On UT3 Specs

[May 30, 2007, 10:04 am ET] - Share - Viewing Comments

The Epic Games Forums offer a translation of information found in PC Games Hardware, a German gaming magazine, where Epic's Tim Sweeney sheds some light on hardware and software support for Unreal Tournament 3 (thanks BeyondUnreal). Here's a bit:

PCGH: Will SLI and Crossfire provide significant advantages?
Epic: We're testing SLI configurations on a regular basis. Their positive influence can be felt significantly, especially at higher resolutions. So, if one wants to have full details at very high resolutions, a SLI-system would be the ideal way to secure optimal performance. We had no opportunity to test crossfire systems yet, but we are expecting similar results.

PCGH: How exacly are you utilizing the functions of Direct X 10?
Epic: Unreal Tournament 3 will ship with full DX10 support, with multi-sampling being the biggest visible benefit of the new graphics interface. Additionally, with DX10 under Vista we have the possibility to use the video memory more efficently, to be able to display textures with a higher grade of detail as it would be possible with the DX9 path of Vista. Most effects of UT3 are more bound to the fillrate than to basic features like geometry processing. That's why DX10 has a great impact on performance, while we mostly forgo the integration of new features.

PCGH: Will UT3 players be able to benefit from a 64 Bit environment and is there a 64 Bit version anyway?
Epic: To assure compatibility, we tested UT3 with Vista x64 as well. Nonetheless, we're planning to wait and see first, until the OS and its applications will have ripened, before we'll be taking further steps in the 64 Bit direction. With UT2004 we were one of the first developers who ported a title for Windows XP x64. We would've liked to do this with UT3 and Vista x64 as well as shifting all the PCs we're currently developing on to the 64 Bit version of Vista. Unfortunately, full software and driver compatibility isn't there. The basic OS runs stable and it's fun to work with it isolated. But as soon as you want to print something or want to run Maya or 3DSMax together with some third-party plugins you'll get massive problems. But I am sure those can be fixed via service packs and software updates, so PCs with 4 to 8 gigs of ram can establish themselves during the next 12 months.

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21.

Re: WTF?

May 31, 2007, 12:22

Wowbagger_TIP

ROFL! So you HAVEN'T ACTUALLY used Vista yet. You just believe the crap that people are pushing. Sure, I've had crashes and compatibility issues, but so far it's been MUCH better than a couple of months after XP was released. I think that's pretty much exactly the point. Vista is only as stable as XP was back when it was unstable as well. So no, I wouldn't consider moving from a pretty stable OS to an unstable OS an improvement. Maybe in a year's time they will have release a service pack or two and it will be more stable. I'm planning to wait and see.

20.

Re: WTF?

May 31, 2007, 11:02

Yakumo

RE: Propagandhi. yes, I agree, but not in the context I meant, which obviously was if your objective is to play a disk which you own (bluray or HDdvd in this case), which does have DRM.

19.

Re: Facts!

May 31, 2007, 10:32

Fausticle

Wow nin you didn't even read it.

18.

Re: Facts!

May 31, 2007, 08:06

nin

Heres some FACTS about how absolutely fucked up vista and its DRM is SO go stick your FUD claims up your Vista fan boy ass.

Comments about a book about WWI Europe and statements like "Their lawyers must have been asleep when they let themselves get painted into this particular corner" doesn't sound factual at all to me.

-----------------------------------------------------
Listen, now: http://yearzero.nin-thespiral.com/FLJoi4gjw2f/player.html




RollinThundr Apr 17, 2013, 12:25: Eh really tossing stuff like that in there only to get your panties all bunched up. If you really want to call that trolling sure. Mr. Tact Apr 17, 2013, 12:33: Pretty sure that's the definition of trolling...

17.

Facts!

May 31, 2007, 04:42

Fausticle

Heres some FACTS about how absolutely fucked up vista and its DRM is SO go stick your FUD claims up your Vista fan boy ass. http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.html#d

16.

Re: WTF?

May 30, 2007, 23:08

Tom

Look the concerns about vista are not fud. Vista has all that drm shit. That's not fud. Right now we don't see the consequences of it all yet, but inevitably we will and I don't think the consumer will like it. Do you know what FUD is? It's an acronym that stands for Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt. Basically what you just said: Fear: You're afraid of the bad consequences of Vista's DRM support. Uncertainty: What are those bad consequences? I'd say there's a great deal of uncertainty around what those consequences are, will be, and the extent to which they'll affect people. Doubt: You doubt Vista's worth as a product and are trying to get other people to doubt it. If you're going to say something about Vista, back up your comments with facts. Otherwise it's just more FUD.

15.

Re: WTF?

May 30, 2007, 22:29

Propagandhi

eg. BLueray/HDdvd may follow a DRM scheme built into the OS, BUT the alternative is using an OS that flat out can't play them AT ALL.

The other alternative is no DRM or reasonable DRM. All DRM, despite what MS tells you, is ineffective at best and generally an inconvenience.

Look at the Zune for the wonderous future MS is pushing, ask yourself if you're interested and when you (inevitably) realise you aren't come back here and post an apology..

Edit: Oh, and for those of us whose life involves multiple platforms (say, a Mac and work and XP machine at home) the whole Windows DRM scheme is a collosal inconvenience and pushes us right out of the market. MS's loss, I guess..

This comment was edited on May 30, 22:32.




I eat pasta!

14.

Re: WTF?

May 30, 2007, 21:23

Yakumo

actually atm 'DRM shit' is the biggest load of FUD so far. Nothing you used to do in XP can't be done in Vista. Media you create yourself with your applications doesn't get DRM magically added to it. files with no DRM don't mysteriously not play. vista adds functionality DRM'd or not, that other OS's don't have, and if they knock up hacks for it they same hacks will turn up in 3rd party software for vista. eg. BLueray/HDdvd may follow a DRM scheme built into the OS, BUT the alternative is using an OS that flat out can't play them AT ALL. so the only difference is on other OS you have to wait for hacks to play the content at all in the first place, on vista you only need the hacks if you want to backup DRM'd content, but you can at least play it from day 1. finally, most of the DRM people are worried about requires TPM HARDWARE that doesn't exist on most peoples motherboards still! This comment was edited on May 30, 21:25.

13.

Re: WTF?

May 30, 2007, 21:03

Overon

Look the concerns about vista are not fud. Vista has all that drm shit. That's not fud. Right now we don't see the consequences of it all yet, but inevitably we will and I don't think the consumer will like it. Finally the deal with Vista and gaming performance is valid. I can pull a bunch of comparisons on various tech sites and you will see that right now, whatever the reason, when you run vist with nivida or ati/amd you get lower performance in some cases a significant loss in performance.

12.

Re: WTF?

May 30, 2007, 20:15

Talisorn

Why?! WHY!!!! Upgrading to a new OS is supposed to make things BETTER! NOT WORSE!!! What does Vista do to warrent the upgrade? All I've heard is the it just makesthings slower! I uprade my computer so I can use its new power to make my games run and look better NOT so I can power thru the short comings of a BLOATED POS OS!! ROFL! So you HAVEN'T ACTUALLY used Vista yet. You just believe the crap that people are pushing. Sure, I've had crashes and compatibility issues, but so far it's been MUCH better than a couple of months after XP was released. 90% of the problems I'm having is because nVidia have pulled their finger out of their arse and fixed the 8800 drivers. In a years time you'll be using Vista and you'll BLOODY WELL LIKE IT TOO!! (mumble FUD mumble bloody luddites mumble). This comment was edited on May 30, 20:16.

11.

Pity...

May 30, 2007, 18:19

Pr()ZaC

It's sad to see how nVidia/ATi/Epic relationship goes. Not yet tested with crossfire systems? SLI, SLI, SLI... it cures cancer! Give me a break...

10.

Re: No subject

May 30, 2007, 18:16

4D-Boxing

Sounds like a bad marketing memo. First I'd like to say that THis is the game I'm looking forward to. I want to play this more than Crysis or QW:ET. Now to the rant. First Epic gives us BS about PCs not being able to run Gears of War. WTF...we all know what is in the 360 so do not even give me that BS. Just say you want to pull a Halo2. Second point: deferred shading ...deferred render whatever ...yeah I've seen other Devs. use that excuse for lack of AA. If kids can make patches that add support for Edge smoothing in other games that use the same approach Epic should be able to. Look at STALKER, R6 Vegas or GRAW... if I can get edge smoothing in those DX9 titles UT3 should not be any different. I might not be game Dev. but I know BS when I hear it.

Re: No subject

May 30, 2007, 17:24

Overon

Is it me or does this interview read like marketing memo?

Re: No subject

May 30, 2007, 16:42

Tom

PAE is useless for a game that runs as a single process, unless the game developers jump through hoops and use special API to access the memory (kind of like the expanded/extended memory days of old). 32-bit Windows is limited to a 32-bit address space (4GB) per process no matter what you do. By default, the upper half of that is reserved by the OS. With the /3GB switch you can get another 1GB of address space for the application. (App gets lower 3GB, OS gets upper 1GB.)

Re: No subject

May 30, 2007, 16:06

Mastaba

Or, simply suffer with a high end 32 bit system that supports PAE. PAE supports up to 64 GB. Now whether or not Windows supports the full range when it is booted with the /PAE switch I'm not clear on. Edit: Ok its clear. A 32 bit Windows client OS can not break the 4GB limit, but a 32 bit Windows server OS can. I'm betting some Linux distros can easily exploit PAE fully. This comment was edited on May 30, 16:19.

Re: No subject

May 30, 2007, 16:01

MMORPGHoD

As far as I know XP is good up to around 2 gigs, maybe 3 gigs of RAM, depending on the tweaks you make (like the /3GB switch in boot.ini). Vista ups that to 4 (or something like 4,096 megabytes). However, I haven't seen any benchmarks that show more than 2 gigs of RAM is making a huge performance boost in any particular game yet.

Re: No subject

May 30, 2007, 15:37

ViRGE

At least not until more than 4 gigs of RAM is recommended for gaming. You'd actually want to move to 64bit if you were using just 4GB too. While x86-32 can technically handle 4GB modern OSs tend to use part of that addressing space for other things, meaning that when you want 4GB of memory + extra space things tend to go nuts. When 4GB becomes the norm for a high-end system(which will probably be the case by the end of this year), you'll basically have to move to a 64bit OS.

Re: WTF?

May 30, 2007, 14:06

Wowbagger_TIP

What does Vista do to warrent the upgrade? All I've heard is the it just makesthings slower! Of course. It isn't worth the upgrade, which is why they're holding DX10 for ransom in order to get people onto Vista. DX10 is probably about the only reason I can see for upgrading. The only problem is that you end up with the rest of Vista along with it. There's no reason they couldn't release DX10 for XP, even for a fee, but they won't because they want you to pay for Vista.

No subject

May 30, 2007, 13:35

MMORPGHoD

That's probably the closest you'll get a dev to officially admit a 64-bit OS isn't worth it. At least not until more than 4 gigs of RAM is recommended for gaming.

WTF?

May 30, 2007, 13:32

Fausticle

Why?! WHY!!!! Upgrading to a new OS is supposed to make things BETTER! NOT WORSE!!! What does Vista do to warrent the upgrade? All I've heard is the it just makesthings slower! I uprade my computer so I can use its new power to make my games run and look better NOT so I can power thru the short comings of a BLOATED POS OS!! so PCs with 4 to 8 gigs of ram can establish themselves during the next 12 months. Bill Gates "4 to 8 gigs of ram is all you'll ever need"

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