Framerate Determining Offline Gamespeed (UT)

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Go&nd

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Jul 3, 2002
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Hello. :)

Synopsis of my problem:

No matter what renderer I use for the original UT, my framerate determines my gamespeed in offline play. It's a new, powerful system, so the framerate is very high and thus the gamespeed is uncontrollably insane. It gets just plain ridiculous when I run through narrow, low-detail hallways (the higher the framerate, the higher the gamespeed). It's like trying to play the game with a wildly fluctuating gamespeed between 250 and 600 percent (I'm not kidding :D).

My System:

ATI Radeon 9800 Pro (currently 3.6 Catalysts)
P4-C 3 Ghz (800 mhz fsb) on a Asus 875P Mobo (with all the latest bios and chipset updates)
1 Gb Dual Channel DDR 400 memory (Corsair 3200)
Audigy 2 Soundcard (latest non-beta drivers)
UT v436
Windows XP Home SP1

What I've tried:

1) I've tried both the 3.5 and 3.6 Catalysts. No difference.
2) I've tried D3D, v436 OpenGL, Vogel's beta OpenGL, and the new OpenGL found here . I have the same problem in all renderers.
3) Enabling Vsynch makes everything the same speed, but it feels like molasses (it definitely doesn't feel "right").
4) I read somewhere to try changing SlowVideoBuffer (or something like that) within the Display settings. It didn't make a difference.
5) I had the problem both before and after I installed the high resolution textures for OpenGL.
6) Everything else about this install runs and looks wonderful.

Am I forgetting some obvious setting? I'm used to running in Glide, so some of the D3D and OpenGL stuff is new to me. I'd much rather run with OpenGL and high resolution textures if possible.

Thank you in advance for your assistance. :)
 
Clayeth

Clayeth

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I've heard of, and seen this problem before, but only on Sony's Vaio laptops... never actually heard of a solution for it though.
 
Swedix

Swedix

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Enable Vsync i.e. in UT's config you have to set it to False.
And in OpenGL I think you can tell what max fps to run.
 
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Go&nd

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Thank you for your responses. :)

Vertical synch doesn't seem to make any difference in OpenGL (I've tried setting to both false and true). In D3D Vsynch makes the game feel like I'm moving through molasses. *shrug*

Do you know exactly what to put in the ini for "MaxFPS"? I've tried a couple of variations on that and it doesn't make a difference. :( Thank you for the suggestion, though.

Strange thing is it works fine online. As soon as I join a server, the gamespeed is normal (even when the framerate's soaring). If I host a non-dedicated server and play alone, I have the framerate/gamespeed problem. But as soon as I join another player (on my LAN) to the same hosted game, the speed normalizes. Bizarre.

Any other suggestions? I sure hope this isn't unresolvable. :(
 
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Swedix

Swedix

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I don't know if you can cap the fps in D3D.
Now you have a Radeon so I don't know if you have the option to enable/disable vsync for OpenGL in your driverproperties. That can be done with Geforce so you might take a look.

In Unrealtorunament.ini , under the section [OpenGLDrv.OpenGLRenderDevice] you can add the line RefreshRate= , if it's not already there. Try to set different values. You can start with 100 and see what happens.
 
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Go&nd

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The refresh rate variable doesn't seem to make any difference. It is saving, and when I check it from the in-game Advanced Preferences it shows my change, but in game I see or feel no difference.

I went to the card's control panel and forced vsynch (thanks for pointing that out... it's silly I hadn't tried that yet). Woa. The game turned to slomo. It locks me in at 120 fps (no matter how I have the Refresh Rate set), and the game literally moves in super-slomo.

Well if this isn't the darndest. :lol:
 
XeneX

XeneX

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Exactly the same thing happens to me. Now, I just don't play UT offline. If I enable vsync under D3D, I get horrible mouse lag, so that's no good.

It's fine for me online, because the netspeed limits my FPS. What you can try, start a dedicated server on your system locally, and then start another instance of UT up and connect to that server. It may seem bit excessive but that should limit your frames enough for it to be playable.
 
Clayeth

Clayeth

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Go&nd said:
Strange thing is it works fine online. As soon as I join a server, the gamespeed is normal (even when the framerate's soaring). If I host a non-dedicated server and play alone, I have the framerate/gamespeed problem. But as soon as I join another player (on my LAN) to the same hosted game, the speed normalizes. Bizarre.
Click to expand...
Not really, the game won't let one person play at 50x the speed of everyonen else. I'm sure there's some way to limit it, since it does so in multiplayer... but I've yet to hear what that thing is.

What if you set your gamespeed to 5% or something? :lol:
 
G

Go&nd

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Clayeth said:
What if you set your gamespeed to 5% or something? :lol:
Click to expand...

I tried it. :lol: Well, 50% at least. Gamespeed doesn't seem to make the least bit of a difference. :(

But you do point out the thing that gives me hope. Obviously gamespeed's limited for network play. So how/where is that limiting factor applied?

Tomorrow morning I'm going out of town for the weekend, so if some kind, generous lad provides an ingenius solution to this matter in the next 48 hours, please don't be offended if I don't respond immediately. :)

Edit: Well, Xenex pointed out that netspeed limits fps online. Any way to duplicate that effect offline (without loading two UTs ;) )?
 
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Xzibit

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Hmm... Maybe you'll have to create a Dedicated Server on your PC, and then, start a new UT and join (our sweet IP 127.0.0.1, ya?). It works, but not sure if ir'd make difference for you... just give it a try.

So... Game speed doesn't make difference? That's odd... I went to a friend's house, he had the same problem, and I typed "Slomo 0.7", so the game would run as if it was at normal speed...
 
MeStinkBAD

MeStinkBAD

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Here, this is how you fix it...

Go to Display properties -> Advanced.
Click the "Displays" tab
Click the Monitor button
Set the override refresh rate to 60Hz.

Or... you can just record a demo when you play offline. Bind a key to something like "set input leftbracket demorec framecap" and then just press the leftbracket key everytime you play offline.

EDIT: Forgot to add the "input" after "set"
 
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Go&nd

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Excellent! :)

I don't want to reduce my main refresh rate to 60, so I'm relying on the demo recording trick.

I feel silly for not having figured that out on my own. :eek:

But thanks again. Works like a charm. :)
 
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