Tweak UT graphics/sound to the max

Just a quick update for my current, 3.1 Config:

[OpenGLDrv.OpenGLRenderDevice]
Translucency=True
VolumetricLighting=True
ShinySurfaces=True
Coronas=True
HighDetailActors=True
DetailTextures=True
FastTranslucency=1
VertexLighting=0
UseTNT=False
GammaOffset=0.000000
UseMultiDrawArrays=True <-- Heard this results in faster drawing of some stuff
SinglePassDetail=True
DetailClipping=False
UseDetailAlpha=False
UsePrecache=False
ShareLists=False
TruFormMinVertices=0
TruFormTessellation=3
UseTruForm=False
RefreshRate=85
AutoGenerateMipmaps=False
UsePalette=True
UseBGRATextures=True
UseZTrick=False
MaxLogTextureSize=8
MinLogTextureSize=0
MaxLogVOverU=8
MaxLogUOverV=8
DescFlags=0
Description=
UsePrecache=False
ShareLists=False
Translucency=1
UseVertexSpecular=1
UseTrilinear=True
UseS3TC=True
LODBias=0.000000
MaxAnisotropy=0
SupportsLazyTextures=1
NumAASamples=0
UseAA=False
SwapInterval=0
UseVertexProgram=False
UseCVA=False
UseMultiDrawArrays=True
UseSSE=True
AAFilterHint=0
TexDXT1ToDXT3=False
DynamicTexIdRecycleLevel=100
UseTexPool=True
UseTexIdPool=True
BufferClippedActorTris=False
SinglePassDetail=True
ColorizeDetailTextures=False
DetailClipping=True
UseDetailAlpha=True
NoFiltering=False
UseFilterSGIS=False
Use4444Textures=False
UseAlphaPalette=True
UsePrecache=False
AlwaysMipmap=False
ShareLists=False
UseMultiTexture=True
MaxTMUnits=0
RequestHighResolutionZ=True
FrameRateLimit=200
CacheStaticMaps=False
BufferTileQuads=False
Use16BitTextures=False
OneXBlending=False
GammaCorrectScreenshots=True
ZRangeHack=True <-- TURN THIS ON. Will fix the Clipping Redeemer and possibly long-range decals, but only for a 24-bit Z-Buffer. (That is, 32-bit color.) Won't do too good on 16-bit color mode though... but if you need to run in that, why are you here?
SinglePassFog=True <-- Nice performance boost and the fog looks damn good, too
DetailMax=2 <-- Believe it or not, there can be 2 levels of detail with certain textures... 3 as well apparently, but they'd only begin to fade in as you got right next to the texture, so...
NoMaskedS3TC=False

Well, since the S3TC Textures were made by Epic, they're Epics, and therefore, not yours - making Fileplanet not an option.

Also, SinglePassDetail improves Detail Texture Quality, and therefore, so should SinglePassFog, though I could be wrong. This sort of stuff would be more easily solved if every option was documented, but alas, this is not to be.

If you check Chris's site he does document them.
Anyway single pass detail/texture/fog should only be used if you have at least 4 texture units as it means that all the texture processing (render, lighting, detail, etc) will be done on one pass, rather than multiple.
My 6600GT has 1 texture unit per pipeline, with 8 pipelines, so I've turned it on and got quite a large improvement.
I'm also running at 8xAA, 16 tap Antistropic filtering @ 1280x1024 (LCD's native resolution)

MaxAnisotropy=16
AAFilterHint=0 (whether to enable qunicunx aliasing - only for nvidia cards though and unecessary)
NumAASamples=8 (type of anti aliasing)
UseAA=True (enables Anti-aliasing)
SwapInterval=1 (turns v-sync on - gets rid of tearing).

Uber smooth and no mouse lag

What can I say, I like booty....

And that's why I said ALL options should be mentioned in his FAQ. A lot of them are, but some of them aren't even mentioned.

I'm no whiz, but I'll try to explain this. I could be totally wrong here.

SinglePassDetail means your videocard, while rendering, only does one pass over the detail textures. Earlier cards had fewer pipelines, thus they would have to make multiple passes over a certain texture to get x amount of quality, and this is called, naturally, multipassing.

SinglePassDetail, therefore, would in theory speed up performance on older cards without lots of pipelines (By only doing one pass per render) but the texture wouldn't look as nice, and that's why you cannot use a DetailMax of higher then 1 with this on. (It would only render the first texture, since the second texture layer is done with a second pass.) On a faster, more modern card (If you can run UT2004 with any sort of detail, this means you) it should make no difference, since the pipes on modern cards should be more then big enough to eat the thing in one pass. (Plus there's more pipelines, as well.)

madscientist327 said:

I see. Well I have a Geforce FX 5200. Is that powerful enough? If you are correct, maybe I should enable it.

Click to expand...

I used to have that, and UT shouldn't cause any sort of performance hit with multipassing (Though if the level designer sucked at zoning, it might tank a tad in huge levels.)

For maximum Detail, it should be off and DetailMax set to two. Setting SinglePassDetail to true nullifies DetailMax's 2, plus it also will, at most, render only one texture, so it's bad for cards that can handle it. Since this is about the BEST Graphics, that's not what you want.

madscientist327 said:

So... If I understand this correctly, I should set it to false. But what if I had a very powerful card like a 6800 for example? Should I still set it to false or should I set it to true?

Click to expand...

It should always be set to False and DetailMax to 2 unless you have an ancient card, like GeForce 2 or lower. Anything higher should run it with no major frame hits at all.

Truth be told, I'm not sure. I don't notice a difference with it on or off.

Anyone yet found a place to hold the S3TC Textures i am so sad about this (well theres no sad emoticon) I would love to get those textures, even if someone sent them to me. I have an idea, if any of you has those textures, and can split them into 5 or 6 sperate RAR formats then you can use this host

www.savefile.com/filehost.

Im sure its not that bad and if not can someone get megaupload link fixed please i would appreciate this a lot.

When i try to download from Megauploads in your Tutorial type thing. It gives me an internal server error, so thats the problem. Is it fixed yet or something?