Unreal Tournament Linux Client

James Massa was the first of many to note that there appears to be official word on an Unreal For Linux client appearing on the Epic Unreal page. Renderers for Glide & MesaGL. Some screenshots are also available. No sound yet, but that should be coming. Loki's got Myth II and Railroad Tycoon II coming together soon too. Its pretty excellent seeing real games coming out faster. And I think that playing them should count as "Investigative Research" for me.

Comments

How can this be?

[Anonymous Coward]

I have a voodoo 3 also, and its linux drivers can only render 3D at 640x480. Is he using software rendering(yecch) to get his 1024x768? With a beowulf of Crays and PVM-esa, I suppose it could be done.

Re:How can this be?

[Anonymous Coward]

If you setup the v3 correctly, you can get 1024x768!!
Read the directions.. it's in there. I run at 1024x768 all the time in linux on my v3.

OT: Oracle

[RelliK]

This is off topic, but I'm just curious.
I was under impression that you need a Sun or IBM box to make a serious database server. On Intel it wouldn't work well because of 32 bit memory limitations. And, AFAIK, Oracle has been ported only to Linux on x86. How big a server is that gonna be? Are you concerned at all about scalability? There is hardly any room for growth on x86...

Unreal

[linuxgod]

Will this new version of UnrealUT support 3dfx cards such as the new Voodoo3 2000 pci? jd@linuxgod.net

how does it work?

[RelliK]

How exactly do games run on Linux? I've played Q2 with svgalib but it's so outdated and barely usable. You can't play them in X cause you need full screen. I know Quake can run in a window, but who the hell would want to play it that way? So, I don't understand what exactly are these games being ported *to*. Is there a single API in Linux that games can use??

Re:how does it work?

[Reteo Varala]

X can run on multiple virtual consoles. In order to do this, though, you have to activate each instance of X on a different DISPLAY. This is done using whatever starting script you use, and pass the display number to the X server itself.
An example in XF86: You use "startx -- :0" for the default, and for every one after that, you use "startx -- :x" where x is the display number. Each display will open in an unused console, and follow through with the standard scripts, be they xinit, or xdm, or whatever you use.
I believe there is a way to change the default starting script so that it loads a different set of commands, instead of the initial scripts used.
All Win95's DirectX does, is display the program at the top-left (default) corner, and change display accordingly. That's not quite automated with X, but it's possible to do, and you will still have all your windows and such on another console.
Okay, I'll shut up now. :-)

--

Re:how does it work?

[VinceJH]

Play in X. I have very simple scripts that open a new X server on a different virtual terminal and then launches the game. I can use a different resolution for that X server. So, it basicly ends up were the game is fullscreen. The only problem is that you can easily change the game resolution while playing it. But thats no problem for me, I am dedicated to 640x480.

Xfree86 X servers have an extension to the X protocal called XF86VidMode (I think). This lets apps switch the resolution on the fly. Its what Quake3 Test uses to go fullscreen, and what all games for Linux should use in my opinion. Yea, I know its XFree86 specific, but most people use XFree86. If it becomes common, commercial servers will add it.

Re:how does it work?

[RelliK]

what script do you use? I thought there could be only one instance of X server running at a time.

Re:how does it work?

[Anonymous Coward]

Nope, try 'startx -- :1' to start another X server

Re:how does it work?

[Anonymous Coward]

With my Viper V770 and the new drivers from
nVidia, I can play Quake2, Quake3, and any other
things that are compiled to use Mesa (or OpenGL)
in a window. CivCTP can also run in a window
or fullscreen. Lokisoft has developed
(and also opensourced..good going guyes) an
API they call the Simple DirectMedia Layer. It
allows low-level access to sound and graphics
in a cross-platform manner (and supports both X
and Windows/DirectX!). I'm assuming they port
their games that way.

Re:Slashdot.org users predominately use *nix

[Anonymous Coward]

If your read the poll, you would see the big bar at the top that said "Linux - 36%"

'It's about damn time' ?

[Evangelion]

How can it be 'about time' for a Linux port of a game that isn't out yet?

mesaGL poiticaly correct?

[Anonymous Coward]

the mesa3d site says not to call it mesaGL. they say since mesa is not official, you are bugging SGI by calling it mesaGL.

Re:oops: Unreal Tournament

[Anonymous Coward]

From what Epic has said, the linux client will be a full game (Client meaning what is used to connect to a server, also including single-player mode). It will also be compatible with user-created mods and maps that people make (as long as the mods don't include any custom dll's).

As for the difference between Unreal Tournament (UT) and Unreal, there's no real difference in a very general sense. You have single-play, and multi-play. The difference (besides in the actual game technology) is that the single-player mode is very similar to multi-player mode, except you're playing against bots instead of other players.

In my experience, I'd play the single-player part of games once, and then never touch it again. I don't think I actually made it through all of Unreal's SP game.. Not because it was bad, but because I wasn't used to such a long and challanging game.

-Yang

Re:NOTE: Sweeney uses KDE

[GreenMarine]

Tim doesn't run Linux. I'm doing the port, I run the RedHat 6 distribution with KDE.

I wouldn't say that argues that KDE is superior. I haven't tried GNOME and haven't had a reason to. I am now comfortable using KDE.

- Brandon "GreenMarine" Reinhart

Slashdot.org users predominately use *nix

[Anonymous Coward]

Which part of Linux/BSD/Unix 48%, Windows 9x/NT 40%, Macintosh 7%, Amiga 3%, "I hate everyone" (other) 7%, gives you the impression Linux users (38% according to the poll) are a minority?

Re:Slashdot.org users predominately use *nix

[Anonymous Coward]

"Which part of Linux/BSD/Unix 48%, Windows 9x/NT 40%, Macintosh 7%, Amiga 3%, "I hate everyone" (other) 7%, gives you the impression Linux users (38% according to the poll) are a minority?"

1. he didn't say that Linux users are a minority (or that they aren't), he implied that Be-OS and Mac-OS users are minorities.

2. If only 38% of readers are Linux users then they are a minority.

Re:Slashdot.org users predominately use *nix

[Listerine]

"Linux/BSD/Unix 48%"

So logically,
Linux users: 48%/3 = 16%
BSD Users: 48%/3 = 16%
Unix Users: 48%/3 = 16%

Therefore Linux users are only 16% which is in no way a majority.

Phhht.

Re:Slashdot.org users predominately use *nix

[Anonymous Coward]

So logically,
Linux users: 48%/3 = 16%
BSD Users: 48%/3 = 16%
Unix Users: 48%/3 = 16%


I can see you've never studied logic nor statistics.

Re:Slashdot.org users predominately use *nix -- AC

[Anonymous Coward]

Oops! That "Windows 9x/NT" above should have read 30%, not 40%. I should have proofread my post. And, yes, I know it still doesn't add up to 100%. At this time, neither does the slashdot poll numbers which I got these from. Rounding error.

This kicks ass!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow, ever wondered on what platform the
real marathon games are going to be played?

way to go!

Mesa Naming Issue

[Anonymous Coward]

As is stated on the Mesa 3D website, the project prefers not to be dubbed MesaGL.

Unreal Tournament vs Unreal Classic.

[Anonymous Coward]

What's the difference between Unreal Tournament and the original?

Otherwise, this is great news!

Re:Unreal Tournament vs Unreal Classic.

[GreenMarine]

Unreal Tournament is a completely different game. It is a deathmatch oriented game and has not yet been released.

The focus in "Unreal" was adventuring on an alien world. The focus in "Unreal Tournament" is multiplayer combat. It has all new content (weapons, models, maps, textures) and new technology (mesh LOD, texture LOD, misc engine improvements).

Brandon "GreenMarine" Reinhart
Epic Games, Inc.

Re:Unreal Tournament vs Unreal Classic.

[habusan2]

Will the UT Linux client be able to play the UC world? The original Unreal was one of my all time favorite games, but I haven't been able to play it since I switched to an all-Linux system (no Windoze or FAT partition at all). I'd still like to finish the game I purchased. :-)

-'f

Re:Unreal Tournament vs Unreal Classic.

[IceDon]

Unreal Turnament is backwards compatible. You should be able to play all original Unreal Maps with Unreal Tournament :)

Re:Unreal Tournament vs Unreal Classic.

[Anonymous Coward]

Ok I'm not an expert --but I believe the difference is.. maps. Maps are included in the shrinkwrap version of the game, the so called client "client" version of a game connects to a server which synchronizes multiplayer gameplay and in some cases serves up maps edited by ordinary gamers for use in multiplayer network games. This works best over LANs, but also happens on the internet of course.

If you have a client version of a game all that you need to have the equivalent of the shrinkwrap version is some maps and AI driving the badguys. I'm probably making all kindza mistatements here --someone who knows please jump right in. Anyway, to my tiny mind the existence of a running Linux "client" for a game means that the hard work of porting basically has been done, and nothing but corporate obstinance stands in the way of a full Linux version of the game at your local software megalmall. Which brings me to my point -- this is great, Epic, now when can I buy (pay you money in exchange for) the full game like Quake2 and Civ2:CTP??? Before I get old, please?

Re:Sweeney uses KDE RIP Gnome

[Synic]

Where are the moderators when you need them.
This line of posts is irrelevant bickering I'd expect to see in a post about Qt 2.0 or KDE, or the opposite argument in a post about Enlightenment or Gnome.

Linux is about freedom of choice.

Keep your opinions to yourself if you're not going to be constructive.

Shut up you whiners.

[PenguinX]

Dear God people, who the fu*k cares? It's interesting news to see that Linux is becoming a viable gaming platform, a key steppingstone to becoming a consumer
operating system. As per whether or not this is slashdot or linuxgames ... well, I would have to agree with the principal of this statement but the fact is that most of
the people who are on slashdot run linux. Personally I run Linux, Solaris, and MacOS -- and don't even tell me that MacOS != geek, you're still hung up on the fact
that your teachers ran it because it was easy... well the MacOS isn't a bad platform, software or hardware - and just because you can install Red Hat 6 doesn't mean
that you're a geek either.

FILENAME filename fileNAME

[VinceJH]

Another reason to make a fat partition for ports like this. Kingpin suffured from this problem. By playing it off of my windows partition, all the File/FILE/file problems were gone.
By the way, Im to lazy to go check the man pages, so il ask here: can you make fat partitions from linux. Im sure their is, right?

Re:FILENAME filename fileNAME

[Anonymous Coward]

There's a dosfstools package for Debian, and I
remember seeing stuff about mkfs.dos (aka mkdosfs)
and fsck.dos (aka dosfsck)

Unreal Forever

[TopSpin]

Unreal is my favorite 3D shooter. It has more character than any of
the Quakes (including QW and Q3). Playability of the current Unreal
is still better than the latest Q3test. The maps that have been
created by Unreal players are, in my opinion, second to none. I have
a Windows 95 partition _only_ to run Unreal. You could easily triple
the price of a Linux port and I would buy it immediately.

To Epic Games;

If you are told that Linux users won't pay because they only use free
software please ignore it. I have personally purchased WordPerfect
for Linux, Quake II for Linux and Civilization for Linux. When Quake
3 is available I will buy that too. My employer has purchased XIG X
server licenses and will soon purchase Oracle licenses and 7/24
support for Linux at my direction. Linux users will pay for good
products, and UT qualifies.

NOTE: Sweeney uses KDE

[Anonymous Coward]

More proof that KDE is the more funtional of the two.

Re:NOTE: Sweeney uses KDE

[odd3n]

KDE is fat and ugly. GNOME seems lightweight and effecient. But both still suck.

KDE in my eyes are a fat slow cow and gets milked with those icky metalthings.

GNOME is a gepard, that has a problem with its one leg, so occasionally it falls. And some of the spots on it are missing.

But whoha, I wouldn't want an entire environment. I'd just use Window Maker and sometimes use the GNOME apps, and maybe even some KDE ones.

Re:NOTE: Sweeney uses KDE

[grahamwest]

Actually the unreal tech page update was made by Brandon Reinhart, not Tim Sweeney.

A Linux client for the Unreal engine is very cool because it makes it more likely that upcoming games (eg. Deus Ex, Rune and Duke Nukem Forever) will have Linux versions. The modularity and flexibility of the engine means that other games developed using it have more localised changes and so a code merge is less painful than it might be.

Also, Klingon Honor Guard in theory will also work on Linux since it made no engine-level changes (it's just new maps, textures and unrealscript code).

Re:NOTE: Sweeney uses KDE

[Anonymous Coward]

There is probably more involved than just copying the data files over. There are issues such as as filenames being referred to as Filename FILENAME or filename. For a windows machine, this is not a problem, but for Linux, only 1 will work. Ran into that problem with Action Quake once.

Re:NOTE: Sweeney uses KDE

[tialaramex]

Steve runs GNOME, Chris runs KDE.
So now the user population is going to be split 50:50?
Oh wait, you've never heard of them, but "Sweeney" is obviously so famous people will switch desktop environments just to be more like him.

Right. Troll boy.

Re:Sweeney uses KDE RIP Gnome

[Anonymous Coward]

exactly

Re:Sort of almost good...

[GreenMarine]

Unreal Tournament has not yet been released.

Brandon "GreenMarine" Reinhart
Epic Games, Inc.

A Few Clarifications

[GreenMarine]

A few clarifications:

- I was unaware I wasn't supposed to refer to Mesa as "MesaGL." Frankly, I think its a little silly, as the GL suffix is not a copyrighted symbol, but I will accord with the authors wishes. Anonymous Coward says "its not politically correct" but I don't really care much about politically correctness.

- The Unreal Tournament Linux Client will be a client to the full game. UT is a large game and requires 2 CDs to ship on. When I said "it will be on the second CD" I was meaning that it would be on that CD because there would be additional space.

- Some people here are not clear on exactly what Unreal Tournament is. It is not Unreal. It is a new game that has not yet been released. It is a first person 3D action game focusing on multiplayer combat. The single player mode is a series of deathmatches against increasingly difficult aliens and humans. It contains variations on deathmatch like Capture the Flag, Domination and Assault. For more information check out www.unrealtournament.net.

- I (Brandon Reinhart) made the Tech Page update not Tim. And my pimping KDE isn't to say that it is better than GNOME. Rather, its what I installed when I started and I haven't seen any reason to try other window managers. I don't have the luxury of time to try all the various window managers, nor would I want to. I use what gets the job done and right now I'm getting the job done just fine in KDE.

- One use commented that Unreal isn't new, so the news isn't really that great. Unreal Tournament is, in fact, quite new. It hasn't been released. Its a new style of game and it has new engine technology. If everything goes well with the remainder of the port, you should be able to go into your local software store on the UT release date and pick up a copy of UT off of the shelf to run under Linux.

- Once again, the KDE being better than GNOME thing is lame. Tim Sweeney doesn't even use Linux. :-)

- RelliK asks "how does it work." The answer is that it uses a graphics library to access your hardware 3D accelerator to render the game's scenes. UT will require X because:
* glX is good.
* Input under X is easy.
* I can easily do windowed rendering under X.
* Making windows is X is easy.
* X is good.

- Unreal Tournament can render inside a window if you have a good non-3DFX accelerator. Unreal Tournament will not support software rendering under Linux. (It does under Win32.) If you have a 3DFX card, then you have to use fullscreen mode. If you use the Mesa renderer and a 3DFX card then you can play in a window, but you will get a terrible framerate (less than 1 frame a second). This is because Glide does not support rendering in a window and Mesa emulates it by doing a frame buffer copy into the X Drawable. Yuck!

- Posting information about this port has opened up a lot of questions from people who don't know alot about Epic, Unreal Tournament, or games in general. I will try to keep my updates on the Tech Page (unreal.epicgames.com) as free from gaming slang as possible. I suggest that if you are not familiar with 3D games and modern gaming (because it has been a very Win32 PC issue) you educate yourself. Check out:
* www.bluesnews.com for 3D gaming news.
* www.tomshardware.com for information about 3D accelerators and what they do.
* www.unrealtournament.net for what UT is about.

- Finally, give me a little leeway with the Linux advocacy political-correctness stuff. My personal interests do not lie in the realm of operating system advocacy. I am persuing this port because:
* We need to make the Unreal Engine support multiple platforms.
* People like to run servers on Linux.
* People want to play games on Linux.
I am not a regular Linux user and I don't follow the Linux scene. As such, I am not necessarily aware of the correct usage of terms and so forth (just as you may not be aware of gaming lingo and the current state of 3d gaming).

- I have enjoyed working with Linux. I have enjoyed working with X windows. Epic will continue to produce new games for Linux.

- Epic uses their own installer application. I may port this installer for the purposes of installing the new games we make. I prefer this over making distribution specific install files. (.rpm, .deb, etc) In fact, I think the concept of distribution specific install methods is a bit silly.

- There might be a port of UT to LinuxPPC.

- It is unlikely there will be a BeOS port. I will get BeOS and evaluate whether or not a port would be worth my time. (Frankly, I'm ready to start developing new tech for our next game, as UT is almost ready to ship.)

I hope this clarifies things. I can be reached at brandon@epicgames.com.

Re:A Few Clarifications

[Synic]

Would that installer include the ability to uninstall the game after it has been installed? That would be very nice, so I don't have to pick through the garbage trail. :)

(face it, at one time or another we all have to uninstall something)

Re:A Few Clarifications

[Anonymous Coward]

Why do you recommend such a biased site such as Tomshardware?

Re:A Few Clarifications

[Kettlerp]

Tom's site may have become biased in the past few months (or the past year, whatever), but he still can write a decent general-knowledge article. I still keep his site on my Links bar. Not because I'm especially happy with the mudslinging that's been posted there, but because occasionally he's got a decent article, free of bias (I admit, it's getting harder and harder to find those articles).

Cut the Unreal guys some slack. They're GAME developers. I'd rather they be knee-deep in the successor to Unreal than involved in web politics, wouldn't you?

Excuuuuuuuuuuuuuuse Me!

[Listerine]

Well... Excuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuse me too!

Mac users must be those Java-sipping starving artists you find at Starbucks at 3 AM.

Although you keep the Linux machine next you for doing stuff... I trust my little old 2ci. Its worked fine in its 10 years of ruff existance until it ventured into my house, and that little thing is anything BUT user-friendly.

If you want user friendly, look for Microsoft Bob.

Phhht.

woo goo!

[kdsmith]

cool! Unreal kicks, and now for linux.. awesome!

This is great!

[Anonymous Coward]

Man Im so excited about all the games! Hell we are gunna get Heretic2 also! So anyone interested in the lokigames come check my site out! The loki Portal Site is dedicated t bringing you the latest news on Loki! We have the MythII demo and a message-board! Anyway I can't wait for UT...its gunna rocks with my V3! Natas

Re:Sort of almost good...

[broken]

That's Unreal Tournament, not just Unreal. Unreal Tournament is a multiplayer-only sequel to Unreal and it is not out yet for any platform. It also has some kind of bot deathmatch for one player gaming, but it will be mainly focused for multiplayer, like Quake 3:Arena.

Linux as a gaming platform.

[garcia]

Looks like Linux is turning out to be quite a viable platform for gaming. I am quite excited... The screenshots look beautiful.

I just can't wait to get me my Dual 400 w/the voodoo3 for Q3 :)

Re:Sort of almost good...

[Anonymous Coward]

This port is for Unreal Tournament (which isn't out yet), not just Unreal. In the update, he says that the Linux client will be on one of the CDs that ships with the game. On top of that, there are a lot of new games using the Unreal engine that will be coming out soon, like Wheel of Time, Duke Nukem Forever, etc. Hopefully, the developers of all those games will release Linux versions now that most of the work has already been done for them.

Is this now LinuxGames.com or slashdot.org?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm just curious because ive been seeing way too many posts on games for Linux which most of us BeOS, MacHeads, and other geeks could care less about. This IS for geeks and NOT just Linux people, right? Come on people... Pretty soon all the BeOS people will be wondering why you're not announcing all their games that have been ported, same with the MacHeads..

Re:Is this now LinuxGames.com or slashdot.org?

[HowWonderful]

Well why dont you try making an account here, you can select to not recieve that type of news at all.

Try it, its easy.

Re:Is this now LinuxGames.com or slashdot.org?

[Milkman Ken]

Do you ever notice those " Foobar wrote in to say that..." at the beginning of the postings? Or were you too busy writing that flame to notice that 99% of the stories are SUBMITTED.

If you're not seeing any news about Mac or BeOS ports, you have no one to blame except yourself. Submit some BeOS or Mac gaming news and I'll bet we'll start seeing some of it appear on the front page.

And judging from the recent poll, more of us are Linux users anyhow, so it makes perfect sense that most of the OS stories are about Linux (since they're the ones submitting the most stories).

In short, you have two options -- live with the fact that you are a minority, or start submitting news for your OS and hope that the /. demigods bless you with a posting. Either way, quit your futile whining.

Sort of almost good...

[branden-oldmac]

Although I think that it is a great idea that more and more games are comming out for Linux, it is still somewhat dismal if you realize that these games are not exactly new to the PC side of things. Unreal and Myth II have both been out for some time for the PC.

Macs have the same problem: game companies don't see any profit in making their games for multiple platforms until the game has become a success in the PC market, and they know it will make money if sold for other machines. Warcraft came out almost two years later for the Mac.

Lets hope that game companies will do more cross-platform development than we have seen in the past.

Re:Sort of almost good...

[10Brett-T]

Hehehe... it's interesting to see what platforms the companies use to *develop* their games before porting them to Wintel for distribution... Not all Linux releases are ports per se.

Excellent!

[Bill Henning]

I will admit Unreal looks cool on '95/'98; to have a Linux port will no doubt attract more gamers over to Linux.

More gamers on Linux, more pressure on video/sound card manufacturer's to provide information needed to write drivers for the cards... sounds like a win-win scenario to me!

Re:Excellent!

[garcia]

great point. The developers should notice the trend... Hopefully SBLive will get some SMP support. That would be premier :)

a subtle (read: pathetic) plea . . .

[gnarphlager]

PLEASE dear God let someone have the wisdom and ingenuity to port Drakan. Please please PLEASE!!!! All I've done since I got the Win98 demo is play it . . . it consumes all my gaming time and is the ONLY reason I still have that Windows partition . . . I want I want I WANT!!!!

okay, I'll grow up now. Maybe ;-)

Linus in the shower...UNREAL!

[Anonymous Coward]

OT...

Speaking of Unreal Linux stuff, you really must see this to believe it. Linus, you are a GOD!

Nitrozac rocks. Nuff said.

oops: Unreal Tournament

[Anonymous Coward]

DOH! looks like I will be able to buy this at a store. At the risk of compounding my mistakes, can I ask does this mean that the shrinkwrap Linux "client" will play the game maps on disk1 --or is it strictly for netplay?

CTP at Fry's

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah!! Bring on the games! Just got my copy of CIV CTP at the local mega computer store today and loving it. By the way, anyone living in the California Bay Area better head on over to Fry's because CTP's on sale for $38.98 (good til 8/3/99). Get em while they're hot.

I *can't* wait to see what comes next...


hp

How do you know what Steve uses?

[Anonymous Coward]

The world wants to know

HAHAHA

[Anonymous Coward]

You guys are sick. Here's another jerk-off picture for you.