UT3 Mini tweak guide

Jivemiguel

Gawd
Joined
Sep 1, 2004
Messages
761
I’ve been looking for INI tweaks for UT3 for a while now, with the intent of making my settings as close to the way I use them in UT2004. I realize that some people won’t need the same settings as I do, but your requirements may be similar so hopefully this will help. Most of what is here I’ve found scattered about the Internet on various forums. I wanted to bring them together in one place. By no means is this a complete list, but these are the ones that I thought were important.

First off, let’s remove those little promo movies that run every time you start up UT3.
* Find the shortcut that you use to run the game
* Right click on it and select ‘Properties’
* On the ‘Shortcut’ tab, add the following at the end of the path in the ‘Target’ field:
–nomoviestartup
* Make sure there is a space before the ‘-‘ and after the last double quote.

* EDIT * If the above doesn't work, do this:

Open UTEngine.ini and put a semicolon before these lines, as below. The semicolon tells the engine to ignore the entire line

[FullScreenMovie]
;StartupMovies=Copyright_PC
;StartupMovies=EpicLogo
;StartupMovies=MidwayLogo
;StartupMovies=UE3_logo
;StartupMovies=Nvidia_PC
;StartupMovies=Intel_Duo_Logo
;StartupMovies=UT_loadmovie1


Okay, now we’re going to get into the INI tweaks. I know some of you think this is cheating; if that’s you, stop reading now. :) Otherwise, prepare to be enlightened! Most of the files that you need to make changes to can be found here:

C:\Documents and Settings\*username*\My Documents\My Games\Unreal Tournament 3\UTGame\Config

where *username* is the name that you use when you log in.

The files in the Config directory sometimes are set to read only. Before you can edit them, you have to uncheck this bit. To do that, follow these directions:
* Right click on the file in question and select ‘Properties’
* On the General tab, at the bottom, look for ‘attributes’
* Read-only is the first one. If it is checked, uncheck it and click ok.

File: UTGame.ini
I like to see all death messages while I’m playing. It can be helpful to know when and how someone was killed. To make these changes, look for the following sections and set the values as shown below:

[UTGame.UTDeathMessage]
bNoConsoleDeathMessages=false (this is false by default, but double check it.)

[UTGame.UTTeamDeathMessage]
bNoConsoleDeathMessages=false


File: UTInput.ini
I use the console a lot. The coolest console command it ‘quit’ or ‘exit’. When I’m done playing, instead of disconnecting, returning to the menu, clicking on exit game and then confirming that I want to exit (so stupid), I just pull down the console and type ‘quit’. UT2004 used the tilde key to pull down the console. For some reason, they used F10 in UT3. To set it back to tilde, look for the following section in this file, and change it as shown:

[Engine.Console]
ConsoleKey=Tilde


File: UTInput.ini
Another bind that I used in UT2004 (which comes from my days playing Quake 1 and 2), is to press the Tab key to show the scores. I like to know when I’m getting pwned and who’s doing it, so I check the scoreboard a couple times a round. This binding will allow you to press the Tab key to show scores, and it will only keep it open for as long as you hold the key down. To do this, you must first unbind the default setting for Tab, as shown below:

[Engine.Console]
Typekey=Backslash (or any other key)

I’m not sure what Typekey does, but it’s new to UT3 and from what I understand, it’s only used by developers. Now, add the following line in two sections, as shown below

[Engine.PlayerInput] and [UTGame.UTPlayerInput]
Bindings=(Name="Tab",Command="ShowScores | Onrelease ShowScores",Control=False,Shift=False,Alt=False)


File: UTEngine.ini
This section deals with the way the game looks, particularly the blurring and bloom. I tried these settings and it made a world of difference. I felt that I could ‘see’ again, (it’s hard to explain, you have to try it for yourself), and it really changed the way I feel about the game as a whole. The colors pop more, and it just feels and looks better. So open this file and make the following changes in this section:

[SystemSettings]
MotionBlur=False
DepthOfField=False
Bloom=False
QualityBloom=False

If you have been paying attention to the forums since the demo was released, you know that the game ships with the framerate capped. I understand why, but I’m a framerate whore and want the most out of my expensive video card. To remove the framerate cap, look for this section and make the following change:

[Engine.GameEngine]
bSmoothFrameRate=FALSE
 
Thanks, the console showing up when pressing Tab really annoyed me since I'm so used to it bringing up scores.
 
awesome post

File: UTEngine.ini
This section deals with the way the game looks, particularly the blurring and bloom. I tried these settings and it made a world of difference. I felt that I could ‘see’ again, (it’s hard to explain, you have to try it for yourself), and it really changed the way I feel about the game as a whole. The colors pop more, and it just feels and looks better. So open this file and make the following changes in this section:

[SystemSettings]
MotionBlur=False
DepthOfField=False
Bloom=False
QualityBloom=False

I'm loving the way the game looks after this, definitely a lot better :cool:
 
If you uncap the framerate, don't use smoothmouse option. I noticed that I get inconstant control when the framerate goes above 60fps with it on.

Or, I may be going insain........
 
Great stuff, thanks alot man;)

However the nomovie trick malfunctions on me, i get an error message going like; some specified map couldnt be found etc. so apparantly it thinks i want it to load a map called nomoviestartup...

this is my shortcut command: "C:\Program Files\Unreal Tournament 3\Binaries\UT3.exe" –nomoviestartup
 
Great stuff, thanks alot man;)

However the nomovie trick malfunctions on me, i get an error message going like; some specified map couldnt be found etc. so apparantly it thinks i want it to load a map called nomoviestartup...

this is my shortcut command: "C:\Program Files\Unreal Tournament 3\Binaries\UT3.exe" –nomoviestartup

what i did to get rid of the intro movies is just go to the Unreal Tournament 3\UTGame\Movies folder or where ever you installed the game to and delete the first six .bik files (in alphabetical order).
 
what i did to get rid of the intro movies is just go to the Unreal Tournament 3\UTGame\Movies folder or where ever you installed the game to and delete the first six .bik files (in alphabetical order).

I just moved them to a new folder within that directory in case a future pacth requires those files to be there. Its VERY unlikely but Im paranoid..... :eek:
 
Great stuff, thanks alot man;)

However the nomovie trick malfunctions on me, i get an error message going like; some specified map couldnt be found etc. so apparantly it thinks i want it to load a map called nomoviestartup...

this is my shortcut command: "C:\Program Files\Unreal Tournament 3\Binaries\UT3.exe" –nomoviestartup

Thanks for this info. I've edited the original post with another way to stop the intro movies.
 
What I did to get rid of the movies was put a semi-colon ";" before each of the six intro movie names in the UTEngine.ini file. It turns those entries into a "comment" as far as the code goes... no need to delete anything. ;)
 
When I uncapped my framerate everything got jittery with large fps swings. I left smoothframerate on and just tweaked the min and max settings to get a favorable result.
 
hi i just bought ut3 and one question i would like to ask is how do i load up a customized resolution? i cant select 12800x800 for example. thanks
 
alot of these also work for Rainbow 6 Vegas and Gears of War..FYI...
Funny how when I was playing UT3 demo I kept thinking "Man this looks alot like Gears of War". Then come to find out, it uses the same engine...on the PC anyway. I assume it uses the same engine on the XBOX 360 as well. I dunno..I'm no expert. Rainbow 6 Vegas looks VASTLY different on the PC than it does on the 360 though.
 
r6v uses the same unreal engine too. anyway does anybody know how to manualy change the resolution?
 
alot of these also work for Rainbow 6 Vegas and Gears of War..FYI...
Funny how when I was playing UT3 demo I kept thinking "Man this looks alot like Gears of War". Then come to find out, it uses the same engine...on the PC anyway. I assume it uses the same engine on the XBOX 360 as well. I dunno..I'm no expert. Rainbow 6 Vegas looks VASTLY different on the PC than it does on the 360 though.
They all use the Unreal Engine 3 and UT3 doesn't look like Gears of War, Gears of War looks like Unreal Tournament 3.

Unreal and Quake 2 started this style, then came Unreal Return to Na Pali, Unreal Tournament, Unreal 2, Unreal 2 XMP, UT2003, Unreal Championship 1 and 2 (xbox), UT2004 and THEN came Gears of War. I don't like it when people assume that just because they've only heard of Epic a year ago it means that Gears of War started everything. That was simply their first great-selling console game and got them more attention from the mainstream crowd.

Gears was simply Epic's first game using their new DX9 engine, so they were finally able to add all kinds of details like worn-out, rusty places, debris, etc. which were all in their older games, but they were a lot more limited by the technology.
 
turning off depth of field, motion blur, and bloom really made it look ALOT better, it feels alot more like a ut2004 successor now :D:D:D
 
I was playing around with different settings in the game, starting with world detail on 5 and looking at the utengine.ini and just trying different things. I looked at which settings had large impact visually without hampering performance too much. Then I set the world detail to 1 and compared it to world detail 5


I noticed the DirectionalLightmaps has a major impact on picture quality, probably the single most important setting for image quality and it's not a pig. If you have a low end system and have your world detail set to 1 on the slider this setting will be set to false. Since this setting seems to have little to almost no impact on FPS(at least I didn't notice) go into your utengine.ini and set DirectionalLightmaps=True. You will notice a world of difference when you start the game back up and play a map. I would leave everything else at the world detail 1 defaults. This is the best mixture of good visuals and performance for people who may have a old system...as in stuck between minimum requirements and recommended requirements.


[SystemSettings]
StaticDecals=False
DynamicDecals=False
DynamicLights=False
DynamicShadows=False
LightEnvironmentShadows=False
CompositeDynamicLights=True
DirectionalLightmaps=True
MotionBlur=False
DepthOfField=False
Bloom=False
QualityBloom=False
Distortion=False
DropParticleDistortion=True
SpeedTreeLeaves=False
SpeedTreeFronds=False
OnlyStreamInTextures=False
LensFlares=False
FogVolumes=True
FloatingPointRenderTargets=True
Trilinear=False
OneFrameThreadLag=True
UseVsync=False
UpscaleScreenPercentage=True
Fullscreen=True
AllowD3D10=True
EnableHighPolyChars=False
SkeletalMeshLODBias=1
ParticleLODBias=2147483647
DetailMode=0
ShadowFilterQualityBias=-1
MaxAnisotropy=4
MaxMultisamples=1
 
Hey, I finally got this game and I tried some of the OP's tweaks. Is there any reason why the Tab key still doesn't work as a scoreboard? It still brings up the console.

I did exactly what you said, here's what I have:

[Engine.PlayerInput]
Bindings=(Name="Tab",Command="ShowScores | Onrelease ShowScores",Control=False,Shift=False,Alt=False)

[Engine.Console]
ConsoleKey=Tilde
TypeKey=Tab
MaxScrollbackSize=1024
HistoryBot=-1

[UTGame.UTPlayerInput]
Bindings=(Name="Tab",Command="ShowScores | Onrelease ShowScores",Control=False,Shift=False,Alt=False)


Also, is there a way to have "stat fps" entered in the console every time the game runs so I don't have to enter it manually every time? Something like an autoexec config file or something?

Much appreciated...
 
They all use the Unreal Engine 3 and UT3 doesn't look like Gears of War, Gears of War looks like Unreal Tournament 3.

Unreal and Quake 2 started this style, then came Unreal Return to Na Pali, Unreal Tournament, Unreal 2, Unreal 2 XMP, UT2003, Unreal Championship 1 and 2 (xbox), UT2004 and THEN came Gears of War. I don't like it when people assume that just because they've only heard of Epic a year ago it means that Gears of War started everything. That was simply their first great-selling console game and got them more attention from the mainstream crowd.

Gears was simply Epic's first game using their new DX9 engine, so they were finally able to add all kinds of details like worn-out, rusty places, debris, etc. which were all in their older games, but they were a lot more limited by the technology.


You assume much of me.
I've played every Unreal game since the beginning and many mods for each of them like Tactical Ops and other mods of less notoriety.

When I said that I thought Unreal 3 looked like Gears of War, I didn't mean that in the sense that it was simply an FPS game. Gears did IN FACT come out BEFORE Unreal Tournament 3 did. Perhaps you were not aware of this. I don't know. Rainbow 6 Vegas uses the same engine and I don't think it looks like Gears of War. However, some of the textures and weapon effects and liquid effects and explosions and blood spurts look similar in Gears and in UT3.

I didn't play Gears of War for more than maybe an hour like a year ago. And when I started up the UT3 demo, I immediately said that it reminded me of Gears because of the way things looked.

I didn't realize anyone would read that much into the comment. But thanks for the DX9 education.
 
wow, i tried this mini guide, and it works great! Now UT3 looks like UT3.
 
Did anyone find a way to allow jump to be bound to the right ctrl key?

This is the only deal breaker for me on this game. :(
 
thanks for this, i know im a bit late on the ball but ill be sure to use quite a few of these tweaks when i get back home!
 
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