·´¯`·.¸¸.·´¯ `·¤ The UT2K4 Grail ¤·´¯`·.¸¸.·´¯`·
~ by xiøs
Objective: To act as the holy grail of concise and consolidated information to play UT2k4 in the most optimized and enjoyable manner. I’ve worked to unify various guides, tweaks, and resources for the smoothest experience possible through sharing of community knowledge. Enhance your experience or learn the history of the series I have devoted countless hours into as I give back what I’ve gained as my appreciation for the timeless gameplay it has to offer. There are some references for the original UT99/UT2003 towards the end of this doc.
- See also The UT4 GRAIL (aka UT Alpha) if you are looking for that instead.
2023 Updated Guide:
I’ve developed this as most of the original information in the ToC is old and has some misinformation from when I created this doc in 2011. I’m leaving that however as an archival reference.
To get UT2004 running well post Epic Games master server and services shut down, you’ll need a few things installed and patched, as well as optimized for high fps in the modern age. Follow the steps below:
- Obtain a copy of the UT2004 32-bit installer with Epic's last official 3369 patch. If you never backed up your originally installed files or have a physical copy, the game is unfortunately no longer sold through digital channels, however there are a number of ways to get the game and Ebay usually has cheap listings. If you had it on Steam, it should still be valid and installable from your Library. If you have your original files, you can copy the entire UT2004 folder into the C:\Program Files (x86)\ directory and apply a registry key fix for your CD key.
- Next, you’ll want to connect to the community run master servers. UT2004 ECE: 333networks master server for UT2004 (also the most popular master server for UT99 too) is recommended as it crosslinks to OpenSpy, so you only need that one, theoretically: https://333networks.com/instructions/ut2004
OpenSpy solution for UT2004: https://ut2004serverlist.com/how-to-update-your-game/
Keep in mind: using more than one address may cause connectivity issues!
Large address aware exe patch (good to increase memory limit if you use big mods like Ballistic Weapons or join servers running those): https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/large-address-aware.112556/
Another guide on master server connections is here.
- Install the latest community made client side 3369.1 patch (after you have the original 3369 ECE patch installed) by kokuei from this link (alpha 8 as of this writing). This update provides fps improvements along with other useful fixes. A full Readme of changes is here. Patch overview: This does two things - Uses a higher resolution timer and improved sleep method to support any frame rate. No more jumping up to 400 when you had it set to 360. It also fixes the engine loop to properly implement the timing between frames. Occasionally your frames would dip despite knowing your PC can handle it; it was a bug in the engine loop.
It’s in alpha stage and is still being worked on to implement features. Every feature implemented is a quality of life improvement and will not have any impact on gameplay. For example, he is not implementing the footstep sound fix because that would give players a competitive advantage. Such fixes should be implemented in game mods so all players benefit. Other fixes - Improve windowed mode when using raw input, fix for freezing in windowed mode when using Raw Input, support for DX9, adds a workaround in the engine for the dodge detection code, increases the OpenGL max refresh rate to 600 Hz.
- After installing kokuei's patch - console command: setmouseinput rawinputbuffer to remove mouse acceleration and use raw input.
or in the UT2004.ini:
[WinDrv.WindowsClient]
MouseInputClass=WinDrv.WindowsRawInputBuffer
- Make sure to move d3d8.dll (DirectX 8 to 9 converter) to \UT2004\System:
https://github.com/crosire/d3d8to9/releases
- After applying the patch, to navigate to your UT2004 ini and select the exact maximum FPS you wish to use, don't select 9999. Disable all frame caps from all frame limiters: nvidia control panel/amd/riva/etc.
It's possible to play UT2004 @ high FPS with no rubberbanding or stuttering.
Follow this section to Unlock your FPS:
UT2004.ini
--
[D3DDrv.D3DRenderDevice]
DesiredRefreshRate=0
OverrideDesktopRefreshRate=False
[IpDrv.TcpNetDriver]
MaxInternetClientRate=100000
[Engine.LevelInfo]
MaxClientFrameRate=9999.000000
netspeed 100000
If bandwidth is slow: netspeed 35000
When you join a server, use the netspeed command to unlock the FPS. Then use the command stat net to confirm the netspeed value was changed:
Find the maximum FPS value your system does not go under during gameplay.
Set the value of MaxClientFrameRate to this number.
Console command will work in menus, not in-game: set engine.levelinfo maxclientframerate #
---
After playtesting, it was found that a minimum 35K netspeed is needed to avoid the problems with dodge jumping and double jumps @ 600+ FPS.
For Trials Only: if you have problems sliding down ramps, or have issues with movers, jump pads, etc. , use: netspeed 9900 and then afterwards revert back to netspeed 35K
- Game setting: Select LAN/T1 with Dynamic Netspeed UNCHECKED
- Install the Sound Patch for 3D spatial audio for UT2004. @Main.exe updated instructions and included a 3D audio test tool. It might be decent until a new program is written for testing HRTF. File to install is here - https://github.com/main-exe/UT2004-OpenAL/
The GitHub release package (zip) also includes 32 and 64 bit files.
Includes modified OpenAL files by@captainsnarf to support voice chat in UT2004. In the official OpenAL version, trying to talk causes a crash when others talk only silence plays. Use RightMark3DSound to test and to find the best sounding HRTF.
To confirm audio is set up in-game: The best map to confirm that OpenAL was correctly set up in-game is DM-Goose2k4. If UT2004's audio was not set up correctly, then you will not get the 'binaural' audio effect and instead sound will 'teleport' from one speaker to the other. While at the 50 armor, spin around, close your eyes and you should be able to determine exactly where the water source is coming from without any doubt.
- Join the pT New York server 66.150.121.88:7777 -> Let it auto configure the master servers (OpenSpy, etc.)
- Now that you should be able to play online, you should go further by optimizing your ini’s. Top players @reflex and @l8erade have shared their optimized UT2004 .inis as of late 2023 with TAM Season 12. It also bundles some of the patches and other stuff. Download here. This is a good foundation for a config you can build from. I personally am using reflex ini’s then adjusted for my own binds.
- Join the UFC discord to play TAM pugs and see more guides. Invite link. There is also an active freon server if you just want to shoot around and get some basic practice in while unrusting 🙂.
For TAM, which uses the 3SPN mod, ideal settings for many are as below. Hit F7 in game to open this menu.
The main settings that must be enabled are New Eye Height Algorithm and Widescreen fixes. New Eye Height Algorithm allows you to hit combos and targets while you are moving up and down ramps, while keeping your crosshair directly on the target. Widescreen fixes include both HUD elements and fixes the non-reticule movement when fully zoomed with LG.
The team colored settings have too much saturation and only benefit one weapon: shock training:
^ Blue/Ally @ 0% = good combo practice since the cores are at their smallest (bubbles)
Teammate Shock Beams and Combos will be invisible @ 0% Blue/Ally.
When its time to play, either disable the Team Colored Shock, or set Blue/Ally to 30-100% to make the cores more visible.
Honing the mouse feel in 2k4:
In the User.ini, default x and y mouse multiplier values are as below:
MouseX=Count bXAxis | Axis aMouseX Speed=2.0
MouseY=Count bYAxis | Axis aMouseY Speed=2.0
You may try changing both x and y values to something such as 0.5, then raise your in-game sensitivity to compensate. This can possibly result in a smoother mouse feel if you are prone to getting some pixel skipping. source
Input Settings:
Mouse Smoothing - recommended OFF. Turning on smoothing won't really make the input of your mouse smoother. It will just smooth a bit between the signals of your mouse, but the result is that your game always lag behind your input a bit.
Reduce Mouse Lag - recommended OFF. Disabling this gives a noticeable FPS boost because this setting enabled steals framerates. It is worth doing if you feel there is no difference in gameplay other than a higher FPS.
Mouse Sampling Rate - Found in User.ini under [Engine.PlayerInput]. This setting is the interval, in seconds, at which the game will sample input from the mouse. For optimum smoothness it is suggested you want this sample rate to be even with the rate at which your mouse reports to your computer. To calculate this, divide 1 by your mouse's refresh rate. Polling Rate = Sample Rate.
Mouse Sampling Time equation:
1 (divided by) Polling Rate (Sample Time).
[Engine.PlayerInput]
MouseSamplingTime=0.000125 (=8000hz input)
MouseSamplingTime=0.00025 (=4000hz input)
MouseSamplingTime=0.0005 (= 2000hz input)
MouseSamplingTime=0.001 (= 1000hz input)
MouseSamplingTime=0.002 (= 500hz input)
MouseSamplingTime=0.008 (= 125hz input)
The default value is 0.0083333, which comes out to 120 samples per second. I suggest a mouse with a refresh (polling) rate of 1000hz or higher.
User.ini -> If using high DPI - Please note: LG zooming might have deadzone issues, especially at low mouse sensitivities. If you require the use of the LG zoom, 400-800 DPI might be better for you.
The Widescreen Fix in 3SPNvUFC fixes this issue
Windows Mouse Setting Recommendations:
- Windows Sensitivity: Set to 6 out of 11 ticks on the scale (enables a default 1:1 input/output ratio for mouse movement)
FOV comparisons and differences between aspect ratio and fov at different resolutions here.
You’ve reached the end of the 2023 Updated Guide. There may be more to come.
Some information below this may be helpful, especially with system optimization, but it is still outdated. There are also some references to other historical and interesting stuff as it relates to UT. -xios
Old Table of Contents:
UT2004 Max FPS & Connection Settings Guide
LagMasterSam's UT2004 Trick Jumping Guide
NightMan’s UT2004 Shield Basics Guide
Netcode Explained by Tim Sweeney
Install & Help Guide (updated in 2022)
Videos from Demo Recordings by Simon “DSK” Kibbles
UnrealNorth Interviews and Miscellaneous Guides
Stratos Group’s Unofficial Guide to UT2004
-Miscellaneous-
- - - - -Tweaks, Tips and Tricks to a Smoother Game - - - - -
Testing ini’s - Various UT2004 old pro configs are available here.
My regular ini here (8/2015) Make sure you read the included Readme.
My current 64-bit ini’s here (5/2017). And the 2k4 64 bit patch to go with it here. I highly recommend the 64 bit patch if you are on Windows 7/10 64-bit to potentially avoid severe lag issues as the game was originally developed in the XP era. For me it feels smoother and snappier and fixes fps issues especially known in 10. However, you will have issues with the hitsounds if you use 64 bit so there is also a custom OpenAL audio fix my friend Kokuei made you can download here. Just replace the dll file in your 2k4 system folder with this one. You may also consider the Mark C mouse accel fix. Additionally, you may find the game runs smoother by setting the cpu core affinity to 1 less cores (using a program such as Process Lasso).
Another useful 2k4 tweak guide by RahKogen located here. [Original here]
A more modern alternative tweak guide here
{2021 update} Many users have noted that UT2K4 may have problems running optimally in Windows 10. One thing that helped most people with this is to change the renderer in the 2k4 system folder. This one was developed here and can be dropped in that folder then adjust your ini appropriately to use it.
- Disable “Windows Enhance Pointer Precision” aka. Acceleration: Consider using the MarkC Mouse Acceleration Fix because it gives exactly 1-to-1 response. Discussion regarding this fix here. Explanation about the fix here.
→ Interesting read about limits of human motor control precision here. (saved pdf here as well).
→ An overview of mouse technology here
→ Read more about mice and mouse testing in this extremely useful guide here.
- General mouse tweaking guide: http://mousespeed.net/sc2-mouse-optimization
- Another mouse optimization guide (mostly for cs): http://www.overclock.net/t/173255/cs-s-mouse-optimization-guide
Further reading on mouse settings: http://www.esreality.com/?a=post&id=2101467
Mouse button lag comparison:http://www.overclock.net/t/1411332/mouse-button-lag-comparison
Test and improve your reaction time: http://www.humanbenchmark.com/tests/reactiontime/
Measure and Convert your mouse sensitivity: https://www.mouse-sensitivity.com/
Weapon Damage Facts:
Detailed damage information for each weapon in the game available here. This is useful for learning about game balance and strategies for situational weapon usage (important in high level play).
Other Game Settings:
UseTripleBuffering - Found in UT2004.ini. Recommended set to FALSE for smoother gameplay / mouse feel. The only purpose of triple buffering is to keep computing frames while waiting for vertical sync. Triple buffering has *all* to do with vsync. Triple buffering is absolutely of no use with vsync turned off (recommended) this setting should be off as well.
Setting: Using a custom resolution. By default UT2004 doesn’t allow setting a custom res like 1920x1080 so you must do it either from the ut2004.ini or by typing in console in the game ‘setres 1920x1080’.
Tweaking your in game Audio:
http://my.opera.com/Unreal-Tournament/blog/audio-tweaks
Tweaking your internet connection:
- http://www.speedguide.net/articles/windows-7-vista-2008-tweaks-2574
- read about using TCP Optimizer:
- optimize your computer for reducing lag with the Leatrix Latency Fix, etc:
***System Tweaks & Improving System Responsiveness***
NOTE: Results may vary!
Try experimenting with BIOS tweaks and removing unnecessary system processes in order to reduce overall system latency and use DPC Latency Checker to test and quantify reduction. Many different system Windows settings turned off can reduce latency further. This OverClock.net article has some great suggestions here. Always remember your default BIOS settings or back them up and think twice before making changes. Some changes could adversely affect performance. More on fixing / analyzing DPC latency here and here as well.
Valuable Windows tweaks with BIOS & Graphics Settings:
- http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=332395
- Consider disabling the High Precision Event Timer (HPET) in BIOS. What is HPET? Wikipedia Answer. This setting may reduce latency but could cause microstutter. Experiment and see if it helps you.
Quote: “Problem is HPET is a continuously running timer that counts upward, not a one-shot device that counts down to zero, which causes one interrupt and then stops. Since HPET compares the actual timer value and the programmed target value on equality rather than "greater or equal", interrupts can be missed if the target time has already passed when the comparator value is written into the chip's register. In the presence of non-maskable interrupts (such as System Management Interrupts) that don't have a hard upper bound on their execution time, this race condition requires time-consuming re-checks of the timer after setup and is hard to avoid completely. The difficulties are exacerbated if the comparator value is not synchronized with the timer immediately, but delayed by one or two ticks, as some chipsets do.”
Latency testing and improvement tools:
- Read about input lag measurement here.
- Diagnose your system for latency using the DPC Latency Checker tool. I also highly recommend using Latency Mon system analyzer for more specific logging and tracing sources of system latency. Resolve system DPC latency issues here.
My own result with DPC Latency Checker:
HPET 64-Bit ON: between 100-150us
HPET OFF: between 5-15us
I’ve found that while turning HPET off can reduce response time, it seems to have tradeoff’s and I’m not completely sure that it’s worth it.
- Run the Window Performance Analyzer tool.
- Turn off unnecessary Windows services:
http://www.optimizingpc.com/windows7/optimizing_windows_7_services.html
- Maximize your Windows timer resolution (experimental):
http://www.lucashale.com/timerresolution/
Just keeping this little application open in the background will reduce DPC latency, improve responsiveness. Good workaround particularly for those who are stuck with an enforced HPET On.
I tested this on my workstation dual core who is using a lot of CPU time constantly. HPET is off.
DPC Latency is ~650us at 0.977ms timer resolution (default with my apps running).
DPC Latency is ~190us at 0.5ms timer resolution (maximized).
I now keep this app running constantly in the background, everything feel snappier.
On my gaming rig, HPET On (for this test purpose only):
DPC Latency is ~100us at 1ms timer resolution (default with DPC Latency Checker running, Windows default is normally 10ms)
DPC Latency is ~10us with some peak at 100us at 0.5ms timer resolution (maximized)
Entering a game normally bring timer to 1ms but you can improve it even more with this application running in background to 0.5ms. Depending the game and your system you may feel better responsiveness and less stuttering.
- Disable CPU Enhanced Halt (C1E), EIST (SpeedStep), & Cool'n'Quiet in BIOS
- CPU Enhanced Halt (C1E) & EIST decrease overclocking reliability, create DPC latency spikes and hiccups in some circumstances.
Ergonomic tips to keep in mind for FPS gaming:
I believe in having a good setup is all about playing comfortably. Being that I work in the ergonomics industry, I know the importance of getting it right. Some tips are in the link below.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
UTComp Settings Recommendations:
Under Skins/Models settings:
- Checkbox: [x] enemy based skins, [x] enemy based models, and [x] darken dead bodies
Under menu for Teammates, choose UTComp Style and color = pink
Under menu for Enemies, choose UTComp Style and color = green
Force Teammate Models = checked
Character = Rylisa
There is a reason for having neon green enemy skins, because green is essentially the easiest color for the eye to distinguish. See more about this here.
Changing the volume of Minigun, Link Shaft, Vehicles:
This tweak allows you to alter the volume of the minigun fire sound, the link shaft fire sound, and vehicle ambient sounds (like the manta hovering and all that). Lowering the volume can be useful for TDM, 1v1, CTF, etc. but would probably be more detrimental in ONS.
All three sounds are controlled by the same field, so you have to alter them all at the same time. Setting the value to 0 will remove the sounds entirely, while setting the value to more than 1 will make them a lot louder (might be useful in ONS to hear mantas sneaking up behind you).
To alter this value, open up your User.ini and go to the [Engine.Pawn] section. In this section there should be a field called AmbientSoundScaling (if it's not there, add it). Again, this value is a scaling value, meaning that 0 removes the sounds, 0.5 plays them at half volume, and 1.0 plays them at regular volume. Anything in between is acceptable as well.
Removing the 85 FPS Cap:
Firstly, be aware that the client-side frame rate is capped for a reason: to reduce bandwidth to and from your computer. The higher your frame rate, the more times per second the game is updating your screen, which means more data. That said, only do this tweak if your internet connection is pretty solid. It will hurt you more than benefit you to enable this on something like a 32-man ONS pub, while it is great for something like 1on1 DM.
To show your current frame rate in UT2004 type “stat fps” in the console (~).
Alright, so now onto the tweak. The first step is to open up UT2004.ini and go to the section titled [Engine.LevelInfo]. Under this section, there should be a field called MaxClientFrameRate (if there is more than one entry of this field, feel free to delete all but one of them). This field controls the maximum online FPS. Feel free to set this as high as you want (set it to 0 for no limit) but keep in mind that higher framerate = more bandwidth usage. I have mine set at 125, which feels great.
However, this is not enough. The max frame rate is also tied to your client-side netspeed (if you don't believe me, try setting it to the minimum of 2600, then watch your framerate). As I stated above, since a higher framerate will impact the amount of data through your connection, a higher netspeed is required. A lot of topics on this matter say to simply set your netspeed to 10001. This is not a good idea. Why? Netspeed is the limit beyond which unnecessary (and sometimes necessary, in extreme cases) data will be dropped. Setting your netspeed to 10001 will break the 85-fps limit, but unfortunately since you are sending far more data through your connection, a lot of packets will be dropped. Therefore, the ideal netspeed for us to use is 20000, but the game caps netspeed at 15000, so let's stick with that.
So how do we set the netspeed? Open up your User.ini and go to the section titled [Engine.Player]. Under this section, there should be a field titled ConfiguredInternetSpeed. Set this to 15000. So are we done? Not quite... for some reason, after a map change your netspeed is reset to 10000. To get around this, make a bind that simply sets the netspeed to 15000. The easiest way to accomplish this is to bind it to your "gl hf" key or your Ready-Up key, or something else you will hit at the beginning of every game. The console command to change netspeed is simply "netspeed 15000". For example, my bind looks like this:
K=say gl hf :] | netspeed 15000
The pipe character “|” denotes multiple commands per bind.
Just remember to hit the bind every time a new map loads, and you'll be enjoying high FPS!
Notes:
- As I said above, this tweak will significantly increase the bandwidth between you and the server. If you are experiencing lag or packet loss with the tweak on, just turn it off by setting your netspeed back to what it was before.
- You may see a slightly higher ping (by 4 ms or so) on the scoreboard. This is due to the fact that UT2004 pings players by sending to each of them small packets created solely for pinging. If there is more data being sent through the connection, the ping packets take slightly longer to be processed. It is not that huge of a difference, but some people have noticed it.
- AntiTCC and SafeGame track netspeed changes and can kick/ban players who change their netspeed too frequently. Don't bind the netspeed command to your movement keys or to your fire button or anything like that. Bind it to something you will hit once or twice when the map starts, and that's it.
Capture The Flag translocator tweak: This is a setting in the user.ini that causes you to switch to your previous weapon when you throw your trans and then hit secondary fire before translocating. By default it is set to True but is preferred off (False) by most veteran ctf players to allow you to switch to the weapon best for the situation instead of accidentally switching to a gun when you don’t desire to do so.
[XWeapons.Translauncher]
bPrevWeaponSwitch=False
Exchanging weapon fire modes: I find it useful to exchange fire mode’s on the link gun, as the primary fire is set to a pulse shot that is almost never really used. To swap the primary with the secondary set the setting to 1 as follows from the User.ini.
[XWeapons.LinkGun]
bUseOldWeaponMesh=False
ExchangeFireModes=1
Diverting OpenAL Audio to your Sound Card:
This tweak diverts all audio processing to your sound card, which might result in increased audio quality and better performance. Try it for yourself and see. Some people might not notice any difference, in which case audio is already being fully processed by your sound card.
- Open up the settings menu in-game. Go to the "Audio" tab and uncheck "Use System Driver". Close the game.
- Open up your UT2004.ini, scroll down to [ALAudio.ALAudioSubsystem], and make sure UseDefaultDriver is set to false.
- In your UT2004/System directory, rename DefOpenAL32.dll to DefOpenAL32-old.dll
If necessary, download and install the latest version of OpenAL. Credit’s to player Sofaking for pointing this tweak out.
Removing the annoying UT2004 nvidia Intro:
Open the UT2004.ini and find LocalMap=NvidiaLogo.ut2. You will want to download a file called NoIntro.ut2 and drop into your UT2004/System folder. Then change the ini line to read LocalMap=NoIntro.ut2 and voila, no more intro animation.
Movies and Demos:
UT2004:
Unfortunately sites like own-age and UnrealNorth are now defunct in 2023. If you know of a movie archive or one’s uploaded, please contact me at the bottom of this page. Fortunately a member of the community known as DSK uploaded many full demo’s of past matches and notable games to his Youtube channel UT2004 Community Channel on Youtube where you can find some gems.
- Prounreal thread (demo index)
- BeyondUnreal Forums - UT2004 frag video list
UT2003:
http://www.ataricommunity.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=319159
http://www.ataricommunity.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=478396
UT99:
https://www.youtube.com/user/ut99Archive/videos
Big demo demo list on Esreality
Others:
Admin Commands & Tweaks:
Admin Commands Without Restarting Map:
There are a few commands that a server admin can perform to alter a server's configuration that take effect immediately. Just log in as Server Admin then type the command in the console. The commands are:
- admin set engine.gameinfo maxplayers #
- This sets the player limit on the server. It won't immediately kick anyone if the limit is set to less than the current player count, but in that case some players will be unable connect after a map change. Just replace # with the number you want.
- admin set engine.gameinfo maxspectators #
- This sets the spectator limit on the server. Like the player limit command, it won't immediately kick anyone if the limit is set to less than the current spectator count, but in that case some spectators will be unable connect after a map change. Just replace # with the number you want.
- admin set IpDrv.TcpNetDriver netservermaxtickrate ##
- This sets the maximum tickrate on the server. The default for UT2004 servers is 20, and most people consider this too low for smooth, responsive play. Setting it below 10 is impossible - the lowest you can go is 10. A higher tickrate increases server CPU usage and requires better connections all around (both server and clients) so use this command wisely. Be aware that this field only controls the maximum tickrate, not the tickrate itself, meaning that if you set this field to 999 the server will probably max out around 60 in order to avoid troubles (the max will vary from server to server).
- admin set Engine.GameReplicationInfo messageoftheday blahblah
- This sets the MOTD of the server. Just replace "blahblah" with the MOTD you want.
- admin set Engine.AccessControl gamepassword blahblah
This sets the server password. Players currently in the server won't notice a difference until the map change, but the command does take effect immediately, in that any new players trying to connect after the command has been performed will have to enter the new password. Again, just replace "blahblah" with the password you want.
Making .INI Changes From the Console:
This tweak is perfect for LANs where you are forbidden to make any changes not accessible in the game. The command is:
set ini:[path] [property] [value]
Examples:
- set ini:Engine.Engine.RenderDevice DetailTextures False
- set ini:Engine.Engine.ViewportManager MinDesiredFramerate 60
- set ini:Engine.Engine.AudioDevice SoundVolume 0.5
It is kind of confusing to perform this command. Not much is known about it, but so far it seems like every command has to originate through Engine, then go through chains of devices and managers to get to the desired property. If you are familiar with computer science, the syntax should be familiar since it resembles accessing fields from objects. Each entry in a section of the .ini refers to a field of an object. For example, if you look in the UT2004.ini, under [Engine.Engine] there is a field called ViewPortManager. When you access this field, it goes to the section that is currently set to the ViewPortManager (which will be WinDrv.WindowsClient in most cases).
To put it more conceptually, you essentially access successively more specific parts of the game until you reach the one that contains the field you want. To make an analogy, think of a house. Let's say you want to turn the fan to half speed in your bedroom. The UT2004-style command would be something like "set ini:House.Bedroom.FanManager FanSpeed 0.5". It's a rather lame comparison, but hopefully the chaining command structure is more visible...
It might take awhile to figure out the chain of field access that has to occur, so if you figure out the needed commands ahead of time and paste them into a text file, you'll have them ready for LANs. If you paste each command into a text file and put one command per line, you can execute the text file and automatically perform all of the commands in the file. This is done simply by typing "exec [filename]" in the console. Keep in mind that it's all done with console commands, not .INI entries, so "set input" is necessary to make new binds and such.
Quick note: the "get ini:" command also exists. An example command would be:
get ini:Engine.Engine.ViewportManager Decals
The only syntactical difference from the "set ini:" command is that there is no value to set, since you are only accessing the value stored in the field.
Admin login commands:
Syntax;
Aliases[36]=(Command="adminlogin <username> <password>|set input [KEY] login",Alias="login")
Aliases[37]=(Command="adminlogout|set input [KEY] logout",Alias="logout")
[KEY]=login
ie) Aliases[36]=(Command="mutate silentadminlogin 4thadmin four4th!|set input 7 login",Alias="login")
and also Mutate SilentAdminLogin /username password/
More tweak and optimization guides for UT2004:
http://www.onlinegamecommands.com/ut2004/ut2004tweaks.htm
http://www.tweakguides.com/UT2004_1.html
On UT2004 Issues:
http://gearsforums.epicgames.com/showthread.php?t=551843
http://www.ataricommunity.com/forums/showthread.php?t=473380
On UT2004 Hit Detection, explained by Lotus+
http://prounreal.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=71172&highlight=invisible
Maps and Mapping Resources:
http://nalicity.beyondunreal.com
www.skillreactor.org/cgi-bin/index.pl?maxbuild
http://neutron.wardust.net/warhead/
Q3 remakes for UT2003/4 here
Mapping Tutorials:
http://www.hazelwhorley.com/tutorials/index.html
http://architectonic.planetunreal.gamespy.com/first_level.html
http://www.planetunreal.com/nick/cdpage2.html
http://unrealtournament2004.filefront.com/info/tutorials
http://www.newtek.com/products/lightwave/tutorials/modeling/UT2003/index.html
Crosshairs and Tutorials:
Custom Crosshair Tutorial for UT2004
http://www.angelmapper.com/gamedev/tutorials/crosshair1.htm
http://wiki.beyondunreal.com/Legacy:CrosshairPack
http://www.ataricommunity.com/forums/sho....40&pagenumber=4
Crosshair Tutorial by Killian -
http://forums.epicgames.com/showthread.php?t=380723
Custom Animated Crosshairs -
http://www.ataricommunity.com/forums/showthread.php?t=382403
http://www.ataricommunity.com/forums/showthread.php?t=382403
Clean and popular crosshair pack -
mCrosshairs (includes dot with black outline)
- various crosshair packs bundle download here.
- xios 2k4 port of the ut99 teardrop crosshair here.
Skins and Skinning:
http://skincity.beyondunreal.com/
Ultimate Keybind Guide:
http://www.ataricommunity.com/forums/sho....30&pagenumber=5
Backup here
Unreal Admin community and help:
Files / Cache / Redirect Repository:
http://uz2.pwc-networks.com/viewer.php?filetype=utx&do=Search
http://ut.fuzzeh.com/redirect/2k4/
http://sharpfab1.free.fr/redirect/
http://50.31.113.138/redirect/
http://www.mikake.ic.cz/index.php?page=cache&lang=cze
http://ludios.org/archive/uz2.gameservers.net-ut2004-listing.html
Miscellaneous tools here. UZ2 file mgmt tutorial here
UZ2 file tools: UT2004Mi by Swedix here or Tinyuz2 by el muerte here or UZTool here
Demos:
http://delpielo.blog48.fc2.com/blog-category-5.html
http://www.prounreal.org/files.php?c=demos
Pro Demos:
http://delpielo.blog48.fc2.com/blog-category-5.html
Perfect Demo Recording Tutorial:
http://www.ataricommunity.com/forums/sho....hlight=demo+tut
Unreal Scripting Guides:
http://unreal.student.utwente.nl/uncodex-ut2004/
Patches, Packs, Mutators:
http://www.utzone.de/forum/downloads.php
- UT2004 Classic 2k3 broken boost dodge patch here.
- Add monsters: http://ini.hazelwhorley.com/monsterpackiniv3.html
UT2004 Loading Screens:
http://members.skill-club.com/TracerTong/UT2004/
UT2004 Complete Console Commands List:
http://udn.epicgames.com/Two/ConsoleCommands.html
Tickrate & Netspeed Tutorial (UT):
http://wiki.unrealadmin.org/Netspeed_Tutorial_%28UT%29
UnrealNorth Discussion:
http://www.unrealnorth.com/forum.php?action=viewtopic&id=77972
Tickrate and Netspeed information:
http://www.utzone.de/include.php?path=content/articles.php&contentid=5668
TNSe's Tickrate & netspeed facts:
http://mennig.de/bva/download/ut2004/tips/TNSe's%20boring%
20page%20of%20Tickrate%20&%20Netspeed%20facts.pdf
http://ucguides.savagehelp.com/ConnectionFAQ/UnrealTournament.htm
http://www.unrealadmin.org/forums/showthread.php?t=15570&highlight=netspeed
http://www.unrealadmin.org/forums/showthread.php?t=15398&highlight=netspeed
http://www.unrealadmin.org/forums/showthread.php?t=22043&highlight=netspeed
- command to find in game server tickrate - GETCURRENTTICKRATE
- or: inject userflag 1 / inject userflag 0
DPM (Dodge Pro Mod):
http://forums.epicgames.com/threads/652847-DodgeProMod-TehBigPack
DPM tutorials:
http://dodgepromod.de/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=524
Various other mods:
http://www.ataricommunity.com/forums/showthread.php?t=504049
http://forums.epicgames.com/threads/377084-UMO-UT2004-Mod-List-Updated-07-14/
TAM (Team Arena Mod):
Download final version 3.141 here
Unreal Excerpts:
Rolling Stone Magazine
Hot Video Games (The Hot Issue)
Unreal
Every once in a great while we have one of those Technicolor nightmares that truly scares the shit out of us. We're in a dark, distant place filled with decaying human torsos, flickering fluorescent lights, the endless echo of tortured screams ("My God! My God!"), percussive bursts of scattered gun-fire, and the Olson twins clutching a pair of turn-of-the-century hypodermic needles. Substitute little Mary-Kate and Ashley for a couple of 385-pound flesh-eating amphibians and you've pretty much summed up the Unreal experience. A first-person PC shooter ala Doom, Unreal blows away the previous seek 'n' destroy standard bearer, Quake 2, with possibly the finest real-time 3-D graphics, longest levels, smartest enemies, and bloodiest multi-player death-matches ever created for a video game. Oh yeah, did we mention the weapons? There's the 8-Ball Launcher, the Razor Jack, and, of course, the ingenious ASMD Taser. "It stands for 'And Suck My Dick'," explains 23-year-old Cliff Bleszinski, the game's co-designer. "It has a special move that just annihilates all the fuckers around it." Get ready to rumble! Included on the CD is an easy-to-use level editor that lets you create your own playable Unreal environments with minimal programming know-how. "It's the exact same tool we used to create the game," says Bleszinski. "You could build your apartment in, like, 20-minutes." There are already hundreds of user-created levels on the Web available for Internet multi-play including one that features the deadly Hanson Mine: "It sticks to you and plays samples of "MMMbop" thus alerting your location to enemies," warns Cliff, "Plus, it drives your ass insane." Coming soon: The truly harrowing horror of a Backstreet Boy Grenade.
On High Tickrates:
UT2004 is heavily dependent on CPU calculations, thus higher ticks use more CPU and resources that load the server down, causing shots not to show up, ghost pickups, etc. Lag spikes can occur because packets do not transfer fast enough. If its a linux server, ticks will go up and down by 10. 40 has been considered an optimal tick for *most* people, but will cause problems for those who don’t have a good connection to the server and they will make weird shots, because it is triple the amount of frames it should be. Also, higher tick rates causes enhanced netcode problems, if set to 35-40 it should function near optimally.
On Anti-lag and hit detection in UT2004 by Lotus+:
“Here is why Epic SHOULDN'T (and won't) use antilag:
#1: Classic serverside hit detection is infinitely more compatible.
The stuff I did for this required special cases for practically every weapon out there. For example, the visual faking on the flak cannon needed to seed the client with a random number. You might be able to cover most BASIC cases, but there will always be trickier exceptions.
#2: classic serverside hit detection gives you more freedom artistically
All retail games that use anti-lag on hit detection have visual effects that are not as blatant as in UT. The hitscan in those games doesn't have tracers, and you just can't tell really if you should be hitting or not from the clientside visuals alone. The effects in games with antilag must be made to look good clientside from the very beginning. If you decide to go to anti-lagged hit detection, you have to limit yourself from having things like the graphic that is currently used for LG in ut2k4 because there will ALWAYS be cases where the server has to say fuck off to the client.
These are the 2 big ones. The rest of the downsides can be fixed via clever design that doesn't really limit your creativity.
Now, here is why they SHOULD use some form of antilag:
#1: Console gamers EXPECT it. Leading your target is very much something that pc gamers accept, and others in general don't. Because they have been introduced to online play with clientside hit detection, it's what they want.
#2: It's just plain more fair and allows you so much more freedom to do things like auto matchmaking. I think any auto matchmaking with classic serverside hit detection is doomed to fail because of ping problems.
#3: Its better.”
On Headshots in UT2004 by Lotus+
“The headshot hitbox is placed dependent on whatever model the server has set for the character, and is always detected from whatever the middle frame is of what animation is playing on the server.
This has the unique effect of actually changing the headshot hitbox to whatever player the server has as their forcemodel if the server admin chooses to set that up. With that said, it doesn't really matter at all because almost everyone forcemodels and headshots are pretty random anyways.
quote: but you're right in UT2k3 it was constant regardless of what model you're using (and was also huge, I might add).
Nope =D The ut2k3 headshots were also on a per model basis. But, very random due to the fact that it didn't actually do a trace through the model. Instead, it did detection based on the closest bone to the place where you hit the collision cylinder which resulted in very very weird headshot detection.”
On shot inaccuracies in UT2004 by Lotus+
"In ut2k4, when you fire a shot, the shot is not only not guaranteed to be fired when you shoot, but also is not guaranteed to be even aiming in the same direction, or from the same place as you shot. For example, if you move your mouse *QUICKLY* from left to right or up to down. There is basically a random cone of fire, even on weapons like the shock rifle and lightning gun, and even on lan.
Here are the 3 easiest ways to visually show yourself both effects(position and rotation).
Method One (movement):
1) Load Stock UT on any dedicated server (NOT INSTANT ACTION)
2) Go to deck17
3) Go to the ramp in the main room closest to the shock elevators... start walking backwards up them.
4) Aim at the very top of the boxes directly in front of you.
5) When you fire, it will miss, even if you keep your crosshair on the boxes the entire time.
Method Two (movement):
1) Load Stock UT on any dedicated server (NOT INSTANT ACTION)
2) Go to any map
3) Have your partner in crime stand still anywhere on a flat place
4) Go to one side of them, do a standard dodge(not a dodge jump for simplicity) and fire exactly as your crosshair crosses them, don't actually aim, just fire as your crosshair passes them.
5) When you fire, you will miss quite often even on perfect shots.
Method Three (rotation):
1) Load Stock UT on any dedicated server (NOT INSTANT ACTION)
2) Have your partner in crime stand still anywhere on a flat place
3) Do a really fast snapshot while standing still and stop your mouse every time BEFORE you reach your target
4) You will hit your opponent quite often despite never having your crosshair in his direction.
The effects are greater when the movement is faster. In the case of rotation, you can get RIDICULOUSLY huge error in your shots, and I notice them everytime I play the game. It is *THE* reason that people are rewarded with low sensitivity in ut2k4 and it has subconsciously affected the way people move and aim tremendously as a huge huge portion of aiming is overcoming this by moving your mouse/movement in counter-acting manners. Like it or not, in ut2k4 your shots aren't going where you aim unlike ut2k3 =( “
Further newnet discussion:
On Netcode in UT2004 by dnx3
Posted by dnx3 on 5/16/04:
“As far as the shots not hitting visually on your screen, but registering hitsounds and doing damage is concerned, we've noticed this way back in the very early alphas. We then spent a ridiculous amount of hours trying to figure out what was causing it, and ended up realizing that its actually a bug in UT itself, and happens just as much without Enhanced Netcode... What happens is, when you move your mouse quickly, and then fire before you stop moving on the target, (which good players will do quite frequently, I'll call them flick shots) the shot you take will not always go precisely where your crosshair is.
In our testing, we've found some extreme cases where the shot went as high as 5000 units off. An entire 360 turn in UT2004 is 64000 units wide, so that means the shot was 28 degrees off. Obviously, this is an extreme case, but there are plenty of situations where this happens, and is very noticeable at long ranges. (In fact, when UT2004 came out, a whole lot of us were wondering why our long range lg/shock flick shots weren't hitting half as much as in UT2003... It all made sense when we did that testing almost a year later. The current theory is that its part of the bandwidth optimisations that were made to handle very large player/projectile counts on large outdoor maps.)
Anyway, the reason why you don't notice when you're not playing with Enhanced Netcode is because the shot itself will be drawn off-target. Therefore, when it happens online, you'll just believe you had a small ping spike or something along those lines. (which in the ends looks identical). You should be able to notice it on lan, however. Of course, looking at a demo afterwards will not help whatsoever, simply because the shot will also be drawn off the crosshair in the demo, and you have no way to tell when the player pressed his fire key. So we assume thats why it hasn't been considered a widespread problem. But it's there.
When we figured that out, Lotus wrote some correction code, to try and minimize those off-target shots from happening. However, I do not think the code was kept, for balance reasons. (Obviously, if those flick shots are hitting as accurately as they should be, as opposed to the default behavior in UT2004, that would significantly increase the power of the affected weapons.) Plus, it didn't work flawlessly anyway. The theory there is that the netcode changes that caused the inaccuracy aren't in the unrealscript code, but in the native engine code, and therefore aren't fixable. We can only try and hack our way around it.”
What is UTAN?
Basically its a free public system to store your UT2003/UT2004 GUID and IP server bans in such a way that they can be rolled out to all servers under your control automatically.
Part of the UTAN system allows the trusted admin's (Head Admin's at various GISP's) to add bans into our system so that they will be distributed to all servers running our server actor. We understand how controversial this could be and have setup the system so that if you don't want these global bans, so to speak, you don't have to receive them!
The system allows you to store you own bans for use of either your server or your GISP only, which are protected by a password. So storing all your bans in our system is possible making it very quick and efficient at sending the bans out to your servers.
The Server Actor was initially created by El_Muerte, an admin at UnrealAdmin. Since then we have moved onto the new improved version of the Server Actor which provides Web Admin changes, understandable ban messages and live e-mail updates. It won't remove your server from the standard server lists on the master server either!
Lastly, the UTAN system is constantly being developed, so over time you will see more options available to you to use for your servers. Things like timed bans, so you can ban someone for 30minutes, 30hours, even 30days if needs be, anti-cheat news, and IP range banning are currently in the pipeline.
On UTComp source code by Lotus+
To extend 1.7a (so you don't have to distribute a new version of utcomp), just replace 'arsc' with 'a' in all files in the /classes directory and make sure you have the utcompv17a.u distributed from the gameamp site in your /system directory. Then you can add it to your editpackages and work with it as if it is a standard package. If you compile as 1.7a and upload it to a redirect it can cause mismatches. You will be found and your balls ripped off.
To put enhanced netcode into the standard game is basically as simple as copy/pasting the relevant parts and changing a few class names. It could be done in under an hour(for me.. for someone totally new to the code it could take substantially longer).
I haven't done it because almost no one would bother using it as it would kill standard server stuff and force you to use all standard weapons. This was somewhat acceptable to me on a UTComp server where this stuff is less common, but its way too much to ask of a standard server admin.
As far as tam goes, same thing. I could add it in a pretty quickly but I'm not going to unless the creators actually want a mod for it... which as of a couple months ago wasn't the case.
The mod you linked on Wormbo's homepage actually doesn't function. As far as I know the only working version of ping compensation was included with some version of UTPlus, but not the one with source released on his webpage.
Further discusion: http://prounreal.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=70518&highlight=
On Vsync:
see also: http://forums.epicgames.com/showthread.php?t=605262&page=3
V-SYNC > (Taken from www.tweakguides.com )
Vertical Synchronization, also called Vertical Sync, or simply VSync for short, is primarily required because of the physical limitations of CRT monitors as discussed in the Refresh Rate section. A CRT monitor has to constantly light up the phosphors on the screen many times per second to maintain an image, and can only do this a certain number of times per second based on how fast the electron gun in the monitor can move. Each time it has to redraw the entire screen again, it moves the electron gun inside the monitor from the bottom of the screen to point to the top left of the screen, ready to 'repaint' all the lines on the screen from top left to bottom right, and back again for the next refresh. The period during which the electron gun moves to the top of the screen for a new refresh is called the Vertical Blanking Interval (VBI).
Enabling VSync tells your graphics card to synchronize its actions with your monitor. That means the graphics card is only allowed to swap its frame buffer and send a new frame to the monitor when the monitor says it is ready to repaint a new screen - i.e. during the VBI. Your graphics card and monitor do not have to be in sync; they can still operate properly when VSync is disabled, however when VSync is disabled, you can experience a phenomenon called Tearing in periods when your graphics card and monitor go out of sync, precisely because the graphics card and monitor are acting without regard for each other's limitations.
Tearing
It is an unfortunate fact of computer graphics that if you disable VSync, your graphics card and monitor will go out of synch. Whenever your FPS exceeds the refresh rate (e.g. 120 FPS on a 60Hz screen), or in general at any point during which your graphics card is working faster than your monitor, the graphics card produces more frames in the frame buffer than the monitor can actually display at any one time, so the end result is that when the monitor goes to get a new frame from the primary buffer of the graphics card during VBI, the frame may be made up of two or more different frames overlapping each other. This results in the onscreen image appearing to be slightly out of alignment or 'torn' in parts whenever there is any movement - and thus it is referred to as Tearing. An example of this is provided in the simulated screenshot below. Look closely at the urinals and the sink - portions of them are out of alignment due to tearing:
The precise visual impact of tearing differs depending on just how much your graphics card and monitor go out of sync, but usually the higher your FPS and/or the faster your movements are in a game, such as rapidly turning around, the more noticeable it becomes. This is because the contents of the overlapping portions of new and old frames are more noticeably different from each other in such cases.
Tearing does absolutely no damage to your graphics card or monitor. It just highlights the physical limitation of your monitor in keeping up with the graphics card when the two aren't synchronized. In the example of 120FPS on a 60Hz monitor, at most only 60 full frames can actually be refreshed during any one second by your monitor, so the other 60 frames your graphics card is producing are pretty much being wasted and are coming out as lots of partially overlapping frames and hence only contribute to tearing. So even if you don't want to enable VSync, it makes sense for you to raise your in-game graphics settings to reduce your FPS such that it stays closer to your refresh rate. This will help you get more whole frames and thus reduce tearing. It may seem cool to have a very high framerate, but as you can see it is wasteful and only causes graphical glitches when VSync is disabled.
Note that tearing is found equally on CRT or LCD monitors, since both work on the same basis for compatibility purposes - see the Response Time section for details of why an LCD monitor would behave the same as a CRT monitor in this respect.
On FPS & VSync:
When VSync is disabled, your FPS and refresh rate have no relationship to each other as such. This lets your graphics card work as fast as it wants, sending frames to the monitor as fast as it can draw them. Whether the monitor can actually show all these frames properly or not is another matter, which we've already discussed above. Clearly if disabling VSync can cause graphical glitches, however minor they may be, wouldn't it make sense to always enable VSync so that your graphics card doesn't wind up wasting its efforts only to generate more tearing? Well once again, things are not as simple as that.
When VSync is enabled, what happens is that your graphics card is told to wait for your monitor to signal when it's ready for a new frame before supplying a single whole frame, each and every time. It can't race ahead, it can't just pump out lots of partially completed frames over old ones whenever it's ready - it has to provide a single whole frame to the monitor whenever the monitor says it's ready to refresh itself during VBI. The first noticeable impact is that your FPS becomes capped at a maximum equal to your current refresh rate. So if your refresh rate is 60Hz for example, your framerate can now only reach a maximum of 60FPS. By itself this isn't really a problem, since every monitor can do at least a 60Hz refresh rate at any resolution, and as we've discussed under the Frames Per Second section, if your system can produce 60FPS consistently in a game this should be more than enough FPS to provide smooth natural motion for virtually any type of game.
There is however a more fundamental problem with enabling VSync, and that is it can significantly reduce your overall frame rate, often dropping your FPS to exactly 50% of the refresh rate. This is a difficult concept to explain, but it just has to do with timing. As we know, when VSync is enabled, your graphics card pretty much becomes a slave to your monitor. If at any time your FPS falls just below your refresh rate, each frame starts taking your graphics card longer to draw than the time it takes for your monitor to refresh itself. So every 2nd refresh, your graphics card just misses completing a new whole frame in time. This means that both its primary and secondary frame buffers are filled, it has nowhere to put any new information, so it has to sit idle and wait for the next refresh to come around before it can unload its recently completed frame, and start work on a new one in the newly cleared secondary buffer. This results in exactly half the framerate of the refresh rate whenever your FPS falls below the refresh rate.
As long as your graphics card can always render a frame faster than your monitor can refresh itself, enabling VSync will not reduce your average framerate. All that will happen is that your FPS will be capped to a maximum equivalent to the refresh rate. But since most monitors refresh at 60Hz or above, and in most recent games it is difficult to achieve 60FPS consistently at your desired resolution and settings, enabling VSync usually ends up reducing your FPS. Fortunately, because this problem is pretty much caused by the frame buffers becoming filled up, there is a solution and that's to enable a third frame buffer to allow more headroom. However this is not a straightforward solution, and to read more about this see the Triple Buffering section.
So Which is Best, VSync On or Off?
VSync poses a real dilemma for many people: with VSync off, tearing can occur whenever your graphics card and monitor go out of sync, and this can be very annoying for some people, especially in fast motion games. However with VSync on, your FPS can often fall by up to 50%. This can be resolved on many systems using Triple Buffering, but that also brings with it a range of possible problems. So which choice is right for you?
Well clearly I can't give you a one-size-fits-all answer, but I can provide some suggestions. To start with, I strongly recommend setting VSync to 'Application Preference' (or similar) in your graphics card's control panel. This is because ideally you should set your VSync preference on a game-by-game basis, preferably using the in-game settings, as the choice will differ depending on the type of game you are playing. Newer games with complex graphics for example will be different to older games which your system can run much more easily. Remember, in games where your FPS is consistently above your refresh rate, enabling VSync is perfectly fine and results in no drop in FPS.
In general, I recommend starting off with VSync disabled in any game as this is the most trouble-free method of gaining the fastest possible performance. This is the simplest solution, and on monitors which have lower refresh rates, or for games in which your framerate is not very high, this appears to be the best solution. You may notice some tearing, but this will generally be minimal if your FPS remains below your refresh rate anyway. Remember though that even if your FPS matches your refresh rate exactly, or is even below it, whenever VSync is disabled the graphics card and monitor are not strictly in sync, and tearing (however minor) can occur at any time.
In any game if you find tearing annoying, you should enable VSync. If you find your FPS has halved, you should then specifically try enabling Triple Buffering, as this can help fix the FPS drops related to enabling VSync, but it introduces the possibility of hitching on graphics cards with less VRAM, and possible control lag on some systems. See the Triple Buffering section for details.
There is no clear choice for everyone when it comes to VSync, and this is why the option to enable or disable VSync exists both in the graphics card control panel and in games. As long as you understand what it does however, you can make an educated choice to suit your hardware and tastes.
-------
Ive been told during a argument over vsync that it can draw multiple frames per flash.that is true
But still, the bad outweighs the good in that situation.
You get unsynchronized video where it actually starts to render another frame before the monitors
ready (ripping and tearing) compared to perfectly smooth (your refresh rate), 1 frame per flash
floats*perfect synchronization, no ripping. hell, even if your getting 150 fps, doesn't it drop to
60s in heavy combat? maybe even worse like me in 2k4. you get the smoothest gameplay you can get with
vysnc on @85hz bcapframerate=true - me sez
UT2004 Install Guide:
Getting an old game such as UT2K4 to work right in the newer Windows can be a bit finicky. Check on some of the things below to make sure you get it setup properly.
Some issues are caused by installing game updates in the incorrect order.
1) You should install the basic game,
2) patch to 3339 BEFORE
3) the Epic ECE Bonus Pack,
4) then patch 3369 (and do so in that order). Link here for the needed files.
**NOTE** Installing a patch before installing the Epic ECE Bonus Pack can cause many strange and hard to identify issues with UT2004, including UMOD issues. If you installed game updates in the wrong order, you may have some success by just installing most recent patch
again. Uninstalling the game, then reinstalling it, then adding the Epic ECE Bonus Pack, then installing the most recent patch should not be necessary, however you may wish to do so if all else fails.
Connection Issues:
Be sure you have the proper ports open on your router so you can connect to servers:
The default ports are:
7777 UDP/IP (Game Port)
7778 UDP/IP (Query Port)
7787 UDP/IP (GameSpy Query Port)
28902 TCP/IP (Allows your Server to Connect to the UT2004 Master Server Browser)
If you’re having problems connecting to servers, you might be able to fix it by adding the lines in your UT2004.ini below:
---------------
[FireWall]
IgnoreSP2=1
---------------
If you’re having problems editing the ini, also make sure your folder permissions are also correct and you have ‘ownership’ of the ut2k4 directory. Give the root UT2004 / Unreal Tournament 2004 folder, Permissions -> User -> Full Control. See here
------
Demo Recording
------
Bugs in UT2004:
-boost dodge (ut2003 mutator) does not work - there is a custom mutator fix for it though.
-translocating from water does not work if you switch to the trans camera through the water and then trans
-sometimes you get telefragged by nothing
(http://s648.photobucket.com/user/abysm/media/GlitcHy/tf_zps4d812cb4.png.html)
-zooming in with the lg gives you an xhair that is offset
-when you are rotating the camera around your dead body in 3rd person, it will stop rotation when it hits a wall, instead of rotating the axis along the walls contour or through it.
-link gun freeze bug
-server query crash exploit
-actual ping is not displayed on the scoreboard. It’s about 20 lower than actual dos ping, with the difference becoming greater as your actual ping gets higher.
-mouse aim bug
-swap weapon fire mode does not work in CTF (with utcomp?) for some reason.
-----
Interviews:
Various interviews of community members - here
Tim Sweeney Interview on the future of Unreal Tournament - here
The Longevity of UT by Epic - here
---------
UT99 Resources:
All about the game itself - http://liandri.beyondunreal.com/UT
Raw mouse input in UT - http://www.globalunreal.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1427&sid=58cf0156a939d7852524b97dfabc402b
UT99 Demos to be put on Youtube - http://www.esreality.com/post/2519317/n-a/#pid2519317
----
Helpful Utility thread - http://forums.epicgames.com/threads/472406-Helpful-Utility-thread
--------
Personal Miscellaneous Resources and Interesting Links:
Unreal 1 patch (to play in 1080p) - https://www.oldunreal.com/oldunrealpatches.html
Parker Quotes: https://twitter.com/ShitParkorSays
LAN events:
Enders money CTF/1V1/TDM Lan, in Utah, 2006 - http://www.esreality.com/?a=post&id=1150563
Communities & Friends:
http://energy.site.nfoservers.com/index.php
4:3 aspect ratio explained:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=9DzjKDJ-bX4
More on aspect ratio here:
Lots of famous and not so famous demo recordings by DSK at the Youtube channel here:
https://www.youtube.com/user/UT2004Community
Pug streams: www.youtube.com/conX5DTS
------------------------------------------
Proper Monitor Setup: See article HERE
UT Community Sites
grail - any greatly desired and sought-after objective; ultimate ideal or reward.
Comments or suggestions? Feel free to Contact me on Discord @xios#8712 or twitter @therealxios