Why do Deus Ex and NOLF play like crap on my system?

[Shooters]

I bought Deus Ex and I've downloaded the demo for No One Lives Forever. Both of them seem to play really choppy. Are they built on the same engine because they look very similar. Quake III and Unreal Tournament both play silky smooth for me, so I don't see why I'm having problems with these other two. I have a Pentium III 700@933, 128 MB of PC133 RAM, and a Hercules 3D Prophet Pro 64 MB, so I really don't think this problem is being caused my inferior components.

Thanks for any help,
Shooters

Oh yeah, I'm using Win98 SE.

 

[DefRef]

Deus Ex (Unreal engine) didn't seem to get the updates to the D3D renderer that UT got and thus runs like ass on non-Glide cards. They released a patch to help out, but it still ran pokey in comparison to Q3 and UT. If you lower rez, switch to 16-bit color (the whole game takes place at night, so the blue-black-grey palette doesn't suffer much) or lower the texture detail, it'll help.

The NOLF demo was notorius for running poorly. The final game is well optimized and runs much better. It's based on the Lithtech 2.5 engine and allows you to select details and features based on your rig's specs.

If you look at my specs, you'll see that we're very similar in parts, though I'd recommend springing for another stick of RAM. You can get another 128MB of good PC133 for <$50. There's no excuse for not stuffing your box to the rafters you RAM luvin'!

Good luck.

 

[erikiksaz]

<Are they built on the same engine because they look very similar>

LOOK SIMILAR?? nooo way in hell do they look similar. i think the characters in deus ex look like crap. the levels are all dark and nearly quake-ish. and don't even get me started on the backgrounds. turning on the &quot;high world details&quot; slows down the whole game, even though all i notice is a higher rez pic of &quot;buildings&quot; in the background. now nolf looks fuggin beautiful. the characters are beautifully rendered and the same goes for the environments.

 

[Shooters]

Sorry, I guess I should have been more specific. I really meant the crapiness of play was similar. The slow play I get in Deus Ex and NOLF is nothing like the slow play I get when I crank up the settings and resolution in Quake III and UT.

 

[Killer Ape]

As I understand it, DX uses amodified version of the original Unreal engine, not the UT engine (whatever that means). NOLF uses Lithtech 2.5, as noted above. Neither game ships with OpenGL drivers, which is why Quake III runs so well on your Prophet (I have the same card). If you use the Loki OGL drivers for UT it runs much faster as well. I had to run NOLF at 800x600 to get decent FPS, which is the first time I've had to do that with a game in about 2 years. DX never ran well on my rig, even with the D3D patch, but the pace is much slower so it didn't really matter.

I think the root of the problem with these two games is more the amount of environmental interaction they allow compared to a straight shooter like Q3 or UT. They both track light levels, noise levels, have multiple interactive objects, inverse kinematics (people actually fall down stairs rather than levitating), etc. I'm having similar problems with FPS rates in Thief II, even at 16 bit color (which is all the Dark Engine allows), because it posseses the same attributes. All that stuff takes much more CPU/RAM horsepower than a pure shooter. This type of environmental calculation stuff is not aided greatly by a hot vidcard, so you're already taking a speed hit before the frame even gets to the rendering engine.

 

[Shooters]

speaking of the Loki OpenGL drivers for UT.....where can I find them? The page where they used to be isn't there anymore.

 

[BFG10K]

There are new renderers at Epic's website that support S3TC with OpenGL or Direct 3D. There's no need to use the Loki renderer anymore.

 

[cmaMath13]

YES, go to Epic's site and get the new renderers. The experience is AWESOME!

 

[cmaMath13]

As for NOLF, I really don't know why it runs crappy. I have a powerful machine (1.1GHz cpu, and GeForce2 Ultra) and it stutters for me to. I think the LithTech2 Engine needs to be tweaked some more (like UT has be tweaked).

DX engine could be tweaked to! It is too bad companies don't continue to offer support and improvements like we have seen offered for UT. I personally think that is way I consider UT the best game ever made.

 

[yata]

more ram

 

[cmaMath13]

128MB of system and 64MB of video ram should be enough.

 

[erikiksaz]

hmm, cma, i have a tbird at 1gig with a geforce 2 and nolf runs perfectly fine. i'm on high detail at 1024x768 w/ everything maxed out. i also wanted to turn on fsaa, but it wouldn't work for some reason.

 

[cmaMath13]

It runs OK, but not as sooth as it should. Have you PATCHED it or something?

 

[Rellik]

Deus EX is based on the Unreal engine. There is no such thing as an unreal and a UT engine. IT IS THE SAME. The unreal engine was developped and enhanced fo UT. Deus EX got those upgrades as well. The engine is now in its third big stage and will be presented with unreal 2. But I already can see it coming.. NOW WITH THE NEW unreal 2 engine..... oh. BTW Tim Sweeney, the lead programmer of unreal stated that(about all being the same engine) so he should know.

About the original question. The newest patch for Deus Ex is supposed to get the direct X play up to glide level. I can´t test it, but deus ex needs more ram than UT. 256 MB is not excessive. As for NOLF, the engine runs fine on my P3 700E /Radeon 64MB VIVO at 1024 res 32bit everything maxed except that one sound option. And that´s under win2k.
it still crashes though....