One Year Later There's No UT3 Client For Linux

[ambershee]

Not true at all. I steamed my copy of UT3 when I was able to do so; I had no problems at all joining servers.

That's good to know. I was told by a couple of folks down my way that they could no longer connect to gamespy servers after they hit patch 4 on Steam. Thankfully, it apparently really is too stupid to be true

 

[Bersy]

I saw this guy took 2 years to get the Linux port of Prey done also. Didn't we see screenshots of UT3 running on Linux a year ago already?

I see your "services" also include ripping off other people's posts as your own.
Look at his sig & banhammer the spammer plz..

 

[GreatEmerald]

More from Phoronix, with a sentence of news:

Epic Games Changes Story, Unsure About UT3 Linux Future

After Ryan provided no update earlier this week, we asked Steve whether Ryan still was responsible for the port (to combat rumors that this situation is over Epic not paying Ryan) and the status of the Linux client. Here's Steve Polge's response that was received this morning:

It is still on Ryan's plate, but he has many other projects as well. I don't have an estimate for if or when it will be completed.

- Steve



So Ryan is still responsible for this work, but the lead designer for Unreal Tournament 3 has no idea "if or when" it will be completed. This is certainly different from earlier this year when Steve had told us "we certainly would love to see this completed." What though is taking Ryan so long? Many months back when Ryan last shared an update, he said he was to the point of bug-fixing and optimizations. And what are these "other projects" of Ryan's? He hasn't released any major work in recent months nor been very vocal on his blog.

Whatever the case may be, it looks like Epic Games is not expecting Unreal Tournament 3 on Linux to ever see the light of day, at least not in this decade.

Source: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=NzYxNg

 

[T2A`]

Developing a Linux client for a game that didn't even do well on Windows is a really stupid waste of time, IMO.

 

[Grobut]

Developing a Linux client for a game that didn't even do well on Windows is a really stupid waste of time, IMO.

Which is probably why they put just one guy on it (they did make promises, so they had to do that much i'd think), yet still dump other work in his lap too.

 

[Raynor.Z]

Developing a Linux client for a game that didn't even do well on Windows is a really stupid waste of time, IMO.

And it would be even more stupid not to release it after all if it's actually almost done.

 

[Sir_Brizz]

Which is probably why they put just one guy on it (they did make promises, so they had to do that much i'd think), yet still dump other work in his lap too.

He is a contractor. Epic isn't giving him other projects right now. He has lots of work from other companies.

We still don't really know what is going on with the client. If there are legal issues, nobody is going to talk about them. If Ryan could release it, why wouldn't he?

 

[WHIPperSNAPper]

Didn't the problem have something to do with an intellectual property issue related to the game's consolization or at least it's integration of Gamespy or some such (as originally suggested at ProUnreal).

 

[Sir_Brizz]

Didn't the problem have something to do with an intellectual property issue related to the game's consolization or at least it's integration of Gamespy or some such (as originally suggested at ProUnreal).

Whatever the original issue was, it's something that is in the demo linux dedicated server and not in the retail one.

We also don't know if there were further legal issues with releasing a client.

 

[GreatEmerald]

After half a year it seems that it won't make it after all:

Epic Games Provides No Hope For UT3 On Linux

This morning we heard from Steve Polge at Epic Games who is the lead designer of Unreal Tournament 3. Here's his e-mail to Phoronix.

There are no other reasons for its delay. Unfortunately, given the lack of progress it seems unlikely the UT3 Linux client will ever be completed.

- Steve


So it's unlikely we will ever see the Unreal Tournament 3 Linux client; even though in 2008, Ryan Gordon posted a screenshot of UT3 running on Linux. While we pretty much figured that the UT3 Linux client was dead some 550 days after the game first appeared in the hands of Windows gamers, this run-around by Epic Games and Ryan Gordon is disappointing. This is especially disappointing considering Ryan hasn't been working on any other exciting games or projects -- at least acknowledging them publicly -- in many months. He hasn't even updated his blog in nearly five months, which previously was home to exciting reports on the progress of his different game ports and other open-source projects like his work on SDL. His last exciting Linux game port would probably be Prey for Linux, which came back in 2008.

Full article here: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=ODI1OA

 

[Raynor.Z]

Thank you Epic, you know how to impress
Wasn't holding my breath anyway for a while.

 

[oldkawman]

I wonder if we will ever get the actual story on this.

Was it too expensive to do?

or

Was it not possible to use a work around for the middle ware issue. If this is why, would it also effect future linux ports?

or

Was it just a brutal buisness decision made to cut costs?

 

[Sir_Brizz]

The email to Phoronix makes it seem like Ryan can release the client whenever he wants. It would be cool to get the client out after all this time. Ryan could be waiting for something or just not have any interest in finishing the port. It seems that he finished porting the engine to have Linux support, but what that means as far as the game is concerned is anyone's guess.

 

[JohnDoe641]

Maybe he realized that no one plays the game anymore and didn't feel it was worth releasing.

 

[Sir_Brizz]

That seems like a possibility, even though he released the Prey client ages after everyone forgot about that game.

 

[Bi()ha2arD]

Maybe he realized that no one plays the game anymore and didn't feel it was worth releasing.

Maybe some people would come back?

 

[IronMonkey]

Maybe some people would come back?

Yes.

 

[oldkawman]

If anyone starts playing UT3 now because of a linux release, I doubt they will be playing online. Online is pretty much dead now. The only servers with players are pretty much no place for a n00b to be. That is of course if the port works on more than just Ryans machine.

 

[Al]

I reinstalled UT3 yesterday :O

 

[Lostsoul]

That seems like a possibility, even though he released the Prey client ages after everyone forgot about that game.

That game had a single player. UT3 managed to try harder at single player and make it worse than the other UT's.