Reporting Bugs

Please ensure you are running the very latest version of Unreal Tournament before reporting any bugs.  The version number is displayed in the top right corner of your menus.   Version 436 is our latest UT patch.

Before submitting bug reports to utbugs436@epicgames.com, check if your issue is noted or addressed below.   If the bug is about a crash or "Critical Error" message, please attach your c:\UnrealTournament\system\unrealtournament.log file generated immediately after the crash occurred.  Do not re-launch the game until you've sent the crash log, or it will be overwritten. 

Issues with Unreal Tournament - Version 436

CD-ROM reading problems

Some users have reported problems running Unreal Tournament with certain CD-ROM drives.  These may include the disk not being found when you try to run the game (with an error message asking you to insert the CD), or the game hanging after the Unreal Tournament splash screen comes up.  UT Patch 436 does not require the CD to run, so this problem will no longer occur.

For example:

Critical: appError called:
Critical: Assertion failed: InPos>=0

You might try the following reinstall procedure, simple as it seems it has helped a lot of people with weird errors.

Corrupted files are sometimes installed without any error messages with some CD-ROM drives; data is copied to your HD with read-errors, but for some reason the CD drive doesn't warn the installer and everything appears to have installed OK.

Copy everything from the CD to the hard drive, (running scandisk first to be absolutely sure there's nothing wrong with the hard drive) then install from the hard drive to the final destination folder. (you'll still need the CD in the drive for playing.) Also, please make sure you install into a clean (new) folder, not on top of any existing UT or UT-demo content.

Problems patching Unreal Tournament

Direct3D

You need DirectX7 to use Direct3D.  Get it on Microsoft's Download Page.   Make sure you have the latest Direct3D drivers for your card.

• If you are seeing corrupted text in the menus or HUD with the 436 patch, unzip this file into your unrealtournament\system directory.
• The 'UseVertexFog' switch in the advanced Direct3D preferences can cause weirdness for some cards, in particular make flags flicker or invisible in CTF maps when volumetric fog is enabled. To remedy, either disable UseVertexFog or switch off VolumetricLighting altogether, in the advanced options menu. To bring up the advanced options window, type 'preferences' at any UT console prompt, then go to Rendering -> Direct3D support.
• We've also heard reports that users with VIA chipsets on their motherboard may get improved D3D performance by updating the VIA AGP driver to the most recent version (go to www.viatech.com ).
• Running Microsoft NetMeeting, in particular its "Remote Desktop Sharing" feature, may prevent Direct3D from functioning on your system - this can manifest itself as "UT refusing to go full-screen".  To fix, disable RDS or completely exit NetMeeting before starting UT.
• Users of S3 Savage 4 chipset and Viper II/Savage2000 cards can try using the latest S3 Metal drivers specific to their card to obtain the best performance. 
  Special Metal.dlls are available from S3.  Note: after applying our latest UT patch, you should only need to put the appropriate Metal.DLL file for your particular S3 card into your UnrealTournament\system folder, while keeping the MetalDrv.dll that comes with the UT patch.
• In 16-bit color, weapons may interpenetrate walls when you get real close. 
• Special architecture clipping problems due to z-buffering on Matrox G400 cards have been reported. This has been fixed with our latest patch.
• I've had a report of very ugly up fonts in the game on a TNT, looking like this. The solution is to go to your D3D options inside the TNT display control panel, and change the value of the "Texel Alignment".    A value of 3 fixes this problem, although you should try other values if you're having similar texture weirdness.
• Running the DirectX 7 debug or development drivers apparently causes rendering problems.   Please use the release version of DX7.
• 3dfx users should not use Direct3D - you'll get better performance with Glide.
• A permedia 2 user reported that their card won't do 512x384 (the default resolution).  If you press the ~ key to bring up the console and type the console command "setres 640x480" you should be able to get the game into a video mode where you can then configure the game through the menus.
• One TNT2 user running the 2.08 Detonator drivers sent a whole lot of screenshots with extreme mipmap corruption - textures were totally messed up in the distance but were perfect when you got up close to them.  This went away when he upgraded to the newly released 3.53 drivers on Nvidia's site.
• Your 3D Prophet GeForce card is giving you trouble even after you installed the latest UT patch ? Check out Guillemot's support site.
• If you are getting crash when minimizing UT, with a history in the crash message that starts with "History: TestCooperativeLevel<-", then make sure your desktop and UT are using the same color depth (16 bit or 32 bit).

OpenGL

• Direct3D should always be faster for TNT1 and TNT2 users. But we have had reports from users that on some systems OpenGL may run better than D3D, so if you are unhappy with your D3D performance, it's definitely worth giving a go.

Experiencing poor Internet play on your  Voodoo3 3500TV?

As Voodoo Extreme reports, the Voodoo3 3500TV's WebTV installer does some evil things to your Internet setting, causing many games (including Unreal Tournament and Quake 3 Arena) to experience poor Internet play:

Hello, We are aware of the problems that the Voodoo3 3500TV is experiencing with online games. Many of these problems can be cured by removing WebTV, however that will disable the Visual Reality software. The problem usually can also be cured by removing the Internet Explorer 5 upgrade from Windows98. While these are just a work around, and not really fixes, both options usually will cure the problem until 3dfx releases a real fix. We are currently working with Microsoft to try and figure out whether the problem is due to Microsoft software (WebTV and IE5) or 3dfx software (3500TV drivers and Visual Reality).

Thank you for your patience,
Aaron D. Patton
3dfx Interactive Email Support

Networking

• Some users have reported that their clients are continuing to get data from servers after disconnecting.  This problem should be mostly fixed in the latest patch.
• If you are seeing significant lag while playing Unreal Tournament, try adjusting your netspeed.  You can do this by typing netspeed xxxx (where xxxx is a value in bytes/sec).  Your new netspeed will be saved.  Typically you will want to adjust the netspeed setting down if you are seeing poor performance, because Laggy network play is very likely because your connection cannot handle the rate selected for it.  Netspeed is set by default based on your selection of your network connection in the networking menu.  The default values are 2600 for modems, 5000 for ISDN, and 20000 for xDSL, cable modem, and LAN.   For example, some cable modems limit upstream bandwidth.  For cable modems, try netspeed 10000 or lower if you are seeing poor network performance.
• In 3dfx Glide, if you alt-tab away from Unreal Tournament while connected to a server, you will time out and be disconnected. If running a listen server, all other clients will time out.
• We have many reports that internet gameplay performance sucks with all games for users with WebTV installed (particularly the version bundled with the Voodoo3 3500). See this Knowlege Base article for information on a workaround.
• On some machines - usually with a Voodoo Banshee, non-dedicated servers will return to the desktop at the end of the game, when the server attempts to process and upload the ngWorldStats for the game.  The only solution at the moment is to turn off ngStats for the server, from the Stats menu.

Audio

• Using the latest release (July '00) of SBLive Win2K drivers from Creative may cause framerate hitches and distorted sound in UT for some users.
• A3D adds a LOT of overhead to the sound occlusion calculations.  We recommend you turn off 3D sound because of this, as many users have experienced extreme frame rate stuttering. We are looking into this.  You can disable it in Advanced Options.

Linux Server

• It is recommended that you do not run your Linux server as the root user.
• If you run it as a non-root user you'll need to change the remote-admin webserver's ListenPort to a value greater than 1024 in your UnrealTournament.ini file.  For example, set ListenPort=8000 in the [UWeb.Webserver] section of the ini file.  You can then access remote admin with the URL http://locahost:8000/ServerAdmin
• You must be using glibc 2.x.  If you're using libc5, you'll need to upgrade - see this link.
• Make sure your LinuxThreads is up to date.
• The Linux port does not run on Cyrix processors, or anything less than a Pentium I.   You will most likely get Illegal Instruction errors if you try.
• Please send bug reports about the linux port to Loki, which is supporting and enhancing the Linux version of UT.

Input

• Some versions of the Intellimouse Explorer drivers don't allow you to bind the middle mouse button if DirectInput is enabled.  This is a driver issue; fix the problem by using the latest release of Microsoft's Intellipoint software.  Alternatively, you can work around it by using the Intellimouse Explorer software to map a key (eg shift) to the middle mouse button and bind that key in UT.
• If you are seeing mouse lag, try turning DirectInput on (in the menus in Preferences->Input).
• Some users have reported that they see mouse lag using the Microsoft IntelliPoint version 3.2 drivers, but not with version 3.1.

Bonus Pack  

• If you run a server using the relics or new character models from the bonus pack, and they are invisible to clients connecting to your server, then your bonus pack installation failed to properly update your UnrealTournament.ini file.  To fix this problem, open your UnrealTournament.ini file in your UnrealTournament\system directory using notepad.  Find the [Engine.GameEngine] section and add the following lines at the bottom of it:

           ServerPackages=MultiMesh
           ServerPackages=Relics
           ServerPackages=EpicCustomModels
           ServerPackages=TCowMeshSkins
           ServerPackages=TNaliMeshSkins
           ServerPackages=TSkMSkins

Bonus Pack or other mod installation

• Normally you can install the Bonus Pack and other umod files simply by clicking on them.  However, occasionally the file association can get broken.  One solution to this is to do a full re-install of Unreal Tournament.  Alternatively, you can use this file to repair your Windows Registry (WARNING: this file messes with your Windows Registry!).  NOTE: the file will only work if UT is installed in c:\UnrealTournament.

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