I feel your pain. The wife and I have been happily blowing each other away for a couple of months, ever since we picked up a copy of the original UT in a discount bin.
The original runs great on my laptop (16MB Radeon Mobility video), but UT2004 is barely playable under Direct3D, even at the lowest resolution and texture settings. Performance using the SW renderer was even worse.
As luck would have it, I recently upgraded HER machine with a 128MB Radeon 9200, and UT2004 runs like a champ there.
Guess she gets to win for a while:-)
Re:Linux games
by
Dracolytch
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
From what the site says, there's a software renderer that's supposed to be pretty good (They specifically mention laptops). Can't hurt to download it and try it out.
~D
-- This sig has been enciphered with a one-time pad. It could say almost anything.
The wife and I have been happily blowing each other...
Guess she gets to win for a while:-)
Sounds like you're both winning.
I feel your pain.
Though if it's hurting that much, maybe you should do it less often.
Re:Linux games
by
Listen+Up
·
· Score: 4, Informative
It has as much to do with your processor as it has to do with the video card. I have a laptop with an AMD Athlon XP 2400+ and a Mobility Radeon 7000 IGP. I can play UT2004 in Direct 3D mode (DirectX 9.0) at 800x600 with full graphics turned on and every option I can find without a single frame rate drop or slowdown. About 5 seconds into the game and my CPU fan kicks into high speed mode, so it is definitely using a ton of processor power. It would be nice to play it at 1400x1050 resolution though (my everyday laptop resolution setting).
Ported to the big three
by
Kethinov
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
I must say I'm enjoying this growing trend. As someone who owns a computer with Windows on it, another computer with Linux on it, and is soon buying an iBook, it's nice seeing that every day they get better and better at playing together.
-- You're right, I wouldn't steal a car. But if it were possible, I sure as hell would download one!
Re:Ported to the big three
by
theMerovingian
·
· Score: 4, Funny
LAN party at Kethinov's house!
-- "If you think you have things under control, you're not going fast enough."
--Mario Andretti
Contrary to popular belief, Linux has always been able to run games. Ever heard of nethack or xbill? Oh wait, not those kind of games?
-- /* oops I accidentally made a comment, sorry */ /* http://allyourbasearebelongto.us */
Re:Wait, wait...
by
JudgeFurious
·
· Score: 4, Funny
No problem, a lot of people are confused by this so it's not like you're the first person to get this wrong. Let me clear it up for you.
You see, in the case of the Mac they can run games but won't run them before they've been properly beta tested by Windows users. Once enough of them have called for technical support and a majority of their problems have been worked out then, and only then will the Mac conceed to running a game.
Linux is like that too.
-- Appended to the end of comments you post. 120 chars.
What sort of 3D accelerator do you use to get nethack running right? I've got a Radeon 9100 and it still seems to be running at the lowest resolution with 16 colors when I try it, also it seems to have downgraded to ASCII characters since my graphics card is obviously too poor to run such a bloated game.
DracoSoftware review
by
Dracolytch
·
· Score: 3, Informative
Assault is back, in-game voice chat is supported. Find a mirror/torrent, and start sucking down some bytes.
~D
-- This sig has been enciphered with a one-time pad. It could say almost anything.
Bittorrent here!
by
Anonymous Coward
·
· Score: 5, Informative
If this keeps up, pretty soon the old Slashdot saying " I run Windows for my games" will be obsolete and you guys won't have an excuse to support Microsoft anymore.
Re:This is not right
by
wax66
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
Sadly, there are still very few games for Linux and Mac, and even worse, some of the games that get ported to Mac, that are important to me, aren't compatible with the Windows versions (read: Everquest). Even when they are compatible in the network code, they're often gimped or less feature-filled for Linux and Mac (read: tools for NWN, bad server code for Q3 and UT for the Mac, which I personally beta tested and filed many bugs on that exact topic). In the real game world right now, for most games, the best solution is to run Win98Lite for playing games, and Linux or FreeBSD for serving them.
-- This is not the signature you are looking for...
Re:This is not right
by
microTodd
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
Well, except for all the games that *don't* have Linux ports.
Is the UT Linux client a "good thing"? Absolutely. I love Linux, run it on all my servers (and my desktop) at work, and I'd like to see some penetration to the home market.
But just because ONE new game has a Linux port doesn't mean I can throw my WinXP box out the window.
Personally, I'm waiting for the day when all my gaming needs are satisfied by consoles. *THEN* I can get rid of Windows and run Linux on my home PC. And I think console gaming is growing faster than Linux gaming.
-- "You cannot find out which view is the right one by science in the ordinary sense." - C.S. Lewis on Intelligent Design
Re:This is not right
by
Anonymous Coward
·
· Score: 5, Funny
Remember, there's no games for Linux or Macs.
I have to keep reminding my boss of that.
"What's that you're playing there?"
"It's, um, it's a system administration system tool system! Yes, that's it! Look, [Ctrl-Alt-F1] it's on Linux! No games, remember!"
"Ah, yes, that's okay then. Carry on."
Phew.
Re:This is not right
by
feldsteins
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
I realize your comment is somewhat tounge-in-cheeck, but for others who could use a reality check: there have always been games for the Macintosh. True, it's nothing compared to the sheer number of titles available for Windows. True, the games that do appear often come out months after the Windows version. But the issue still stands: games of every kind, top-shelf titles not shareware wannabes, are available, have always been avaiable and show no signs of not being available in the future.
Linux, on the other hand, has a fundamental problem with regard to game development. One not direclty related to marketshare - the fact that it runs on PC hardware. Anyone with a PC running linux can also dual boot Windows. If they are gamers they are already doing so. Game developers are already selling a copy of their wares to these guys. They're selling them the Windows version. They gain nothing by developing for Linux and selling them a Linux copy instead. Virtually no increase in sales, no penetration into other markets, no new customers. Mac users represent a customer that they simply would not have had were it not for the development of a Mac port. See the difference?
This is why I worry about the Linux game market. I think there's a sentiment out there that the Linux game market is going to take off like a rocket...RSN. But I kinda doubt that for the reasons stated above.
What am I missing here?
-- You like your Macintosh better than me, don't you Dave? Dave? Can you hear me Dave?
I don't like games enough to spend $300 dollars on Windows XP or Windows at all for that matter. I've bought Unreal Tournament 2003 for Mac and Linux, Halo for the Mac, and I'll buy Unreal Tournament 2004 for the Mac as well. Maybe most games are compatible w/ Win98Lite but I don't like games enough to install it.
Give it up for Assault!
by
thesolo
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
I can't wait to play this demo on my Linux box tonight. I'm thrilled to see that Assault mode is back in UT2004. I adored it in the original UT, and noticed that I didn't touch UT2003 nearly as much because of the fact that it wasn't there. Bombing run is fun, but Assault is much, much better.
Here's to hoping there is some level in UT2004 that provides as much fun as "Overlord" did in the original UT!
Re:Give it up for Assault!
by
eidolons
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
This is a boon for many reasons, but it'll prove to be an economical choice to have availability on multiplte platforms.
Assault mode is back. Onslaught mode, simliar to capture-the-way-point like in Battlefield 1942 and Day of Defeat (HL mod) is addictive as caramal-covered crack bon-bons.
The weapons are already ridiculously balanced in the demo. The mini-gun is like the original UT. The gameplay feels like the original UT, and even the theme music is similar.
The Mac platform now has the hardware (ok, we're waiting on 256MB GPUs) and the software to be a happy place. I first started using a Mac during the 10.1 (.2 if I remember correctly) days, and back then it was a 733Mhz PowerMac or a 500MHz Powerbook (again memory being stretched). A couple of years later it's Dual 2GHz G5 and 1.25GHz G4 Powerbook (for me anyway - there's a 1.33GHz available). OS X 10.3 is also light years ahead of 10.1 in stability and features (I'm not sure I could live happily without Expose anymore...F9 and F11 are that useful)
If that's not improvement, then I don't know what is...
Thanks Ryan @ Icculus!
by
msimm
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
Thanks to Epic for supporting the port and a HUGE thanks to Ryan @ Icculus for keeping Linux gaming a really, really good thing.
-- Quack, quack.
does it work with video != nVidia?
by
beegle
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
Does the linux version actually work on video cards that don't have the proprietary nVidia drivers?
UT2k3 relied on some X extensions that weren't available from XFree86. If you didn't have either one of the expensive versions of X or an nVidia card with the closed-source kernel module, you were out of luck.
-- --
Re:does it work with video != nVidia?
by
dinivin
·
· Score: 4, Informative
Uhhhh... Both the closed-source ATI driver (for R200+R300 cards) and the open source R200 driver (maybe the R100 driver, but I haven't tried it) have worked with UT2k3 for a while now.
Dinivin
Re:does it work with video != nVidia?
by
Anonymous Coward
·
· Score: 3, Informative
Just an affirmation to the parent post: check the change log for the patches, they fixed the issue (patented "S3TC" compressed textures being required) a long time ago.
Addons not compatible, if history is any indicator
by
IAmRenegadeX
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
Being able to run UT2K4 on more than just Windows is nice, but I suspect the non-Windows ports will be vulnerable to the same issues faced with UT (1999) -- incompatibility with certain mutators and "add-on" server packages...
...arguably the most important of which was "UTPure", an anti-cheat mechanism.
Does anyone know if that were a big issue with UT2K3?
From a dual 1.8 G5 user
by
DanSolo
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
I must say, I was impressed last night as I hosted a listen server with 14 bots and a friend (who was on a PC). Nice smooth framerate, no noticable CPU lag, and the netcode seems to be pretty damn solid.
Looking forward to the retail version, and many hours of cross-platform goodness. My PC friends might actually like me again.
Re:From a dual 1.8 G5 user
by
RatBastard
·
· Score: 4, Funny
I'd have more fun on my Dual 1.8 if I didn't suck so bad. But that's neither Apple's nor Epic's fault.
-- Boobies never hurt anyone. - Sherry Glaser.
Re:From a dual 1.8 G5 user
by
TwistedGreen
·
· Score: 3, Funny
So whose fault is it?
Come on, you have to blame someone! This is Slashdot!
What's in the download
by
Dracolytch
·
· Score: 5, Informative
So, here's an idea of what's in the download that you may find interesting:
6 maps The new Onslought game type Assault is back!! Voice chat Turrets New levels Sniper rifle is back Voice recognition (bot commands)
I've heard reports of, but haven't seen yet for UT2K4: Vehicles New weapons (spider mines) Anti-Vehicle rockets Nade launcher Play from laptop!!!
~D
-- This sig has been enciphered with a one-time pad. It could say almost anything.
Re:What's in the download
by
Erwos
·
· Score: 5, Informative
I agree - the Onslaught map that they included is absolutely kick-ass. Requires a bit of strategy, but not so much that bots are useless as team-mates. If only they'd jump on the back of the truck and man the damn gun!
It's funny - some of the initial reviews I read complained that the vehicles were done badly. I couldn't agree less - the ground vehicles need a little tweaking, but those air units bring me right back to the days of Tribes 2.
The vehicles also don't destroy balance, which is a good thing. A guy on the ground can take out air units and light vehicles pretty easily, and airborne units can destroy tanks extremely quickly. But, then again, five guys coming down on you with buggies is going to result in you dead, which makes sense.
The AI is good at blowing up air units if: 1. You stay still or move slowly. 2. You fly predictably. If you move like a fox and jink, they generally don't get you.
Interestingly, I also found the Assault map to be fantastic. You've got optional switches and "special events" (airstrike). There's also the cool cutscene at the beginning showing you exactly how to do the map.
Is the Ion Painter (oribital strike) weapon in the demo at all?
-Erwos
-- Plausible conjecture should not be misrepresented as proof positive.
I'm holding out
by
WormholeFiend
·
· Score: 3, Funny
I'm still holding out for the OS/2 Warp UT2k4 demo!
The OS/2 community will NOT disappear into the night without a fight!
You aren't missing too much.
by
OwP_Fabricated
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
I was never a fan of Unreal2k3 to begin with. The original UT was a masterpiece, and both Unreal2k3/4 feel like dumbed down Quake 3 clones IMO.
2k4's readdition of assault puts a smile in my heart, especially since they put in an actual sniper rifle instead of the awful, awful lightning gun, but most people are going to be playing the rather boring onslaught mode because of the vehicles (the new thing all FPS's MUST HAVE).
To me onslaught is just Unreal2k4 pretending it's Battlefield 1942 and Halo.
Epic: "Hey wait! Please don't go! We can put in vehicles too! See!? Please buy it....please?......PLEASE?"...god, I must sound really angry. Frownies.
Linux & Mac Users vs Windows Users?
by
MMaestro
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
Will I begin to see Linux & Mac clans forming solely to fight it out with Windows clans?
And great Mac performance
by
benwaggoner
·
· Score: 3, Informative
Yeah, UT2004 is the first thing I've been able to run on my new box where it really felt like all the potential performance was on the screen.
I've got a Dual G5 2.0 with the BTO Radeon 9800 card, attached to the 23" Cinema HD display. Running Halo on it was fun, but I had to stick to 800x600 or so to get semi-decent performance, and even then fps would drop down to like 1-2 if I died near an explosion or something. UT2004 runs at the native 1920x1200 of the display wickedly fast (never noticed the frame rate getting low enough to notice), and looks great.
It's striking to be able to play a game on a Mac with absolutely no performance issues! Been a long time since that happened for me!
Valentine vs. UT2K4
by
BarakMich
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
from the who-needs-a-valentine? dept.
Uhh.. me. But aside from that, I would suggest that all those with the option of spending Valentine's with their SO or with UT2K4 choose their SO (mostly, for their own well-being)
On a tangent, I would much rather have an SO than another FPS. Why?
The FPS genre is becoming saturated. UT2K4? Ho-hum, really. Just a few new ways to gib your buddies. I have not seen a lot of innovation in the FPS market... look at the glut of WW2 FPSes alone!
With an SO, one must ALWAYS be innovative. If you look at it like a game, you must always be on your toes. Can't respawn, must play smart, must always devise new tactics -- I can think of no game that requires as much out of the player.
Uncompressing Unreal Tournament 2004 Demo for GNU/Linux 3120.................
And somewhere an unconventional fellow with long hair and a beard feels joy about this game for a different reason than other people...
-- Wenn ist das Nunstueck git und Slotermeyer? Ja! Beiherhund das Oder die Flipperwaldt gersput.
Re:So...
by
Anonymous Coward
·
· Score: 3, Informative
Just like Unreal Tournament 2003, Unreal Tournament 2004 is expected to have a Linux-native installer on one of the CDs. Unlike Unreal Tournament 2003, it'll probably be advertised on the box (it wasn't for 2003 because they weren't sure if they be able to ship it). Hopefully, since they've worked out the bugs in 2003, 2004 and its installer will be a lot less buggy (if you patch 2003 up-to-date it's alright, of course).
Re:Valve take note
by
GeckoX
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
That's great, but do you really think that you are enough to sway valve into spending large amounts of resources, time and money for a very small number of sales?
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for making games available on as many platforms as possible. And it's really nice to see that we're starting to see not just Win/Mac OR Win/Linux but rather Win/Mac/Linux in the few cases that do go to the extra work, which should start tipping the balance and making it financially reasonable to do the extra work.
However, concidering the strains Valve is currently under, I'd rather see them stay focused and still exist next year as opposed to blowing a ton of cash just to appease you and a few others, and ending up folding because of it.
It'll come, I'm quite sure of it...I'm sure we can all see the sun rising on the horizon now.
As an aside, if you're going to read the reviews and buy the single best FPS (Assuming you wait until HL2 is actually released), how could you possibly choose a basically multiplayer only 4th time rehash over a game that looks to be somewhat revolutionary in many aspects?
Not that UT4 is no good, by any means, but it does only represent incremental improvements over what they have done before.
Really, I don't think you're being honest with yourself. As I see it, you have absolutely no reason to mention HL2 in your post as you've essentially already decided that you will only be purchasing a single FPS this year that must run on Linux.
-- No Comment.
Software renderer
by
waaka!
·
· Score: 3, Informative
I would imagine that the software renderer is probably a PC-only option. UT2K4 uses Pixomatic for its software renderer, which from what I can gather from the website, is heavily optimized for speed, but is only for PCs. (I suppose the fact that it was written by Mike Abrash, who worked on the original Quake software renderer with John Carmack and has written a fair share of optimization books, is more than enough assurance for me.) Anyways, there doesn't seem to be a Mac version of that, but Macs tend not to be saddled with crappy onboard graphics chips, anyway.
Re:Valve take note
by
Dav3K
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
Your argument makes valid points, and by myself no, I do not pretend to hold enough sway for Valve to alter their product roadmap.
However, that is like saying that my vote does not elect a president. By itself, no it does not. But collectively, it does, assuming a properly run election. To come back to software purchases though, I believe that the desktop market is already starting to diversify enough for gaming companies to at least give consideration to platforms other than Wintel.
I would also agree that given Valve's current position, the timing probably isn't right for them to do this. In an open market, Epic, id and others are able to capitalize on this. As I stated earlier, I don't buy a lot of games. Tradeoffs have to be made. So I look at what I like about these games - engaging multiplayer gameplay, strong mod communities to increase replayability, drop dead graphics - from where I stand, these two titles are pretty evenly matched. Not having to install a Windows partition tips the scales for me, enough for me to reward Epic over Valve with my purchasing dollars.
Mac users - disconnect iSight
by
gsfprez
·
· Score: 3, Informative
this is what causes UT 2004 demo to crap out at the spash screen.
-- guns kill people like spoons make Rosie O'Donnell fat.
Slashdot Mirror
So, a good game comes out for Linux, just after I give up my desktop w/GF3 for a laptop w/no 3d acceleration. Just my luck.
<wik>/bin/finger that girl in the back row of machines.
I must say I'm enjoying this growing trend. As someone who owns a computer with Windows on it, another computer with Linux on it, and is soon buying an iBook, it's nice seeing that every day they get better and better at playing together.
You're right, I wouldn't steal a car. But if it were possible, I sure as hell would download one!
Props to Epic for continuing to support Linux! I'll be sure to support this with my money, and show the world linux ports are economically viable.
I'm confused. Mac and Linux can run games? What is this world coming to?!
Assault is back, in-game voice chat is supported. Find a mirror/torrent, and start sucking down some bytes.
~D
This sig has been enciphered with a one-time pad. It could say almost anything.
Courtesy of GameTab.
So, when are they going to release the BeOS version?
It's already taken me half a day to download 150MB of the 200 total.
This isn't going to help any...
Thanks, thanks a lot.
There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
Bit Torrent link: http://www.filerush.com/torrents/ut2004-mac-demo-3 120.dmg.bz2.torrent
This side up.
The CB App. What's your 20?
Remember, there's no games for Linux or Macs.
If this keeps up, pretty soon the old Slashdot saying " I run Windows for my games" will be obsolete and you guys won't have an excuse to support Microsoft anymore.
This guy is way out there
I can't wait to play this demo on my Linux box tonight. I'm thrilled to see that Assault mode is back in UT2004. I adored it in the original UT, and noticed that I didn't touch UT2003 nearly as much because of the fact that it wasn't there. Bombing run is fun, but Assault is much, much better.
Here's to hoping there is some level in UT2004 that provides as much fun as "Overlord" did in the original UT!
If that's not improvement, then I don't know what is...
The Mothership
Thanks to Epic for supporting the port and a HUGE thanks to Ryan @ Icculus for keeping Linux gaming a really, really good thing.
Quack, quack.
Does the linux version actually work on video cards that don't have the proprietary nVidia drivers?
UT2k3 relied on some X extensions that weren't available from XFree86. If you didn't have either one of the expensive versions of X or an nVidia card with the closed-source kernel module, you were out of luck.
--
Being able to run UT2K4 on more than just Windows is nice, but I suspect the non-Windows ports will be vulnerable to the same issues faced with UT (1999) -- incompatibility with certain mutators and "add-on" server packages...
...arguably the most important of which was "UTPure", an anti-cheat mechanism.
Does anyone know if that were a big issue with UT2K3?
Looking forward to the retail version, and many hours of cross-platform goodness. My PC friends might actually like me again.
So, here's an idea of what's in the download that you may find interesting:
6 maps
The new Onslought game type
Assault is back!!
Voice chat
Turrets
New levels
Sniper rifle is back
Voice recognition (bot commands)
I've heard reports of, but haven't seen yet for UT2K4:
Vehicles
New weapons (spider mines)
Anti-Vehicle rockets
Nade launcher
Play from laptop!!!
~D
This sig has been enciphered with a one-time pad. It could say almost anything.
I'm still holding out for the OS/2 Warp UT2k4 demo!
The OS/2 community will NOT disappear into the night without a fight!
I was never a fan of Unreal2k3 to begin with. The original UT was a masterpiece, and both Unreal2k3/4 feel like dumbed down Quake 3 clones IMO.
......PLEASE?" ...god, I must sound really angry. Frownies.
2k4's readdition of assault puts a smile in my heart, especially since they put in an actual sniper rifle instead of the awful, awful lightning gun, but most people are going to be playing the rather boring onslaught mode because of the vehicles (the new thing all FPS's MUST HAVE).
To me onslaught is just Unreal2k4 pretending it's Battlefield 1942 and Halo.
Epic: "Hey wait! Please don't go! We can put in vehicles too! See!? Please buy it....please?
Will I begin to see Linux & Mac clans forming solely to fight it out with Windows clans?
Yeah, UT2004 is the first thing I've been able to run on my new box where it really felt like all the potential performance was on the screen.
I've got a Dual G5 2.0 with the BTO Radeon 9800 card, attached to the 23" Cinema HD display. Running Halo on it was fun, but I had to stick to 800x600 or so to get semi-decent performance, and even then fps would drop down to like 1-2 if I died near an explosion or something. UT2004 runs at the native 1920x1200 of the display wickedly fast (never noticed the frame rate getting low enough to notice), and looks great.
It's striking to be able to play a game on a Mac with absolutely no performance issues! Been a long time since that happened for me!
My video compression blog
Copies of both windows and linux Demo Clients:
Click here for client goodness...
Ender -
Nothing to see here
from the who-needs-a-valentine? dept.
Uhh.. me. But aside from that, I would suggest that all those with the option of spending Valentine's with their SO or with UT2K4 choose their SO (mostly, for their own well-being)
On a tangent, I would much rather have an SO than another FPS. Why?
The FPS genre is becoming saturated. UT2K4? Ho-hum, really. Just a few new ways to gib your buddies. I have not seen a lot of innovation in the FPS market... look at the glut of WW2 FPSes alone!
With an SO, one must ALWAYS be innovative. If you look at it like a game, you must always be on your toes. Can't respawn, must play smart, must always devise new tactics -- I can think of no game that requires as much out of the player.
Ah, well
Uncompressing Unreal Tournament 2004 Demo for GNU/Linux 3120.................
And somewhere an unconventional fellow with long hair and a beard feels joy about this game for a different reason than other people...
Wenn ist das Nunstueck git und Slotermeyer? Ja! Beiherhund das Oder die Flipperwaldt gersput.
Just like Unreal Tournament 2003, Unreal Tournament 2004 is expected to have a Linux-native installer on one of the CDs. Unlike Unreal Tournament 2003, it'll probably be advertised on the box (it wasn't for 2003 because they weren't sure if they be able to ship it). Hopefully, since they've worked out the bugs in 2003, 2004 and its installer will be a lot less buggy (if you patch 2003 up-to-date it's alright, of course).
That's great, but do you really think that you are enough to sway valve into spending large amounts of resources, time and money for a very small number of sales?
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for making games available on as many platforms as possible. And it's really nice to see that we're starting to see not just Win/Mac OR Win/Linux but rather Win/Mac/Linux in the few cases that do go to the extra work, which should start tipping the balance and making it financially reasonable to do the extra work.
However, concidering the strains Valve is currently under, I'd rather see them stay focused and still exist next year as opposed to blowing a ton of cash just to appease you and a few others, and ending up folding because of it.
It'll come, I'm quite sure of it...I'm sure we can all see the sun rising on the horizon now.
As an aside, if you're going to read the reviews and buy the single best FPS (Assuming you wait until HL2 is actually released), how could you possibly choose a basically multiplayer only 4th time rehash over a game that looks to be somewhat revolutionary in many aspects?
Not that UT4 is no good, by any means, but it does only represent incremental improvements over what they have done before.
Really, I don't think you're being honest with yourself. As I see it, you have absolutely no reason to mention HL2 in your post as you've essentially already decided that you will only be purchasing a single FPS this year that must run on Linux.
No Comment.
I would imagine that the software renderer is probably a PC-only option. UT2K4 uses Pixomatic for its software renderer, which from what I can gather from the website, is heavily optimized for speed, but is only for PCs. (I suppose the fact that it was written by Mike Abrash, who worked on the original Quake software renderer with John Carmack and has written a fair share of optimization books, is more than enough assurance for me.) Anyways, there doesn't seem to be a Mac version of that, but Macs tend not to be saddled with crappy onboard graphics chips, anyway.
is it too early to ask where's my gentoo ebuild?
Your argument makes valid points, and by myself no, I do not pretend to hold enough sway for Valve to alter their product roadmap.
However, that is like saying that my vote does not elect a president. By itself, no it does not. But collectively, it does, assuming a properly run election. To come back to software purchases though, I believe that the desktop market is already starting to diversify enough for gaming companies to at least give consideration to platforms other than Wintel.
I would also agree that given Valve's current position, the timing probably isn't right for them to do this. In an open market, Epic, id and others are able to capitalize on this. As I stated earlier, I don't buy a lot of games. Tradeoffs have to be made. So I look at what I like about these games - engaging multiplayer gameplay, strong mod communities to increase replayability, drop dead graphics - from where I stand, these two titles are pretty evenly matched. Not having to install a Windows partition tips the scales for me, enough for me to reward Epic over Valve with my purchasing dollars.
this is what causes UT 2004 demo to crap out at the spash screen.
guns kill people like spoons make Rosie O'Donnell fat.