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However, some hame titles exist for Linux too. Is it true that 3D games (e.g. Unreal Tournament 2004) run better on Linux because of better resource management?
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I play UT2004 on an amd/2500 overclocked to 3200+ speed's. I've played the Unreal games since they first came out, LOL an old foo playing games.
The UT2004 I've played since it first came out, but it was in Windows and I got used to how it plays, so any deviation now 2 years later really catches my eye.
Personally I am very excited to see that Epic released this title for gnu/linux. Yet, while Epic truly made a nicely running game on linux; it in no way compares to the way that this game runs in windows.
I believe this game is merely ported over, and not really optimized and/or scrutinized for linux. They only have one man in all of Epic running the linux project, so I guess we should expect a lesser polished game, and that's fine with me. It is not like a team of engineers is working on it and that is according to the readme file that is included on my store bought cd.
For example, if I'm not playing in the league ( LOL an old foo in a league right LOL) I turn all my details on high in windows, and the game will never skip a beat ever. The audio is perfect, sound incredible, and without flaw, even on dolby surround sound after they issued a few patches after the game officially released. For league games, all details off audio is on safe mode.
But if I play the game in linux, I have my details at medium when I'm just playing for fun. For league games, they're all the way down. Open gl is not friendly on this game at all. Especially trilinear filtering and coronas..linux does not like them at all. And open-al sound for this game in linux is horrible. You can hear foot steps all the way accross the map but nothing near you. I found that if you go into ut2004.ini and turn the rolloff way up this fixes it somewhat. And turning off the ambient too.
But I guess I should keep in mind that I'm using an ATI card, which does NOT have anywhere of good performing video drivers in linux compared to what it does in windows. Maybe if I had an nvidia card I'd see no difference. So my opinion could easily be changed and I could be falsly stating my opinion of the graphics. But I do notice that and FOV of 90 in Windows is an FOV of about 105 or so it looks in linux.
But here is the incredible side to the linux version IMO. The netcode is incredible!!!!! There is no lag, I actually ping better to my favorite servers better. The pc never crashes, even with everything running in the background. The mouse is super responsive, no input buffer locks like in windows. And it is so nice to use an operating system that locks your darn monitor at 60 hz which is horrible for gaming. This game wants and needs 85 refresh rate (assuming the server admin is locking it out) and linux runs bitterly sweet for me at 85 vert refresh. When you cursor over something and fire ...even at a high ping of 80 ping...you get the shot every time. Windows was way different, even at 40 ping you have to lead your shots.
I think Epic if they wanted to, and if they see enough interest could easily put the man hours in to get the game to be even better than in winwdows because of the inherit way that linux does do a lot better with resource management and netcode.
The sad thing is that Epic does not even report how many downloads of linux there's been. they dont report if they are happy with the linux people running it. To that effect I dont understand as they know your game version as soon as you click join online game.
I can tell you that there are vicious rumors that they may not release UT2007 for linux. And that if you do like the game be sure to send them an email and tell them you like the game.
There was an article over at linuxtoday or linuxnews one of them, that talks about the fact that opengl could actually be sold off. What that would mean, I dont know, but kind of weird.
I think as long as we keep see the forward motion of gnu/linux on the desktop and people asking the manufacturer's to port their games over we'll see more active development on the open-gl and open-al side of things. Just look at the reported success of quake. It's huge in linux, and that has to be catching the eye's of gaming company's even MS. A game that old to have thousands of players on at any time over the course of a weekend is a true statement.
Checked the /sbin/agetty file.. It indeed exists and it is not read-only.
