RADEON DDR 64MB not for UNREAL 1

[zhelynd]

I can't believe this!
I started to play Unreal with a VOODOO3 2000 AGP, the graphic quality and speed were perfect! And Unreal quickly became the game I played the most in these 2 years.
But then, yesterday, I upgraded my VCard to a Radeon DDR 64MB AGP, not only the graphic quality reduced, also the speed, the overall performances of UNREAL1 has gone down so much!

Does anyone have similar experience? Can anyone help me solve the problem?

My PC is PII 233, 64MB, 20GB, ATI-RADEON 64MB
the setting I used on UNREAL is DIRECT3D

Is Direct3D same as D3D?

But anyways, upgrading my Vcard result in some great improvements on my other games such as Unreal Tournament and Quake3 Arena, but still, i can't live without the first Unreal...

 

[jkitchar]

Some thing is wrong I suspect--the DDR should outperform the Voodoo3. What kind of framerates are you getting now vs before?

Your processor is just way too slow--it could be, just a guess here, that at lower resolutions and color depths, the Voodoo3 would do better with your system? I'm getting about 70fps average on the fly-by demo 1024x768, vsync-on, 32 bit, compression disabled, high everything. It looks absolutely gorgeous. And that's only with a 32mb DDR Radeon LE. Can your Voodoo do that? Your Radeon clearly outperforms my card. I think you need to upgrade you processor. Even if you had a Geforce3, it wouldn't matter IMO.

Have you checked that HyperZ is enabled? Download Powerstrip and see.

JMK

 

[Hellscrag]

If you want D3D, make sure Unreal is patched to 226f and use this renderer (which is from Unreal Gold): http://www.scragsite.f9.co.uk/d3ddrv.zip

If you want OpenGL, patch to 224v and get the Unreal patch from http://www.oldunreal.com

You see the problem is, Unreal was written for Glide (a Voodoo API) and Unreal's patched versions of the D3D/ OpenGL renderers are kinda bent.

 

[zhelynd]

Thank you guys!

I was begining to think maybe my CPU speed is not good enough for UNREAL. Cuz I only have 64MB SDRAM, and a PII 233
which is quite low. I'll see what happends if I upgrade my memory to 128MB, maybe there will be a change in Unreal.

My current FPS with Radeon is around 25-30, Max. 34,
detail/resolution all max.

Before I had at least 50-70 FPS with my Voodoo3 2000 AGP@Glide
A Voodoo card can do so well on this particular game, but it was quite slow on quake3 even in low details and resultions.

I have already patched my unreal to 226, no difference from 225
I hope to see some difference when I doubled my rams.

 

[jkitchar]

Remember that my vsync is on so I'll never go above my 75Hz refresh rate. With vsync off, I do see 120-140 fps at times.

Your 64mb DDR would do even better if you had a decent cpu.

JMK

 

[Daniel 'INFERNO' Winter]

I have the same thing with my parents comp. It's a 233 and I used to play UNREAL with an old voodoo 1, as soon as I put my old TNT2 in it, UNREAL slowed down to a judder. Now I know that the unreal engine is designed for the voodoo cards, but hey... hope everything works out fine, thinking of getting a radeon myself actually.

 

[Hellscrag]

What it probably is, is that the Unreal D3D is shabby as we know and and the 233 is a bit underpowered for the Radeon. Bad combo.

 

[zhelynd]

I'd understand that 233 isn't much of a match with the
Radeon 64M, so I am looking at a CPU upgrade for my
computer now

but I don't know if my mother board needs to be replaced if I wanna change my CPU from PII233 to a PIII800, my mother board is ASUS XL97 ...(can't remember exactly).

Anyways, is a CPU portable from the mother board? Well, you
see, guys, I am so lack of hardware knowledge, I can't even install a DVD-ROM myself, but still, I gotta try, coz in such bad
economy,
I can't really squeeze anymore money from my pocket to pay others to install those components for me, lol

 

[dinwitty]

D3D uses more data and can use larger textures than 256x256 which is what the voodoos were limited to.
bigger textures = slowdown.
you can try playing in 16 bit.
I have seen a feature called use 3dfx
I presume this is for 3DFX cards, I have never tried it, but maybe it will force D3D into 256x256
texture mode. Just a guess, but try it once, if your brave.

I am running 1.2 athlon, GF2MX, 1024x768, 32 bit,
no complaints.

 

[Smirftsch]

you may wanna have a try with my opengl patch , works fine for radeons, donno if it is better on performance at your system, but its a chance .)

 

[DRT-Maverick]

Let me say one thing, your processor is BARELY good enough for UG or UT, it meets minimum requirements, here: http://www.pricewatch.com this is a wonderful site for computer equipment, an 800MHz AMD Duron is only $36, a great deal, but remember, if your new at putting together a system, I'll give you a tip, make sure you order an AMD compatible motherboard, a lot of my friends call me up and say that their system isn't working and think that the processor was ruined in shipping when they are actually trying to use a celeron compatible motherboard instead of a SocketA AMD compatible motherboard.

RAM is also a huge factor in UG and UT, I run at 704mb RAM, a wonderful quantity, think you can't afford that much? its around 30 bucks at pricewatch for a 512mb stick.

Oh, sound support is a huge factor in Unreal, people will argue with me, but the fact stands that audio can slow down the game as much as running on a bad videocard.

To have sound effects like reverb and good sound altogether you want a good soundcard, and DO NOT use A3D, it actually slows down the processor, I don't know why, it just does, get a soundblaster live!, they are wonderful for UG.

There are many other things such as hdd speed and processor PCI ticks, but those aren't a major factor in gameplay like the things I just mentioned. Good luck on getting UG at its best performance!

 

[Karmadude]

On my system: 400mhz celeron, 8 meg ati rage pro card, and 64 megs of ram, Unreal runs amazingly using PowerVR SGL, good on D3D (despite dodgy textures) and allright on OpenGL. Why do you think that it runs slower using OpenGL rather than D3D or PowerVR SGL?

 

[DRT-Maverick]

OpenGL isn't really... how can I say this? complete when it comes to Unreal and UT support, just wait for U2 to come out!

 

[Karmadude]

I am waiting, I am sitting on the edge of my seat.
One thing that dissapoints me about Unreal 2, is the lack of Nali. The Nali, and their villages are one thing that I really love about Unreal. There had better be another, similar race of planet natives to save on Unreal 2.

 

[DRT-Maverick]

I know, its a big drag about no Nali, I am a nali fanatic, and I am going to import them into U2!!! Or make a more advanced Nali mesh, that looks more realistic!

 

[Karmadude]

Yeah, and if I ever bother to become a skinner, then I will too. Hopefully, there will be and alternate 'helpless' race in Unreal 2. Mabey it might be one that people will love more than the Nali.

 

[DRT-Maverick]

Originally posted by Karmadude
Yeah, and if I ever bother to become a skinner, then I will too. Hopefully, there will be and alternate 'helpless' race in Unreal 2. Mabey it might be one that people will love more than the Nali.

The Nali was original, I doubt you could find anything that would replace it.

 

[Smirftsch]

...didn't u read my post ? opengl is native not that good in unreal, but u didnt need to wait for u2, i've got a full workin version (some kind of unreal patch) which supports anything, even s3tc compressing is supported, and its working without any problems except a small bug which causes black borders on trees, but it seems to be that the same problem is still in some version of the original patches, so

find it at www.oldunreal.com

 

[Hellscrag]

We all wub de Nali

 

[Karmadude]

The Nali are our masters. Hooray.