Unreal Tournament "ReadMe" notes.

Mac Version Developed by: Westlake Interactive
Mac Version Published by: MacSoft
Originally Developed by: Epic Games & Digital Extremes

Useful Web Links

• MacSoft Home Page -- Visit for the latest Mac updates, patches, and news!
• Unreal Tournament Home Page -- Visit for the PC UT news!
• Epic Games Home Page -- Information about other Epic games.
• Unreal Technology Page -- Latest news from the Epic development team. Great resources for programmers, mod authors, and enthusiasts.

Starting the Game

To start Unreal Tournament, open the Unreal Tournament folder and double click the "Unreal Tournament" icon.

Technical Support

Please see the manual accompanying the retail version of the game for instructions on obtaining technical support.  Or visit the Unreal Tournament Home Page.

Mac Specifics

About this Demo

This demo is based on a pre-release version of Unreal Tournament Mac, and many things may (and will) change for the finished game. The first version of the demo only works on 3Dfx accelerators or in software rendering (future demos will support OpenGL and/or RAVE). In an effort to get this demo to the public as quickly as possible, we have released it a with few known issues:

• Mac Servers- With this first demo version, Mac's will not reliably host network games. Clients playing on a Mac server will be missing several local effects (weapons flashes, ammo counts,etc). Using the Mac to play Internet games on established PC/Linux servers (or single player bot matches) works fine. We do not recommend running a Mac server with this version. The major intent of this demo is to allow players to try out the game on established Internet servers (of which there are currently several hundred). We fully plan to fix all server issues and provide a good, stable Mac server for the final shipping version (possibly even in an updated demo).
  
  
• NGStats- NGstats are not yet fully supported on the Mac, since we are still working with NetGamesUSA to get the Mac compatible stats processing tools finished. We're working to be able to provide the full NGStats capabilities of Unreal Tournament in a future demo (or at least the final shipping version).
  
  
• UT News - the "News" page that appears at the start of the in-game Browser does not always work on the Mac (many times the server will never respond). You can get similar news updates by going to the Unreal Tournament Home Page with your web browser until this feature is fully implemented on the Mac.

Configuring the mouse/gamepads/joysticks

To configure the mouse or gamepads/joysticks, press Cmd-M (the cloverleaf/apple key) to access the InputSprocket configuration dialog. Its important for the in-game interface to work to have the mouse configured with the left/right set to "turn (mouse left/right)" and up/down set to "look/move (mouse up/down)". The mouse button should be set to "Fire/Click".

Troubleshooting

Lockups

If Unreal Tournament locks up or crashes when you run it, you may need to try running your Mac with a "base" set of Mac OS extensions. Using the "Extensions Manager" control panel, select "Mac OS Base" and then add in InputSprocket, DrawSprocket, any 3D drivers (3dfx, OpenGL, Rave), and Open Transport. Restart your Mac and try running Unreal Tournament again.

Crashes

If Unreal Tournament stops with a "Out of memory" message, you need to allocate more RAM to the Unreal Tournament application and/or increase your Virtual Memory settings (under the Memory control panel).  The game can take up to150 megabytes of free memory on very large levels with many players.

Network play issues

The minimum speed connection for acceptable Internet play performance is a 28.8K modem connection to your Internet Service Provider.

Known network play issues:

• When a new player enters a network game, clients may experience a 1/4-second pause while the mesh, skin, and other data is loaded for that player. This is by design.
  
• Unreal Tournament's Internet play performance is highly dependent on the bandwidth of your connection, the latency (ping time), and the packet loss.  The game is designed to be playable up to 300 msec ping times, 5% packet loss, and 28.8K connection speeds. Performance degrades heavily under worse latency, packet loss, and bandwidth connections.

Control issues

Some Mac keyboards can't recognize certain combinations of 3 or more simultaneously pressed keys. If you have trouble with your mouse not moving the in-game cursor (to click on menus or buttons), press Cmd-M to get to the mouse configuration dialog and make sure you mouse is set up as described in the "Configuring the mouse" section above.

Performance

Memory

Unreal Tournament's performance is highly dependent on the amount of RAM you have in your machine, and the amount of memory that is available. Machines with less memory will access their hard disk more frequently to load data, which causes sporadic pauses in gameplay. Thus, if you have a 48 megabyte (or less) machine, you should make sure that you don't have other unnecessary programs loaded in memory when playing Unreal Tournament.

How the game will perform under different RAM conditions:

• 32 megabytes or less: Probably unplayable.
• 48 megabytes: Some swapping; use the Preferences/Video "low texture detail" setting to improve this.
• 64 megabytes: Great, with a bit of swapping.
• 128 megabytes: Oh Yes!

CPU Speed

The game is also very sensitive to CPU speed, memory bandwidth, and cache performance.   Thus, it runs far better on newer processors such as G3's than it does on older ones such as 603e's.

How Unreal Tournament will perform on different classes of machines:

• 603e class machines: Slow rendering; large frame rate variations. We recommend playing in 640x480 doubled resolution (software rendering) if available. We recommend setting the sound playback to 11025 Hz.
  
• G3 (233 or 266 mhz): Good rendering speed; some frame rate variations. We recommend running low resolutions like 800x600 doubled (in Software rendering) or 640x480 (hardware accelerated). We recommend keeping the sound playback at 22050 Hz.
  
• G3 300mhz+: Very nice rendering speed; consistent frame rate. Software rendering runs smooth in 512x384. You might try 44 kHz audio for best sound quality. With hardware 3D acceleration you can go up to 800x600 or higher.

Hardware 3D Acceleration

Having a good 3D accelerator can make a huge difference playing Unreal Tournament. A Rage 128 or VooDoo2/3 class accelerator will run the game best, although you can run on a Rage Pro/VooDoo1 with lower texture(world) detail and skin detail settings.

Considering upgrading?

For people considering upgrading their machines, here are some tips based on our experience running Unreal Tournament on a variety of machines:

1. The biggest performance gain in Unreal Tournament comes from having a G3/G4 class processor.   G3's have dramatically improved cache performance, memory performance, and floating-point performance compared to earlier PowerPCs, and that all translates to faster gameplay.  The performance improvements in G3's are especially accentuated in Unreal Tournament, which contains way more content (textures, sounds, animations, level geometry) than other 3D action games.
2. The next upgrade that tends to improve Unreal Tournament performance dramatically is a 3dfx Voodoo2/3 or Rage 128 class 3D accelerator. Especially in conjunction with a G3 processor, these accelerators rock!
3. Finally, lots of RAM helps.  Upgrading to 96 or 128 megabytes of memory can help a lot.

Requirements

Minimum system requirement:

• 200 MHz 603e.
• 64 megabytes of RAM.
• 4 megabyte video card.

Typical system:

• 300 MHz G3.
• 96 megabytes of RAM.
• 3dfx Voodoo 2 / Rage 128 accelerator.

Awesome system:

• G3 400 MHz.
• 128 megabytes of RAM.
• 3dfx Voodoo3 / Rage 128 Pro accelerator.

Getting Better UT Performance

The first thing to do is to increase your minimum desired framerate. UT will try to meet your framerate requirements by subtly dropping detail levels during complex scenes and fire fights. The default MinDesiredFrameRate is dependent on the speed of your computer. If you have hardware acceleration and a 300MHz or better CPU the MinDesiredFrameRate defaults to 30, otherwise it is 20. The higher the framerate, the more aggressive Unreal Tournament will be in eliminating excess special effects and detailing. To change the value open Options and click on Preferences. There will be an edit box for the MinDesiredFrameRate variable. The change will take place immidiately.

If increasing MinDesiredFrameRate doesn't help, try decreasing your texture detail levels in the Preferences window (especially on older 3d accelerators). You can also try lowering your screen resolution.

Controls

Keyboard

You can bind new keys to controls by clicking on the "Controls" tab of the Preferences menu inside of Unreal Tournament. There are a lot of controls to bind, so here is a list of defaults. To configure your mouse or gamepad/joystick, press Cmd-M while at the Unreal Tournament menus to access the mouse/joystick configuration dialog.

Key	Function
TAB	Opens a mini system console line.
Shift	Hold shift while moving to walk slowly.
Ctrl	Ctrl will fire your weapon's primary attack.
Space	Causes your player to jump.
Option	Option will fire your weapon's secondary attack.
Pause	Pause will freeze the game.
Escape	The Escape key will open the menus.
Arrow Keys	The arrow keys will move you forward and back or strafe left and right.
Number Keys [0..9]	The number keys cycle through your weapons in order.
H, J, K, L	These keys will cause your character to animate in a taunt.
F1	Displays the scoreboard.
F2	Displays the message of the day.
F3	In an Assault game, F3 lists the current objectives.
F5	Allows you to cycle through your teammates viewpoints.
F6, F7	QuickSave and QuickLoad respectively.
F9	Take a screenshot. (Appears in your UnrealTournament\System folder.)
F11	Adjust screen gamma.
T	Send a chat message to the public channel.
R	Send a chat message to your team only channel.
~	Open the system command console.
F	Drop to the ground and pretend you are dead. (Feign death.)
V	Press and hold V to access the speech menu. Use this menu to give orders and taunt enemies.

Mouse

Although you can rely solely on your keyboard to move around in and interact in Unreal Tournament's 3D universe, using both the keyboard and mouse simultaneously gives you much more fluid and responsive control.

When you use the mouse to control your rotational movement and aiming you gain a degree of precision and speed that players using keyboard-only controls can't touch. The keyboard is best used for easy lateral and forward/backward movement, and for jumping.

To master the default controls in Unreal Tournament, keep your left hand on the keyboard, using the arrow keys for movement, the 0-9 keys for weapon selection, and the space bar for jumping. Your right hand operates the mouse, controlling rotation, aiming, and firing. Of course, you can customize these controls to suit your preferences via the Options Menu.

Speech Menu

Press and hold the V key to open the speech menu. While you hold V your mouse will become activated and you can select various commands and taunts. Under the Orders submenu you can select a job to assign to a teammate. If your bot is a teammate they will automatically carry out your orders. The available orders are:

Defend the Base.

The ordered bot will immediately make his way to your base and protect it from enemy attack.

Cover Me.

The bot will find you and follow you attacking enemies that you encounter.

Assault the Base.

Orders the bot to go offensive. In CTF this order is replaced with "Capture the Enemy Flag."

Hold this Position.

The bot will find your current location and try to protect it from enemy attack.

Freelance.

Releases the bot from previous orders. A freelancing bot will make their own battlefield decisions.

If you give an order to "All" then every bot on your team will attempt to complete the order. If you look at a bot the speech menu will have the option to "Order This Bot."

Visit the Unreal Technology Page for way more information about running Unreal Tournament, including console commands, ini file settings, and more.

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