Creating the ultimate UT99 vanilla install

[ZeaLitY]

Cross-posted from BeyondUnreal. I hope there isn't too much sharing of userbases, or this might seem a bit repetitive!

My UT has been weird 5% of the time on this laptop thanks to the dual core issue, so at this point, I'm ready to go back to the drawing board and make the ultimate vanilla Unreal Tournament install. I think this is a good time for me to finally figure out how to use those ST3C textures, which I've never really tried before.

This is a bit of selfish thread, but I find it interesting to consider what exactly makes the best stock UT install (before all the best mods and maps, like the Flags of Time series, are added).

So far, here are my considerations:

Best Base Install

Unreal Tournament
Unreal Tournament Game of the Year Edition
Unreal Anthology

I've forgotten what the GotY edition includes, but I think RocketArena / ChaosUT were in it, and I don't necessarily include those mods in my idea of a perfect vanilla install. The original UT99 disc two had the ST3C textures, right? Does Anthology add anything unique?

Bonus Packs and Patches

The ones I have and include with my installs are:

Patch 436
Bonus Pack 1
Bonus Pack 2
Inoxx Bonus Pack (I guess it's considered 3)
Bonus Pack 4

I feel like there was something else that got issued with Epic's approval, but I can't remember what. I'm guessing I should get 451b from http://www.utpg.org/?

ST3C Textures

I don't know enough about these at the moment, but I'm going to try and learn a bit tonight. I think I remember reading that they only work with certain drivers?

I also wonder if they can be turned off in case I want to get a classic feel.

Drivers

IIRC, there are an unofficial D3D driver and an unofficial OpenGL driver that are both better than what ships with UT. I think I've been using the updated OpenGL driver, but I'm not sure. Anyway, so, from http://www.cwdohnal.com/utglr/, I would get:

Latest D3D9
Latest OpenGL

D3D for UT99 runs like absolute **** on Vista; I haven't tried Windows 7 yet. OpenGL runs well enough, but there's a slight crease towards the top of the screen with fast movement.

INIs

It's probably bad, but I've been copying and pasting the same user.ini for a few years now. Could any settings from previous installs be holding me back or causing problems? (I always tweak settings in UT after an install, definitely, but perhaps there are vestigial ones in that INI file that might affect something.)

~

Any commentary is appreciated, since I've never gotten this serious about it. Thanks!

[rohitggarg]

Just two comments,

Please refrain from upgrading to v451b coz its not an official Epic update. This patch screws up the unrealed and there is no way you can revert back unless you reinstall or apply v436 nodelta patch.

There is another mod available in town which is released by the oldunreal community. It contains sound drivers for OpenAL and FM mod. These drivers are better than the shipped Galaxy ones. The link is http://www.oldunreal.com/utpatches.html

[ZeaLitY]

Thanks. I thought I remembered Oldunreal from when I was putting the music collection together, but wasn't sure enough in my memory to go find it.

[zacman]

It doesn't just screw Ued. Just about anything that isn't played as either part of Oldskool Amp'd or the Unreal Tournament mode in Practice session (And Tournament) becomes screwed, Including Dark Magic, Melt Weapons, Godz, about 50% of the MH Maps, and Nali Chronicles to name a few

In Summary: 451 can burn in hell!

[Creavion]

S3TC, you need either the D3D8 or D3D9 Driver
http://www.cwdohnal.com/utglr/

In the advanced options (with oldskool you can enter this menu in the game you might know) you have to set at least Use S3TC under your driver options to True. Then replace the unreal and ut texturepackages. You can download the highres texture packages from Unrealtexture.com. But be warned: Mapping with a S3TC ut is .. well not really possible anymore, because Software would let crash the S3TC textures.