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Games Entertainment

UT 2003 Client For Linux? 178

Posted by Hemos from the blam-blam-shoot-'em-up dept.
Thomas A. Anderson writes "Although not officially supported, there is a very interesting post here from Mark Rein (VP of Marketing for Epic Games) that says UT 2003 client *already* runs on linux, and that it *might* be released close after the windows client. Let's all support Epic on this... Background: Back in April, on an IRC chat, Mark Rein stated that a linux server will happen, but the chance of linux and mac clients were a qualified "likely". He stated something similar in a chat in August. All the chat logs are interesting reads..."
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UT 2003 Client For Linux? More

UT 2003 Client For Linux?

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  • .. To keep my Windows partition, Yahhooo!!!

  • Cutting Edge (Score:3, Interesting)

    by digitaltroglodyte ( 160425 ) on Monday September 09, 2002 @09:40AM (#4220200) Journal
    Funny how linux on the desktop was supposed to be a dead horse? Way to go Epic, put me down for a copy of UT2003! Check's on the way.

    Digit
    • Please, wait until it *has* come, we've seen far too many announcements such as this one and far to few concretisations...
      In the mean time, you may contact them to tell them how much you'd like them to support your OS :-)

    • Re:Cutting Edge (Score:3, Informative)

      by octover ( 22078 )
      IIRC, back when Quake 3 came out I could only get it to run on my computer in Linux. Because I wanted to best FPS I could get, I started X and had it only run Quake. Today my computer is a lot faster and such, but I would probably still run the UT client the same way. The point I'm trying to make is that a game or a couple of games doesn't make the desktop. The word type applications and such, those are the things that the desktop is made of. Unfortunally after playing with Jaguar (Mac OS X.2) I agree with the Apple kids. Linux can't touch Jaguar when it comes to being my workstation. I got the cool/stable *nix under the hood, but my window manager and all my apps run the same way.


      I'm more interested in seeing the Mac version personally.

  • why wait? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by garcia ( 6573 ) on Monday September 09, 2002 @09:42AM (#4220208)
    if the Linux client is already working why should the users have to wait for it to be released? Don't they understand that is just an unnecessary hassle for Linux users who want to play their game?

    Release the Windows client on CD, make the Linux client available on the www/FTP, and be done w/it. Most people are going to buy the CD for Windows anyway, the Linux people are quite familiar w/downloading their own clients from the web.

    Just do it.

    • Re:why wait? (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Squarewav ( 241189 )
      just couse its running doesnt meen its running well, it could have all sorta of problems, mostly with sound and input I would think(ie moving from directsound&input) also could be crashing like mad, who knows, least they are working on it as we speak insted of waiting untill release

    • Re:why wait? (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Repugnant_Shit ( 263651 )
      I'd like a Linux-only CD with the option of downloading a Windows client too. That way I can to go Electronics Boutique and buy Linux software. Wouldn't it be better for it to count as a Linux sale?
      • I quite agree. I don't use windows at all at home, and wood gladly but a linux game. For this reason I even paid thru the nose for the linux box version of Q3 instead of buying the cheaper windows version and downloading. I wanted to give them some way of knowing it was worth their while producing the linux port, which it is harder to do if everyone buys the windows version..
        • I did the same with Q3, but couldn't they do something like make you give your win version's cd key when you download the linux client to keep track? Or just put both clients on the cd, but that wouldn't help track the linux purchases. It would be nice if they could get some actual numbers on how many people got the linux version, if it would help other developers realize that it's a viable decision to release for "other" systems.
      • I'd like a CD with both clients and a registration card asking me which one is my primary gaming platform. Of course, being a cheapskate for internet access leads me to want CDs with everything but the kitchen sink.
        • I'd like a CD with both clients and a registration card asking me which one is my primary gaming platform.

          Hear, hear.

          This would guarantee that all versions were widely stocked, at no extra charge to the gaming stores, and the registration card (or an "OS ID" string transmitted by the binary) would tell the company how popular each OS choice was with their gamers.

          The only problem being that, as per a previous post, the OpenGL (read: non-Windows) versions are still buggy. Oh well.

      • Re:why wait? (Score:3, Interesting)

        by BMonger ( 68213 )
        There are two groups that learn about your OS preference. By purchasing a non-Windows version of a game the publisher realizes that somebody has bought this and is using it. To me, this is something that the publisher could gather when you create and connect to the servers possibly. So the publisher might have this information regardless of the version that you buy.

        The other group that recieves this information is the store you purchase it from. Lets just say you're buying from EB. Initially they order 300 copies of Unreal for Windows and 3 of Unreal for Linux. All the copies for both platforms may very well sell. But they are only going to reorder for the Windows platform most likely. Most of their employees probably won't know that they sell the Linux version either. Then you're stuck buying the Windows version because you yourself might not even know that they sell the Linux version. If you know a Linux version is available you should have them order it for you. The downside to that is that you have to wait but it is one more sale for the Linux version. If they won't order you the Linux version order it online. Don't just settle for the Windows version. Unless it's an emergency LAN party situation. Then you can of course. :)

        At least you have a shelvable version. I went to EB and asked if they had any Mac software and almost got laughed out of the store. Hopefully that will all change in a few years.

    • Re:why wait? (Score:2, Informative)

      by ybmug ( 237378 )
      From the IRC log:

      ScHlAuChi OpenGL in UT was much faster on some cards, and what about Linux Gamers?

      MarkRein[Epic] That was UT, this is UT2003. UT was designed around software rendering and Glide. We have designed this particular game (and hence the latest versions of the engine) around Direct3D and they work really, really well together. This time around we would have to work really hard to get OpenGL to be as fast as D3D. We are doing OpenGL (needed for Linux client and Mac down the road if we do it) but it is not a priority and probably won't be ready and debugged well enough in time for retail release.
    • ...doesn't mean it's ready for release. It means that they have a source tree that compiles and largely executes under multiple platforms.

      There's quirks, etc. from the Windows side that invariably slip into the mix that render code written to be cross-platform unstable. Those bits of code have to be found out (unless you're coding 100% for all the target platforms...) and fixed before release or you have something buggy as hell out there.
    • more clarification from Mark Rein here [ina-community.com].

  • This is indeed great news. (Score:4, Funny)

    by cioxx ( 456323 ) on Monday September 09, 2002 @09:42AM (#4220210) Homepage
    Because now players won't use the lame excuse when they're losing the deathmatch:

    "Sorry my game froze, I had to reboot"
    • I wish I had your luck with 3d and linux, I get all sorts of strange lock ups and reboots and every once in a while every 3d game I run is so choppy it unplayable I even tried killing X and everything that wont kill the system and it will still do it takes a reboot to fix it, its not a bad card ether works perfict in windows, Its a geforce4 ti 4200, useing the driver that my distro supplies (suse8.0 supposeably its an offical nvidia driver) I dont know maybe i'll figure it out someday
      • You tried upgrading the drivers? There is a Linux section at nvidia's site. They even provide RPMs for those who don't like to compile stuff.
      • The Nvidia driver in suse 8.0 very old.
        Just get the latest driver from nvidias website.

        http://download.nvidia.com/XFree86_40/1.0-2960/NVI DIA_GLX-1.0-2960.suse80.i386.rpm
        http://download.nvidia.com/XFree86_40/1.0-2960/NVI DIA_kernel-1.0-2960.suse80.i386.rpm

    • I blame it all on lag!

      Everytime i point at something and pulls the trigger and that something doesnt die its because of lag.

      Come see me at fraggelonia =)
      Ill kill you!

    • Hah. UT for me was solid as a rock under Win2k and flakey as all hell under Linux. Because it had a truely Unreal memory leak in the Linux version, causing it to - eventually - crash and burn, but not after causing my box to swap like mad.

      My other favorite "dumb UT" moment was after trying to start a Linux UT server and failing because of a segfault, I found (eventually) that UT was trying to load "core" before the actual "Core" library file ("Core.ut"?). Needless to say, it really couldn't get any usable code off of it's own core dump, which could cause it to - core dump. Of course.

      Bottom line: Crappy software is crappy software. None of this was Linux's fault. UT leaked memory like a sieve on my machine, becoming unplayable after 40 minutes on my 640MB(!) machine. Just because the underlying OS is far less likely to be strange doesn't mean the software you're running can't run amuck.

  • Great, now I have crank on linux and windows. Home life is now gone, along with all work productivity.

  • Now all we need... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by dwcasey ( 579461 ) on Monday September 09, 2002 @09:43AM (#4220216) Journal
    Is to make sure we have driver support for our ATI 9700's so that we can actually play it.
    • Solution: Buy nvidia cards. Then you're guaranteed to have Linux support. Hell, Carmack himself said Doom 3 under Linux would be an nvidia version. :p
      • only good if you're running linux. I play ut under freebsd using the linux client and an nvidia card is damn all good to me there. I use an ati radeon instead because I can get HW accelerated 3d in that. besides, we want competition as that gives us better hardware remember :)

        dave
    • from what I read of it, it will be nvidia only, because ATI's opengl implimentation under linux is missing a few key features.
  • Not trying to troll here, but I seem to recall another eagerly anticipated game (neverwitner nights) being "available" for linux... not saying this wont take happen, but...
    • Have some faith... They said the game would rock, and it does...
      They've said it'll be out, it'll be out...

      From Bioware's Linux Client page:
      What we can't give you right now:

      - an exact completion date

      All we can estimate is that we expect the Linux Client to be available for download in Fall 2002.

      What we can give you:
      - Linux client screenshots
      - an assurance that the Linux client will be released
      - a web page [bioware.com] for the Linux Client where all updates will take place
    • I am having no problems at all runing NWN on my RH 7.3 box using wine 20020710.

      Everything is smooth except for the movies, which are a bit choppy...but its worth it.

      My comp is only an amd1.4, 256 DDR, 64 AGP...
  • I'd like to alert Epic of my support for Linux UT 2003, but I can't find any email addresses except support on their page. Who do we talk to? On the other hand, maybe they don't want to be bombarded by those crazy Linux weirdos.

  • 2 bits. Shave and a haircut.... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Rahga ( 13479 ) on Monday September 09, 2002 @09:49AM (#4220254) Journal
    Well, I am definitely looking forward to getting my hands on UT 2k3, if only to see how far I can mod it.... However, I fear that it will be completely overshadowed by Battlefield 1942 sales (which will go hand in hand with sales for new video cards to handle the hardware T&L requirements). Not that it's a bad thing, because Battlefield may wind up being a far superior game in most aspects.

    This news about the Linux client, however, is really surprising. Lately, I've heard much more about centering development around DirectX in order to save on a humongous chunck of development time for the X-Box on the Unreal Engine as a whole. Something along the lines of "Why bother with OpenGL, when DirectX does everything we need and more" seems very familiar to me....

    • It really does.. I play a LOT of fps games. I am a great fan of the delta force series of games, although their on-line play sucks. I really like operation flashpoint etc. but the realism goes a little bit too far and makes them frequently un-playable / too frustrating... Counterstrike is great but if you make a mistake and get killed in the first 30 seconds of a round it can get a bit tedious.

      Battlefield 1942 is incredible, you have the die and re-spawn of quake et al. with some believeable real world physics (if you blow up a jeep while it's moving you can watch the arc of the jeep as it flies through the air and bounces), not acurate but fun and not stupidly un-realistic.

      The range of vehicles and the way they respawn is great being able to pilot an aircraft carrier, then jump into a bomber, do a few bombing runs before bailing out, getting into a tank charging forward with another player operating the machine gun on top, then jump out crawl up a hill and snipe people, then use an AA gun to shoot down planes - fantastic fun! Add to this is ability to ride on a tank by jumping onto it.. or even ride an airplane wing and do some wing-walking, it is one very imersive and fun game.

      To become an expert requires practice and good control, but anyone can pick up and play very quickly. I will definately be buying battlefield when it comes out. I've never really got on the with Unreal games, though I must admit they look pretty.

  • I'm not bitching, just curious: (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Ieshan ( 409693 ) <ieshan@g[ ]l.com ['mai' in gap]> on Monday September 09, 2002 @09:50AM (#4220265) Homepage Journal
    Will the Linux version cost less because they're not offering tech support with it. or will it just be community-support-based, like every other product? And, if it is going to be community based, are they going to "provide the space"?

    I can understand why no tech support - every user has 1239880198231 different configurations. But it seems that if they're not going to be providing a valuable source of information (just because you're a geek doesn't mean you've never called tech support, everyone has), they ought to do two things: A) Establish a community space for the Linux Gamers on their site to allow questions that pertain to the Linux Version(s) to be answered and/or B) provide source for some pieces of the program.

    Since most people use these types of games to play online anyway, if they have a secure system for validating keys (see battle.net), they shouldn't have to worry about open-sourcing parts of (or the entire) client.
  • (From the post on the linked page)
    Currently Linux will only work well with Nvidia cards - apparently ATI's OpenGL Linux and Mac drivers don't support texture compression. Hopefully this is something they will soon fix.

    ATI fix bugs in their drivers??? I'm running OLDER drivers as it is because the latest Radeon 8500 drivers are unstable, overlay doesn't work with my Divx movies and VB hangs while compiling (okay, building an .EXE, I know, I know). I e-mailed ATI's tech support and they sent me back a form letter. If this is the way ATI treats their main market (Windows users), I feel REALLY bad for Linux users. Isn't The Weather Channel developing an open source Radeon 8500 driver?
    • I do all those things with my Radeon card with the latest drivers without a hitch.

      I'd imagine you just don't know how to operate your system correctly.

      It's a poor craftsman who blames his tools.
    • ATI already has a linux/Xfree driver for the radeon 8500 / firegl 8700/8800 which supports compressed textures, however it's not yet released (check http://www.tommti-systems.de unfortunately links only work with session management on that site, so go to archive, and click the link for july - relevant message is on 23.07.2002.

      The Weather Channel funded driver is also nice and can be downloaded from http://dri.sourceforge.net - but no texture compression because of patent issues :-(.

      mczak
  • I am more interested in that one. But I will buy UT2003 when it has a linux client.
  • I'm not much of a gamer. I didn't know what UT 2003 was and I'm sure I'm not the only one. Is it so hard to spell out the entire headline of a story?
    • UT2003= Unreal Tournament 2003. The orginal Unreal Tournament is probably the best game I ever played. You have weapons and are pitted against opponents basically. Guess another Shoot Them Up type game, but the graphics and playability are endless. I still play it and I warezed it 2 years ago. I should buy a copy because the developers work behind this game is obviously worth it. One game I feel bad about warezing.....I'll go out and buy the Orignal copy this week. They deserve the revenue. As for the new version(2003), I don't think my system can handle the truth(400 MHZ, 384 RAM, 32 MEG Video Card). I'm not going to blow about $700 to build a new system for a game, everything else works great, other than I run WIN XP(not warezed), my school has a kick ass agreement with MS, what can I say. I still have Linux running on my old box though, so I'm not a total lamer.
    • LOL RTFA AFAIK UT2k3 == Unreal Tournament 2003 ..... Oh wait, you didn't want abrv. guess u'll have to look someplace other than /. for that, :(

      [to moderators, the above was a joke, no persons or things were intened to be offended]
  • Let's hope this doesn't turn into another Foobarco Systems All-Clients-in-the-Box(TM) thing like NWN turned out to be.

    I'm beginning to think that sort of thing is becoming the game industry standard - clients for Mac and Linux turn up months after the Windows release does, as the company tries to find other ways to eek out the maximum revenue of a product whose sales are dwindling,
    • That's exactly what I was thinking.

      You forgot to mention that the Mac/Linux ports are of inferior quality though without editing tools and never up to date with the latest Windows version; I wouldn't be quite so bothered by this if these companies didn't actually say they'd be released at the same time and wouldn't be feature complete.

      I guess that's why I run all 3 major OSs though.
      • Most of my mac games that have PC counterparts are better than the PC versions of games. Lots of bugs in the sound a graphics are often fixed. The features that get added after the windows version is shipped that windows users have to download ususaly come on the disk. I haven't toyed arround with Linux ports, but I would immagine it should be the same. It only makes sense
  • way to go epic!! now that we have a lin* client, ill take the next year of my life and port it to bsd )

  • The credit card comes out when OSX is supported...

    And please, don't bother replying with, "And it'll also come out when I root your boxen."

    :)

  • NWN? (Score:1, Troll)

    by jmu1 ( 183541 )
    I'm fucking sick of hearing from game makers that they will release their title on GNU/Linux... shortly after the Windows release. Bullshit. Utter bullshit. They will either _not_ release it, or wait a few fucking months after the Windows release... that way, noone is playing it anymore and is interested in the next game. I'm sick of it and I'm not going to deal with it any more. I'll just buy a GameCube game instead of doing this stupid "Hey, this company is pretty cool because they support GNU/Linux... This company is shit because they lied about supporting GNU/Linux! Fuck them all!
    • Don't be such a crybaby! They've gotta make money somehow, it's their job to make and sell games. You want it for free under GNU/Linux, then you wait while they make money off the initial popularity. You want it right away, then you buy the not-free version on release day.

      Best of both worlds would be for them to release a not-free linux version (as someone previously posted), at the same time as the windows version, even if it's only for-sale online (since many computer stores might be reluctant to use up shelf space for a niche linux version).
      • Hey, screw you pal. I never for once said I wanted it for free so fuck off. I'm fully willing to pay for games... Unless you didn't read the whole post, you would have noticed that I said I would _BUY_ GameCube games. That takes money... I'm not the only person out there that is willing to shell out the bucks for a Linux version of a game. Get your shit straight or don't bother saying anything.
      • Huh? I think someone doesn't have all the facts.

        Just because something is released under GNU/Linux doesn't mean it has to be free. I pre-purchased (Yes that is purchased as in bought, paid money, etc.) my copy of NWN for Linux and am pissed because I have not been able to play the game! Bioware, et. al. promised that the Linux and Mac versions would be shipped with the Windows versions, but didn't keep their end of the bargain.

        The original poster is mad because this seems to be a trend with companies lately. They say they are going to support Linux and MAC OS's just to get people to buy the game, then put off the release until months after the Windows version comes out. I had to wait two months to get Return to Castle Wolfenstein! (Which I also paid for btw!) These companies are promising not-free versions will be shipped at the same time as the Windows versions and then just blowing off the non-Windows clients.

        This trend which has been happening for years irritates the hell out of me, almost as much as people thinking Linux users don't want to pay for anything!!!
        • I agree... And even then, it is still rediculous that they can't package the game with a fully-functional install script. It takes 15 minutes to write one. It is crazy to require an installation of WINE (or better yet, Windows) to install a game. Scratch that- It is downright idiotic.

          They think that they are doing us some favor by releasing this game. I know that someone is going to say "Well, they don't owe you Linux users anything!"... Maybe so... But the least that these guys could do is not mislead people into buying their stuff. I might sound angry about this whole thing. I am angry, because I am sick of excuses.

          So, Epic. I appreciate the fact that you are claiming that you will release these binaries. Maybe all of those posts on happypenguin about disgruntled gamers claiming that they wouldn't run your servers if you didn't release a client program made some sense. But don't try to get us to buy the game and then turn around and release it 6 months later (Ahem... BioWare, no excuses can make your customers any happier about it).

          Perhaps if developers would start *designing multiplatform games from the ground up* then they could increase profits and help make alternative OS's (e.g. non-Windows) viable platforms for gaming.

          "It's really easy to support all 3 OSes if you start from the beginning with that in mind." -Raybondo of Guild Software.

          Check out screenshot of their *multi-platform* demo for a space MMORPG called "Vendetta" at Guild Software's Vendetta Page [guildsoftware.com].

          Another great game that is available on all three platforms is Space Tripper [pompom.org.uk]. Developers; Take a note from this 2 man development team on how to make *excellent* multi-platform OpenGL games. I played the demo, and within 10 minutes I was ordering the full version from them.
  • I will pre-buy 2 copies Right now without question.

    Gimmie gimmie gimmie!

    UT is still my absolute favorite game of all time... it is better than all the quake series to me (Gotta love sniper rifles! although Q3 with Urban Terror really rocks) and is still played heavily at most of the lan parties I go to (next to Half life... Cripes! HL get's alot of play!)

  • my take on it (Score:3)

    by Vodak ( 119225 ) on Monday September 09, 2002 @10:05AM (#4220329)
    EPIC is going to release a Linux client for the next version of Unreal Tournament, why should we care? It's pointless to get overjoyed by this semi announcement. I mean it's not officially supported. It only works with NVidia cards and it won't show other companies that people want Linux games.

    Linux needs applications that can be purchased directly as Linux apps.

    In order for Linux to goto the next level we need UT2003 to be supported and sold in a Linux version. Just being able to download the Linux binaries will not bring Linux to the next level. Software companies don't care how many times epic had the Linux binaries downloaded they care how many copies Linux UT2003 sold in the market And yes I do understand that when Quake3Arena had a Linux version it wasn't all that successful but that had to do with a couple of reasons. Unless companies see that Linux apps and Linux games sell Linux will just be a webserver or hacker toy.

    I love using Linux, BSD and the like but just being able to download the binaries gets us no where. id has been releasing the quake binaries for a while as was the first version of UT able to be played on Linux. Being happy that a company is releasing semi working Linux binaries for download it nothing to cheer about, you should be pissed that epic doesn't trust the game enough to release it to Linux.
    • The reason it'll only work on NVIDIA cards is because the drivers for other cards simply aren't up to it. They don't support the appropriate extensions, such as texture compression.
      • The Kyro series of cards has fully functional drivers in Linux. They are beta drivers, but are fast and stable. In AnandTech's comparison [anandtech.com], it favored well with similar results as the GeForce 2 cards of last year. It isn't a high-end card by any means, but looks like it works well in a game that was designed around nVidia GPUs.

        I use a Kyro 2 in my Linux box and have no complaints. RTCW flies in 1024x768x32- max details. It looks pretty and runs fast. All of my other Linux OpenGL apps work great too, as does XV accelleration for Video playback with MPlayer.

        There are alternatives. It might not be viable to buy one now, but when the card game out a year ago, it was a perfect substitute to the GeForce 2 (all models).
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • Remember, UT2K3 is slated to take up over 3GB of hard drive space. Hopefully they're not going to require a CD present in the drive since they're implementing a cd key system (IIRC), but that's still a huge chunk for an MP-only game.

    Don't waste your money unnecessarily; I plan on sticking with the demo unless I find a really good reason to buy it.

    • You're reccomending against buying this game because it takes up a lot of hard disk space? That's not the most convincing argument I've ever heard.

      The reason I may not buy this game (who am I kidding, course I am) is because it doesn't do anything that UT + q3 didn't do. Can't beat q3 DM and can't beat UT other stuff.
      • Actualy, this is a gripe I've had with a lot of games. The space requirements are getting outrageous. Does it really absolutely require 1.5 gigs (the size of my OS) to insall a good game? I think more often then not, game programmers are focusing on getting more blood pixels in than keeping the space reasonable.

  • The article and discussion on the Linux Games site can be found here [linuxgames.com].

    I only noticed it because I have Linux Games as a slashbox on the front page of slashdot...

  • I've been told that we should be able to release the Linux client and server executables around the same time as the windows version ships.--Mark Rein

    It seems that the Linux version of the server will also be released around the same time.
  • I play UT every single day and have the windows version because i wanted it pronto, not a couple of months after it was released. I wont be buying the windows version this time cause i havent a single windows disc or installation (except a couple of beer coasters, pretty stained they are).

    If there are a linux client avaliable what keeps them from releasing it. A popular game like UT should give a pretty good picture of how much interest there is in linux and gaming if they realese them at the same time.

    If they realese windows version first many ppl will buy the windows version just so they can play the darn game. Thus linux user copies showing up as windows copies.
    • uhm, the linux binary *is* on the retail box of the UT cd.

      and the linux binary patches are online w/ the win32 patches.

      doof
    • just because they have a working version does not make it ready for prime time. Case in point Mac OS X. Apple released the Beta to the public becasue people were screaming for a release. It was working and functional, but it was in no way shape or form ready for prime time.

      You're next argument might be, well if they release this as a beta, people will understand that there will be bugs. Sorry, that's just not true, check out any of the discussion forums for OS X Beta. There are always people bitching about how certain things don't work right and what a rip off and how Apple was so evil for distributing a broken OS. All of that despite the box saying BETA

  • Great . . . (Score:3, Funny)

    by Ezubaric ( 464724 ) on Monday September 09, 2002 @10:37AM (#4220558) Homepage
    There goes all hope of saying that converting to Linux will help productivity.
  • ...and there's a reason that iD isn't releasing a *nix version of Doom 3: the market just isn't there. It's nice to cater to a niche audience, but these are big companies with a lot of outlay to recoup and they're not losing anything but not releasing a *nux version of their games as everyone dual-boots.
    The game's pretty and it runs almost as fast as Unreal Tournament while being noticably prettier (at least the alpha leak does on my computer or so I might say if I had gotten a copy of it). I can't wait to get my hands on a real copy of it.
    • Actually, there will be a Doom 3 for Linux.

      Take a look here [tuxgames.com], or go here [tuxgames.com]to preorder a copy.
      • Actually, what you're preordering at Tux Games is the Windows version - they might include an additional CD with the Linux binaries if they're available at the time (or perhaps the binaries will be on the main game CD, who knows). The whole point of this is that they (Tux Games) report the copies they sell to id Software as Linux sales - so that id knows that there is a market for Linux games (even though it will probably only show how small the market is).

        But of course you're right when you say that there will be a Linux version of Doom III - John Carmack has stated that on several occasions. But it won't be a separate box on the shelf - just downloadable binaries (or in an 'unsupported' directory on the CD if they're ready on time).

        -jfedor
  • Okay, I know it's Unreal Tournament. And most gamers probably know the acronym as well. But could slashdot editors at least spell out acronyms once in a story description? Geez...
  • I was one of many burned with the first Unreal.. One full year of broken promises to the key of; "We're all exhausted from developing, the patches are coming soon", and the patches that did eventually come out were weak, breaking functionality left right and centre.. "We're still working hard on the patches, please don't e-mail us anymore!", it went on and on when all of a sudden boom out comes Unreal Tournament, the original Unreal was still in beta.. I ended up dropping it around then because I was fed up of the whole scenario, looking around today there seems to be a "final" patch for Unreal, but the game's back in it's box and gathering dust. I'm curious as to how their Linux initiative will unravel, but my past experience with them was lacklustre to say the least and you can bet that I won't be rushing out to the stores to buy my copy, I'm going to sit tight and wait to see what happens with all this first..
  • And this is just me having not run Linux on a decent machine for a long long time. :) How is Linux for handling games that are heavy on the 3D? I've never bothered using it for 3D gaming at all, so if anyone could enlighten me on this it would be great.
    • A few of us play Unreal Tournament after work sometimes, and even on our old machines (P3 450, TNT2Ultra, 376meg of RAM) it ran fine. Now that we have P4 1.9GHz machines with GeForce 2s and 3/4gig of RAM, it absolutely flies.

      Perhaps a tad more realistically, I've run both UT and Q3 on my home machine, which at that time was a P3 700 with 96meg of RAM and the previously-mentioned TNT2Ultra (my card, once I bought a GeForce 3 for home I put the TNT2 in my work machine). Qualatively, performance of both games was identical under both Linux and Windows 98. That's using the NVidia drivers, of course; I'm not sure how good the XFree ones are, as I stopped using them after NVidia started releasing theirs.

      Cheers,

      Tim

    • The company I work for writes 3D human simulation software. The PCs we write and test software on are basically high-end gaming machines, centered around the nVidia GeForce card of the week (rarely anything else, though we may get around to trying out the latest Radeons soon). In general, the OpenGL versions of our programs get about the same frame rates on Windows and Linux+XFree86.

    • Linux r00x with 3d games. I'm personally running an Athlon 900 with a GeForce 2Ti. Runs quake 3, UT, and return to castle wolfenstein beautifully at 1024x768. Of course quake 2 is very fast on this machine as well.

      With enough memory (I'm running 512MB), you can even run the games on a separate X11 session so you can flip back to your 'desktop' x session to check up with IRC, Gaim, etc.

  • Hopefully Epic spent some of the effort in getting it running on Linux to get it working under Mac OS X. That would be far more appealing than kicking the PC code to Westlake Interactive and letting Mark / Glenda Adams (he / she, think Dan Bunten revisited) work a semifunctional port.

    blakespot
  • Next time try actually describing what on earth you're talking about in the summary when posting an article. "UT" is not descriptive enough to figure out you meant "unreal tournament". I shouldn't have to read the article to figure out whether or not I want to read the article.
  • Sweet. UT was always the gameplay king over Q3 - a wider variety of weapons (and weapon secrets, with various right/left combos) excellent level design (remember that monastery on top of an insanely steep mountain, or the assault level on the train?), good taunting `die, bitch' and lots of bonus goodies (Epic released 4 major bonus packs for Unreal Tournamenent). I'll definitely play UT 2003 because all my useful applications are in Linux and frankly I can't be bothered running 2 OSs and rebooting to play the Windows version.

    If you're into UT, and you purchased the original Linux UT, then you should definitely check out Return to Na Pali, a single player sequel to the original Unreal that plays using the UT Engine. There's also a patch to allow you to play the original Unreal under UT too. Google is your friend.

    This is where I'm glad the company I buy my video hardware from actually pays people to develop drivers for their current hardware that give the same or better performance than Win32 - sorry, as a technical person, performance and OS support matters more to me than a sense of ethics I don't share.

    Yes, I'm talking about NVIDIA.
  • Tux Games [tuxgames.com] is now listing the game here [tuxgames.com]. We will, as always, report the sales of any game from our store as a Linux sale, to try and encourage further porting of Linux products.

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