Players Read This

This chapter was written for players, technical background not being a prerequisite, to introduce them to the "player only" features of UTF, which can be used without being administrator on a server.

In case you're looking for something specific, here's an overview of the topics discussed on this page:

  1. UTeamFix Menues
  2. UTeamFix Main-Menu
  3. Client Options Menu
  4. Console Commands (for all players)
  5. Miscellanious other notes
  6. Unreal Tournament Players
  7. UT: Connecting To A Server
  8. UT: Missing Keybinds
  9. Chapters players should also read

Menues

Since version 10 (Press F1 to see the scoreboard, then look for a red box in the lower right corner to see what version is running on the server you play on) UTF comes along with a new set of menues.

To access them, you normally have to press your normal menu-key executing the command ShowMenu. In most cases, that is the ESCape key, but GOLD users as well as Unreal Tournament players will not see the UTF menu this way. GOLD and UT users must bind a new key to "ShowMenu", one which is not ESC - note: hitting tab and TYPING "ShowMenu" will bring up the menu, but make it impossible to use. You MUST bind a key!!

If you don't know how to do raw keybindings, do the following: enter the game, hit TAB and TYPE this exactly as given:
set input m showmenu

From now on you can use the M letter to access the menu. If you don't like "M", pick any other key, assigning letters is just easiest this way.

Your absolute minimal screen resolution to bring up the main menu must be no smaller than 412x186 but even so, this will not get you far because other submenues may refuse to work at this resolution. I made everything work okay with 640x480 which should be doable by any PC nowadays.

Main-Menu

Depending on your resolution, the main-menu may look more or less like this.

Main Menu display

You can use both the keyboard AND the mouse interchangeably, whatever you prefer. Cursor up/down selects an option, RETURN enters. Escape will get you back or out of the menu. Mouse control is point and left-click on an option, right-click will get you one step back or out of the menu.

Main Menu options
ButtonEffect
SPECTATE Makes you a spectator if you are a regular player. In case spectating is not allowed or you can not spectate at the moment, you will be notified.
PLAY OPPOSITE of above, you can join the game when you are spectating without rejoining the server. One thing to consider though, you may find yourself using a different mesh/skin than you originally had selected in your multiplayer menu, if you joined the server as spectator in the first place.
Whether or not this happens depends on servers-settings and whether or not you have been a regular player before in any UTF-10 server.
change teams
RED BLUE
etc..
These buttons let you change teams easily right in the game. You will normally see only those teams existing on the server, an administrator may see more buttons there though. If you can't join a particular team at the moment, you will be notified.
Of course, these buttons are not available in non-teamgames :P
ADMIN ... The big ADMIN button would let you go into the administration menu if you HAD admin privileges on that server, the ADMIN LOGIN and ADMIN LOGOUT buttons are simply menu versions of the console commands ALOGIN and ALOGOUT and do exactly that...
CLIENT MENU Opens a submenu which lets you change various client settings, see later on below.
UNREAL MENU Brings up the old normal Unreal Menu, with the standard Unreal options that come from the original Unreal game as it is without UTF. While normal users may be accustomed to it, GOLD users may not be used to this old style menu as in normal circumstances they have the UT-styled menu to replace that particular menu.
You can no longer use mouse in this old menu, because that is a UTF feature and this old menu is no UTF-menu.
QUIT GAME Hmm... now what could this button do...?!
DISCONNECT What it actually does is send a kick-request to the server, because in 224/225 there is no real disconnect-command as in 226. Locally it execute an "open entry" command which effectively puts you back in the cellblock.

Client Option Menu

Client Options Menu

Client Menu
OptionEffect
Scoreboard
Use
old
ScoreBoards
Since UTF-9E, the scoreboards were the first to implement the new modular GFX system. While the new GFX system is highly advanced to conventional Canvas GFX display, it has also erupted a discussion of taste. Some people preferred the old "9b" style scoreboards. So here you may pick how your scoreboard should look like now, old or new.

Be aware though, that the old scoreboards have less overall abilities and may not show everything as accurately as the new ones - especially in modded environments, in normal Unreal games everything will be displayed just ok.
Never
show
FRAGS
Epic made a crude mistake in wording since UT, and unfortunately it has taken over. They describe a "frag" as a point, which may be in order, but a "frag" is just a "kill", not score.
You can select whether or not to show this extra piece of stats. Enabling this will automatically set "Never show TEAMKILLS" to true also due to the space distribution on display.
Never
show
TEAMKILLS
Obviously only a teamgame option, and only of real consequence in teamgames with friendly fire on (such as MonsterMash and some tactical games usually). DISABLING this option will automatically disable "Never show FRAGS" due to the space distribution on the display.
Show
TeamColor
Background
Select whether or not the background on the score boxes in team games should have a transparent taint in the associated team-color or not...
Messaging
Show
[special type]
Numerous switches to enable or disable the display of special messages like the HEADSHOT or "YOU KILLED..." notifications. Disabling "Low Critical" messages will disable the "Orientation Phase" messages but possibly also some other low critical warning messages from the system.
Disabling DEATHMATCHES is possible for people who prefer to use Unreal as chatroom rather than actual fraggin :rolleyes:
Max.
Number
Messages
By default, the max. number of messages you see on the top is 4. You can set this to an arbitrary number between 1 and 99, although personally I recommend 6. Too low and you won't catch all messages, too high and you will have your screen cluttered in no time :P
[special type]
Time
(sec)
Numerous selectors how long a defined message type should stay on screen. "Normal" messages are those on top, any other are special messages which are described by name.
Miscellanious
Fullscreen
GUI
MouseSpeed
If you play in windowed mode, this setting is entirely irrelevant, because the windows mouse cursor replaces the Unreal engine mouse handling. In fullscreen mode, you should get a different mouse cursor and also moving the mouse cursor will feel a bit different than the window-mode variant. I discovered the default speed (which is sensitivity dependent) is not good for everybody, so I allow a special mouse sensitivity change which ONLY applies to these menues.

Enter any arbitrary POSITIVE float value.
INFILTRATION:
AutoReload Guns
Infiltration Game Bridge only!
If true, Infiltration guns can be settable to reload automatically when the clip is empty but you have additional ammo in your inventory.
Default is false.
INFILTRATION:
Aim is toggle
Infiltration Game Bridge only!
Some Infiltration guns (M9, MP5, M16...) have alt-fire set to enable a 'to hip' view to improve your aim, so in the game when you use alt-fire on these guns, they are moved more towards your hip and a crosshair is drawn (normally there is no crosshair except on the Rifles in scope-mode).
If this setting is TRUE, hitting the alt-fire button once will switch the guns to hip mode, and hitting the button again will reverse the setting. The M9 pistol shoots slower in hip mode, the other weapons (those without zoom) do not change in speed in hip-mode.
If the setting is FALSE (default), you have to keep the alt-fire pressed for the guns to remain in hip-mode (or in zoom-mode for the Sniper Rifles).
Buttons
DEFAULTS This will reset all above options to the internal UTF defaults as they were when you first downloaded UTF.
LAST
SAVED
If you changed any above option but did NOT exit the menu yet, you can restore your last settings by hitting this button.

General Console commands (non-admin/all players)

Aside from the menu, any player may also issue a few UTF commands to UTF.

CommandEffect
alogin [password] Logs you in as admin during game!
alogin [username] [password] Logs you in as admin during game trying to use an individualized account!
If your current playername is one of the registered admins usernames, just enter your own password.
alogout Logs you OUT as admin during game.
play If you are a spectator, this makes you a player (if allowed).
ps [id] [message] Privatesay, send a message to player [id]. No other player can see these messages. implemented but not very nice
Setconsoletyped [text] Meant to use as keybinds, you can pre-type any text to your console. For example when you hit the key executing "TALK" you go to your console prompt with the text "SAY" pretyped for you, the same can be achieved with this keybind now
Setconsoletyped say

Instead of "SAY" you can put arbitrary text there, allowing for any pre-written text on your console prompt.
Idea came from Smartball, actually this feature is identical to EDM, so if you have any EDM binds they will work with UTF-10 as well (provided the binds make sense in UTF hehe).
Shapeshift [arg] This requires the server to use "MultiMeshPlayers" which the admin can decide to turn on or off at will. If the feature is disabled, you can still use it instead of PLAY or SPECTATE, but just using these 2 other commands is easier for the purpose.

[arg] can be
  • Male1
  • Male2
  • Male3
  • FeMale1
  • FeMale2
  • SKTrooper
  • None
If specified with "None", you will be made spectator (same as typing "spectator" command), all other settings will make you player if you were spectating, or change your shape accordingly - you will lose your skin preference on the way though! Also, if you mess around in your multiplayer menu again AFTER shapeshifting, your chosen shape will revert to whatever you picked in the multiplayer menu after a map change!
specsay [message]

SpecTalk
Spectators only: Spectating people can use specsay to talk to other spectators. This talk is not visible to normal players, only to spectators. Also, this is allowed even if spectators are muted.
NOTE: You can bind a key to SpecTalk, this will prepare you to specsay (autobind) like say is autobound by talk.
spectate If you are a player, this makes you a spectator (if allowed).
UTF_ReloadWeapon Will reload your gun if you are using a Clip Gun and it is possible at the time to reload it.
utfdebug [arg] Client debugging commands, they may work/not work and/or be be changed at will. [arg] may be:

  • prichain
    This command argument will have your client log the currently replicated PlayerReplication chains. This debug command was introduced after getting reports about "missing players in the scoreboard". It has been determined with this command, that the chain as the server perceives it, is not always the same the server sends to the client.

  • priforcedupdate
    If you have read the above text you are aware of the replication problem. Although some extra code has been introduced in the UTF 10 alpha 4 build to avoid the situation occuring, it may still happen. This command will enforce the server to resend replication data informing the client again about the current PlayerReplication chain.
viewid [id] View the player indicated by [id] rather than clicking yourself through. Works for spectators and teammates. Btw, "coop" style games are considered "team games".

Other Notes

Unreal Tournament Players

Since version 10, UTF includes experimental support for Unreal Tournament. This enables you to play Unreal One inside the engine of UT.

If you are a UT player, there are a few things you should know before joining a UTF server - or one which is marked as Unreal Classic.

Unreal feels a bit different than UT, although if you are an Unreal player playing UTF in UT, it will also feel a bit different than original Unreal. From the player movement feeling my personal impression is something in between Unreal and UT, though I can't really put my finger on it nor explain why that would be so.

One major important difference, one which came along the transition of Unreal One to the UT engine, was an incompatibility. To make a long story short, it is not possible to fire guns using the normal fire and alt-fire binds.

Due to that incompatibility, UTeamFix uses its own fire commands in Unreal Tournament, commands which of course new players will not have in their User.ini. The player configuration (stored in user.ini) will have to be adjusted. In detail, the following commands must be added:

  1. UTFFire must be added to your normal fire bind
  2. UTFAltFire must be added to your normal alt-fire bind

You may also need all the normal old Unreal keybinds (to select and use inventory), but they are not that much important, and could even be bound using the old Unreal menu itself (please read the Menues part on this page to see how to access the menu in UTF, then select Unreal Menu to reach the original old Unreal menu).

The good news is, that most people have their normal fire binds on their left and right mouse buttons, and UTF can check that. If the player is found using the mouse buttons to fire, UTF can change the user.ini fully automatically and ask the player for permission todo so. Denial of permission of course will end the game immediately and the player will leave the server again, but I would never dare to change any critical settings without the player's consent! By my best knowledge, the alteration of the user.ini in the required manner has no side-effects on your normal UT game! And it is alsways undo-able.

If not both fire and altfire are found on the user's mouse buttons, the user will be told todo by hand. Effectively, there are 2 possibilities, for both an ASCII eidtor (like notepad) is required to open and edit the user.ini in the UT/System directory:

  1. The fire alias can be changed By default lines 12 and 13 of the user.ini read THIS:
    Aliases[0]=(Command="Button bFire | Fire",Alias=Fire)
    Aliases[1]=(Command="Button bAltFire | AltFire",Alias=AltFire)
    You will be able to fire UTF guns by changing them to:
    Aliases[0]=(Command="Button bFire | Fire | UTFFire",Alias=Fire)
    Aliases[1]=(Command="Button bAltFire | AltFire | UTFAltFire",Alias=AltFire)
  2. Alternately, just add the missing part to the BINDS like...
    LeftMouse=Fire
    RightMouse=AltFire
    becomes
    LeftMouse=Fire|UTFFire
    RightMouse=AltFire|UTFAltFire
    This 2nd method is exactly what the automation process does if successfully detected.
Make sure you only apply ONE of the above methods, NOT BOTH AT THE SAME TIME.

UT: Connecting To A Server

Nowadays computers are rather fast. Still sometimes you may find that you can't connect to UTeamFix servers while you can connect towards other servers. UTF servers need longer to initialize, and the client too. In most cases the problem can be resolved by changing the Network Connection Timeout setting, which is an advanced option (select 'Advanced Options' from your Unreal menu or type 'preferences' and hit return).

NetWork Timeout

The picture shows the setting in question, which defaults to 15. Server administrators should always at least DOUBLE it.

Normal Unreal players usually do not need to bother, however, Unreal Tournament players may need to increase the timeout as well! For an unknown reason, the UT build takes longer to initalize than the original Unreal One build - that is strange because the UT engine is supposed to be more efficient!

One last thing, if you can't connect to a server, all you see is the message CONNECTION FAILED. While the server does log the exact error and reason why you were unable to join (server full, password or whatever), the messaging to convey the error works differently in UT than it does in Unreal, so you will unfortunately NOT see that reason.

UT: Missing Keybinds

In Unreal One, you can pick up various items which are displayed on your screen. Some activate instantly, some can be carried for a while and activated on demand by the user.

In Unreal Tournament, there are fewer items and none are displayed on screen ever. All items (even those that you can carry around in Unreal One) are immediately used. So, in UT you never need keybinds that let you select which item to use and when to activate it, simply because you use the item the instant you pick it up!

If you want to make use of Unreal One items, you should bind some keys. Useful commands to bind would be:

Bind these to free keys (you might not need both 'nextitem' AND 'previtem', since you can cycle through your complete inventory with each one alike) and you should be good to use Unreal One inventory.

You might also want to bind the command 'SHOWMENU' to another key! By default, your escape key is mapped to that command. However, it always brings up the normal UT menu (same problem as in Unreal Gold), but not the Unreal Menu. Bind the command to a different key which is NOT your escape key and you're good to go though!

Other useful chapters for players

Players may wish to familiarize themselves with some of the other game modes that come along with UTF, not to learn about settings and technical details, but to understand what they are about should they enter a server and be confused as to what is going on.