An even newer UT2k3 beta just out

[Babel-17]

http://unreal.epicgames.com/files/ut2003-winpatch2179BETA.exe

Well, it's nice that saving the dl link and just typing in a new version number works. :)

Just got it, impressions to come. At least some files are very new, some only 12 hours old.

[Babel-17]

Nice. The bug where assault rifle and shock primary fire did no damage is gone.

Also interesting is that it seems when benchmarking 'botmatches a static camera is now used. This could mean FINALLY that we'll get consistent numbers when comparing performance between builds as previously new builds meant arbitrarily different default 'botmatch benches being run. That was/is my experience anyways.

Sound seems improved. I'll post what the concensus is over at the Infogrames boards later.

Final should be out very soon imo but they may hold release back to coincide with the Bonus Pack. I don't see the logic in that but we'll see.

[Babel-17]

Toonses give it the "thumbs up". Here's the thread which also contains another dl link.

http://www.ina-community.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=252098



Toonces T. Cat
Community Veteran

Posts: 246
Registered: May 2000

The 2179Beta Patch Absolutely, Positively Fixes the Web Admin Problem!!!

Epic, I have five words for you:

THIS PATCH IS THE SH1T!

It fixes more of the serious problems than all of the others put together. I beat the crap out of it tonight on a pretty much packed mods server running CTF and it never even broke a sweat let alone crash on me...and I never...NOT EVEN ONCE...lost control of the web admin...

Now that I can actually, and reliably, maintain the critter through the web interface, I will have it back up and running everyday from 5:00pm till 7:00am and 24 hours on the weekends.

The 2179Beta patch is some outstanding work. I have b1tched mightily at you about this game and now that you've done this much in one fell swoop, it's only fair that you get the praise you deserve.

Thanks!

-Toonces...

__________________
Stuffed Cats Inc. - Low Gravity & Vicious Bots

Website: http://129.113.170.34

Stuffed Cats Inc. Server IP: 129.113.170.56

[Babel-17]

http://unreal.epicgames.com/files/ut2003-winpatch2184BETA.exe

Thanks to KirinRiotCrash for the heads up on this. The "trick" of just changing the version number in the old dl link still works so I didn't have to hunt for this. Hopefully this beta patch is close to being the real deal and they can get those bonus packs out the door. :)

Here's the link to the thread where I got the changelog.


http://www.ina-community.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=255018



v2184 beta changelog

Just to let everyone know that there's a new beta floating about.

quote:Changes since 2181:

- updated localization
- fixed garbage collection memory leak on certain levels (didn't happen on
dedicated servers, but only on listen servers). Caused crash on listen
servers.
- fixed local stats for instagib
- fixed domination hud for spectators
- added the exec command "specviewgoal" that will attempt to show
the current goal (be it the flag/ball/dom point or the guy holding
it).
- fixed banning someone in internet games bans all spectators
- fixed 'half op" status for IRC client
- display channel topic for IRC client
- For custom game types, have seperate 'Custom' tab with combo box in the
server browser.
- Benchmarked botmatches require ?attractcam=true to be appended on the
command line
after ?quickstart=true to work like before
- updated version to support German low-gore that can't be overridden
through .ini file change (to get UT2003 un-banned in Germany)


==================================================
Full change list since 2166:

GamePlay:
- now support left handed weapons
- fixed hidden weapons appearing occasionally on respawn
- spectators don't show up on DM scoreboard at end of match
- FPH doesn't change after match ends
- shock combos now work after going through static meshes, and at all
angles.
- Fixed when entering a painzone you take double the damage/second in the
first
second and the correct amount thereafter.
- added exec function SwitchToLastWeapon (bound to E by default)
- fixed megaspeed DMMutator game option.
- improved bombing run AI (better AI reset between scores)
- fix for CTF flag can't be picked up
- fixed showing flag icon on scoreboard even if holder not relevant
- fixed throwing out minigun screwing up assault rifle
- added server option bBrightSkins to [UnrealGame.DMMutator] (and in the
game rules menu). Setting it to true makes player skins brighter.
- fixed rocketlauncher can lock onto invasion monsters (bonuspack)
- change weapon sound pitch when berserk
- added bPreloadAllSkins config option to UT2003.ini, in the
[UnrealGame.UnrealMPGameInfo] section. Its false by default.
If true, all skins and character models referenced in .upl files are
preloaded. Only set this option to true if you have
a lot of system RAM (512 MB or more). This option reduces the hitch
experienced when new players join a multiplayer game during gameplay.
- only allow restartgame() to be called once.
- added a GetWeaponStats exec function, which writes weapon info to the log
for tracking down weapon problems
- Fixed VoiceMenu Acknowledgements to use the abbreviated versions if
available
- other clients hear rockets being loaded
- fixed local stats for instagib
- fixed domination hud for spectators
- added the exec command "specviewgoal" that will attempt to show
the current goal (be it the flag/ball/dom point or the guy holding
it).

Mod support:
- GameRules.NetDamage() always called in team games, and
GameRules.ScoreKill() not called twice
- momentum is passed as an out (by reference) parameter in
GameInfo.ReduceDamage() and GameRules.NetDamage()
- moved teammate momentum reduction to TeamGame.ReduceDamage()
- added ClientReceiveCombo() to xPlayer, to allow replication of mutator
combos.
- Mod authors can now add keys to the config menu. See
XInterface.GUIUserKeyBinding for info "how to".
- added support for pushing skins and meshes down from the server, with the
PlayerRecordClass

Use PlayerRecordClass to push down player skins and meshes from the server.
For example, if the Reaper clan was running a server, and had their own
clan skin in ReaperSkin.utx, here's what they'd need to do:

Create a new ReaperMod.u file, with the class Reaper in it. The package
name must be the class name with "mod" appended. Reaper is a subclass of
PlayerRecordClass, with
all the default properties set appropriately to setup up the character.
Clan members will need to have a .upl file with the same character
definition.

The server will need to have both ReaperSkin and ReaperMod in its
serverpackages.

Networking:
- improved cheat protection
- spectating improvements
- single pass through actor list for first pass relevancy determination for
all connections. Improves server CPU utilization by 20% to 30%
for servers with large numbers of players
- hide passwords in URL
- added bAdminCanPause configurable property to GameInfo. It's true by
default. To change it to false, add
bAdminCanPause=false to the [Engine.GameInfo] section of your UT2003.ini
file.
- fixed precision problems with ping calculation
- fixed adminsay bringing up MOTD on clients
- fixed bots not properly losing player enemies when players log out of net
games.
- Fixed LAN broadcast bug which caused problems in the LAN tab when
multiple UT2003 servers were run on the same machine
- TcpLink/UdpLink eventReceivedBinary fix.
- Fixed Bug in CheckIPPolicy
- fixed port swapping bug.
- maxspectators can be passed on command line
- Fix for Admin's Managed Groups
- Fixed Admin names showing multiple times when in multiple groups
- Added several game options to Web Admin
- Fixed Web Admin SetPlayInfo so that it won't be called twice on DMMutator
- Fixed MutatorFillPlayInfo so that it chains. Do not override
MutatorFillPlayInfo, just override FillPlayInfo
- Fixed MD5 package protection so that it would stop resetting all
RevisionLevels to 0 on loadup
- Fixed Web Admin Friendly Fire defaults
- Fixed Kick Command in AdminINI
- Changed the seperator character for the in-game admin menu from | to ESC
- Made Extended Console stop complaining when a MusicManagerClass wasn't
defined.
- Fixed UTServerAdmin so it would pass PreQuery and PostQuery calls to mods
- fixed banning someone in internet games bans all spectators

Demo Recording:
- Fixed occasional (!Closing) crash on playback
- fixed shock beam on client-side demos
- When recording demos on a client, listen server or single player, the
demo file only records demo frames at the frame rate specified in
NetServerMaxTickRate in the [Engine.DemoRecDriver] section of
UT2003.ini. This does not effect the frame rate, only the rate at which
frames are written to the demo recording file. This solves the problem
of slow demo playback of client-side demos on machines which are not as
fast as the recording machine.
- fixed bug where ?timedemo was accidentaly including the precaching time

Menus/Interface:
- LowSoundQuality option is saved properly.
- maps listed alphabetically
- Added Map name to loading screen
- fixed bug where menu mouse resolution was dependent on direction
- added "MouseX/YMultiplier" to scale raw mouse input in
[WinDrv.WindowsClient] in your UT2003.ini
- added support for up to 8 mouse buttons
- Fixed some Accessed None spam in the UI
- fixed 'half op" status for IRC client
- display channel topic for IRC client
- For custom game types, have seperate 'Custom' tab with combo box in the
server browser.

OpenGL
- fixed bug which caused game to reverted to D3DDrv after patching
- added code to disable specular if neither ATI_texture_env_combine3 nor
NV_texture_env_combine4 are exposed (Linux DRI drivers)
- worked around fog related driver bug in older ATI drivers
- added code to switch back to desktop resolution at exit (Win98)

D3D
- fixed bug related to OverrideDesktopRefreshRate option
- added workaround for HW bug on certain older NVIDIA cards
- changed code to handle D3DERR_DEVICELOST on initial device creation

Sound
- updated DefOpenAL32.DLL with latest version from Creative

Other:
- fixed big memory leak caused by garbage collection problem with certain
levels (occurred on level change)
- fixed occasional crash which occurred during garbage collection on level
changes, or when joining a server
- fixed sporadic karma physics crash
- performance improvement: frame rate based culldistance for player shadows
- Benchmarked botmatches require ?attractcam=true to be appended on the
command line
after ?quickstart=true to work like before

__________________
-',-@ Charlotte Church fan @-,'-

the garden of saphiria | ChaosUT 2003, Artist and Slacker
XP 2100+ | 512 DDR 333 | Radeon9700Pro
She's Mobile --> [here]

[Ailuros]

Uhmmm no nocd crack yet, no candy :D

[Emig5m]

UT2k3's graphics are gorgeous here on my r9700pro with maxxed out settings. Can't wait to play a "real" game with graphics like this! :headbang:

[Ailuros]

I would guess that most R300 users are aware of the texture quality bug when aniso gets enabled in UT2003.

If it hasn't been fixed yet, make sure that you set from the default:

DetailTexMipBias=0.800000

to 0.000000.

And before I hear any cheat crap from anyone, it doesn't affect performance one bit. Apparently the game doesn't digest well with the LOD adjustments of ATI's aniso algorithm.

[Babel-17]

Is that when allowing the game to set aniso? I've read of that bug but either the later patches fixed it or using the ATI control panel to set aniso bypasses any bugs. I just tested and I see no easily noticeable difference in IQ and framerates are very close. A teensy bit lower with a less positive lod but that's to be expected. Btw, thanks for the tip on trilinear, it does make a decent difference to disable trilinear and IQ doesn't really degrade (again, by way of the Control Panel).

[Ailuros]

From what I've been gathering it's rather a driver bug and has been fixed since 6218 for R200's or lower models.


According to feedback it's still there in the Cat3.0 drivers. Not modifying the ini from 0.8 to 0.0 as in the former post, will result in worse texture quality with 16xAF on, than off.

If you want to make sure wether the bug is present or not, try leaving the ini at default 0.8 and look carefully around in say BR-Anubis, with and w/o 16xAF. If the latter turns out worse, then just set the value in the ini to 0 and you're golden again.

[Babel-17]

Thanks!

[Emig5m]

Originally posted by Babel-17
Btw, thanks for the tip on trilinear, it does make a decent difference to disable trilinear and IQ doesn't really degrade (again, by way of the Control Panel).

What control panel? ATI Control panel? If so.. I don't see anything that lets you select tri/bi filtering. I did shut it off for now in the game...

BTW, anymore l33t .ini settings?

Here's a copy/paste of my [D3DDrv.D3DRenderDevice]:

[D3DDrv.D3DRenderDevice]
DetailTextures=True
HighDetailActors=True
SuperHighDetailActors=True
UsePrecaching=True
UseTrilinear=False
AdapterNumber=-1
ReduceMouseLag=True
UseTripleBuffering=False
UseHardwareTL=True
UseHardwareVS=True
UseCubemaps=True
DesiredRefreshRate=60
UseCompressedLightmaps=False
UseStencil=False
Use16bit=False
Use16bitTextures=False
MaxPixelShaderVersion=255
UseVSync=False
LevelOfAnisotropy=1
DetailTexMipBias=0.000000
DefaultTexMipBias=-0.500000
UseNPatches=False
TesselationFactor=1.000000
CheckForOverflow=False
DecompressTextures=False
UseXBoxFSAA=False
DescFlags=0
Description=
AvoidHitches=False
OverrideDesktopRefreshRate=False

Anything look outa whack there? Should I enable TripleBuffering and NPatches? LOL and what's UseXBoxFSAA? ;)

[Babel-17]

Setting ReduceMouseLag to False can save you a LOT of frames per second. Not for everyone. See the mouse tweaking link. Lowering the karma physics can also take a huge load off the cpu. In the ATI control panel setting aniso to "performance" forces bi-linear afaik. I also set MipMap detail down one notch from max quality as the high negative lod of max quality is imo shimmer producing. I also use the tweak to force the max refresh rate.

Mouse tweak link. (currently the ina forums are down due to the dos attacks)

http://ina-community.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=225912




[D3DDrv.D3DRenderDevice]
DetailTextures=True
HighDetailActors=True
SuperHighDetailActors=False
UsePrecaching=True
UseTrilinear=True
AdapterNumber=-1
ReduceMouseLag=False
UseTripleBuffering=False
UseHardwareTL=True
UseHardwareVS=True
UseCubemaps=True
DesiredRefreshRate=85
UseCompressedLightmaps=True
UseStencil=False
Use16bit=False
Use16bitTextures=False
MaxPixelShaderVersion=255
UseVSync=False
LevelOfAnisotropy=1
DetailTexMipBias=0.800000
DefaultTexMipBias=-0.500000
UseNPatches=False
TesselationFactor=1.000000
CheckForOverflow=False
AvoidHitches=False
OverrideDesktopRefreshRate=False
DecompressTextures=False
UseXBoxFSAA=False
DescFlags=0
Description=

[Emig5m]

Originally posted by Babel-17
In the ATI control panel setting aniso to "performance" forces bi-linear afaik.

Cool... I already had it set there.

Originally posted by Babel-17
I also set MipMap detail down one notch from max quality as the high negative lod of max quality is imo shimmer producing.

Again, cool. I did notice some shimmering, not too bad, but I also didn't know what caused it either or what would help get rid of it.

Setting ReduceMouseLag to False can save you a LOT of frames per second. Not for everyone. See the mouse tweaking link....

Mouse tweak link. (currently the ina forums are down due to the dos attacks)

http://ina-community.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=225912

Yea, I saved that whole page so I could reference back to it if ever I lost my internet connection... Following that made my control.. well.. real laggy/delayed. :confused: Hrmm... Mabye I should go back over each setting a step at a time again. Mabye I missed something. :confused:

[Babel-17]

What kind of mouse do you have?

[Ailuros]

Babel,

Just adding the MouseAccelThreshold=100.00000 line is the best mouse tweak of them all. Or is it already present in 2166?

[Babel-17]

Good question! :)

Lol, let me check.

Ok, I'm back. :) I forgot, I "tweaked" mine per Vogels suggestion before they ever offered the option.

I go with MouseAccelThreshold=5.000000

[Ailuros]

I recall Vogel recommending a 100 value, but I haven't tried 5 yet. I haven't re-installed yet UT2003. I'm keeping the installation as low as possible until the new stuff arrives next week. Albeit I'm confident that I won't be needing a format, I can't be sure either.

[Emig5m]

Originally posted by Babel-17
What kind of mouse do you have?

A little brown one, why? :confused:

http://emig5m.homestead.com/files/mouse.JPG

Should I go to the pet shop and try a white one instead? :confused:

[Babel-17]

OT

Why am I not surprised the infogrames boards have been down all day. Symbolic of a game with brilliant coders yet suffering from slapdash execution. I dare say daily beatings with the humble stick might be called for. Imo they suffer a tad from the publicity whore syndrome.

I know that very few here follow the gossip and infighting but many/most of the best in the "community" who make the skins and mods are/were close to chucking it ...... the next to latest patch finally appeased them a bit as it gives them much of what they need for online support but it was THIS close.

[Babel-17]

Lol at the mouse pic. :)

Ailuros, I think I was vague in my response, my memory is that Vogel liked 10. I experimented a tad and went with 5. Hmmm, my memory stinks so now I'll have to "speriment" a bit. :)

[Emig5m]

Lol... That mouse was snake food for my snake but my snake doesn't seem to wanna eat during the winter and since the mouse survived most of the winter living with a python, I gave it a presidential pardon.... ;)

Nah seriously though... I have a logitech optical trackball. I went over the mouse tweak settings 1-by-1 AGAIN and it wasn't all that laggy.. more kinda like just a different feel.. but it doesn't seem to have the precision as with just leaving mouse smoothing and reduce mouse lag on. I'll just leave it at what works for me. :)

[Babel-17]

Yup, good call imo. For what it's worth the patches have been tending to both reduce the hit with ReduceMouseLag set to True and getting the mouse more responsive with it off or on. So hopefully this will eventually be largely a non-issue anyway. Right now I'm waiting for both Unreal II and for the two bonus packs for UT2k3 (one from Epic, one from DE SWEET!) :)

The new textures from these three sources should help spur the mapping community.

[Emig5m]

I always loved the quality of the maps in the official bonus packs for the originial UT. Can't wait to see the first bonus pack for UT2k3.