Tweak3D.net

Posted: June 17, 2000
Written By: Keith "Farrel" McClellan

Introduction

MDK 2 is one of those unexplainably fun games that come out from time to time for the computer. By the looks of the game, at least from the surface, it is only a mediocre game that you might try out not so much because it interests you, but because a friend is ranting and raving about it. Once you pop in the game and get going, however, you are all too happy with the game - and the friend that recommended it. However, all is not perfect - and this tweak guide will help you smooth out some of the rough edges.

Installation / Setup

The MDK 2 setup program is much the same as any game - however, it has included with it a copy of GLSetup (the game solely uses OpenGL for in-game rendering). Unless you are on Win2k (and can't use glsetup) or your video card isn't supported by the current version of GLSetup - use it. It will improve performance by about twenty percent on most systems - a significant amount particularly if you are like me and prefer to run in high resolutions.

Testing your Configuration

The MDK 2 Launcher has some great and highly tweakable options for the game, but by far the best feature of the launcher would have to be the "Test Settings" feature. Why? Because not only will it allow you to check and make sure that the system is set up properly to run the game, but it will also run a timedemo of the game and give you the average fps. This is really useful when you are testing new game settings and takes a lot of the risk out of tweaking the game.

General Video Settings

All of the general video settings can be changed within the game as well in the Video Options menu - but because you can set them up before you go into the game, you might as well. The first video setting that you will see is the driver setting. You may have any number of different drivers, but I have two choices - the default driver, which would be the one installed by GLSetup; and the OpenGL driver installed by my video card manufacturer. I personally recommend using the 'default' driver that was installed with GLSetup. If you didn't or weren't able to install GLSetup on your computer, you will still have the default option, but now it will be the one that was installed with your video card drivers. You will also have a second option in that case - a software OpenGL driver. In that case, unless the game won't run, you are better off with the installed driver.

The next setting you have to choose is the resolution. I would personally recommend setting this up as high as possible while still maintaining 30 fps. If you are a hardcore fps freak and want every little bit of frame action but still decent visual quality, setting it two 'levels' below the max (being the resolution where you can maintain 30 fps) will still give you decent visuals but with more frames per second.

Next Page