MTL's Perfect Picture & Performance configs for mid range PC's *warning lot of pics*

[MTL]

*dont worry, they are slighty compressed pics in jpeg format*

Hey there peeps, I have been tweaking UT3 ever since I bought the game. I can now say that I am done tweaking because I have found my/the settings for "Perfect Picture and Performance" on my midrange PC. The reason why I have tweaked so much in the past months is solely because of the map Deck. Seriously that map was pissing me off with its lag and it forced me to remove alot of settings not because I wanted to, but I HAD to just so it wouldnt drop below 30FPS. After I found out the causes of the drops, I went back and added effects one by one and see if they effected performance and the following config tweaks are the result.
This guide is for people with midrange PC's and those people who even though they have uber high end PC's that still play with everything on low. Let me just say that it doesnt have to be ugly just to play at 60+FPS. As I said before, these are settings mainly aimed at midrange PC's, and that means dual core, 1 or 2GB RAM, single 2600XT/X1900's or 8600's with 512MB of video memory. What I mainly focus on in these 2 config settings are clarity, high texture quality, high polygon count, dynamic lighting, and shadows since those are the most important visual elements to me in any game. Everything else takes a hike. From my testing lower texture quality has little to no performance impact on a 512MB video card. The biggest performance gain also comes from lowering your resolution a notch.
Ive made 2 config settings which will suit certain players. The first one will be for the people who just want more performance while still having that UT3 look. The second one will be for people looking for more clairty. They both are very similar in terms of settings. PPP1 will barley take a performance hit on a 2600XT compred to PPP2 probably because I have an ShaderModel4 card? If you dont have at least a ShaderModel3 video card, then use the PPP2 setting.

If you like the screenshots below and want to try these settings out, go into the game and set Texture Quality to 5, and then World Detail to 1. Apply and then set the resolution to what you prefer (if you havent already). Do note that your screen resolution might be different, so dont copy that part. Btw, this is a different method than what people are used to. Most people will say set graphics to 5/5 and disable stuff, but I say set detail to 1 and enable only the effects you want. You wont even miss some of the effects like StaticDecals and Distortions.

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Here is the first one; Ill call it PPP1. It keeps the DepthOfField post processing effect on. From my tests, it isnt a good idea to have both Bloom and QualityBloom on at the same time or it will create more over bright textures (literally white textures!). From recent testings I just realized that having DepthOfField=True by itself gives the glowing effects, which is what I was originally after and Blooming is not needed. The less shader effects, the better visibility, the more performance.
For this particular setting, I prefer Vivid post processing setting and screen brightness of 6, or Defualt setting with brightness of 4. There is no performane differences between the settings.
The white text is the only difference between the 2 PPP settings.

[SystemSettings]
StaticDecals=False
DynamicDecals=True
DynamicLights=True
DynamicShadows=True
LightEnvironmentShadows=True
CompositeDynamicLights=False
DirectionalLightmaps=False
MotionBlur=False
DepthOfField=True
Bloom=False
QualityBloom=False
Distortion=False
DropParticleDistortion=True
SpeedTreeLeaves=True
SpeedTreeFronds=True
OnlyStreamInTextures=True
LensFlares=False
FogVolumes=False
FloatingPointRenderTargets=True
Trilinear=True
OneFrameThreadLag=True
UseVsync=False
UpscaleScreenPercentage=True
Fullscreen=True
AllowD3D10=False
EnableHighPolyChars=True
SkeletalMeshLODBias=0
ParticleLODBias=2147483647
DetailMode=0
ShadowFilterQualityBias=-1
MaxAnisotropy=8
MaxMultisamples=1
MinShadowResolution=32
MaxShadowResolution=1280
ResX=1280
ResY=800
ScreenPercentage=100.000000
SceneCaptureStreamingMultiplier=1.000000
FoliageDrawRadiusMultiplier=1.000000
ShadowTexelsPerPixel=1.000000

Heres some random pics with the setting above.



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Now here is the setting that Ive been playing on for a while and very satisfied with the performance and clarity. These settings are perfect even when playing onlin! Lets call it PPP2. I have posted this a few times in peoples threads because I believe this the best setting for us mid range PC gamers and those thread starters have also agreed, so I decided to create this guide. For this setting, the DepthOfField effect isnt on anymore, so the Post Processing setting no longer works, but set it to "Muted" anyways and then set Brightness to 4 or else it will be way to low contrast/faded.

[SystemSettings]
StaticDecals=False
DynamicDecals=True
DynamicLights=True
DynamicShadows=True
LightEnvironmentShadows=True
CompositeDynamicLights=False
DirectionalLightmaps=False
MotionBlur=False
DepthOfField=False
Bloom=False
QualityBloom=False
Distortion=False
DropParticleDistortion=True
SpeedTreeLeaves=True
SpeedTreeFronds=True
OnlyStreamInTextures=True
LensFlares=False
FogVolumes=False
FloatingPointRenderTargets=True
Trilinear=True
OneFrameThreadLag=True
UseVsync=False
UpscaleScreenPercentage=True
Fullscreen=True
AllowD3D10=False
EnableHighPolyChars=True
SkeletalMeshLODBias=0
ParticleLODBias=2147483647
DetailMode=0
ShadowFilterQualityBias=-1
MaxAnisotropy=8
MaxMultisamples=1
MinShadowResolution=32
MaxShadowResolution=1280
ResX=1280
ResY=800
ScreenPercentage=100.000000
SceneCaptureStreamingMultiplier=1.000000
FoliageDrawRadiusMultiplier=1.000000
ShadowTexelsPerPixel=1.000000

Heres some a few pics with the settings above. Saved most of the space for the comparisons below.



As I said earlier, the most important options kept here are decals/blood, shadows, dynamic lights, and the high poly character/vehicle models; everything else is gone. The changes will make the game look very much like an updated version of UT2004.

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Heres some direct comparisons of maxed out 5/5 settings, versus my PPP1 and 2 settings. If these links dont work, Im gonna cry. This took alot of uploading ;/ The last comparison of Deck has a wrong picture in the middle..but oh wells

















*maybe i should post some pics of characters.... >_>

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Notes of why the settings are the way they are:
DynamicShadows=True
LightEnvironmentShadows=True
These both have to be True to be able to have shadows to work

DirectionalLightmaps=False
This removes MOST of the bump maps in the game, which results in less jaggies on screen, which then means more clarity. I think the game actually looks better like this. There are still bump maps on vehicles, weapons, and some random textures. The bump maps can still be seen when you fire your weapon because DynamicLights=True. I believe its "Spectral Lighting" but Im not too sure if that term exists in the Unreal3 engine.

EnableHighPolyChars=True
SkeletalMeshLODBias=0
These two settings control the polygon count of the characters, vehicles and weapons. Setting these to the current settings give the best visual quality. We like round wheels and heads dont we?

FogVolumes=False
DetailMode=0
These are the settings that makes my config so much more clearer and saves on video memory. This removes SOME of the fog, glowing auras, misc decorations and random debris scattered in some levels.

ParticleLODBias=2147483647
Hell I dont know, this is the value that is given when you set world detail to 1 *shrug* If it aint broke...

MaxAnisotropy=8
You can set this to whatever you like, but I think a setting of 8 is perfect for texture clarity up close and also clarity further away such as when you are playin VCTF or Warfare.

MaxShadowResolution=1280
As of patch 1.2 I noticed this no longer resets to the defualt 512 anymore, hooray! I recommend changing this to the width of your screen resolution for more accurate shadows. Unfortunately a super high res shadow still looks jaggey/pixelated and changing the shadow filter radius doesnt seem to do much to stop that. Its fine at the defualt setting of 512 if you prefer.

ShadowTexelsPerPixel=1.000000
This setting is normally set to 2. What happens when this is at 2 is that when you get closer to a another player, the shadow will darken...alot. Setting this to 1 prevents the shadow from darkening but a shadow is still visible. Id say this gives a performance increase with shadows on. Arent the Necris dark enough?

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*other settings I have done:

UTEngine.ini
bSmoothFrameRate=True
Framerate smoothing, tick this in the options. I had this off for the longest time. Recently I have found out that it actually does work, I couldnt believe it. With my setup, it isnt realistic that I will play above 60FPS constantly online, so I went ahead and put this back on and it made a good difference on up close firefights.

[ALAudio.ALAudioDevice]
MaxChannels=16 or 24
Since I dont have an actual sound card, this setting helps me when a bunch of people are on screen at once and shooting. When there are more than 16 individual sounds being played at one time, some sound effects (mainly ammunition rounds) will not be played resulting in some random sound skipping for a brief second (less than that really). To me, this means my that my CPU/GPU can focus rendering on whats being seen instead of heard and I wont get pissed at dying because my PC couldnt keep up. Most of the time it isnt even noticable unless you are spraying with the Stinger or Link primary in a packed room.

UTGame.ini
[UTGame.UTPlayerController]
bFirstPersonWeaponsSelfShadow=False
This removes the self shadow rendered on your gun. As I said earlier, no matter what resolution or shadow filter radious setting I changed, there is still pixelation in the shadows' edges. I noticed that when it was on, I kept staring at the guns' flickering shadow > <. Turning it off has put my focus back on the game.

[UTGame.UTHUD]
DamageIndicatorSize=0
This removes the half circle damage indicator when you get hit. In a game like UT where its usually just one hit kills, I see no point in having this on to obstruct your view even more than what the red flashing border already does.

For more screen space, I removed the Leaderboard, Scoreboard, DeathMessages, use Simple Crosshair and small weapons. I hotkeyed the scoreboard to one of my thumb buttons on my Logitech G9. Again, putting more focus on the game and visibility.

If you have an ATI card, set your Catalyst AI to "Advanced". It will give you 5-10more fps in some areas.

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These settings allow me to play UT3 at 35-70FPS on official maps and 70-100+ on custom maps. I play UT3 at 1280x800.
My PC Specs: AMD dual core Opteron 165@2.2Ghz, 2GB GSkill RAM, ATI 2600XT 512MB|DDR3 (dangerously overclocked ) running on optimized VistaUltimate 32Bit. I dont show off my PC in my sig because it wouldnt make anyone say "His PC PWNS!" I do blame my PC sometimes when Im playing below 30FPS online though. I am getting a new video card soon and I know it wont help me much because Im bottlenecked by my CPU, but I will also use it on my next system.

These tweaks took me a month or two to figure out with alot of trail and error. UT3 even started to make me doubt my PC performance. I've tried playing on 1/1 settings like some people, and I just couldnt do it, I just cant! I think UT3 deserves to at least be played with high texture and polygon quality at least. I started writing and taking pics for this guide today when I randomly woke up at 4am on a Saturday morning (wtf I know). Let me know if this makes your UT3 experience much more playable and enjoyable. Happy Fraggin!

I guess if you still have questions, I can attempt to answer them but remember Im no expert. Go to Ultron's thread for that stuff.

[Zealot]

awesome write-up MTL

admin plz sticky this topic....plz


/me goes off to test the ShadowTexelsPerPixel=1.000000

[joe74509]

Great job!!!
These informations are very useful. Thanks for sharing!
Can I ask which tweak option can improve the DECK fps drop at the portal?

[MTL]

I cant be sure exactly which one it is, but its either DetailMode=0, Distortion=False, or DirectionalLightmaps=False. Yeah it will remove your bump maps, but I swear it fixed my problem.
I dont have that portal lag anymore. My major problematic area is where the BioRifle is. Standing at the BioRifle and staring down the bridge would normally drop my FPS in the 20's. It doesnt happen anymore though Now it plays in around 35FPS in the same area.

[D-Hunter]

These should be True:

CompositeDynamicLights=False
Bloom=False

Increases performance with no drop in quality.

[Stringer]

160FPS in a large game with everything maxed *Boast* *Brag*.

Bloom is lighting effect gives that glowing look when light reflects off an object its an increase in visual qulity with a slight decrease in performance due to the light processing.

[Sincreator]

Exelent thread MTL. Wow, you must of spent all morning doing this. Me and Truly Gifted were playing while you were making this thread.lol Hopefully I will see you on later. See Ya!

[MTL]

*edit, OK no nvm, dont change ParticleLODBias to 0. Will kill your frames online ;/

[Finzy]

I don't see the use of disabling Static Decals and Lens Flares. Nearly any computer (except those that barely meet the minimum requirements) can run the game with those settings on without any FPS loss whatsoever. They just disable the sun (and similar effects like lamp glow and such AFAIK) and minor details like posters and markings on the maps.

Unless they distract your game experience. But anyone who doesn't mind seeing them shouldn't turn these options off IMO.

And I don't recommend anyone with 1 GB of RAM to use texture detail of 5. In worst cases it can lock up your game when starting a match, and it generally lowers your performance and increases load times. I'd recommend 3 or 4 instead, depending on the rest of your comp specs, but definitely not 5 unless you have 2 GB of RAM or more. Increasing your page file size may help with this, but it may increase your load times as well.

Nice tweaks otherwise though, I just wish I had a better CPU myself.

[MTL]

oh man, I just realized that you dont need "Bloom" on to have glowing lights (which is the only effect i wanted to keep from blooms). Simply having DepthOfField=True will give those glowing effects. Having DOF on and Bloom off doesnt make much of a difference to visuals, but if it gives you more frames, and still give that clarity Im looking for, then thats all I need.
I will test this out online and see if it makes a difference from Bloom on/off and will update pics accordingly.
*edit, it works good online.

*edit, ok yeah just having DepthOfField on with no Blooms rocks! Its just the "look" im looking for and also with great performance. Dunno how much longer I could stand the faded PPP2 setting.
Now if I could figure out how to keep just the glowing/HDR effect without the overbright "white" textures and sky, this will be perfect.
Only way I could reduce whiteness is to play on Default and drop the brightness down to 4.

[Zombielord]

Just wanted to say thanks MTL for such a great guide. i have went from a usual 20-40fps to 35-70FPS! this game is very playable for me now thanks to your guide and the stuff you get rid off you dont hardly notice! i think it may look better in some ways! anyway thanks again and keep use posted if you ever have any updates on this guide.

my pc specs as you see is pretty mid range...

Athlon 64x2 2.3ghz
2 gigs of ram
8500GT 512mb
Windows Vista 32bit

[MTL]

kools, ty.
Btw, is this Zombie3.Lord? Ive played with you a few times. I was looking at your stats and notice you play alot of Warfare. For that game mode, i would not recommend having:
EnableHighPolyChars=True
SkeletalMeshLODBias=0

but instead
EnableHighPolyChars=False
SkeletalMeshLODBias=2 or above (set to 9 if you dont really care about character quality)

With the large amount of people and vehicles onscreen at a time, this should give you a little more frames by reducing the polygon count. Reducing gore will help a tremendous amount during warfare.

[Zombielord]

well my name is just Zombielord....and i only played warfare a couple of times..so must be someone else. but thanks for the tips!

[Andeh]

im bumping this thread because I believe its very usefull, and everyone who enters this forum, should be able to make use of it without sifting through pages of peoples whining and *****ing that the game doesnt work on their system.

[MTL]

Just a tiny performance update that I didnt think about earlier.
If you were already using Texture Detail 5, here is something that you might want to consider doing for more performance during firefights where explosive weapons such as the rocket launcher or flak secondary are used.

paste this over your TEXTUREGROUP_Effects line.
TEXTUREGROUP_Effects=(MinLODSize=256,MaxLODSize=25 6,LODBias=0)
* for some reason the forum keeps putting a space between the 5 and the 6? there shouldnt be a space there~!

This reduces the texture resolution and quality of explosions. I never thought about this back when I had my 2600XT but many times the game froze when I shot a rocket launcher up close (usually killing myself) The game would freeze and do the infinite sound loop.
I came about these numbers by setting my texture resolution to "1" and then copying this line and then pasting it over a texture "5" line in the config.
I believe with this change, you will get slightly more performance when other people (or you) are shooting alot of rockets and flak. I have tested out even smaller values, and unfortunetly 256 is the recommended lowest value to set it to before the explosions start to turn into rotating squares. The visual change isnt that noticable, but if it will prevent frames from dropping when theres a rocket party, then its all good.

[MTL]

OMFG~! I have finally figured out how to lower the bumpmap resolution!!! This might not sound like a big deal, but it is to me. I have turned off DirectionalLightmaps=False since the beginning because I honestly didnt like how everything was soo...."bumpy" and I mean everything.
I have had this off for some time now and I kinda missed the "reflectiveness" of the textures' spectral lighting. So just a while ago, through alot of testing, I figured out the perfect bumpmap depth/res so that it doesnt stick out. It really looked odd to me when there was an extreamly bumpy texture right next to a flat one. It just didnt make any sense.
With this texture tweak, everything now looks flush and friggin amazing~! You get the reflectiveness back, and also it makes the textures look soo much better because it adds character, compared to when DirectionalLightmaps=False setting. The bumpmaps dont stick out as much as they used to, which caused a distraction for me while playing.

Expect an entire revision of this thread with updated pics (and maybe a video?) This tweak should not have in impact on performance if you have at least 512MB video card or are currently using my tweaks. The bumpmaps were the ONLY thing I didnt like about the UT3 graphics, and I can finally say that I now love it.
Im thinking of asking BradG to put a button to enable all of these tweaks in his Tweaker.....wonder if he'll comply.

I think I will only update this for the PPP1 settings, not sure. These are settings Ive done with my 9600GT and might not be recommended for people with lower mid range cards such as 2600GT and 8600GTS, but for 9600GT and 3850/3870 users.

[MTL]

MPPP
Mega Perfect Picture and Peformance guide? Ok yeah the names are getting rediculous now...
Got a 9600GT the other week and once again I am tweaking! I tried cranking the graphics back up to 5/5 since they were now playable at max, but I really dont like all those extra lighting effects and such. So I have been using my old PPP1 tweaks. I recently have found out a few more things to modifiy for more performance, and then get a little prettier from the older tweaks.
These tweaks are recommended for people with higher midrange cards such as: Nvidia 9600GT, ATI 3850, ATI 3870. You can try them on your other lower midrange cards, but Im gonna have to say they might drop your frames a little more than the previous page. Either way, these tweaks will allow you to play UT3 waaay better than 5/5 and the visual difference is negligable. Now you will be playing at higher and smoother frames, and of course, with less effects you dont need.

To get these tweaks, set Texture Detail to 5 and World Detail to 1, and then open UTEngine.ini in your MyGames/UnrealTournament3/UTGame/Config

[SystemSettings]
StaticDecals=False
DynamicDecals=True
DynamicLights=True
DynamicShadows=True
LightEnvironmentShadows=True
CompositeDynamicLights=False
DirectionalLightmaps=True
MotionBlur=False
DepthOfField=True
Bloom=False
QualityBloom=False
Distortion=False
DropParticleDistortion=True
SpeedTreeLeaves=True
SpeedTreeFronds=True
OnlyStreamInTextures=True
LensFlares=True
FogVolumes=False
FloatingPointRenderTargets=True
Trilinear=True
OneFrameThreadLag=True
UseVsync=False
UpscaleScreenPercentage=True
Fullscreen=True
AllowD3D10=False
EnableHighPolyChars=True
SkeletalMeshLODBias=0
ParticleLODBias=2147483647
DetailMode=0
ShadowFilterQualityBias=-1
MaxAnisotropy=8
MaxMultisamples=1
MinShadowResolution=32
MaxShadowResolution=1680
ResX=1680 your res might be different
ResY=1050 your res might be different
ScreenPercentage=100.000000
SceneCaptureStreamingMultiplier=1.000000
FoliageDrawRadiusMultiplier=1.000000
ShadowTexelsPerPixel=1.000000
TEXTUREGROUP_WorldNormalMap=(MinLODSize=48,MaxLODS ize=48,LODBias=1)
TEXTUREGROUP_Effects=(MinLODSize=256,MaxLODSize=25 6,LODBias=0) < MaxLODSize should say 256, but the forum keeps putting a space...

Here are some pics of the new bumpmap tweak on textures. Its really hard to tell from the pictures. It really has to be seen through gameplay how much more flush the textures are now. The bumpmaps dont stand out as much as before and now enhance the textures around them and it looks more uniform.



Will update more pix later, imageshack is not loading right...

Jeez, well just enabling the bumpmaps takes a pretty big hit? Ok im unsure bout this tweak now...

[SquiD]

Anyway to slight decrease graphics? I have a single core Pentium 4 @ 2.4 Ghz, ATI Radeon HD 2400 @ 779/680, 2 gbs of RAM. I am using PP2 settings.

[MTL]

wait...you want a slight decrease in graphics because you are already running this game smooth on a P4 and an ATI 2400? >_>
Anyways if you want to do it that way....crank everything to 5/5 then change DetailMode=0, you wont even notice the difference.

[SquiD]

Sorry I should made it clear, im experiencing lag, that why I want to turn it down. How cna I view my FPS?

[MTL]

enter console with F10, then type "statfps"
or use an external program such as FRAPS.

[rek]

thanx for the guide, i've picked up about 10 frames across the board...still looks good enough to me, and i'm at 800 x 600 res.
athlon 5200x2 2.7g,pny 8500gt 512meg, 3gigsram,vista hm 32bit

[Shadow Dancer]

Great job!!!
These informations are very useful. Thanks for sharing!
Can I ask which tweak option can improve the DECK fps drop at the portal?

Turning off bCheckRelevancyThroughPortals helped me out a lot with that. It's in UTGame.

[SquiD]

Hey I got a 8800 GT, So umm i got confuse what are the like best settings?

[hateeyes]

I aply this yesterday to my config, and my game become´s so beautifull, nice work, thank!!!!!

[MTL]

Hey I got a 8800 GT, So umm i got confuse what are the like best settings?

best settings for wha? an 8800GT should be able to run it on max no problem if you CPU is up to it. But if you want that assurance of maximum performance while still looking good, just set DetailMode=0. Its what I tell everyone.

[Nightmare85]

Hi,
I know this thread is not the newest, but I did not want to create an extra thread for my "problem".

Does anyone have an idea, how I can remove the juggernaut effects?
Some guys don't have them and it makes no difference if they pick up a power-up or not.
Their view is still the same.
My juggernaut view looks like this:


Thanks for any help.

Greets

[Fliperaci]

@night, sry i have no idea.
But I really like this thread. It helped me to gain a lot of fps =)

Edit: But I want to see the Nightshade and some Flak shells :O so i kicked Distortion on :P