[jbell]

I have a G4/500Mhz Cube with Radeon, 1.5GB memory, and FS 15" ASD. I have UT fully installed along with its 436 patch on my HD. I've played DeathMatch, Domination, and Capture the Flag levels with no problems. However, when playing Highspeed at the Assault level, I have problems. In a scene, the screen freezes, the keyboard and mouse lock up, but the music keep on playing in the background. This problem seems to occur randomly in many scenes, not just in a particular scene.

I'm tired of having to reset my machine and start over. I've noticed that after changing the resolution from 640x480 to 800x600, the problems were less frequent. Are there any new patches or tweaks to stop this nagging problem?



[This message has been edited by jbell (edited 03-08-2001).]

[Leonard]

Originally posted by jbell:
I've noticed that after changing the resolution from 640x480 to 800x600, the problems were less frequent. Are there any new patches or tweaks to stop this nagging problem?

[This message has been edited by jbell (edited 03-08-2001).]

Okay, I'm not going to answer your question, but... why are you playing at 640x480 with a Radeon? The Radeon works best at higher resolutions. Ie. when I played at 800 x 600 and switched to 1024 x 768 in UT I lost almost no FPS.

I don't play Assault that much, but I haven't had problems when I do play it. Highspeed is the assault map with the train? Do you have the assault mod and patch? There was some sort of mod and patch to assault that added more maps and was supposed to fix assault play-wise. I think the mod even added a few different modes of play possibly.


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aka SniperKillerLaw in UT - I snipe snipers

[jbell]

Originally posted by Leonard:
... why are you playing at 640x480 with a Radeon?

Well, I wasn't initially...I was playing at 800x600 but UT somehow reverted the resolution back to the default 640x480 after system resets.
Anyway, I will try the 1024x768 resolution and if necessary apply the patches specifically for the Assault. Highspeed is the moving train one.

Nevertheless, it's quite unusual if the problem is resolved by going to higher resolutions. Maybe, the lower resolutions are too fast for the Radeon to handle??? Thanks for the tip.

[Cipher13]

The Radeon drivers were a little poorly written and cause problems at lower resolutions.
Increaisng the resolution bypasses this glitch.

Cipher13

[xyber233]

Which patch do I need?

[Leonard]

Originally posted by xyber233:
Which patch do I need?

xyber233, could you expand on that question. Patch for what? The Radeon? UT? What's the problem that makes you think you need a patch?

Regarding the resolution problem, if Cipher13 is right, that may be why I haven't run into problems. I just got my Radeon 2-3 weeks ago and I've stayed above 800x600 in UT, in fact now I stay at 1024x768 in UT since I normally have my 17" display set at that resolution. Less resolution switching.


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aka SniperKillerLaw in UT - I snipe snipers

[jbell]

Leonard and Cipher13,

I've tried increasing my resolution to 1024x768 in UT but to no avail...the problem kept recurring. However, I've noticed that the frame rate was set to 20 FPS which is quite low. So, after I've increased it to 60 FPS, the problem seemed to have disappeared although I'm not quite confident yet. At this point, my UT preferences are:

Resolution: 1024x768
Color Depth: 32 bit
World Texture Detail: High
Skin Detail: High
Min Desired Frame rate: 60
Show Decals: On
Use Dynamic Lighting: On

Are these values correct? Can increasing the frame rate fix the problem? IMO, it would be better if UT can automatically set the frame rate to an optimal value.

[Leonard]

Hmmm... I really should fool around with the options more. I've always had my frame rate at 30 FPS... I should try something higher now that I have the Radeon.
jbell, I would say 20 FPS is definitely low. Your options with the 60 FPS look okay. 60 may be a bit high, but if it works, leave at that.

My options are at:

Resolution: 1024x768
Color Depth: 32 bit <--- Best option for a Radeon
World Texture Detail: Med
Skin Detail: Med
Min Desired Frame rate: 30
Show Decals: Off <--- I think it's off, I'll have to check
Use Dynamic Lighting: On

Note that I had set many of these before I got my Radeon (except for the resolution) and I wanted to get a decent amount of FPS online. The other thing is I'm running a retail PCI Radeon on a G3/400 256MB RAM (can't wait till July/Aug, I plan on upgrading to a G4 then), so you should be able to put your options higher than mine and get the same or better results (FPS).


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aka SniperKillerLaw in UT - I snipe snipers

[This message has been edited by Leonard (edited 03-09-2001).]

Related to freezes in UT...

I am running a PowerMac 8500 hopped up with a 400Mhz G4 card from NewerTech, running MacOS 9, and ATI's Nexus 128 card, 206 MB Ram.

I experience random freezes while playing UT, similar to the freezes mentioned that relate to video drivers. I've got the most recent drivers, and the most recent Game Sprockets, etc.

Am I just expecting too much from my jury-rigged system? Do I need a better graphics card? Any thoughts or comments would be appreciated.

BTW, the same thing happens with Oni, only it consistently locks up during the initial training session.

[jbell]

With the FPS set to 60, I'm still getting frame freezes and lockups. I've even tried setting the Preferences to the following values but to no avail:

Resolution: 1024x768
Color Depth: 32 bit
World Texture Detail: Med
Skin Detail: Med
Min Desired Frame rate: 30
Show Decals: Off
Use Dynamic Lighting: Off

I've noticed that my mouse and keyboard are acting funny in that the responses are being delayed when trying to continue to the next part (defensive mode) in the middle of the Highspeed game after winning the offensive mode. I'm using Mac OS 9.0.4 and I don't know if upgrading to 9.1 will resolve any USB problems and I don't see any USD device driver patches available.

Since I've read somewhere on the PC side that the Highspeed game in single user mode has been reported to have similar problems, I've suspected that the problem may be in the UT engine for this particular game. I also wonder if the problem is in the Radeon device driver; however, I don't see any device driver patches available for the Mac.

I may have to reinstall UT w/o the 436 patch and try again.



[This message has been edited by jbell (edited 03-16-2001).]

[jbell]

Problem solved!!!

Since I've mentioned a problem with the mouse and the keyboard, I've suspected that the problem has to do with the USB interrupt conflicts and there is the possibility of bad USB drivers. So, to minimize the interrupts, I've changed my USB configuration. My current configuration looks like this:

Mouse to Keyboard to Display via USB
Display to Cube via ADC
H&K Sound System to Display via USB

I've rearranged the configuration to be:

Keyboard to Display via USB
Mouse to Display via USB
Display to Cube via ADC
H&K Sound System to Cube via USB

To my surprise, I noticed that my mouse clickings on desktop icons were much faster. Also, when playing in UT, I was able to complete the Highspeed game with no problems and advance to the next game. In fact, I've restored UT preferences to the highest settings. I may try using another configuration where the keyboard and mouse are connected directly to the Cube like this and see what happens:

Keyboard to Cube via USB
Mouse to Cube via USB
Display to Cube via ADC
H&K Sound System to Display via USB

Interesting in how USB configuration can make a big difference!




[This message has been edited by jbell (edited 03-16-2001).]