UT and S3TC with todays gfx cards

[pgudge]

Hi,

Maybe a blast from the past, but I re-installed UT last night for the first time in many years. I used to install the extra textures from Disc2 and setup the S3TC options in OpenGL on my GeForce 256 DDR. Does the cards of today still support such things?

I have a nVidia 6800GT but after installing the textures, setting the correct options in the Default.ini file, and selecting OpenGL Renderer the textures never made an appearence.

There was talk of a cracked OpenGL.dll file that needed to be installed, is this still the case, and will it break anything if I do?

Thanks.

Paul.

[Agent]

pgudge - I work with the Unreal engine most days and im fairly sure its still got the code for S3TC in there somwhere (even in the latest builds - there is a lot of legacy stuff)
The main issue is going to be getting the card to render it. You might be able to do it via a OpenGL wrapper. Ill have a look about for you as the S3TC textures can put some of todays games to shame

[mmmalas]

sorry for the stupid question, but what is S3TC, is it somthing like Direct3d/glide/opengl technology?

[Agent]

Its a method of texture compression. Pop it into google

[directhex]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S3TC

[mmmalas]

I thought I had heard about that in the original UT

you said "Ill have a look about for you as the S3TC textures can put some of todays games to shame"

why they dont use it then?

[pgudge]

pgudge - I work with the Unreal engine most days and im fairly sure its still got the code for S3TC in there somwhere (even in the latest builds - there is a lot of legacy stuff)
The main issue is going to be getting the card to render it. You might be able to do it via a OpenGL wrapper. Ill have a look about for you as the S3TC textures can put some of todays games to shame

Thanks Agent.

When I start UT it asks for the graphic engine to use and Direct3D Render and Software Render are the only ones available, but if you click the "Show All" it shows the OpenGL Render.

Do you know anything about this OpenGL.dll file thing, is this still a nessesary step?

Thanks again.

[Agent]

I thought I had heard about that in the original UT

you said "Ill have a look about for you as the S3TC textures can put some of todays games to shame"

why they dont use it then?

It has largely been superseded by other technologies due to the demise of S3. It’s a shame that it never really got off the ground.
Certain (limited) aspects are still good by todays standards. A well made S3 texture can beat a mediocre one with today’s technologies. And with the amount of shoddy games on the market today, ive looked back on a few S3 based games and thought “wow, that really did look amazing”.

http://www.digit-life.com/articles/reviews3tcfxt1/
http://www.celticwarriors.net/websit...ormalLarge.jpg
http://www.celticwarriors.net/websit...aS3TCLarge.jpg

[Agent]

Thanks Agent.

When I start UT it asks for the graphic engine to use and Direct3D Render and Software Render are the only ones available, but if you click the "Show All" it shows the OpenGL Render.

Do you know anything about this OpenGL.dll file thing, is this still a nessesary step?

Thanks again.

I dont have UT installed on this machine, but try typing "Preferences" in the console, then have a look under the Rendering and Display for anything S3 related. IIRC, The geforce 2 supported S3 compression, i wonder if they took it out ?

[pgudge]

Those screenshots look wicked

I enjoyed playing UT with the S3TC on, when must of my mates couldn't run them in high res OpenGL due to "not so good spec gfx cards" and putting them back on now makes a really old game (UT) look wicked and even better than some games of today.

[mmmalas]

the texture diffrence in quake looks amazing, shame I didnt try it when I had the original unreal, but maybe it wont work on Voodoo2 anyway

[pgudge]

I think it could work on Voodoo2's if you find a decent Glide plugin which is like a OpenGL for voodoo I think.

I still haven't installed UT2004 yet, be nice if that had the S3TC textures too.