After SoundVolume, everything but UseSurround
is true.

Now moving to Display, I changed:
Brightness: 0.000000
CurvedSurfaces: True (this isn't on when you first use UT...)
MinDesiredFramerate: I have it at 30, but I did try this at 35
ScreenFlashes: False...but you won't now what hit you...literally

And finally, going to Rendering (remember, I have a 3Dfx card), I changed:
RefreshRate: 100Hz
ShinySurfaces: True
VolumetricLighting: True

Now, for those of you who have a 3Dfx card, you should see DetailBias. This is really what I wanted to talk to you about. What Detail Bias does is makes the graphics better or worse depending on how far away they are (kind of like your eyesight, y'know 20/20, 20/10, etc...). The lower this number gets in the negatives, the better the graphics look from far away. The higher this number gets in the positves, the worse the graphics look from far away.

So, I have changed this number many times, first seeing how it looked in the negatives, then seeing how it looked in the positives. I have left mine at -10.000000. Now you should try it. Later, I'll post some benchmarks I get after 5 minutes of play, without any bots. My normal fps before doing this was 40-45 in the cityintro. Now I'm going to see how it is in five Epic maps from each gametype that has it's own map. Talk to you then!

------------------
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Tahoma, Arial, Helvetica">quote:</font><HR>To alcohol: the cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

[This message has been edited by The Dopefish (edited 06-16-2000).]

CHRYSt · Jun 16, 2000

First, Dopefish is giving good advice. I can't really find much fault in his tweaking skills.

Second,
Dopefish, Don't get cocky. What do you mean "Not bloody likely?" You're machine is a slow lame dog compared to mine.

My turn to show off.
I've only seen like 2 people on this board with a stronger setup than mine since I started posting.

My proc's 50MHz faster than yours stock, and it's currently running at around 250MHz faster right now.
I've got double your RAM, and unless you're running a KX133 mobo, the RAM's clocked 33% higher than yours. (Actually, it's 40%, but I'm not running stock)
My GeForce2 GTS whales on anything 3dfx has come up with yet. (except maybe the V5 in the unreal engine games, but I don't know.)
My SBLive has full EAX support with 32 separate audio channels, and is generally better sound for less CPU usage than the PCI512.

I get a minimum of 80 FPS at 1024x768x32, all settings on High, Volumetric lighting, fog, coronas, shiny surfaces, and all the other bells and whistles turned on.

There's a noodle in my streudel, and it's name is Minky Boodle. -- Space Ghost

[This message has been edited by CHRYSt (edited 06-16-2000).]

Rooster · Jun 16, 2000

Duh.. now I know what you meant by Detail Bias.. yeah.. that's a huge setting on frame rate.

Btw, don't turn on curved surfaces and look at a redeemer blast. It'll hose your FPS. Keep curved off. It's not worth the performance hit.

Detail Bias.. yeah, play with it some, it affects how far out the mipmapping starts. I forget what my setting is... but I'll find out tonight.

SurroundSound = True? Only if you have a 4 speaker system. I would, but I have kids and my setup doesn't really allow for it. Otherwise, keep it off.

Output rate, 48khz? Uhh.. your card can only do 44,100. No need to go over that. Most people, 22,050 is just fine. If you have an SBLive I'd think you'd be ok going with 44,100 (SBLive!'s have a much lower CPU usage than other cards).

Refresh rate, Glide in UT wont do over 75Hz @ 1024x768. I know, my monitor does 100Hz @ 1024x768, and UT wont even do 80 or 90Hz.

Detailbias @ -10? You're asking for a hurtin (I Believe that setting causes high detail at the furthest distances - but I could have it backwards).

CHRYSt · Jun 16, 2000

Oh, I missed the curved surface thingy.
Yes, Unreal can do it, but at a huge performance loss. They never got it to perform as well as Q3 did.
Also, there's very few models in the game that would actually use them, so it does nothing.

There's a noodle in my streudel, and it's name is Minky Boodle. -- Space Ghost

PsychoMoggieBagpuss · Jun 16, 2000

If you set soundrate to 48kHz you'll lose your 3Dsound. The EMu chip at the heart of the SBLive only can only do 3D processing at 44kHz.

4 months to go till book 9 of the wheel of time

psychomoggiebagpuss
AKA Armadillo Dragon of the -=UDIC=-
Wielder of the Sacred Blackrock Baguette
ICQ:72066711
"If there is anything bigger than my ego. I want it caught and shot"

Till shade is gone, till water is gone, into the Shadow with teeth bared, screaming defiance with the last breath, to spit in the Sightblinder's eye on the Last Day

Rooster · Jun 16, 2000

Don't turn on 3D hardware sound anyway unless you're running at 640x480 on a 1GHz CPU. It's a hog & a half.

PsychoMoggieBagpuss · Jun 16, 2000

I didn't notice much difference at 1024x768@32bit on my P3-800EB with 384meg PC133 ram through a heavily tweaked GeForce

(I'd run at a higher res but I've only got a 15" monitor

)

psychomoggiebagpuss
AKA Armadillo Dragon of the -=UDIC=-
Wielder of the Sacred Blackrock Baguette
ICQ:72066711
"If there is anything bigger than my ego. I want it caught and shot"

Till shade is gone, till water is gone, into the Shadow with teeth bared, screaming defiance with the last breath, to spit in the Sightblinder's eye on the Last Day

PsychoMoggieBagpuss · Jun 16, 2000

Though my friend has an A3D card and turning 3DHardware on for him kills his frame rates, I think I remember reading (somewhere?) that it's the A3D that causes the huge framerate drop.

The Dopefish · Jun 16, 2000

Before I post my CTF benchmarks, feedback response time!

First off, I had Decals turned on, yet no Decals. Odd. And, due to my ever increasing insanity, I chose HallOfGiants as one of my test maps instead of, say, Coret. BLORK!

Yeah, the Redeemer blast with Curvature did hit my fps, but you'd be surprised. I used 3 maps with Redeemers in them, and by the way it looks, they Redeemer didn't have much to do with my average fps in the end.

Anything having to do with the sound card is unknown territory for me. I do have 4 speakers, but they're little (2 inches square), and, due to the odd positioning of all my stuff, in an odd, rectangular position. My subwoofer is in between my monitor and the tower.

I'll try what you all said. 44KHz is fine with me, but I want to keep my 3D hardware sound anyway. It's odd, but changing my DetailBias didn't seem to have much of an impact on my fps when I did it last night. I did put my brightness up to .2, because .0 was way too friggin' dark.

Now for the b-marks. Remember, 0 bots, 1024x768x16, and I usually average 40-45 fps on most maps. (Watch for the discrepancy between indoor and outdoor maps.)

<UL TYPE=SQUARE>
<LI>CTF-EternalCaves
19594 frames rendered in 358.89 seconds
Min. 27.65, Max. 100.19
Average frames per second: 54.59 fps

<LI>CTF-Face
20014 frames rendered in 426.16 seconds
Min. 23.89, Max. 91.26
Average frames per second: 46.96 fps

<LI>CTF-HallOfGiants
23177 frames rendered in 438.05 seconds
Min. 27.29, Max. 87.80
Average frames per second: 52.90 fps

<LI>CTF-LavaGiant
17385 frames rendered in 367.28 seconds
Min. 31.20, Max. 93.58
Average frames per second: 47.33 fps

<LI>CTF-November
20746 frames rendered in 367.28 seconds
Min. 33.31, Max. 100.31
Average frames per second: 55.22 fps
</UL>

Why does it seem odd to me that I get better fps by making the game look better?

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Tahoma, Arial, Helvetica">quote:</font><HR>To alcohol: the cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

[This message has been edited by The Dopefish (edited 06-16-2000).]

Rooster · Jun 16, 2000

I haven't tried it with my new Pentium III o/c to 800E yet.. but when I was at 650, I saw major frame rate hits. I have an SBLive! as well.

Kokensu · Jun 16, 2000

I have 3D hardware sound on and my UT runs fine. I have an SB Live! . So I don't know what huge performance hit your talking about here Rooster. I read somewhere(I think in the readme file..go figure) that the "Surround Sound" check box is only needed if you're using a surround sound reciever with your computer. If you turn this on(and you have an SB Live or other 3D sound card) you sometimes get strange things happening with your sound. UT even tells you this will happen and recommends you leave it off. 3D hardware is all you want checked if you want to be able to hear your opponents from every direction. I have a 4 speaker setup and it works great. I'll have to try playing with that detail bias though..

[MUTTS]ImagoX · Jun 16, 2000

LOL! 1024X768 on a 15"! Your crosshairs must be the size of a flea! Man, I wish I was sitting next to you the first time you fire UT up on a 19". Hehehehehehehehe...

~ImagoX

Prophetus · Jun 16, 2000

LOL dope and you are wondering why your online games are sucking

[Ci]Prophetus][PuF][

CAPTURE! Home of CTF map reviews, strategies and Forums.

[This message has been edited by Prophetus][PuF][ (edited 06-16-2000).]

LLLola · Jun 17, 2000

Man, I'm bummed.

96Mb K6-2 400 with a VooDoo 1. It sucks rocks.

There are times when my framerate drops to 10fps.

*Especially* with UT3.20 -- or perhaps it's because I buggered with my drivers. I decided to "upgrade" to the latest Monster/3Dfx drivers... a solid mistake, that.

Anyone got an old PCI 3D card they'd like to flog, cheap?

VaShooter · Jun 17, 2000

Hey Dopefish, your trying to compare timedemo`s from in game scenerios, that seldom works out good. Especially if you are trying to tweek Ut to it`s utmost.The problem arises becouse in a game looking at the sky, walls, etc dramitically raises your fps giving you a false sense of acomplishment. To tweek Ut out run the cityintro get a base line then tweek rerun cityintro better tweek something else, worse reset. By using the cityintro you cannot control your point of view hence each run will be within 1 fps of the last untweeked runthough.Whereas in a game you will be hard pressed if not impossible to attain the same benchmarks each and every run though.

He Shoots..He Scores..He gets shot in the back.
new ingame name VaShooter{PuF}

Wingznut PEZ · Jun 17, 2000

"I get a minimum of 80 FPS at 1024x768x32, all settings on High, Volumetric lighting, fog, coronas, shiny surfaces, and all the other bells and whistles turned on."
--Chryst

Not buying it. So you're telling me that in the UT flyby, your minimum fps is above 80? Nope, not buying it.

Wingznut [PEZ]
ICQ #29598363

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Read here to get better graphics in UT! (No BS!)

The Dopefish

Eat your veggies!

CHRYSt

You can't help that. We're all mad here.

Rooster

Local Legend

CHRYSt

You can't help that. We're all mad here.

PsychoMoggieBagpuss

Gone.

Rooster

Local Legend

PsychoMoggieBagpuss

Gone.

PsychoMoggieBagpuss

Gone.

The Dopefish

Eat your veggies!

Rooster

Local Legend

Kokensu

Fire in Ma Belly!

[MUTTS]ImagoX

M.I.A.

Prophetus

Old Fart

LLLola

Experienced

VaShooter

The Ol`e man is back

Wingznut PEZ

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