optimizations for a GeForce 2 GTS Pro 32MB for Unreal Tournament

[dionx]

i recently ditched my Kyro II for a used Leadtek GF2 GTS Pro 32MB since the Kyro kept crashing. anyways, installed the GF2 card but now performance in UT is pretty bad. i tried changing lots of setttings. i rememeber reading that the GF2 was suppossed to be the Voodoo 5 killer, and my old Voodoo 3000 worked great in UT. but when using my GF2 card, frame rates drop alot, way below 60. but at times, it seems as if its stable at least 70, peaking at 74-75. this running at resolutions at 1280x960. however even if i drop as low to 800x600, fps would still drop way below 60. so there must be something wrong with my optimizations.

i have 28.32 reference detonator drivers installed, along with rivatuner. anyone out there can help with my driver tweaking and optimizations. i would like to run UT no less than 1152x??? but preferably 1280x960 or above.

 

[merlocka]

Are you running Direct3D or openGL... if the former, try the latter.

 

[dionx]

using direct3d. tried opengl, fps stability is rock solid at 60 with a fps drop no more than +/- 2 fps. the only problem is that UT is horribly dark. brightness and contrast on monitor doesnt help. anyone to make the game brighter with opengl?

 

[AnitaPeterson]

This will sound trivial, but make sure you use 16-bit settings, not 32...

UT uses Direct3D - I didn't even try OpenGL on it.

I play at 1024x768, 16-bit on my machine, and never worry about framerates - if the game is smooth (and it always goes beautifully), who cares about numbers...

Also, I believe the card peaks at that resolution, so you're pushing it a bit... look at the benchmarks for GF2 GTS compared with other nVidia cards.

 

[Operandi]

The build of the unreal engine used in UT has some efficiency problems, taking advantage with today?s more powerful graphics hardware. I recommend merlocka's suggestion of messing with both OpenGL and D3D, you'll want to download the latest OpenGL render though if you haven?t yet. Another thing you might want to check out is if you?re rendering using detail textures, type preferences in the UT console and expand the render tab, you'll find an option for it in both D3D and OpenGL. In my opinion Detail Textures add a lot to the image quality of UT but for some reason have a huge performance hit on my system, for a something that should theoretically be free. As far as 16bit vs. 32bit color, the game dose use 16bit textures but the graphical affects are still rendered in 32bit so I would suggest you stick with 32bit.

The updated OpenGL reneder can be found here

 

[merlocka]

Here are some suggestions which I use with my GTS for UT.

If you are using D3D
1) Make sure you disable vsync in the nVidia direct3D control panel. Might need coolbits to do this.
2) Turn off Corona's
3) Turn off dynamic lights (this can be a bummer in CTF cause you don't see the bright aura around the flag)
4) Set texture and model detail to medium
5) If you want 32bit textures and resolutions over 1024, make sure you overclock your GTS memory as far as it can go. Don't bother with the core.

For OpenGL, just go to gamebasement and use their suggested .ini, make sure you use the latest ogl dll which someone already posted.

 

[BFG10K]

Did you correctly remove all traces of your previous video cards? Do you have the latest BIOS and chipset drivers for your system? Also don't overclock anything (at least not initially).

The GTS should run UT pretty fine at 1024 x 768 x 32, using either Direct3D or OpenGL. However if you download and install the OpenGL renderer you'll get better speed and you'll be able to utilise the high resolution textures that come on the second CD.

the only problem is that UT is horribly dark. brightness and contrast on monitor doesnt help. anyone to make the game brighter with opengl?

Use the new renderer which is automatically brighter (recommended) or use nVidia's gamma control to brighten the game before you launch it.

This will sound trivial, but make sure you use 16-bit settings, not 32...

16 bit mode is ugly as hell.

 

[BFG10K]

Oh yeah, and make sure you disable vsync in both the game and your driver control panel and disable triple buffering and precaching in the game.

 

[sep]

dionx,

I loved my 3dfx v3 3000 running UT. So smooth and crisp (bummer about the 16bit thing). However I upgraded to a G2 Pro and had a heck of a time getting UT to run better or equal to my v3. After several things (forgot all them now) including the installing of the latest OpenGL render mentioned by Operandi helped.

I'm currently playing UT@1280x1024x32. FPS average around 65-70 so I'm pleased. You should see this with your card@1024x768x32. Overclocking the card might get you higher. Comparing your current card to the v3 and running any Unreal based engine I would of stayed with the v3 or gotten a hold of a v5. However other games not based on this engine should perform better on the GTS card.

Any whoot. In addition to all the things to try, remove UT & Other video card drivers from your computer and reinstall. If you still end up with problems pm me and I'll take a look at my setup for you.
-JC

 

[dionx]

thanks for everyone's suggestions.

the major thing limited my performance in both direct3d and opengl was that i had Vsync enabled. once i disabled it, FPS with directx seemed to average in the 80s but some times managing to stabilize way above 100fps, at a res i really liked at 1280x960. however, fps being nice, the drastic drop from the 100fps region to around 70-80 made the rendering seem to lag. so i messed around with opengl with the new renderer from someone else's suggestion, and fps would normally hover around 70-80 and be almost stable there unlike when using directx. because of less drastic frame drops even though the average is lower, i decided to go with opengl at 1280x960x16 with everything on high.

while downloading the opengl renderer, i found this link which further discusses UT optimizations.

now i'm finally satisfied with my computer

 

[HardWareXpert]

UT runs average fps between 110-140 in 1280x1024x32/FSAA x2/OpenGL/Anostropic Filtering x4/maxed out, why anyone would use D3d is beyond me.

My System

 

[sep]

dionx,

Awesome site. I didn't know about 3dspotlight. I've been download some of the tweak guides and hope to improve my own numbers. Thanks for the link.

-JC

 

[lung]

As well, with Nvidia cards, you have to experiment a bit to find the sweet one's for your setup. The latest are not always the best, and what may work awesome on my system, may suck on yours. Also, if hte game is too dark, as is the case with Nvidia cards in general, get Powerstrip. It is an awesome litlle proggy that allows you to adjust the gamma through hotkeys while in-game. Works like a charm.

 

[TBone202]

Can anybody tell me where I can download the OpenGL renderer? The only place I've been able to find it is some German site and it's not compatible with my version.

 

[TBone202]

Didn't see the link above. Sorry

 

[Operandi]

Also check out UT Configurator for your UT setting changing needs. It?s far easier then messing with the UT preferences menu within UT.