UT3 For Linux Is Laid To Rest By Epic's Mark Rein

[oneman]

Thank God. I for one am glad this turd of a company isn't trying to port their crapwear.

[Saist]

part of me wonders how much of the Linux Client being canned can be attributed to Microsoft and Gears of War. I really wonder if one of the stipulations of Microsoft backing Gears of War was the termination of Epic's outright support for *nix.

[V!NCENT]

part of me wonders how much of the Linux Client being canned can be attributed to Microsoft and Gears of War. I really wonder if one of the stipulations of Microsoft backing Gears of War was the termination of Epic's outright support for *nix.

No.

67890

[jrrr]

It's disappointing to see them forsake Linux when they were historically one of few major developers supporting us.. but I personally wasn't interested in the game. I still play the clear and colorful UT2K4, but UT3 followed the recent trend of dark grainy brown foggy yuckiness. What a waste of a videocard!

[DMJC]

This is actually a pretty big blow to Linux as a gaming platform. Less games released = less opportunities for the community to show how large it is and how willing to spend cash on games it is. This is a bad thing. Personally I find it annoying that no one is trying to push gaming on Linux in a serious way. I think we need someone like redhat/ubuntu to step up and provide support to sdl/opengl/openal developers like Microsoft does with directX. Let's be honest, Linux has a very mature gaming development environment, I'm fedup with people always whinging about sound apis. OpenAL works, it's tested, and it's made for games. Static linking and installers were all solved by loki. Update them to gtk2/3 if they aren't already, and make a decent website dedicated to linux gaming and linux game sales. Tux games website looks so amateur it's frightening. Half the mod/fan sites on the net do a better job at looking professional. Hell Linuxgames.com/phoronix look more professional and they don't even sell Linux games. LGP has similar issues, get some web designers PLEASE. At least if Linux gaming has to go down in flames make it a roaring blue flame not a pansy yellow flame. Linux gaming is doing very little to sell itself to the world. FIX THE WEBSITES and cross promote more.

happypenguin.org
linuxgames.com
phoronix.com
slashdot.org
lgp.com
idsoftware.com
linuxgames.blogspot.org

They are the only websites worth reading for linux gaming news. and half of them don't bother to cross promote. This makes me want to rip my hair out with frustration. I work with indie game developers all the time with IRL stuff. There's massive room for improvement in how the Linux gaming community presents itself.

[yogi_berra]

There's massive room for improvement in how the Linux gaming community presents itself.

For Epic, Linux was a pet project. For iD, Linux ports only happen because TTimo uses his free time for it, he will eventually retire and you'll get shafted by iD and get upset about it.

Maybe the real problem is that the Linux desktop sucks and needs to be improved beyond the "good-enough-for-a-workstation" stage. You could probably start by making grub2 not brick certain dual boot computers. Just a suggestion that will be ignored.

[deanjo]

For Epic, Linux was a pet project. For iD, Linux ports only happen because TTimo uses his free time for it, he will eventually retire and you'll get shafted by iD and get upset about it.

Maybe the real problem is that the Linux desktop sucks and needs to be improved beyond the "good-enough-for-a-workstation" stage. You could probably start by making grub2 not brick certain dual boot computers. Just a suggestion that will be ignored.

You can also spread the same concern where Ryan is concerned. Lately it's been mostly OS X or small little indie ports that he has been doing. SDL development has slowed considerably over the last few years and there doesn't seem to be anybody to pick up the torch and his last big effort (FatELF) was greeted with spurn by the linux community. I wouldn't be surprised if he fades off into the distance without any fanfare.

[hubick]

There are alot alternative ones and hopefully new ones on keep coming.

I have never seen an alternative Alot, but new/baby ones would be adorable!

[elanthis]

The impact of this news upon the Linux community itself is low: it is only an entertainment application, and one of several options for cross-platform performance comparisons.

Referring to popular games as "only an entertainment application" is lot like calling the beach "only a reason to wear a bathing suit." Over in Regular People World, games are for many people the only reason to own a damn computer in the first place, and for most the rest they're the only reason to own something bigger than a netbook.

I know many Phoronix forum members know this, but the Linux crowd in general tends to fail to understand this. The people who actually _like_ spending hours upon hours every day looking at a console window are not normal. When you spend your whole life in front of a computer doing Linux nerd stuff, mostly only interacting with office mates or other Linux nerds on the Internet, you tend to lose touch with what the other 99.9999% of regular consumer folks thinks of these computer things and what they use them for.

Losing a game like UT3 -- and likely, by extension, any possibility of a port of the great many UT3-based games that have come out since UT3 itself -- really does hurt Linux. Not having any chance to play those games is to most people the same thing as not having any chance to use GCC is to us.

I would like to know what the reasons are for UT3 for Linux being canceled, at least. I wouldn't be entirely surprised if it had something to do with an inability to offer real DRM for a fully Open Source OS. Would suck if that were the reason (I hate DRM as much as the next honest consumer) but on the other hand I can easily see that being the business decision (given the disgustingly high piracy rate of PC games).

[cl333r]

UT3 is an old game not worth an article, move along people, better hope for/work on ports of modern games like prototype, modern warfare 2 etc etc