Sorry if this sounds dense but I just came back to PC gaming after playing consoles for years. The first thing I wanted to do was play UTGOTY which I played to death as a kid, downloaded it on steam and fired it up. As soon as I do, my resolution changes and my screen just goes black. I can hear the theme song which is killing me because it makes me want to play even more. It looks like everything is just really blown up and the menu or whatever is offscreen, because when I go to task manager to quit everything is huge. Again, I know I sound dense, but what do I need to change to get this going? Tried lowering my resolution beforehand, etc. I'm on a brand new acer aspire laptop, I know all my components are well able to run it but I just can't get it going and it's driving me crazy. Thanks, let me know if you need more info (I'm sure you need more info).
Help with setup for someone coming back to PC gaming
- Thread starter claypoolfan
- Start date
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More info than a new Acer whould have been useful.
The important stuff is what OS, and graphics chip, RAM, etc.
There are many updates the basic Steam version does not have.
eg. Video renderers for PCs newer than Win9x.
The default renderers are for DirectX 5-7 era.
Update to new sound and video renderers (better than the ones in UT2K4).
Read Raynor's "TUTORIAL: Tweak Your UT Graphics & Audio To The Maximum"
http://www.ut99.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=373
All the updates and more newer stuff (including updates for Chaos and Rocket Arena) is available at
http://my.opera.com/Unreal-Tournament/blog/unreal-tournament
Brand new renderers are also being tested, and available from Oldunreal.
When you do get it working, as you are using a laptop you will find the game may play at random speeds.
This is due to the CPU changing speeds (stupid and pointless if you are plugged in). There is help and fixes for that.
If you have intel graphics (it is an Acer so it probably is), then you will get very poor gaming from it, including an old game like UT.
If it is intel or ATI, you need the D3D9 or 10 renderers.
If it is nVidia, you use the new OpenGL.
The important stuff is what OS, and graphics chip, RAM, etc.
There are many updates the basic Steam version does not have.
eg. Video renderers for PCs newer than Win9x.
The default renderers are for DirectX 5-7 era.
Update to new sound and video renderers (better than the ones in UT2K4).
Read Raynor's "TUTORIAL: Tweak Your UT Graphics & Audio To The Maximum"
http://www.ut99.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=373
All the updates and more newer stuff (including updates for Chaos and Rocket Arena) is available at
http://my.opera.com/Unreal-Tournament/blog/unreal-tournament
Brand new renderers are also being tested, and available from Oldunreal.
When you do get it working, as you are using a laptop you will find the game may play at random speeds.
This is due to the CPU changing speeds (stupid and pointless if you are plugged in). There is help and fixes for that.
If you have intel graphics (it is an Acer so it probably is), then you will get very poor gaming from it, including an old game like UT.
If it is intel or ATI, you need the D3D9 or 10 renderers.
If it is nVidia, you use the new OpenGL.
Thanks for the replies... I'm on Windows 8, Nvidia Geforce 730M, 8 gigs of ram...
I'll look through the links and try to figure it out.
I'll look through the links and try to figure it out.
No need - your laptop is already up to UT recommended settings.
Unless you know what you're doing, don't tweak anything - this makes the system unstable and can cause the crash/blue screen/black screen etc. And for what..? 5-10% more powerful..? As above - your laptop is already up to UT recommended settings.
Make sure, in UnrealTournament.ini is SlowVideoBuffering=True and set all 32bit to True
1. Not true...
2. No need, unless your UT is modded to render Hi-Res textures.
3. Not true, D3D driver work better with nVidia.
Cutting through the bull-shit. If you want UT99 to look and play like this, then update.
[M]https://youtube.com/watch?v=lk2QmeoLwH8[/M]
If you want to limit UT to 1999 and old maps and mods, then stick with the old renderers.
If you want to join the 21st century, use the new renderers that access the new features of your new card.
You can even use DX10 and 11 renderers for HD lighting etc.
http://kentie.net/article/d3d10drv/
This laptop can definitely handle all the new stuff, so why not take advantage ?
It will look fantastic with all the lights, bells and whistles enabled.
[M]https://youtube.com/watch?v=lk2QmeoLwH8[/M]
If you want to limit UT to 1999 and old maps and mods, then stick with the old renderers.
If you want to join the 21st century, use the new renderers that access the new features of your new card.
You can even use DX10 and 11 renderers for HD lighting etc.
http://kentie.net/article/d3d10drv/
Most nVidia users will experience better performance using the modern fixed OpenGL renderers, than the DX9 (and earlier) versions.
Yes the default D3D renderer is better than the default OpenGL for all users, as it was bugged and never finished.
That is why you say it works better for nVidia. You are comparing the old renderers.
Updated sound and video renderers are not for the laptop. They are for U1 engine games and new cards beyond DirectX 7 and 8, but they need to be matched to the chipset.
ATI often does not use the onboard RAM with OpenGL so if your system RAM is slower (or you don't have much spare), you get a slower GFX card (The tool "ATI tray" will show you this if you want to check).
I can easily prove the intel have disabled much of OpenGL functionality, by giving you a simple test using any 3D OpenGL screensaver (the RealySlick ScreenSavers are perfect for it), and also point you at the intel document, and 3rd party sites, where they explain why they disabled certain functions many years ago.
This is why many intel GFX equipped laptops have a secondary, better nVidia dual-chip system.
You will also find many complaints in many forums from users with intel GFX.
You don't "mod" UT to enable Hi-res textures, you just update. If anyone tells you to "mod" UT, they are confused. The new renderers are also not "modded".
This is also the only way to "fix" UEd so you can edit with OpenGL or DX renderers.
UT does not come with renderers for new cards, no matter where you buy it.
The default settings for the ancient DX5-7 renderer included with UT, have many switches disabled such as reflective and curved surfaces and S3TC compression.
The ancient renderers cannot handle the large textures available for modern chipsets.
Raynors tweak guide is not aimed at geeks to get better performance. It is for newbies to enable all the cool stuff they are not aware is switched off.
The tutorial explains it is not aimed at making it faster, but making it better if your new hardware can handle it.
Yes the default D3D renderer is better than the default OpenGL for all users, as it was bugged and never finished.
That is why you say it works better for nVidia. You are comparing the old renderers.
Updated sound and video renderers are not for the laptop. They are for U1 engine games and new cards beyond DirectX 7 and 8, but they need to be matched to the chipset.
ATI often does not use the onboard RAM with OpenGL so if your system RAM is slower (or you don't have much spare), you get a slower GFX card (The tool "ATI tray" will show you this if you want to check).
I can easily prove the intel have disabled much of OpenGL functionality, by giving you a simple test using any 3D OpenGL screensaver (the RealySlick ScreenSavers are perfect for it), and also point you at the intel document, and 3rd party sites, where they explain why they disabled certain functions many years ago.
This is why many intel GFX equipped laptops have a secondary, better nVidia dual-chip system.
You will also find many complaints in many forums from users with intel GFX.
You don't "mod" UT to enable Hi-res textures, you just update. If anyone tells you to "mod" UT, they are confused. The new renderers are also not "modded".
This is also the only way to "fix" UEd so you can edit with OpenGL or DX renderers.
UT does not come with renderers for new cards, no matter where you buy it.
The default settings for the ancient DX5-7 renderer included with UT, have many switches disabled such as reflective and curved surfaces and S3TC compression.
The ancient renderers cannot handle the large textures available for modern chipsets.
Raynors tweak guide is not aimed at geeks to get better performance. It is for newbies to enable all the cool stuff they are not aware is switched off.
The tutorial explains it is not aimed at making it faster, but making it better if your new hardware can handle it.
It will look fantastic with all the lights, bells and whistles enabled.
the default d3d renderer doesnt work on Win8 since it supports dx9 or higher, and its a dx11 system.
d3d9Drv is the best renderer for newer systems and is the fastest followed by d3d8Drv. Those 2 renderers beat chry's OpenGL by 5-7 percent in an average of 20,000 mesh polies in view. So far, I found no graphic difference between the d3d9 and OpenGL except that the d3d9 renderer is a bit faster. As for d3d10 and 11, Those 2 are actually as slow as the default d3d renderer since it uses the same vertex calculations that Epic released which is in fact slower then d3d9/d3d8/OpenGL. I tested all of the latest releases of these renderers and concluded this myself.
I gotta agree with VendorX that the d3d renderers work better with Nvidia cards and the game runs without any problems with it. On my older geforce3 card the OpenGL renderer caused a lot of lag while playing online and was completely useless in that case. I could only run the OpenGL renderer dectly on an ATI card but it still ran better with d3d9.
Since I got this new PC, I did a lot of testing with UT99 on pretty much everything, and run the game at the most extreme graphic values getting an average of 135 fps which is the highest that the renderer caps it to. I didn't do a single tweak and didn't have any speed ups at all, and the sound was way crispier and more clear on a 7.1 HD sound card using the default Galaxy (all of those custom ones actually ruin it and constantly crash the game).
Here's my specs...
Windows 8 Pro 64 bits
Intel(R) 3rd Gen i7-3820, 3.6 Ghz (8 cpus)
NviDia GeForce GTX 680, 2 Gig
32 Gig RAM
DirectX 11
d3d9Drv is the best renderer for newer systems and is the fastest followed by d3d8Drv. Those 2 renderers beat chry's OpenGL by 5-7 percent in an average of 20,000 mesh polies in view. So far, I found no graphic difference between the d3d9 and OpenGL except that the d3d9 renderer is a bit faster. As for d3d10 and 11, Those 2 are actually as slow as the default d3d renderer since it uses the same vertex calculations that Epic released which is in fact slower then d3d9/d3d8/OpenGL. I tested all of the latest releases of these renderers and concluded this myself.
I gotta agree with VendorX that the d3d renderers work better with Nvidia cards and the game runs without any problems with it. On my older geforce3 card the OpenGL renderer caused a lot of lag while playing online and was completely useless in that case. I could only run the OpenGL renderer dectly on an ATI card but it still ran better with d3d9.
Since I got this new PC, I did a lot of testing with UT99 on pretty much everything, and run the game at the most extreme graphic values getting an average of 135 fps which is the highest that the renderer caps it to. I didn't do a single tweak and didn't have any speed ups at all, and the sound was way crispier and more clear on a 7.1 HD sound card using the default Galaxy (all of those custom ones actually ruin it and constantly crash the game).
Here's my specs...
Windows 8 Pro 64 bits
Intel(R) 3rd Gen i7-3820, 3.6 Ghz (8 cpus)
NviDia GeForce GTX 680, 2 Gig
32 Gig RAM
DirectX 11
With what..? 16 year old game..? "If you" really "want to join the 21st century", then now would you played UT3 and talked about UT4 - but you're too young/old to understand that.
All updates that do not originate from the game developers, but they were made by fans are called Custom Modifications. Here we talking about replacing all textures to Hi-Res, sounds...
...and render drivers because:
There is the "Russian version" of UT which is tweaked to MAX - textures, sounds, Bump, Hdr, DX11 etc.
Read the posts "son" or "father"...
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VendorX, you only modify some values in UnrealTournament.ini file and use updated video renderer which is recommanded, because in modern systems default Direct3D renderer has occasional problems with custom resolutions and updated OpenGL renderer can also provide enhanced visuals plus more graphical options.
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