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post #41 of 55
12/18/03 at 2:06pm
Quote:
Originally posted by Placebo
Oh, I see...so my processor is actually being fully utilized when I play UT? (I don't know much about how your computer functions when you game)

Not neccessarily. It's just that not using your graphics card will result in a loss on performance, not gain. The G5 has practically no optimised applications for it yet, and I doubt any game patches will address this.

Basicially, using both your processor and graphics card will result is the best performance. UT2003 will be using every bit of your system it can at the same time, if you use software rendering UT2003 will have less to use for performance at its disposal.
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post #42 of 55
12/18/03 at 5:07pm
will Ut2K4 run on my soon to arrive 550Mhz G4?
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post #43 of 55
12/18/03 at 5:14pm
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Quote:
Originally posted by PS5533
will Ut2K4 run on my soon to arrive 550Mhz G4?

UT2K3 won't run on it so 2K4 probably will not.

It seems like UT2K4 uses basically the same engine as UT2k3 with a few different mods/enhancements. I assume 2k4 will work on whatever can run 2k3.

Min requirements of 2k3:
700Mhz G4 processor (Except 12"powerbook built in 2003)
256MB RAM
3GB hard drive
32MB Radion or nvidia GeForce 2
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post #44 of 55
12/18/03 at 5:44pm
bummer
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post #45 of 55
12/18/03 at 6:30pm
Quote:
Originally posted by mattyj
Not neccessarily. It's just that not using your graphics card will result in a loss on performance, not gain. The G5 has practically no optimised applications for it yet, and I doubt any game patches will address this.

Basicially, using both your processor and graphics card will result is the best performance. UT2003 will be using every bit of your system it can at the same time, if you use software rendering UT2003 will have less to use for performance at its disposal.

I think you missed his point. The AI and physics of UT probably don't use up many processor cycles on a powerful G5, which means that the rest of them are going to waste (not being used for anything).

His (perfectly valid) question was, are the remaining processor cycles, after the AI and physics have been calculated, sufficient to do a better job of rendering the graphics than the processing resources available in his graphics card.

Bear in mind that while they are optimised for GFX, the processors in graphics cards aren't nearly as fast as the main CPU.

It is simply not true that using hardware rendering will obviously be making the best use of system resources because it's not as if the software is smart enough to use up unused CPU cycles to boost the graphics if the video card can't cope. However fast your processor, if you opt for hardware graphics then the video card is on its own.

Surely you can see that if the CPU was a million times faster than the GFX card then it could still do a better job of game mechanics AND graphics than the gfx card could do with the graphics alone.

It really just depends if his graphics card is as bad as he reckons. There's no question that if he had (say) a Rage 128 in there then software rendering would be the way to go.
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post #46 of 55
12/19/03 at 6:56am
This just doesn't happen. It does not work like that. Not using the graphics card in conjunction with the cpu, no matter how bad it is compared to the cpu, will result in a drop in performance.

Software rendering has always had a very noticeable hit on performance. The video card is never on it's "own" prcessing the graphics for a game. Yes, the cpu will be for the most part working out physics, the ai, structures of polygons etc, but as you have said, UT2003 isn't smart enough to divert every part of the game into the best resources (i.e. the powerful G5 versus the weak GeForce card).

It is because the game isn't optimised for the G5 you will see no difference in performance, UT2003 uses the G5 to the best of its limits, asking it to do more will result in a lowering of those limits to each task (ai, physics, graphics etc).

I haven't explained it well, but socrates you are right, it's just that software rendering never makes that kind of a difference, and probably never will. Graphics cards are designed to take load off the cpu, that is all they're there for.
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post #47 of 55
12/19/03 at 8:05am
That's what I meant, Socrates.
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post #48 of 55
12/19/03 at 12:00pm
I think that Lemon Bon Bon summed it up nicely (UT vs UT2K3)... Some of it's pretty subjective, but after playing UT2K3 for a while, I agree with his assesment overall.
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post #49 of 55
12/20/03 at 6:37am
By the way, this trailer of UT2k4's vehicles will make you salivate all over again. (I assume that most of you have seen it, but no one should miss seeing it.)
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post #50 of 55
12/20/03 at 7:09am
Does anyone know anything about the permanance of vehicles? Do they spawn like weapons, or are they gone forever once they're plugged full of lead? I'm really kind of wondering about this.
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post #51 of 55
12/20/03 at 8:16am
Quote:
Originally posted by Placebo
By the way, this trailer of UT2k4's vehicles will make you salivate all over again. (I assume that most of you have seen it, but no one should miss seeing it.)

You've only showed me 30 times so yah i did salivate but my mouth is dry now.
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post #52 of 55
12/21/03 at 1:55am
Quote:
will Ut2K4 run on my soon to arrive 550Mhz G4?
Quote:
UT2K3 won't run on it so 2K4 probably will not.

UT2K3 is running surprisingly fine on my daughter's SP G4/450 (Radeon 8500- 1GB RAM)
800 x 600
All options default/medium.

Considering MINIMUM requirements call for at least a 700MHz G4, I was amazed.
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post #53 of 55
12/21/03 at 2:53pm
Quote:
Originally posted by Th0r


UT2K3 is running surprisingly fine on my daughter's SP G4/450 (Radeon 8500- 1GB RAM)
800 x 600
All options default/medium.

Considering MINIMUM requirements call for at least a 700MHz G4, I was amazed. [/QUOTE]
That's funny...on my G5, it doesn't really change the performance whether I have it on detailed textures, etc. or not- it's always in the mid-30's for FPS. You'd think that turning down all the details would make it run at 100, but it really doesn't hit my performance if I use high details. Yeah, I might lose 10 FPS or so, but otherwise, there isn't much difference.
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post #54 of 55
12/21/03 at 3:51pm
Quote:
Originally posted by Placebo
That's funny...on my G5, it doesn't really change the performance whether I have it on detailed textures, etc. or not- it's always in the mid-30's for FPS. You'd think that turning down all the details would make it run at 100, but it really doesn't hit my performance if I use high details. Yeah, I might lose 10 FPS or so, but otherwise, there isn't much difference.

Have you tweaked your ini file (Turned off screen flashes, increase cache size, turned off framecap, etc)?

I don't have UT2K3 for Mac, but I've tweaked the ini file for UT on my PC and it increases and smooths out frame rates tremendously.
Look here for a start on tweaking.

On my PC I play at 1280x960 with a 100Hz refresh rate and my frames stay rock solid at 99.93 fps - even in a firefight with multiple enemies.
That's a huge advantage over large swings in your frame rate.
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post #55 of 55
12/21/03 at 4:22pm
Quote:
Originally posted by Cake
Have you tweaked your ini file (Turned off screen flashes, increase cache size, turned off framecap, etc)?

I don't have UT2K3 for Mac, but I've tweaked the ini file for UT on my PC and it increases and smooths out frame rates tremendously.
Look here for a start on tweaking.

On my PC I play at 1280x960 with a 100Hz refresh rate and my frames stay rock solid at 99.93 fps - even in a firefight with multiple enemies.
That's a huge advantage over large swings in your frame rate.

And what graphics card do you have, Mr. 99.93 FPS?
I don't have the "speed boost" patch installed, how much of an improvement does that offer?

I can't live without screen flashes. Period.

Hmmm, audio channel tweaking might help- will this seriously affect my "spatial audio", or will it just omit some of the miniguns in a firefight? Are there "priorities" in which sounds come first?

Thanks for reminding me about the INIs and outs of tweaking UT. (Oh, come on...that was a good pun...)


Anyway.

Does anyone know how driving and aiming simultaneously will work? For example, in the Scorpion buggy thing, how will I be able to move my vehicle and aim the gun at the same time? I'm assuming they can be aimed independently, unlike in Halo.

I'll be practising for playing 2004 by playing Thinktanks...
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