Lodbias tweaks - Cheats or Gay as the Night is Black?

[i_hax]

I'm also on the "Don't care" boat. If the option is there, people can use it.

I personally run 1/1 settings (used to do the LODBias tweaks but not anymore). I play UT to improve/win, not to look at graphics - I play all other games at highest settings.

On that same note you could call CRT's a 'cheat'. They are widely available and give you a higher refresh rate, giving you a huge advantage. I even run a non-native resolution to gain a slight advantage - 1680x1050 only runs 60hz refresh rate, and 1440x900 will do 75hz - looks like shat but far more playable (pixelated to hell).

 

[Vitamin-Carrot]

/me goes to find my old 21" coffee table trinitron CRT

 

[Bishop F Gantry]

Didn't either of you read my post? LODBias is less of an advantage than a good pair of headphones/mouse acceleration off/DOF off/ 1/1 settings/widescreen/footsteps off.

The main reason i use it is because the game looks the way i want it to. Simple.

And it makes players stand out like sore thumbs?

 

[Dark Pulse]

Didn't either of you read my post? LODBias is less of an advantage than a good pair of headphones/mouse acceleration off/DOF off/ 1/1 settings/widescreen/footsteps off.

The main reason i use it is because the game looks the way i want it to. Simple.

Which also isn't how the devs intended.

Their low is as low as it was intended to go. Sure, you can go lower, but I don't think any of them intend for it to be flat-shaded blobs of color.

I was really hoping they'd lock the minimum LOD for UT3, but they didn't. So now we get this lame crap for another generation, only this time without the speed boost that previous generations could claim!

 

[Nereid]

I think it's fine, just as I think it's fine to play Quake 3 with r_picmip 10. Neither game lets you do that without using console commands or editing configuration files, and it's pretty well accepted with Q3.

I even run a non-native resolution to gain a slight advantage - 1680x1050 only runs 60hz refresh rate, and 1440x900 will do 75hz - looks like shat but far more playable (pixelated to hell).

You do know that many LCDs that claim to be able to do 75Hz just update the display at 60Hz anyway, regardless of what you set the refresh rate to? Any "improvement" you feel is most likely just placebo.

 

[Defeat]

(I mean ffs go play the original doom if you play on gameboy graphics settings because you want a million fps even though you've got a top of the range PC)

Why would I want to play the original doom when I want to play UT3 :[

 

[Nemephosis]

Maybe if Epic thinks it's cheating, they should make it so that you can't make it look like that. They should get some balls and make it so you can't turn stuff off like foliage, grass, whatever, so that you CAN hide in the open, and then just make the minimum requirements something halfway powerful instead of being able to run it on a friggin' Commodore.

But seriously, they make it so that computers like mine could run it if it looks like that... and then they whine about how it's cheating when you do it. Pick one Epic, either you want people to use the damn visual graphics you add to the game, or you waste lots of development time making it look pretty just for everyone to turn around and shut it off. Which is it?

 

[In73gr4L]

Even though I think cod4 is a pretty craptastic game in comparison to UT3 (yes I have a copy of cod4 and have played it quite a bit), I really think that in terms of graphics restrictions, cod4 trounces UT3. Things like fog (or if we use a cod4 analogy, smoke from smoke grenades) are a part of the game and it shouldn't be possible to disable it. Cod4 doesn't let you disable the smoke, and I don't think UT3 should allow you to disable fog either.

 

[Dark Pulse]

Maybe if Epic thinks it's cheating, they should make it so that you can't make it look like that. They should get some balls and make it so you can't turn stuff off like foliage, grass, whatever, so that you CAN hide in the open, and then just make the minimum requirements something halfway powerful instead of being able to run it on a friggin' Commodore.

But seriously, they make it so that computers like mine could run it if it looks like that... and then they whine about how it's cheating when you do it. Pick one Epic, either you want people to use the damn visual graphics you add to the game, or you waste lots of development time making it look pretty just for everyone to turn around and shut it off. Which is it?

Completely and totally agreed. If your system's struggling on low hardware settings, you should probably upgrade, but the magical sales figure is ultimately what decides this. Simply put, the more PCs it runs on, the more theoretical sales it makes. Sad, but the almighty dollar is mightier than the sense of balance sometimes... not that this is a hugely unbalancing thing, but it can create an advantage.

Even though I think cod4 is a pretty craptastic game in comparison to UT3 (yes I have a copy of cod4 and have played it quite a bit), I really think that in terms of graphics restrictions, cod4 trounces UT3. Things like fog (or if we use a cod4 analogy, smoke from smoke grenades) are a part of the game and it shouldn't be possible to disable it. Cod4 doesn't let you disable the smoke, and I don't think UT3 should allow you to disable fog either.

I don't think you can disable fog online. You certainly weren't able to in UT2004.

UT3 doesn't really have gassy, smoky things though... LOD Bias tweaks are about as extreme as most of it gets in UT.

 

[In73gr4L]

I probably used the wrong term when I said fog but you know on Avalanche how you can't see through the tunnel to the centre node if you have high settings on because some hazy cloud is there obscuring vision? Well I think that sort of thing should be on regardless of what settings you have on. It's stupid that people playing with low settings can see right through to the centre node even when they're very far away from the tunnel.

 

[Nemephosis]

That's what I am getting at, they give you the options to turn this off (even if it is an ini setting, people will find it) and then they bitch that it's cheating when you do it. The solution then is to not include any way to render it like that.

Oh well, they're still under contract for at least one more UT game. Maybe they'll get THAT one right, who knows.

 

[Benfica]

It just happens that default post-process settings are horrible. That was what made people start tweaking the inis. A lot of people (including me) complained about eye strain, dizziness, headaches, etc...

 

[i_hax]

You do know that many LCDs that claim to be able to do 75Hz just update the display at 60Hz anyway, regardless of what you set the refresh rate to? Any "improvement" you feel is most likely just placebo.

Many LCD's maybe, but I guarantee you're wrong in my case - and I'm on a POS Acer 20".

There is definitely a big difference between 60/75hz running 1440x900. Placebo my ass, I can walk onto any computer and tell what refresh rate its running at in a few seconds - drag the mouse across the screen and you can tell. I'm talking 60/75hz, not small increments, but yes it's that easy (for me at least).


DVI itself is limited to 75hz @ 1280x1024, there is simply not enough bandwidth to send more frame per second. This also limits DVI to ~59hz with 1900x1200, and 60hz with 1680x1050 - although you can force a custom resolution and run 66hz with 1680x1050 - squeezing that last bit of bandwidth out of the interface if you want*.



*PS: Forcing custom refresh rates/resolutions, as far as I can tell from my numerous attempts, always switches back when you open a game. I have NEVER gotten 66hz@1680x1050 to work in a game, only desktop. You can check the refresh rate via your monitors on-screen-display, and yes custom res' work- unfortunately not when you want it to.

 

[Plutonia_Experi]

Oh....and I was playing to have fun...

 

[Dark Pulse]

It just happens that default post-process settings are horrible. That was what made people start tweaking the inis. A lot of people (including me) complained about eye strain, dizziness, headaches, etc...

Muted Post-Processing. Voila. No need to touch INIs.

 

[Defeat]

Oh....and I was playing to have fun...

Yeah, lots of people play soccer for fun too D: