[darkelf_18]

Hey guys I just got UT2004 and played it for the first time at a LAN Party and the whole time I played it was fine. But I went home and put a No-CD crack on it, and started playing the single player mode. That went fine until I got past the team qualification matches. Then it started to Lag so much that I could hardly win at all(I was only on expirienced mode, normaly I do fine at that)

I tried setting the Resiloution lower and that didn't fix it, I tried setting my Proc and graphics cards at the normal settings and that didn't work. I tried using the Play disk instead of the No-CD crack, and that may have lessened the Lag but not much, if at all. I tried reinstalling the game, and playing without the No-CD crack, and that still didn't work. I though that maybe the ATI cards have a confict running the gae, so I installed it on my Dads PC which has an geForce 3 TI 500 64mb card, and that still didn't work.

The only thing I changed on my System form the time I played at the LAN Party to the time it started to LAG, was installing Service Pack 1 onto XP Pro. I don't know why htat would change anything bu I thought I would mention it.
So can anyone figure this out? The sooner the better, as I won't beable to play very well untill it gets fixed.

Also, I have all the latest Graphics and MoBo drivers installed on both PC's. And a Legal copy of te game.

 

[McTimson]

Go into the UT2k4 options, under the 'Game' menu, make sure 'preload all skins' is unchecked (it's near the bottom right, I think).

 

[darkelf_18]

Ok cool I'll try that right now.

 

[darkelf_18]

Hey McTimison, no that didn't work. I also tried putting the settings at the very lowest they could go. It is even worse then before. Could it be something with SP1?

 

[McTimson]

Maybe, try reinstalling UT2k4.

 

[darkelf_18]

Oh I must have forgot to add that I did that already to. Anyone else?

 

[McTimson]

Hahve you installed graphics/motherbaord drivers since you installed SP1? If not, do so.

Also, run your card at stock speeds for now, just so we can rule out overclocking....

 

[Skivvywaver]

Actually, I think SP1 helped my game performance. I run XP Pro, but I don't have Unreal 2004 yet. The no cd crack I doubt would cause any problems as long as the game loads, and you have said you have run it with the CD.
I run all my games on No CD, I hate digging for disks and switching them out all the time. And beside, the protection just doesn't work as we have established.
Did you archive files when you installed SP1? If so you could try S\Canning it and see if that helps.

 

[tsunam]

hm there's a no cd crack for ut2004 already? Jeez that was quick, course its not surprising. Even if they are technically ehh on being legal they are nice to have.

 

[darkelf_18]

I just figured my problem out. And its not my PC. I did some searching and found out that UT2K4 is protected my a program called Securom. And Securom has a thing where if you try to play the game with an illegal copy then the game basicly starts to degenerate, I.E. it seemed like it was lagging(here's a link to Securom's *new* trigger functions) www.gameburnworld.com/protections_securom_new_trigger_functions.htm
So by installing that No-CD crack I think that must have set off the Securom's Trigger. So I will either have to reformat my HD(which I was going to do soon anyway) or I will have to contact Securom, and have them fix it.

 

[Skivvywaver]

Well, it looks like they may have come up with CD protection that works. At least for now.
CD protection is a nuisance. I have ruined a game cd forgetting it was in the drive and tossing another cd in on top of it. Had to send it in for replacement. The game GTA 3 was installed, and that is when I learned about no CD cracks. It didn't take me long to crack every game on my machine with them.
If they have effectively killed the no CD, it is a sad day in game land. I have 24 gigabytes of games on this machine, which would amount to having 15 CD's at the ready, Boooooooo.

 

[Rollin' Rog]

While we don't support the use of illegal cracks here, make it a lesson learned -- and try doing a System Restore to a date prior to the game install. This might reverse any system changes that survive the mere uninstall and reinstall of the game itself. Then fully test the game without going online. (It's possible the CD-Key has been marked for action in some online registration base)

 

[darkelf_18]

I could be wrong but I don't think that using a No-CD crack is illegal, or if it is that is just stupid. All your doing is playing without your CD. Whats wrong with that? Not only is it easier(you don't have to switch CD's every time you play a different game) but it prolongs the life of your game.

 

[Rollin' Rog]

If it is not an "authorized" patch (such as the one for UT2003) it is illegal; why would you think the protection measures would be triggered otherwise? It would allow for the installation of the game on more than one system, violating the licensing agreement.

But, who knows, maybe they will issue an update patch that contains it, since they did for UT2003.

I agree it makes it a lot more convenient. I do not like having CDs in the drive since it triggers the drive everytime I open the Explorer tree and on every startup.

 

[Skivvywaver]

The No CD's are the only cracks I use on my machine, but I ALWAYS rename the original game file to .old so I still have it if I want to play online which is rarely.
I am really not going to be too upset if the game companies have found a way to protect their investment, but I think activation of some sort would be better than CD protection.
The big companies use CD protection and it really encourages cracking the very software they sell. I realize when I crack one of my games it can lead to problems, but this new formula of degrading is kind of low. If they want to protect games, I would much rather go through a 5-10 minute activation than dig for the disk every time I want to play the game.
Anybody else feel that way?