Error while playing Unreal Tournament 2003

Question

I get the following error while playing Unreal Tournament 2003 on my tablet :

UT2003 Build UT2003_Build_[2002-09-19_17.26]
OS: Windows NT 6.1 (Build: 7600)
CPU: AuthenticAMD Unknown processor @ 1898 MHz with 2047MB RAM
Video: NVIDIA GeForce Go 6150 (9156)
Negative delta time!
UGameEngine::Tick <- UpdateWorld <- MainLoop

How can I prevent it?

Answer 1

Negative delta time errors come from Windows misreading your processor speed or not recognizing it. Since this is a game made in 2003, it won't have dual-core support, which is likely the cause of your problem.

If you have a dual-core CPU, this should help. Following this thread on Tom's Hardware, it looks like installing the AMD tool called the AMD Dual-Core Optimizer. This tool will help fix errors caused by a game not using the Windows API for timing. This way of looking for a delta time is confused by dual-cores since there are two processors reporting their clock simultaneously.

If you don't have a dual-core CPU, then the problem gets a little hairier. I would suggest installing the most up-to-date chipset drivers for your system, which might help with this problem. Also, make sure Windows is up-to-date, as there may have been a hotfix that prevents this from happening.

Answer 2

Running dual core optimizer will only help applications which are meant to run single-threaded benefit from both cores, but never be able to use both, only the utilization of both cores are kept in balance.

I guess the solution to your problem is the following:

(Quoting from http://hardanswers.net/unreal-tournament-dual-core)

1. Right click on the main game application. The location of this will vary from game to game. (..)* For Unreal Tournament 2003, this will be called UT2003.exe, (..)
2. Choose the Properties option.
3. Click on the Compatibility tab on the menu that appears.
4. Put a check mark in Run this program in compatibility mode.
5. In the drop box underneath choose Windows 98/Windows ME.