Tech support: UT2K4 freezes at load screen

Frem

This is a tech support question, so I *think* it belongs in the technology subforum. Correct me if I'm wrong.

So, I'm trying to get the Unreal Tournament 2004 demo to work properly. I'm within the system requirements. My DxDiag info is here.

Basically, when I try to play some of the game types, the game will jam at the loading screen and CPU usage will go up to 99%. I've just been using the "instant action" menu item to access the game.

• It's not related to the map. "Deathmatch" works. "Team deathmatch", played on the very same map does not.
• It's not related to the rendering engine. DirectX and Software both fail. I don't have an OpenGL option.
• The game *will* work when I run it using OpenGL in Linux, but my ATi card hates both of those, and I have to run at a less than 640x480 with everything turned down to get a decent framerate. Compare with 800x600 medium settings using DirectX. Yes, I know. I'm getting an Nvidia card next time I upgrade.
• I defragmented my hard drive before installing, and used the SystemInternals Contig/Power Defragmenter GUI utility to defragment the game folder after I experienced the problem. Doesn't seem to have made a difference.

Does anyone know how I can solve this and make the game not freeze?

urahonky

Well... I just want to say that a Celeron processor is NOT going to run this game enjoyably. Give me a few to read through your DxDiag stuff, but that's one thing... Also 512MB of RAM is very little for it. On top of 64MB of video card memory... Yeah I don't know if you can run it man. I'm going to go online and look for the minimum specs for the game, but I'm sure yours hits far below it.

EDIT:

I found the issue. Your video card doesn't support Textures and Lighting. (Called T&L on the minimum specifications):

Specs wrote:

Pentium III or AMD Athlon 1.0 GHz processor (Pentium® or AMD 1.2GHz or greater recommended)
128MB RAM (256MB RAM or greater recommended)
5.5GB HDD space REQUIRED
8X CD-ROM or DVD
Windows® compatible sound card
32 MB video card required (64 MB NVIDIA or ATI hardware T&L card recommended)
DirectX® version 9.0b (included on game disc)
Internet (TCP/IP) and LAN (TCP/IP) play supported. Internet play requires a 33.6 kbps or faster modem (broadband recommended)

So if you can boot into the game, try and set everything on the lowest possible settings and see if it works.

Frem

So, wait. Why would T&L be required for team deathmatch, but not deathmatch?
Actually, my card does have T&L. LEGO StarWars, which I can play, requires it to even view the main menu.

But yeah. Discovered at a LAN party last night that I can load network games of any type, but not all the "instant action" games. Go figure.

The game plays decently on small to mid-sized maps, at 800x600, with the view distance halfway down and almost all the graphical options at the lowest settings.