OpenGL vs Direct3D

[Chamberly]

I read somewhere that someone pointed out that they use OpenGL for skills, and Direct3D for better graphic. I oddly don't see the difference but want to see how so.

I looked into my graphic card's ability of using oGL and D3D. The only thing that my graphic card (ATI Radeon HD 4600 Series - 1024 MB) can support for oGL is 1.1-1.5, 2.0 & 2.1, and then 3.0 & 3.1... There is no 3.1 for UT99 I guess. But the D3D works fine, and can't seem to find the list but I guess the majority is big support for D3D.

So in order for getting a 3.1 to work with UT99, have to have a custom .dll file? Or there is more? Would there be lack of support for UT99 to run oGL 3.1?

I did tried using a few oGL awhile back (I just didn't have a clue of what I was trying to do) but the settings in the .ini would've been wrong against the support that my graphic card can hold (which was probably odd, it did work but I do get a black screen.)

What is your opinion?

[ASLY]

You're right, OpenGL is for skills
Here you can check User.inis, most player is using OpenGL for brightness hack, your UT will be really brightness

• http://unrealtournament.99.free.fr/utfi ... 20players/

But you can set up OpenGL to maximum graphic, like D3D9

• http://www.ut99.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=373

Sadly I can't make screenshot from that and I don't find any picture from this brightness hack, you can test it just grab an User.ini, I don't have other idea

[Spectra]

Yea most players do use OpenGL renderers. But I use Direct3D. OpenGL runs like shit on my PC.
When using OpenGL the movements nd all r smooth, but incase of combat, it's a bad option for me. Like when firing, it lags for certain seconds which is quite annoying.

I do use OpenGL in other games like Counter Strike, HL1. But for UT I like Direct3D.

[Raynor]

Bear in mind that UT OpenGL renderer versions do not correlate with OpenGL versions itself and are completely separate thing (lot of people seem to mix that up).
Version numbers used in different UT OpenGL renderer versions are purely to distinguish different revisions and not to imply level of OpenGL specification support (like OpenGL 3.0 or 4.0).

Latest OpenGL renderer (by Dohnal) available is version 3.7 (again, its version has nothing to do with OpenGL version).
Before getting new renderer make sure you have latest video card drivers installed.

[Carbon]

Wow...coke vs. pepsi.

I have used OGL for Unreal and UT since I stopped using Glide. OGL- the UT renderer that Raynor discussed above and a seriously tweaked .ini - just seems to look closer to the original look of the game.

[Feralidragon]

To put it simply: the best driver depends on your hardware and drivers. The end.
In some machines OpenGL runs better, in others D3D runs better (like in mine for example).

The only major difference between one and the other atm is the fact that you have DX10 available for UT, and it brings advanced visual features (specially for mappers) that no other renderer offers (bump mapping and the like). So when it comes to interesting features, right now DX10 owns everything else, while for regular gameplay, it's up to your own system.

[Raynor]

I'm not sure if targeting Direct3D10 renderer visuals is best idea when creating new maps. Majority of people most likely use either previous versions of Direct3D or OpenGL and that can potentially lead to "distorted" visual quality (in other words, people either cannot take advantage of those extra details or not see them as intented).

[Hitman]

I go for OpenGl all time, I would not even bye a Video-card that cant handle it, just my 5 cent...

[Chamberly]

I go for OpenGl all time, I would not even bye a Video-card that cant handle it, just my 5 cent...

The problem with this one that some PC don't have many variety that can get graphic card that have different support. This is what happening to me so that is why I mostly have D3D9 to play on because I was only able to find 1 that will be available for my PC. No, the PC do not sucks, it just the matter of financial wise. (Oh and my PC wasn't built for gaming but it works for UT99 and other games oddly. LOL)

So about the different UT99's oGL versions, what is the difference between those version and would be a possible chance if I could try getting it to run without having a black screen problem? I forgot what I was using... so it's obvious that many other oGL do not have their own title under the UT.ini (version wise) if there are difference in the settings. I think I rather post what my oGL can support so other can fix'er up for me haha.

Also, is there any way to turn off the light glare on oGL like how D3D don't have that white ball in the light? I hate it. lol.

[Raynor]

You mean coronas? They should be disabled by changing Coronas=False under UnrealTournament.ini.
What kind of video card do you have, CPU, amount of RAM?

You can get OpenGL renderer changelog here: http://www.cwdohnal.com/utglr/

[Feralidragon]

I'm not sure if targeting Direct3D10 renderer visuals is best idea when creating new maps. Majority of people most likely use either previous versions of Direct3D or OpenGL and that can potentially lead to "distorted" visual quality (in other words, people either cannot take advantage of those extra details or not see them as intented).

Two words: progressive enhancement.
Anyone can make a map to look good for both, just a lot better in DX10. Furthermore, if people don't ever start to use new things, things won't evolve and the work involved to bring new stuff to the game will simply be wasted.
The guys at CryTek knew almost no one had a good PC to run their Crysis games pushed to the max, but they did it anyway and spent tons of money and time in doing so because they knew one day people would enjoy the awesome quality of it in full and that many other content (and games) would follow.

[papercoffee]

The guys at CryTek knew almost no one had a good PC to run their Crysis games pushed to the max, but they did it anyway and spent tons of money and time in doing so because they knew one day people would enjoy the awesome quality of it in full and that many other content (and games) would follow.

But it's a shame that this games sucks so hard that a hooker would be envious about it.
No one will ever know how good this game will look like.


Maybe I'm wrong and in 5 years are there still some people left playing Crysis.

[Raynor]

Two words: progressive enhancement.
Anyone can make a map to look good for both, just a lot better in DX10. Furthermore, if people don't ever start to use new things, things won't evolve and the work involved to bring new stuff to the game will simply be wasted.
The guys at CryTek knew almost no one had a good PC to run their Crysis games pushed to the max, but they did it anyway and spent tons of money and time in doing so because they knew one day people would enjoy the awesome quality of it in full and that many other content (and games) would follow.

Key difference is Crysis was using it's own shipping renderer to display those effects and people didn't have to download any addon to make things work. That's not the case with UT even more given the fact that it was targeting DirectX 7 level of features when it shipped.
OpenGL is more specific case with UT. It was officially unsupported, but thanks to effort of community members it has achieved level of features we have today and is widely used.

[Feralidragon]

Yeah, they didn't have to "download" any software to make it work, they just had to pretty much "physically" buy a whole new computer in most cases just to be able to run it (to not mention buy the game itself which wasn't cheap)... I guess between one and the other the choice of the easiest path is obvious.
Case in point: if it's good enough, and there's enough "noise" around it, people will "download", people will obtain what they want to obtain without much hassle, you just need to show and "teach" them what they actually want to obtain in the first place.
Some years ago people wouldn't even know they could even have high resolution textures in UT, and even nowadays many don't know how, but they want to, as the word was spread, and the very existence of your own tutorial at it proves my point, ironically (and even more ironic is the fact that high resolution textures ruined some of the standard maps instead of improving them in some areas considering what you just said, since the new textures were screwed up relative the original textures intended dimensions, like lights, trims and stuff).

With something like DX10 you can do your map for any renderer, and then add something more to it that DX10 can improve upon, that's what progressive enhancement is all about, and the kind of things it can improve go a damn lot beyond a high resolution texture for example, as you go from still flat surfaces (no matter how high-res a texture is, it's still clearly painfully 2D) to something with an incomparably better 3D feel.
So if someone is going to download a renderer to be able to use high resolution textures or any other feature or boost in performance, and even read a tutorial or a guide to tweak it, such person can as easily (if not more) download a more advanced one, unless there's a technical limitation (like still using Windows XP for example or a DX10 incompatible video card).


@Paper: the first version was incredibly good, the second sinned in the gameplay and sacrificed the visuals for performance (while they falsely advertised that the engine was optimized... when in fact the resources were the optimized parts, by lowering their quality, the amount of interactivity and limiting the view to a narrow city).
In the third however, they have some of the best and the worse of both worlds.
But still, even when people knew it could be a bad game, they still wanted to obtain it and the hardware to run it, even if just for the graphical unique aspect of the game.
That's my point.

[Raynor]

You're comparing hardware and software with Crysis.
Everyone is free to do whatever they want with their content - My point was that if you want to showcase it for large enough audience, you need to make it compatible to show off it's visuals. Additional enhancements (in the form of D3D10) are added bonus.