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                                    Tweak Guide and Bug Fixes



 by Ben Aultowski                                                           version 0.9
 ______________________________________________________________________________________
|Info
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     Unreal is the first of a new generation of games which will push the envelope
     further than ever before. It is optimized for many of the newest advances in
     gaming hardware, including Voodoo 2, MMX, and 3D Audio. And while prices for this
     equipment continue to fall, it's still out of the reach of many gamers. So Epic
     decided to give Unreal scalable performance to allow the gamer to tweak it so
     that it runs fast on his system.

     Unfortuantly, Epic did not document many of the advanced options that can tweak
     the game's performance. Several fans have released tweaking guides for getting
     better framerates in Unreal, but they have been incomplete, focusing on one
     aspect while ignoring others. There have been many posts to Unreal messageboards
     announcing a new tweak or improvement for Unreal, but they have not been collected
     into one easy reference.
     
     Hopefully, this Guide will become that reference. I plan to update regularly with
     information on new tweaks and bug fixes. And if you have discovered a new tweak or
     have something else to add to the Guide (like info about PowerVR), please email me
     at webmaster@jedi-visions.com!

     History:

           Version 0.9
            
            Initial release!

 ______________________________________________________________________________________
|Game Tweaks
`--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


     Graphics:
          
           Display\CurvedSurfaces

            This smooths out Actors' polygons to make them look more realistic. It's
            best to set this to False, as it is a big performance hit for something
            you probably wouldn't even notice.


           Display\LowDetailTextures

            This lets Unreal use lower resolution textures. As highres textures cause
            a big performance hit, this should be set to True unless you have a PII
            or a fast graphics accelerator.


           Display\NoLighting

            Desperate times call for desperate measures. If are trying to run Unreal on
            a P133 with 16Mb of RAM and no graphics accelerator, you could try turning
            off dynamic lighting all together by setting this to True.


           Display\ScreenFlashes

            Setting this to False turns off that red tint your screen gets when you
            are taking damage. If you don't have a graphics accelerator its best to
            disable this setting because the last thing you need when you are in a
            fight is to have your computer chugging away. You might also want to
            turn in off as a matter of preference.


           Display\SlowVideoBuffering

            Turning this option to True can speed up transparency a little. If you are
            playing in Software Rendermode, you'll definately want to turn this on.


           Display\StartupFullscreen

            I found that in playing in a window on the desktop, Unreal performed better
            than playing fullscreen with the window shrunk down. Set this to False to
            play in windowed mode.


           Rendering\SoftwareRendering\Coronas
            Rendering\3DFX Glide Support\Coronas

            Changing this to False will turn off the Coronas that appear around the
            lights in the game. Because they are transparent, they do cause a
            signifigant performance hit and should only be enabled on a PII or a 
            macine with a graphics accelerator. You also may want to disable them
            because they can obstruct your view in the game.


           Rendering\SoftwareRendering\DetailBias
            Rendering\3DFX Glide Support\DetailBias

            I'm not sure what this setting does, but I think it has to do with the
            mip mapping used in the engine. Use a setting of 0.25 in Software
            Rendermode and 0.0 in Glide Rendermode. (thanks to Mark Rein for the tip)


           Rendering\SoftwareRendering\FastTranslucency

            This setting causes gives the engine a break when dealing with trans-
            lucent textures. When this setting is set to True, the engine works with
            every other translucent pixel, providing a huge perfomance increase. If
            you are using the Software Rendermode, set this to True.


           Rendering\SoftwareRendering\HighDetailActors
            Rendering\3DFX Glide Support\HighDetailActors

            Setting this to False turns of some of the extra scenery, namely dead
            bodies, used in the game. It also disables the more detailed blood,
            which is translucent and thus slows down the engine during a fight.


           Rendering\SoftwareRendering\HighResTextureSmoothing and
            Rendering\SoftwareRendering\LowResTextureSmoothing

            Unreal supports texture smoothing in both Hardware and Software
            Rendermodes. If you are using the Software mode and don't have an MMX
            machine, you should set these to False. Otherwise, your machine should
            run fine with them turned on and the game will look less pixelated.


           Rendering\SoftwareRendering\ShinySurfaces
            Rendering\3DFX Glide Support\ShinySurfaces

            Turning this to False disables the reflective floors and mirrors used in
            the game. I recommend that you keep this setting disabled unless you have
            a PII or a graphics accelerator.


           Rendering\SoftwareRendering\VolumetricLighting
            Rendering\3DFX Glide Support\VolumetricLighting

            This setting controls the fog effects used in the game. Changing it to
            False will speed up the engine signifigantly in Software Rendermode. You
            might also want to disable it because it can give enemies an advantage
            when they are hiding in the fog.


           Rendering\3DFX Glide Support\DetailTextures

            This setting allows Unreal to overlay a highres texture over a standard
            texture when you move in close. This effect is used to add a fine grain to
            wood or more detail to rock textures. Setting this to False will give you
            a performance increase.


           Rendering\3DFX Glide Support\FastUglyRefresh

            Setting this to True allows your Voodoo card to spit out frames as quick as
            it can without waiting for the monitor's refresh cycle to catch up. This
            can make the game run a lot smoother but can create strange side-effects.
            It's worth the speed increase, though.


           Rendering\3DFX Glide Support\RefreshRate

            Turning this up to 85Hz will make your monitor redraw faster, allowing
            faster framerates.


           Rendering\3DFX Glide Support\ScreenSmoothing

            Setting this to False will turn off anti-aliasing. Actors will look a
            little more pixelated, but you will get a slight performance increase.



     Audio:

           Audio\LowSoundQuality

            This option disables high-quality sounds, a feature you probably wouldn't
            even notice. If you have less than 32Mb of RAM and do not have an MMX CPU,
            you'll get a big speed increase by setting this to True.


           Audio\OutputRate

            You can get a boost in performance by lowering the quaility of the sound
            even further. Set the Output Rate to 11025Hz, especially if you don't have
            an MMX CPU.


           Audio\Use3DHardware

            This option enables 3D sound, but only works if you have a 3D soundcard.
            You'll be better off setting this to False even if you have one, as
            plotting 3D sound is a very CPU intensive task.


           Audio\UseFilter and
            Audio\Reverb

            The Unreal engine is capable of calculation how sound would be distorted
            when bouncing of a certain surface. Setting both these options to False
            will disable this feature, speeding up the game especially if you do not
            have an MMX CPU.


           Audio\UseSurround

            This option is only for those lucky games who have a surround sound system.
            I recommend setting this to False unless you have surround sound and a PII.


           Advanced\Game Engine Settings\UseSound

            If you're really desperate for more speed, or you're like me and can't get
            your sound card to work, turn off sound all together by setting this to False.



     Multiplayer:

           Networking\TCP/IP Network Play\MaxClientByteLimit

            This tells a server what is the maximum speed at which you can recieve data.
            Use your modem's speed divided by ten for this setting (ie 28.8K = 2800).


           Networking\TCP/IP Network Play\MaxTicksPerSecond

            People have complained that Unreal's multiplayer performance is very lagged,
            even with a fast modem and good connection. While Epic is working on a patch,
            setting this option to 1 will cut packetloss so much that multiplayer will
            become playable.


           From Main Menu select Multiplayer\Start Game\Configure Game\Reduced Gore

            Setting this to True will improve multiplayer performance not keeping track
            of all the little gibs that go flying when you blow somebody up.



     Misc:

           Advanced\Game Engine Settings\CacheSizeMegs

            This is the amount of memory reserved for caching textures and such by 
            Unreal. I'd set it for at leat half of your total memory, but keeping 16M
            free for other game functions. For example, if you have 32Mb of RAM, set it
            for 16; if you have 64Mb, set it for 48


           Display\UseJoyskick
           
            Joysticks can use of a signifigant chuck of your CPU. And besides, who plays
            FPS games with a joystick anyway? Set this option to False.

 _____________________________________________________________________________________
|Windows Tweaks
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           Background Programs

            Before you start Unreal, hit Alt-Ctrl-Delete and close down every program but
            Explorer. You may not think that ICQ or your anti-virus software are slowing
            down your system much but they are. And if you have 32Mb or less memory,
            you'll find Unreal coming to a crawl as it competes with your other programs
            for memory.


           Windows NT 4.0 Boost

            If you are running Windows NT 4.0, open Notepad and type:

                 START /HIGH c:\unreal\system\unreal.exe

            Save the file as UNRLHIGH.BAT in your Unreal directory and run it instead
            of UNREAL.EXE. This batch file makes NT run the game with a higher execution
            priority, improving performance. (thanks to Inoxx for the tip)


           Windows 95 Memory Cache

            Windows 95 is very ineffecient when it comes to handling its resources.
            It eats up all your physical memory and then instead of clearing it out,
            it switches over to a swap file. You can force Windows to keep some memory
            open though by adding these lines to the SYSTEM.INI file right after the line
            that reads "[vcache]":

                 MinFileCache=1024
                 MaxFileCache=4096


           Defrag

            Unreal, weighing in at over 400Mb, takes up a significant chunk of your
            hard drive. With all that real estate, it's bound to become fragmented over
            time. But if you Defrag your hard regularly, say once a week, you'll keep all
            its files together so your computer doesn't have to search over your whole
            hard drive to find what it needs.


           Take Control of Your Swap File

            Windows doesn't do a very good job handling its swap file, so why no take
            over? In the Control Panel, open up System, then click on Performance, and
            then on Virtual Memory. Tell Windows you want to handle it set the Mminimum
            and Maximum values to two or two-and-a-half times the amount of physical
            memory you have. (ie. If you have 32Mb, set it for 64 or 80)
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|Coming soon!
 `------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

            Hardware tweaks: Overclocking your Voodoo card and your CPU...
            PowerVR tweaks...
            Performance comparisons between different CPUs and graphic accelerators...
            Info on Unreal and UnrealEd bug fixes...