Heya, i never used to have this problem and i dont know when i began happening. Im running an AMD Athlon 1.2 with 256meg SDram and a Geforce 2 GTS 32meg (Asus 7700 deluxe) Im also running WINDOWS 2000 professional.

I recently installed UNREAL TOURNAMENT but noticed that the graphics were terrible. When attempting to run the game in Direct3d it is jerky and the graphics are terrible, even while running at a resolution of 640x480 with 16bit colors. Yet the game runs perfectly (although dark, and the brightness doesnt change) in OpenGL, i can even run at 1024x768+. At this time i had ASUS's most recent drivers for my video card and directX 8.0 installed.

I tried changing the drivers around, using nvidia's drivers and directX8.1 and using the UT 436 patch, but still no luck. It's strange seeing how I should have far better performance using Direct3d than OpenGL. Im also getting very poor framerates in VideoCard benchmarking programs (5.6fps in particle fury)..

Another thing is that Rogue Spear runs fine on my machine and im able to run at resolutions of 1280x1024+........

Does anyone have any idea what could possibly be going wrong.

no idea.except to say that UT runs fine in d3d for my amd 1.3 msi 266pro-r system under win2k (sp2).
have u installed all the compatibility updates?

First, go to <A HREF="http://www.guru3d.com" target="_new">http://www.guru3d.com</A> and pick up the latest drivers and gtu. Tweak your settings with Gtu. Namely, check your fast writes/sidebanding. Unreal Tourney eats clock cycles left and right.

1024x768x32, everything cranked up to max, and editing the unreal.ini file to turn off volumetric lighting, turn on detailed textures and 32bit tex., precaching and a few other settings is another option. There's a bunch of options under d3d you can turn down to speed things up.

Also, try turning on/off vsync. Some machines run better with it on, other with it off. Turn AA to 'always off'.

With a GF2 Ultra and a 1.4g tbird, it stays smooth with everything cranked up except volumetric lighting. With VL on, it gets slightly choppy, without an extrememly noticable increase in quality.

Rich is the nation that has many war heroes. Long since forgotten...

YES!
i had the exact problem as you!
it was mega slow in direct3d, ut framerate maxing out at 25fps, usualy 15fps but fine in open gl, 40fps+... and found that it also applied to other games too.

it took me ALOT of fooling around, and it almost drove me nuts...
certain detonator drives made it CRAP 6.66, 7.76, 7.97, not 8.04, 10.80, not 12.41.
each version of the detonators had some conflict...
i couldnt find a version that worked across the board.

best ones i had were the 12.41's and the 14.10's.

until, that is the detonator4's came out.
they are really good the 4's... i strongly reccomend u get them.

they fixed the refresh rate problem, no more slow directx, and have good a significant framerate boost in most games due to optimised drivers! 53 -> 58 fps in serious sam.

can find a whole host of them at
<A HREF="http://www.3dchipset.com/drivers/index.shtml" target="_new">http://www.3dchipset.com/drivers/index.shtml</A>
i suggest u start with the 21.83's. they are official drivers under the official page

the ones im using at the moment are the 21.85's. give the best results for me.
good luck

Why do i feel like the lone sane voice in the mental assylum?

on that page i can only find the 21.83 drivers (http://www.3dchipset.com/drivers/official/nvidia/series2xxx.shtml) and nothing higher

could you help me out?

go back to the homepage of that site
then navigate till u find the 'unofficial' drivers
but do try the 21.83's first and see if they solve ya problems.

Why do i feel like the lone sane voice in the mental assylum?

i cant even find an unofficial drivers page, lol... Only a Manufactuer, Official and Beta page and it's not on any of those

lol whoops

it be the BETA page!

Why do i feel like the lone sane voice in the mental assylum?

ohhhhh, ok. gotcha now

still no luck, anyone have anymore idea's