OK, I've had it... I'm getting tired of Unreal!

[AnitaPeterson]

Hi there,

Can anyone tell me why are these damn games so finicky? I play Quake 3 beautifully on my W2k-900MHz P3-GF2 GTS machine. I play Soldier of Fortune 1 and 2...

I absolutely CANNOT play any of the damn Unreal games!

I have Unreal Gold (Unreal 1 and the Add-on pack "Return to Na Pali").

I have Unreal Tournament.

I can't play any of these games on my computer. I can install them, but launching the games invariably ends with a message box containing some stupid things like:

"General protection fault!

History: FD3DRenderInterface:rawPrimitive <- FCanvasUtil::Flush <- PrecachingTextures <- Precaching <- UGameEngine:raw <- UWindowsViewport::Repaint <- UWindowsClient::Tick <- ClientTick <- UGameEngine::Tick <- UpdateWorld <- MainLoop"

What the hell?

On my secondary machine - a P3-650 with GF2 GTS and Windows 98 - Unreal and UT will play, but the add-on pack always crashes to the desktop with the same "General Protection Fault!" The message isn't exactly the same, but you get the idea.

Now a friend of mine (with two kids who go through games like a lawnmower through young grass) has given me his CDs of UT2003 and Unreal 2.

Think I can play them? No, sir!

I can install them, but nothing else.

The W2k machine reverts to the desktop with the same stupid message. The Win98 machine's screen becomes scrambled, and only a cold boot would restore it to normal.

What the *&^&#! is going on?

 

[igowerf]

What version of the detonators do you have installed? UT2003 ran perfectly for me, although it was a bit slow on my GeForce 4 440 Go (laptop). The first Unreal Tournament also ran fine on my GeForce 256 DDR as long as I didn't change too many settings.

 

[AnitaPeterson]

Well, that's a possible problem... Both my machines (the w2k and the w98) have 6.49 drivers.

I know, these are old. But my videocards (both ASUS v7700 Deluxe) have VIVO capabilities, and these are the only drivers that will keep the video capture features running. ASUS, unfortunately, does no longer make drivers for this card.

However, before anyone asks me how come I dare to complain, wheen I have such antiquated hardware and software... if video card drivers were so important, how come they win98 machine works with them and the w2k doesn't? How come that any other game works on any of my machines? Even the Doom 3 demo works...

I refuse to think this has to do exclusively with the video drivers. I looked at Planet Unreakl and other forums, and there's plenty of people with Detonators 4x.xx who have encountered the same "General Protection Fault!" crap, and they have better computers.

I think Epic Games and the people behind Unreal simply can't build a good game engine.

 

[igowerf]

Several graphics card manufacturers, like eVGA and Sparkle, make VIVO cards. I think you install the Detonators and then install the nVidia WDM driver pack for VIVO capabilities. I found the nVidia WDM 2.03's here. The WDM's seem to be compatible with all Windows operating systems.

The original Unreal was optimized for 3dfx glide, I believe. OpenGL and Direct3D support with the original UT was pretty crappy. I never got very good performance and changing drivers always screwed something up. If you search around the unreal.epicgames.com you might be able to find some updated OpenGL renderer DLLs. Also take a look at the Direct3D downloads page. There were some D3D dlls that were more stable than others.

 

[apoppin]

Is it possibly the copy-protection on Unreal games?

Go to the Unreal forums and ask there.

 

[igowerf]

In Unreal Tournament, one of the patches removed the CD check.

 

[sandorski]

Originally posted by: AnitaPeterson
Hi there,

Can anyone tell me why are these damn games so finicky? I play Quake 3 beautifully on my W2k-900MHz P3-GF2 GTS machine. I play Soldier of Fortune 1 and 2...

I absolutely CANNOT play any of the damn Unreal games!

I have Unreal Gold (Unreal 1 and the Add-on pack "Return to Na Pali").

I have Unreal Tournament.

I can't play any of these games on my computer. I can install them, but launching the games invariably ends with a message box containing some stupid things like:

"General protection fault!

History: FD3DRenderInterface:rawPrimitive <- FCanvasUtil::Flush <- PrecachingTextures <- Precaching <- UGameEngine:raw <- UWindowsViewport::Repaint <- UWindowsClient::Tick <- ClientTick <- UGameEngine::Tick <- UpdateWorld <- MainLoop"

What the hell?

On my secondary machine - a P3-650 with GF2 GTS and Windows 98 - Unreal and UT will play, but the add-on pack always crashes to the desktop with the same "General Protection Fault!" The message isn't exactly the same, but you get the idea.

Now a friend of mine (with two kids who go through games like a lawnmower through young grass) has given me his CDs of UT2003 and Unreal 2.

Think I can play them? No, sir!

I can install them, but nothing else.

The W2k machine reverts to the desktop with the same stupid message. The Win98 machine's screen becomes scrambled, and only a cold boot would restore it to normal.

What the *&^&#! is going on?

For Unreal(1), you must have the 2.26 final patch, make sure you select D3D for renderer. Not sure what the problem with UT might be.

Re: UT3k3 and Unreal 2. You would definitely need graphics drivers updated, but that system will be too chunky to play those games.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: igowerf
In Unreal Tournament, one of the patches removed the CD check.

Maybe not

Go to the UNREAL FORUMS and ask . . .

 

[jiffylube1024]

Originally posted by: apoppin

Originally posted by: igowerf
In Unreal Tournament, one of the patches removed the CD check.

Maybe not

Go to the UNREAL FORUMS and ask . . .

Definately so! The 436 Patch (the last one) for UT removed the CD check. Make sure you install the 436 patch for UT and the bonus packs if possible. Make sure you have the final patch for Unreal as well.

If it's still crashing with the newest patch, then it's definately your video card drivers that are doing it.

 

I use to run Unreal Gold and Unreal T on a Win2K box with the same Asus card and driver set without any issues.

 

[Sunner]

Well, I can play them, but generally, I agree that games based on the Unreal engine seem more prone to problems, compared to games based on the Quake engines.
The big exception would be Half Life, very few pieces of software has given me as much trouble as HL.

 

[bub]

IMO you need to use Open GL.

For Unreal I and Na Pali, go here for latest patch, Open GL drivers, tips, forum, etc.:

http://www.oldunreal.com/patch.shtml


For Ureal Tournament I patch #436 go here:

http://www.unreality.org/

 

[AnitaPeterson]

thanks, i will play with the patches over this coming week-end...