Unreal Tournament 2003 is the PC sequel to Digital Extremes & Epic Games massively successful Unreal Tournament.

After a few months of delay, the demo of this already popular multiplayer shoot ‘em up has now been released, hopefully with many improvements over what we could have got around July when it was first supposed to come out.

As expected with this new FPS release we are also getting a completely revamped graphics engine; fast paced action combat combined with superb animations will require a fast machine so you will want to make sure everything is fine tuned for best visuals and improved 3d audio with a minimum performance loss. Read on to optimize your UT 2003 experience…

Troubleshooting

Begin by downloading the latest Drivers for your Graphics card & Soundcard. This should solve (most) Graphics, Input or Audio problems you may be having. You can find links to various manufacturers on our Drivers page.

Install that latest version of DirectX on your system. Similar to Drivers, this can also fix problems with sound, graphics & input devices. If you’re still experiencing lockups & such they might be caused by overclocking, if so try lowering the Memory/Core speed of the overclocked device to see if it resolves the problem.

Still having problem? Check the Unreal TechPage for FAQs & other information.

Basic Graphics Setup

Load the game, click on Settings, then select the Video tab.

Resolution. Selecting a lower resolution can improve performance & maintain a stabler, higher frame rate. Higher resolutions look better (sharper & smaller jagged edges), they also tend to run slower. This all depends on how slow/fast your system (Particularly Graphics card) is of course.

Color Depth. Set this to 16-bit Color for best performance, but with more apparent color banding, while 32-bit Color will provide best visual quality – with less apparent colour banding & reduced rendering errors as it uses a higher Z-Buffer precision for performing depth calculations, although performance will be reduced – particularly on older Graphics cards. Given the use of transparencies & fog it is highly recommended you use 32-bit Color if your Graphics card support it.

Full Screen. Set this to your own preference, though preferably Ticked of course for best performance & largest viewing area.

Gamma. This slider is used to adjust the level of RGB colour intensity. Moving the slider to the Right will increase the colour intensity, though can reduce texture detail by brightening textures too much if moved slid too far right & vice versa.

Brightness. Use this slider to set the glare level in the game. Sliding the bar to the Right will increase the glare level, though can also make textures appear more washed out if slid too far & vice versa.

Contrast. Use this slider to set the level of contrast in the game. Sliding the bar to the Right will increase the contrast level, though can also make the game appear more washed out if slid too far & vice versa.

Texture Detail. This option sets the resolution of textures to be used in the game. Options available are Lowest, Lower, Low & Normal. Normal enables the use of the sharpest, most detailed textures in the demo, though performance will be on Graphics Cards with low Video memory. Lower settings use more blurred textures which require less Video memory. If you intend to use the Normal option be sure you have an AGP Aperture size of 32MB or more & a Graphics Card with 64MB or more of Video memory, whereas with Low you should have 32MB of Video memory preferably & so on.

Character Detail. This setting determines the level of resolution of textures to be used for characters in the game. Options available are Lowest, Lower, Low & Normal. Normal enables the use of the sharpest, most detailed textures for characters, though performance will be on Graphics Cards with low Video memory. Lower settings use more blurred textures which require less Video memory. If you intend to use the Normal option be sure you have an AGP Aperture size of 32MB or more & a Graphics Card with 32MB or more of Video memory, whereas with Low you should have 16MB of Video memory preferably & so on.