UT2004 Demo Before Christmas?

[RaptoR]

Headup, Atari's former Unreal Brand Manager posted this interesting little tidbit on the Atari Forums...

The plan was to have the demo out before xmas....but, meh, what do I know....

This is the closest thing we have to a release date for the demo, and while the official line remains "when it's done", it certainly would be nice to have a UT2004 demo to play over the Christmas break.

[SkaarjMaster]

If it requires DX9, then I won't run it until February 2004 anyway on my new system. I've decided to not install DX9 on my present (soon to be old) system until I change my mind on the matter; it has Win98SE and running great with DX8 and I was going to use it for LAN UT/UT2003 and older games. Of course, if I decide I want LAN with a DX9 game, then I guess I have a decision to make, hehe.

[TomWithTheWeather]

DX9 has everything DX8 has and more. I'd upgrade even if I didn't have a DX9 card. It's not a problem to upgrade.

[TossMonkey]

Tom knows! Quick grab him and beat it out of him!

[Beelzebud (Satanas)]

I've forgotten UT2k4 until next year.

Here is what BU needs to do:

Start bugging Legend for info on Unreal's multiplayer addon!

It's been over a month since any details were let out publicly.

Does anyone have any idea on a release time-frame?

[alien8]

How does Real Soon Now sound

[Selerox]

UT2004 demo before Christmas? Bring it on!

As for XMP, I genuinly feel sorry for Legend. Their hard work on XMP will get wiped out when Onslaught arrives...

[Midnight Mick]

XMP is to late now.
It's a game that has been & now gone...

Bring on the new.

[BesigedB]

Yeah, all installing DX9 onto a system with DX8 does is force all the DX9 operations onto the CPU. Now this isn't ideal as its slower (your GPU is the ultimate reduced instruction set processor) but the point is you CAN run the games.

[Myrmecophagavir]

Originally Posted by BesigedB

Yeah, all installing DX9 onto a system with DX8 does is force all the DX9 operations onto the CPU. Now this isn't ideal as its slower (your GPU is the ultimate reduced instruction set processor) but the point is you CAN run the games.

If your hardware supports some part of DX9 it gets done in hardware, otherwise if it's not too slow it gets executed on the CPU; otherwise it doesn't get done at all (eg. pixel shaders). Don't see what RISC-ness has to do with this though

[BesigedB]

i dunno. i should have put specialized, efficient. something like that.

still.

meh.

[thewalkingman]

If Onslaught is the only new content in UT2k4 wouldnt they be releasing the game albeit small free?

[A_Rimmerlister]

Originally Posted by BesigedB

Yeah, all installing DX9 onto a system with DX8 does is force all the DX9 operations onto the CPU. Now this isn't ideal as its slower (your GPU is the ultimate reduced instruction set processor) but the point is you CAN run the games.

Given that non-Dx9 cards can't run Dx9-effects at the speed they'd need it's a waste of time.

There hasn't even been a 100% Dx9 title released anyway, so not upgrading isn't as bad as you make it sound unless a few no-good developers forced a Dx9-check when there wasn't one needed.

Besides ... there's Dx9.1 coming 'soon' anyway. So unless you can afford to download and install something that's pointless to begin with I wouldn't bother.
Especially given that if you do have problems installing DirectX you can't even remove the bloody thing with conventional means.

[Doc_EDo]

Those incompetent n00bs at epic have not only delayed the game release, but also are very late to announce the winner of MSU contest phase 1. How can anyone expect teh demo before new year (i dont celebrate christ).
And why are they late? They only needed to rip off Tribes. That wasnt THAT hard, was it?

[Myrmecophagavir]

Originally Posted by thewalkingman

If Onslaught is the only new content in UT2k4 wouldnt they be releasing the game albeit small free?

Looks like you need to read this!

Originally Posted by A_Rimmerlister

Given that non-Dx9 cards can't run Dx9-effects at the speed they'd need it's a waste of time.

There hasn't even been a 100% Dx9 title released anyway, so not upgrading isn't as bad as you make it sound unless a few no-good developers forced a Dx9-check when there wasn't one needed.

Besides ... there's Dx9.1 coming 'soon' anyway. So unless you can afford to download and install something that's pointless to begin with I wouldn't bother.
Especially given that if you do have problems installing DirectX you can't even remove the bloody thing with conventional means.

That's not how it works. DX9 does not just mean pixel shader 2.0... new versions of DirectX include all the functionality of previous versions. You have to upgrade DX in order for a game to run if it's compiled against a newer version than you have, because it requires the correct API calls even to access the older functionality. By "DX9 check", you really mean "shader 2.0 check"... in fact I think you really mean "shader 2.0 check with no 1.x/fixed function fall-back", which no developer who wanted to sell anything would feasibly do at the moment.

Where did you hear about DX 9.1? There's still lots of DX 9.0 that's not hardware-accelerated yet - like 3.0 shaders - so there's no real need for a 9.1 yet.

[TomWithTheWeather]

Originally Posted by Doc_EDo

Those incompetent n00bs at epic have not only delayed the game release, but also are very late to announce the winner of MSU contest phase 1. How can anyone expect teh demo before new year (i dont celebrate christ).
And why are they late? They only needed to rip off Tribes. That wasnt THAT hard, was it?

1. Boo Hoo. The reasons for delay are not based upon laziness or incompetence.

2. Epic is swamped with MSU submissions.

3. Nobody cares if you're religious or not.

4. Tribes? Ha! You have some built up frustration or something?

[MachDelta]

Originally Posted by Beelzebud (Satanas)

I've forgotten UT2k4 until next year.

Here is what BU needs to do:

Start bugging Legend for info on Unreal's multiplayer addon!

It's been over a month since any details were let out publicly.

Does anyone have any idea on a release time-frame?

This is *NOT* official, (even though im a BT for XMP) but if I had to guess, i'd say XMP will be released early in December. Why? Well, Unreal 2 for Xbox is supposed to be released on December 2nd, and its supposed to have XMP included with it. So it would make sense for Legend to develop XMP for both platforms, and sync, finish, an' release. Thats just my guess anyways. They haven't said much about it privately - though even if they did, we still have that NDA hanging over our heads (which i'm trying not to bend too much right now )


As for XMP vs Onslaught... i've given this some thought too, and although im certain Onslaught will be orders of magnitude more popular than XMP (simply due to the fanbase), I think the two games might be able to coincide peacefully. They sound very similar, but I think both games will retain enough of their origins to remain seperate. Onslaught still looks very UTish - fast paced, relatively simple, lots of fast gibbing and big explosions. XMP on the other hand still has all of its Unreal 2 roots. I've haven't played ONS, but I think XMP will be slower and more detailed in comparison. Hell, I could write 3 pages just explaining the HUD alone! . Not that its confusing, it just seems more in depth (to me anyways). I think the simplest and easiest way I could put this would to say:

ONS = UT meets Halo and BF1942
XMP = Unreal meets Tribes and TFC

So I think each game has a fair chance at attracting and retaining two seperate audiences, without having to compete for players (other than us nuts who own and play everything Unreal. )


My 0.02

[RaptoR]

Agreed. XMP appears to be the more complex gametype, and little Jimmy m0tard will have to actually sit down and learn how to play it before he can hope to improve his game.

[Juguard]

Two Weeks before Xmas. :P

[RegularX]

Wonder which will come first.

Phase 1 MSUC results or a UT2004 demo.