Unreal Troubleshooting
Tim Sweeney
Epic MegaGames, Inc.
tim@epicgames.com
http://www.epicgames.com/
This document is a trade secret of Epic MegaGames, Inc.
Troubleshooting problems
- If Unreal locks up or crashes when you first run it, try starting Unreal via the
"Unreal Safe Mode" link available in the Windows 95/NT Start menu
(Start/Programs/Unreal/Unreal Safe Mode). This mode is similar to Windows 95's Safe
Mode and it runs Unreal with sound, DirectDraw, and 3D hardware support disabled.
This way, you can modify the options in Unreal's "preferences" menu to
turn off any options that may be causing problems, then run Unreal again.
- Some older DirectDraw drivers do not support low-resolution 16- and 32-bit color modes
(for example, 320x200, 400x300, and 512x384). If you are playing Unreal using
software rendering, this is unfortunate because the higher resolution modes like 640x400
and 640x480 run significantly slower than the low resolution modes. If the only
fullscreen options shown in Unreal are high-res, you might try obtaining a newer
DirectDraw driver for your video card.
- Some video drivers do not property support DirectDraw full-screen in 16- or 32-bit color
at at any resolution. If you are unable to play Unreal fullscreen, you should obtain
a newer driver. If you can't find a working DirectDraw driver, you can still play
Unreal in a window, though the performance and immersiveness is not as good as playing
fullscreen.
- If Unreal stops with an "Unreal has run out of virtual memory" message, you
need to free up more hard disk space on your primary drive (C:) in order to play.
Unreal's large levels and rich textures take up a lot of virtual memory.
Performance tips
On nearly all machines, Unreal runs optimally in 16-bit color mode
(rather than 32-bit color). You can select 16-bit color either from the main Unreal
window. Alternatively, if you set your desktop resolution to 16-bit color, then
Unreal defaults to 16-bit color.
The sound playback rate defaults to 22 kHz, which is optimal for Pentium
machines with MMX. If you have an older, non-MMX machine, you can get better
performance (though lower sound quality) by setting the playback rate to 11 kHz in the
Preferences menu. If you have a fast, shiny new Pentium II, you might try using 44
kHz for the ulimate in sound quality.
Unreal's performance is quite dependent on the amount of memory 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 32-meg (or less) machine, you should make
sure that you don't have other unnecessary programs loaded in memory when playing Unreal.