In the latest 64-bit version (3369), it's statically compiled and you can use it. However it has some instabilities regarding screen initialization (changing res in fullscreen will cause it to bomb to desktop)

In the 32-bit version, the D3D9 Renderer was accidentally leaked in a beta patch.

So you need to use a 64-bit OS for the renderer to work or what? That's really lame. Reminds me of that stupid Far Cry AMD64 patch...

d1stortion wrote:

So you need to use a 64-bit OS for the renderer to work or what? That's really lame. Reminds me of that stupid Far Cry AMD64 patch...

Lame that you need a 64 bit OS to run a 64 bit version of something? Seems kind of logical to me.

I don't see how minor graphical enhancements (textures etc.) have to do anything with 64-bit operation and couldn't be ported to 32-bit. Of course the Far Cry patch was simply made to promote the new (and at the time completely useless for 99% of users) AMD64 feature, hence all the advertising in it.

d1stortion wrote:

I don't see how minor graphical enhancements (textures etc.) have to do anything with 64-bit operation and couldn't be ported to 32-bit.

They don't have to, and they could be ported.

But as it stands, for whatever reason, the driver only exists for the 64-bit version of the game.

For a game this old, it's silly to think there's some sinister reason behind it. Sometimes it's just tough luck. 😀

Isn't the engine primarily D3D 7? I recall reading that they use D3D 8 to speed up rendering if the hardware is there.

swaaye wrote:

Isn't the engine primarily D3D 7? I recall reading that they use D3D 8 to speed up rendering if the hardware is there.

For the most part perhaps yes. The water in that game doesn't look like it would take advantage of D3D8 capabilities. It's certainly not as diversified as HL2 with its different renderers for D3D7-9.

On that note, I remember having to play UT04 on Kyro II back in the day... horrible 🤣

There's no improvements in graphics if you use D3D9. It's just a backend change.

The water effect's just software-driven procedural heightmap with a cubemap applied to it.

Of course the original unreal now has a dx11 renderer
http://kentie.net/article/d3d11drv/index.htm

d1stortion wrote:

On that note, I remember having to play UT04 on Kyro II back in the day... horrible 🤣

I had Unreal 2 on Kyro 2 a few days ago. It runs well enough at 800x600x32. There were some white textures in the space scenes but the first mission looks perfect.

swaaye wrote:

d1stortion wrote:

On that note, I remember having to play UT04 on Kyro II back in the day... horrible 🤣

I had Unreal 2 on Kyro 2 a few days ago. It runs well enough at 800x600x32. There were some white textures in the space scenes but the first mission looks perfect.

I distinctly remember noticing how the health packs in UT04 were now rendered as transparent when I saw the game on a DX9 card for the first time; not sure if it was only due to the graphical settings or the card itself, but anything above minimal settings was unplayable anyway. The card became faulty from overheating too, displaying only something something similar to wireframes at times. I should consider getting another one someday to relive the shitty experience 🤣

Davros wrote:

Of course the original unreal now has a dx11 renderer
http://kentie.net/article/d3d11drv/index.htm

I need to try the original Deus Ex with his d3d10 driver. I last played through DX1 around 3-4 years ago (wow, has it been that long?) with one of the utglr drivers I think: http://www.cwdohnal.com/utglr/

I remember hating that D3D10/11 driver because it forced a differently calculated FOV. I went back to the utglr drivers.