Minimizing crashes and x86 vs. x64

[Anonymous.]

Seems a common theme now is people crash a lot, which is probably due to hitting the 2GB limit of the x86 version. However, if you have a modern (x64) CPU and OS you can simply apply the Large Address Aware patch from here and it will allow the game to access up to 4GB which should resolve most crashes: https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/thre ... re.112556/

There's also the x64 patch which you can get here: https://www.moddb.com/games/unreal-tour ... ing-64-bit which inherently doesn't have the 2GB limitation. Another upside is the x64 version has the DX9 renderer which decouples the render thread from the main thread, which massively helps performance when the core becomes completely saturated (e.g. MassD/Minus/Suspense with 20+ players). This allows another core to be used to somewhat offload the render work so the main thread will get more time to do more important things. However, there are some drawbacks to x64:

• When there's a crash, the debug popup doesn't pop up
• Uses OpenAL which doesn't support audio pitch (vehicle engine noise won't adjust with speed, hit sounds, etc. The dealbreaker for most people)
• Crashes when you try to switch between windowed/fullscreen

However, these issues are not enough to steer me into using the vastly worse performing x86 version.

[infinitecat]

Or players could just use Macs, which hardly ever crash.

I don't know why gamers prefer PCs. Oh, sure, Macs don't have access to the wide variety of hacks and cheats that PC users are so fond of but...uh.... um....

Never mind.

[Enyo]

Or players could just use Macs, which hardly ever crash.

I don't know why gamers prefer PCs. Oh, sure, Macs don't have access to the wide variety of hacks and cheats that PC users are so fond of but...uh.... um....

Never mind.

I used to play on a Mac for years and maps always seemed to take forever to load, but it played OK and almost never crashed. Been playing on a PC for about 3 years now and I have to say it definitely plays better on the PC, at least for me, and it doesn't crash all that often, maybe once a week.

It makes sense UT plays better on the PC I suppose despite the huge cost difference between the two computers, the PC cost a fraction of what the Mac did. My Mac's graphics card is a Radeon Pro 5700 which is better optimized for the graphics work I do, and my PC has a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 which is much better for gaming.

Can definitely tell a difference in Adobe, 3D and video programs how much better the Mac runs those, but the PC plays game way better.

[Anonymous.]

Or players could just use Macs, which hardly ever crash.

I don't know why gamers prefer PCs. Oh, sure, Macs don't have access to the wide variety of hacks and cheats that PC users are so fond of but...uh.... um....

Never mind.

What is the point of your comment? It has zero bearing on the topic.

[infinitecat]

Anony-poo, he subject was computers crashing while playing UT. Just thought I'd add my obnoxious, not-quite-obviously-tongue-in-cheek-enough two cents.

[Anonymous.]

The OS has zero bearing on the fact that x86 software (UT2004) can't address more than 4GiB of memory (usually 2 or 3 without PAE). In fact, I don't think Mac ever got the x64 patch, so you can't even play UT2004 on newer macos versions. I think YEAHH plays on mac and constantly crashes so you can't even make the statement that mac hardly crashes. You can cheat on Mac just as easily as on Windows, so again that's irrelevant.

[infinitecat]

Anon, I can't speak for YEAH's experience but I've only experienced a UT crash when my computer ran out of memory. (Lesson learned: Shut down Photoshop and After Effects before taking a breather on Unreal. Also buy more RAM than just 8Gb, ya cheap mook!)

As for playing Unreal on newer Macs, I've run it on 10.12.6 (Sierra) with no problem. That may sound ancient but I currently play UT on 10.6.8 using the stock 256Mb video card.

For the record, I am poison to PCs. I can barely touch one and they'll freeze on me. I think they can sense the musky scent of Steve Jobs.

[pooty]

I rarely crash on x86. Maybe once a month? Playing several times a week. I do have the x64 version running (I use it to test things against my test server ... all running on the same machine). I get better graphics performance on x86, but to be fair spent quite a bit tuning the settings/graphics driver.

I don't see UT taking up that much memory, server doesn't take up usually more than 500-600 MB. I'll check my client and see.

[Enyo]

Anony-poo, he subject was computers crashing while playing UT. Just thought I'd add my obnoxious, not-quite-obviously-tongue-in-cheek-enough two cents.

Don’t worry about Anon and his nerd-brain’s inability to engage in normal human banter.

The tongue-in-cheek nature of your comment was quite obvious to those of us that don’t obsess 24/7 on how to optimize our computers to the max in order to dominate in a 20 year old game that the rest of us just play for fun.

[captainsnarf]

When I launch ut2004.exe, play instant action, open rankin and go to a specific spot on the map, I get 2400 fps.

If I do the same thing with ut2004-win64.exe, I get 300fps. I thought maybe it was the d3d8 driver I use so I removed it, but that had no effect.

I'll keep using the 32bit version