Click to See Complete Forum and Search --> : Getting satisfactory perfomance in UT2003.


jamesdodge
02-22-2003, 07:58 AM
Ok, I've been searching around the forums and haven't been able to get any concrete information on my problem.

First off. Here is some information about my machine.

Basic specs:
asus p4s533 mobo, 768mb PC2700 memory, 60gb WD udma 100 hd, MSI Geforce 4MX440 v-in/tv-out Dual vga.

My distro:
Mandrake 9.0
X version:
XFree86 4.2.1

I have installed the latest NVIDIA drivers and have set my xconfig file according to the readme file included with the drivers. I've tried some opengl apps and they work fine. tuxracer runs nice and smooth.

Here is a benchmark of glxgears. (a moderate amount of other small apps running in kde):

10211 frames in 5.0 seconds = 2042.200 FPS
10025 frames in 5.0 seconds = 2005.000 FPS
10049 frames in 5.0 seconds = 2009.800 FPS
10169 frames in 5.0 seconds = 2033.800 FPS
10264 frames in 5.0 seconds = 2052.800 FPS

I installed and patched UT2003 up to 2199 without a problem. My default UT2003.ini file contains the following in the Engine.Engine block.

[Engine.Engine]
;RenderDevice=D3DDrv.D3DRenderDevice
;RenderDevice=Engine.NullRenderDevice
RenderDevice=OpenGLDrv.OpenGLRenderDevice
AudioDevice=ALAudio.ALAudioSubsystem
NetworkDevice=IpDrv.TcpNetDriver
DemoRecordingDevice=Engine.DemoRecDriver
Console=XInterface.extendedconsole
GUIController=XInterface.GUIController
Language=int
Product=UT2003
GameEngine=Engine.GameEngine
EditorEngine=Editor.EditorEngine
DefaultGame=XGame.XDeathmatch
DefaultServerGame=XGame.XDeathmatch
;ViewportManager=WinDrv.WindowsClient
ViewportManager=SDLDrv.SDLClient
Render=Render.Render
Input=Engine.Input
Canvas=Engine.Canvas

That UT2003.ini is located in /root/.ut2003/System.
I'm running as root. When i run it, I notice that it

If i run the game with these settings, with a resolution of 800x600 and 16bit color mode.
With details set to normal, charactor detail set to low. and only foliage and blob shadows on. i get about 20 + fps avg. If i don't move or shoot, it can go up as high as 30 + fps. This is in the first single player mission. One other enemy. A tiny closed in map. (Also, My hd is set to dma, as is my dvd drive)

I have UT2003 installed on my XP partition.
If i put it in 800x600 16bit color. with everything normal to high. with most if not all settings on. I get very good performance. If i jump the res up to 1024x768 or higher, 32bit color. I still get WAY better performance in huge maps with plenty of enemies, than i do with the lowest settings running in linux. This has convinced me that there is something messed up with my ut2003 configuration. (This is with the default settings in the geforce panel in xp. I don't have aa enabled.)


When i run UT2003, It has "SDL_App" as the caption for the ut2003 window just before it goes full screen with the nvidia logo.

I have the renderer set to opengl.
Do i need to change the Viewport Manager setting? I'm running out of ideas.

thanks in advance. JamesDodge

jamesdodge
02-22-2003, 08:01 AM
I know this will probably not be a big problem to conquer. I don't care for XP. I spend most of my time in linux. It's my prefered OS.

The only thing i usually do in xp is play games.

If i can get this going smoothly, thats one less reason to boot back into xp. :)

-JamesDodge

jamesdodge
02-22-2003, 08:09 AM
Sorry guys. My brain isn't working.
My cpu is a p4 1.8ghz.

mdwatts
02-22-2003, 05:54 PM
Since I know nothing about UT2003 as I do not play any games on Linux and you have enabled DMA and installed the nvidia drivers, all I can really suggest is you try adding

options nvidia NVreg_EnableAGPFW=1 NVreg_EnableAGPSBA=1

to /etc/modules.conf to see if that improves performance.

Have you enabled other options with hdparm for your HD besides dma?

jamesdodge
02-23-2003, 03:13 AM
Thanks for responding mdwatt. I added that to the modules.conf file. Did a reboot.. I'm not really sure if i notice any performance increase. I did crank up the detail a bit.

In 1024x768 16 bit color, with some things turned up to normal.. It runs anywhere from about 16 to 25 fps.
I'm thinking there isn't a whole lot more i can do.
I'm going for a better video card soon, I guess i'll just have to boot to xp for ut2003 for now.

I'll keep on researching the matter though.

as far as my harddrive.
I do hdparm -d 1 /dev/hda
I tried using -c 1 to set IDE 32-bit IO also
but for the moment i only have -d 1 set.

Maybe some bios tweaks are in order.

Anyway, Thanks again for the response.
JamesDodge.

mdwatts
02-23-2003, 11:19 AM
Have a look throught the hdparm manpage and search the web (Google for Linux) or other guides/tutorials on hdparm.

I use

-X68 -d1 -u1 -m16 -c3 -A1 -a24 -k1

for my ATA100 HD.