UT3: First Impressions (i.e. did your machine run it?)

Interesting, some of us had no problems downloading/playing and some of us did. The pc setup, based on the posts, does not seem to matter, except for those that have something other than XP32/Vista32 OS loaded. All have the most up-to-date video drivers installed.

Wonder why some players are getting errors/problems and others are not!!!!!!!

My sympathy to the people who can't play. Hopefully Epic gets it sorted out.

Rig:
Dual Core 2.4Ghz Intel
nVidia 7600GT
2gig RAM

Game settings:
1080x786 (or something like that)
Max detail (sliders to the right!)

FPS: 20

So yeah, I get 20fps with the sliders on "Advanced" on the right. Even though it's 20fps, the game's still playable, and it looks amazing. It's comparable to Gears of War, right down to the delay in texture rendering.

I was sure the game would chug, but Epic did a great job. I heard the actual max isn't in the demo, so I may upgrade anyway.

I don't think I've anything to say that hasn't already been said. It's a shift back to UT99's feel. The wall dodge is in there, but I've yet to find a use for it. I like it.

Vehicles are great. I'm loving the Raptor. Slow to reverse, but I terrorize the bots with it. >

Even better is the Darkwalker. The effect of its tentacles moving to walk up the side of a building is awesome. While it does throw the balance of the game off, it's so much fun to hunt people "War of the Worlds"-style. I like that vehicles like the hellbender have given the driver the passenger's weapons. Now I can do drive-by's with skymines! The hellfire (aka artillery-truck, aka SPAM cannon) now aims shells with the mouse. Point and click shelling: SO MUCH BETTER than UT2k4's weird keyboard method. Ooh! and the Scorpion's fun, too. The "suicide bomb" (boost then bail out) is great for destroying the Goliath.

I like the hoverboards; now I don't have waste time hiking across the map if a vehicle isn't handy. As for not having weapons and being knocked down, I think it perfectly balances the extra speed, especially for flag carriers (who drop the flag when hit on the HB.) I'm constantly deciding between speed and offensive capability.

I think what hoverboards primarily do is take the idea of riding on vehicles (like on the wings of a manta) and make it a formal part of the game. Online I'd see people who didn't know about this strategy take off without me, or I'd have to leave someone because I they didn't know about it. Now everybody knows: "Jump on the hoverboard, skitch off the vehicles." I played VCTF and had someone tow me to the base for a flag capture.

It's mostly the little things I've been noticing. Like how the taunts are less over-the-top now and sound more like a real person talking. I've even heard bots deliver context-sensitive taunts ("Flak attack!" and "Shocking."

There's also how a lot of the weapons, like the rocket launcher and flak cannon, look like a bunch of little pieces stuck together rather than a solid object. Vision blurs underwater. The shock combo sucks ragdolls in like a black hole. The minigun is now belt-driven (how cool!) The screen gets blood spatter when you pound someone with the impact hammer.

So yeah, all in all the game's great. I wish I could play Warfare, since that's the big difference. 'cause right now I'm not totally sure if there's enough of a difference to buy not just the game but a new videocard.

Lastly, anyone know what the impact hammer's alt-fire does? It seems to auto-fire on vehicles, but not players.

ECHO wrote:

RoadKill v3.4 wrote:

so far its gonna require a new vid card for me so... its a buy when it goes on sale or maybe at christmas

I bought this card with a mail in rebate:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102073

Though the performance enhancement for my system remains to be seen... and it's Directx 9. However, it definitely doesn't break the bank, which was the biggest factor in my case. I did see a couple of variations of the same card for PCI Express, and I think the buying period for the mail in rebate ends today. So if that interests you, ya better jump on it.

very interesting like the price I do have a pci e slot available so I'll be going that way but I'm waiting for my birthday cash to come in so I can get a new vid card (love you Mom & Dad)

Finally got it installed...
xp 64
1 gb corsair xms 2-3-3-6
x2 2.7
Geforce 8500 gt 512 beta drivers 163.75
h2o

Looks pretty cool, needs some serious mouse speed adjustments. Couldn't get it to install since I have xp 64 but they just released a patch for it. I've got everything maxed, no in game AA or AF settings but its set for 16x and 8x in my control panel. Didn't get to check my fps yet.

Patch: http://www.epicgames.com/download/UT3Demo-XP64-2K3.zip

Well, ran again last night for several maps, medium quality, ran better. I think I'm going to get another 6800 for sli and I think I may have an intel xe 3.7 ghz ht chip in the works with another gig of dual channle 667 ram. (If the boss lady decides I've been good and she lets me get it for our anniversary tomarrow. 18 yrs together, 15 married (a little over half my life with her and I think she still loves me

)

Does someone have the command to have it display FPS?

I have just been tweakin till it seemed smooth in every circumstance.

emaetakleze: I have a pair of 6800s. work great on death match, but when you load up the VCTF the whole screen stutters when the action gets hot or you turn a corner and the length of the map is displayed.

I will be buying the game, but I don't think that I need to upgrade until DC does.

Grizzled_Imposter wrote:

Does someone have the command to have it display FPS?

Go into the console and type
STAT FPS

cool, I was typing stats fps

its a help

Nope, it dosent seem to work in UT 3

Strange, it does on mine - although I have only tested on instant action, not online.
Can't be sure if I type STAT FPS or stat fps into the console - it may well be the lower case version, and I do not know if it is case sensitive.

Grizzled_Imposter wrote:

emaetakleze: I have a pair of 6800s. work great on death match, but when you load up the VCTF the whole screen stutters when the action gets hot or you turn a corner and the length of the map is displayed.

Hummm....interesting, mahaps I should try all of the game types first then... thanks for the heads up!

ok: playing with a resolution of 960*600 I can put the textures and world detail about half way and have a decent experience.

With both 6800 in SLI mode using the alternate rendering format they each pull about 25 to 30 frames at the worst of the action on VCTF.

thanks for the help SZLATS, it did require caps to make the command go through.

If the owners of DC decide to upgrade to UT3 I will probably upgrade my system, otherwise I think that I will just play it on my PS3.

Before any of you out there groan too loud, realize that I don't have to do anything to play it on my PS3 at a higher resolution than my computer will display smoothly now.

also, have any of you managed to get any of the new combos or awards?

shaftmaster anyone? Rocket scientist? anything?

Lastly, anyone know what the impact hammer's alt-fire does? It seems to auto-fire on vehicles, but not players.

The impact hammer's alt-fire is supposed to knock powerups off of whoever you hit with it. I haven't really tried it out on anyone who I know is using a powerup (double dammage, jump boots, etc.) so I don't know how well or if it even works.

I'll have to experiment with it more.

I'm still trying to get the feel for the new steering on some of the vehicles. Not sure that I like it on the hellbender and scorp....

OK, heres an interestin one for ya...Played DM last night, both online and off. Played the map shangrila for a good 45 minutes, no problems fps was 30-50 depending on people....all of a sudden we switch to the other map available (can't remember its name.) map loads, I play for like a minute and a half and vezeghoooo, comp shuts down like it over heated or a driver issue has happened.....Started back up, no "return from a fatel error" message, so I load back up and for giggles go to shangrila, plays fine again, switch to the other (still instant action) and again it goes down. Any thoughts?

emetakleze wrote:

OK, heres an interestin one for ya...Played DM last night, both online and off. Played the map shangrila for a good 45 minutes, no problems fps was 30-50 depending on people....all of a sudden we switch to the other map available (can't remember its name.) map loads, I play for like a minute and a half and vezeghoooo, comp shuts down like it over heated or a driver issue has happened.....Started back up, no "return from a fatel error" message, so I load back up and for giggles go to shangrila, plays fine again, switch to the other (still instant action) and again it goes down. Any thoughts?

I've had the same issues when switching to another map online. It says my video driver stopped working and I need to restart. It then always recovers from the"return from fatal error" message as well. It has always coincided with my computer timing out from a connection though, for some reason I can't connect to servers online other than DC's. But so far I haven't had this issue with instant action so I'm puzzled as well.

I also had it drop the network connectivity (like it lost track of sockets) so I had to restart the game after playing with locally and then trying to connect to a server. Remember: it's beta