UT2004 - Tweaks

User.ini

[DefaultPlayer]

Name= Your Player Character goes here, maximum 16 characters. This is the easiest place you can edit your name to get cool characters as you could copy and paste your cool looking text here.

[Engine.Input]

All commands for the game engine keys are here, including Speech bindings, Taunts and controls. These range from Aliases to the "F" keys. Most of them are pretty self explanatory, such as F1 shows the current scores so the command line says "F1=ShowScores" and so on.

To set up a key to switch between your favorite weapons such as i do, place 2 weapon descriptions on the same line. Notice the symbol between the weapon selections is a "pipe" command. Hold Shift and press \

G=pipedswitchweapon 4| pipedswitchweapon 8

[Engine.Vehicle]

bVehicleShadows=True

Toggles shadows under vehicles, change to False if you are getting slow down or bad lag, this should increase FPS with only a small drop in detail.

[Engine.Player]

ConfiguredInternetSpeed=10000

This setting is used for internet/LAN traffic, the higher the figure the more information is sent/received from the server you are connected too. Changeling this setting can smooth out some lag issues you may be having.

For 56K modems, anything from 2400 and 4000 for optimal ping. You could change this figure to your currently connected kbps speed but never higher. A setting to be played around with to get best results.

For ADSL/DSL/Cable anything from 6000 - 8000. Remember while playing internet based games you may have a 1Mb download but you are still restricted by your upload speed as well. Keep this below 10000 for best results.

Don't forget lag also is dependent on the distance from you and the server, how many players are connected, server settings and speeds. These can not be changed by the client and so you will get lag regardless of what you tweak. Capping your netspeed also caps your FPS, 60FPS for 5000 and 90FPS for 8000 and so on. You can change netspeed in game by using the "netspeed" command.

[XInterface.GUIController]

bQuietMenu=False

Turns off the sound while in the in-game menu system.

bNoToolTips=False

Disables the small gray tips box in the menu system.

[Engine.PlayerInput]

MouseSamplingTime=+0.008333

Changes your mouse scaling, best set in game so you can test it straight away.

[UnrealGame.UnrealPawn]

bPlayOwnFootSteps=True

Toggles foot step sound effects.

[GUI2K4.UT2k4MainPage]

TotalUnlockedCharacters=Malcolm;ClanLord;Xan

Small cheat to allow access to the complete list of single player opponents in the campaign game section. Just enter the test above next to this line in the user.ini

UT2004.ini

[URL]

LocalMap=NvidiaLogo.ut2

Change this to "NoIntro.ut2" too skip the Nvidia loadup screen, this will decrease the UT2004 loading time but also changes the theme music from UT classic music to the UT2003 music.

If you are using a ATI Graphics Card you can Download the ATI graphic from UT2004files.com and copy it to the \UT2004\Maps directory. Then insert "ATILogo.ut2" instead.

[Engine.Engine]

RenderDevice=D3DDrv.D3DRenderDevice

By default UT2004 uses the Direct3D API. But you can also opt for the OpenGL, D3D9 (D3D DirectX9), or Pixomatic (Software) modes. All the settings should be in the UT2004.ini file but with a ; in front of them. This command makes the game ignore that line, so just remove it from the line you need and insert a ; on the old line so that the old line is ignored. This setting can be played with to find the best results for your system, go ahead try them all out, but only have one non ; line at a time.

[Engine.GameEngine]

CacheSizeMegs=32

This sets aside RAM to be used for caching UT2004, on a system with 512Mb set it to 64 but there is no need to go higher even if you have 1Gb RAM.

UseSound=True

Toggles sound on and off

[WinDrv.WindowsClient]

Brightness=0.700000
Contrast=0.700000
Gamma=0.870000

These setting can be easy adjusted in-game so you can see the effect right away.

MinDesiredFrameRate=35.000000

This is the FPS UT2004 will try to keep too, UT will start to change textures and scenery so the min frame rate is kept. better the FPS, the smoother UT will be.

MouseYMultiplier=1.000000
MouseXMultiplier=1.000000

More mouse scaling options, only change these if the in-game options are not enough.

[ALAudio.ALAudioSubsystem]

CompatibilityMode=False

Set this to True if you are getting sound issues, this may help.

UsePrecache=True

By default this is set to True, UT2004 will load as much sound into memory when a map is loaded. If this is set to false sound will be loaded as its needed resulting in small pauses while playing, best left at True

Channels=32

This sets the number of sound channel UT will use, best sound is heard with 32 channels but if you need to improve FPS with a little sound cost drop this to 16 channels.

AmbientVolume=0.300000

This changes the overall sound level for music and sound effects, best changed in-game to you can test the results.

[Engine.DemoRecDriver]

NetServerMaxTickRate=30
LanServerMaxTickRate=30

This is used in conjunction with the demorec command. Demo's are normally capped at 30FPS so on a fast PC you may wish to increase this to something higher. The LAN tick rate only works on LAN based recorded demo's.

[D3DDrv.D3DRenderDevice]

If you are using the default renderer then changes here will effect FPS and performance. While using OpenGL and Software mode changes here will do nothing.

HighDetailActors=True

Changing this to False will improve FPS but drop the detail on the characters

SuperHighDetailActors=True

Changing this setting to false will improve FPS but drop character detail

UsePrecaching=True

By default this is set to True, UT2004 will load as many character skins as needed into memory when a map is loaded. If this is set to false sound will be loaded as its needed resulting in small pauses while playing, best left at True

UseTripleBuffering=True

Set this to True to reduce screen graphic "tearing" (when VSync is off) and improve FPS. On older Graphics cards set this to false, this may clear any graphic issues you may have.

UseHardwareTL=True

If you have a Graphics card that uses Transforms and Lighting (T&L) set this to true for best FPS. Any issues set back to False.

UseHardwareVS=True

If you have a Graphics card that uses Vertex Shader set this to true for best FPS. Any issues set back to False.

UseCubemaps=True

This setting changes the "mirror" effects from surfaces like water etc. set this to False to improve FPS.

DesiredRefreshRate=60

Changes your Monitor refresh rate, default is 60 but you can change this to a higher value to cur down on any flicker. This is very much dependant on your monitor so please check your monitor spec.

UseCompressedLightmaps=True

Best set to True as this gives the best FPS results. If you have a monster os a PC then you could try this to False to improve loading times but may impair FPS.

Use16bitTextures=False

Changing this to true will use the lower quality 16-bit textures, this will improve FPS but at the cost of image quality.

UseVSync=False

This will sync you monitor and graphics card Vertical refresh rates. This setting needs to be played with to get best results, it is best set to False for better FPS. Be careful about changing any Video settings as they may conflict with your Windows desktop settings, make sure your PC can run a desired resolution/refresh rate from windows before trying it in UT.

LevelOfAnisotropy=1

This setting improves texture quality at a FPS performance price. Best left as default and changed via your desktop/control panel settings.

AvoidHitches=False

This setting can help prevent any system pauses or hitches but at the price of lowering FPS. Use this as a last resort to cure such issues as other settings can cure pauses/hitches with out a FPS cost.

DecompressTextures=False

Compressed graphics reduce image quality but increase FPS, this is best left as false. If you are running on a monster PC try this as True for best image quality.

OverrideDesktopRefreshRate=False

Setting this to True will let you set UT2004 graphic settings beyond that desktop scope, use wisely.

[D3D9Drv.D3D9RenderDevice]
[OpenGLDrv.OpenGLRenderDevice]
[PixoDrv.PixoRenderDevice]

Changing these setting will impact your Direct3D9, OpenGL or Pixomatic renderers rather than Direct3D. For best comparability i would stick with Direct3D as your renderer, as it gives the best performance and stability with UT2004 on all graphics cards.

[xInterface.ExtendedConsole]

bSpeechMenuUseMouseWheel=True

This will scroll through the speech menu on a scroll mouse wheel. Set to False to disable this feature.