Ralackk: Its a directx 9 file, if your using win 7 or vista and have only ever installed directx 10 you may have missed this file. If you can install directx 9 from the ut2k4 installer or you can get the file from
[url=]http://www.dll-files.com/dllindex/dll-files.shtml?d3d9[/url]
Just place it into your windows/system32 folder.
No, I already know about the DirectX 9.0c redistributable. That was one of the first things I installed on my Vista machine as I know that Vista's 9L is missing some of the older DX9 files.
The game is missing it from inside it's own files.
I did a bit more research and found out that it was included in an earlier patch for UT2K4 but it was 'experimental' and not believed to work 100% correctly with the latest patched version, so any versions that now include the latest patch don't include the D3D9 renderer.
I don't think I'm going to worry about it much as it runs well as it is, I was just wondering whether the D3D9 renderer might look even better.
It is good advice you've given though, and advice I recommend to anyone using Vista (don't know if the same applies for Win7 as I've not looked at DirectX on it), get the redistributable DX9.0c from Microsoft's download site.
OmegaX: I found
this:
Another official patch has been released for the game and brings it up to Version 3369. The patch is a must-install, and you can download it from a variety of places including BeyondUnreal or Fileshack. To install the patch simply double-click on the .exe file and it will update your UT2004 automatically. Note that the patch contains all the fixes from the previous patches as well, so you don't need to install those if you're starting with a fresh install of UT2004 - only the latest patch.
The patch contains a great many bug fixes and minor game changes to make UT2004 even better, but if you want to see the full list of changes for yourself, after installing the patch go to your \UT2004\Help\ directory and read the ReadMePatch.int.txt file for all the details. Note that if you only install the latest patch, the experimental DirectX9 renderer will not be installed (it was part of the first patch only). If you've installed the first patch previously on your current installation of the game however your D3D9 driver will still be there, though D3D9 mode (See Advanced Tweaking section) may not work properly. This patch also doesn't change your existing .ini files, so all your tweaks/changes should also remain as they were.
GOG's version of UT2004 uses the latest patch so it seems that it doesn't have the D3D9 dll in the System folder; at least mine didn't. I'm using the OpenGL renderer though and it works great.
I found out this today too. Thanks for looking though. I've marked this as the solution as it is correct.
Does the OpenGL renderer look and perform better than the DirectX one? I have an nvidia card and I've heard they perform better with OpenGL than with DirectX, but I've also heard that OpenGL doesn't look as good as DirectX.
I'll probably have a play around with them both at some point but I'd be interested to hear how you find the two renderers.
