VK9 Milestone 28 Reached With Improvements For Unreal Tournament (1999)

[geearf]

> Except Unreal Tournament was released in 1999 before DirectX 9.0 even existed (DirectX 9 was released in 2002)
It still has a d3d9 renderer now.

> Also where is the work on DirectX 1-6 which still have bugs more than 20 years after release?
Good question, did you start working on this?

> Also if that mod is so critical, why not push Epic Megagames to get the Linux port updated?
The point is not to get this one game correctly running, but to get the D3D9 correctly, so it has to support all cases, well at least all those used by games.
Getting the Linux port updated won't magically make VK9 any better.

Using UT99 may also have to do with the shader model used by the d3d9 renderer compared to what VK9 currently supports.

[khnazile]

Also if that mod is so critical, why not push Epic Megagames to get the Linux port updated? Why should we just accept being shit on by second rate support all the time without even asking for the updates to get made?

As far as I know, icculus, the author of original UT'99, UT2k4 and never to be released UT3 linux ports, tried asking Epic's community manager if he could update linux binaries for better compatibility with modern systems and fix bugs. but he never got a reply. Considering Epic effectively halted community-driven development of UT4, it looks like they're too busy with Fortnite, and don't have time for their old fans.

That's not weird at all, because the native Linux port serves as an excellent reference point when comparing the accuracy, performance and stability of VK9, which gives the developer some very valuable data on his own progress. It'd be much harder to do the same for a game that doesn't have a Linux port, or can't run on Linux in any form at all.

That is not correct. Original native port barely works on linux. I would say, it performs too fast, which makes it unplayable. And while windows version suffers with same problems, it has a third-party DX9 renderer, which makes it playable at least, by adding 60 fps lock.

[mannerov]

Guys, you're reading it wrong I think. It probably just is 'oh I have that game that runs d3d9, let's just fix it to fix bugs in the d3d9 backend, until I do the same for another game in my library'.

[ResponseWriter]

Am I the only person who finds it really weird that we're optimising code for a game that's had a Linux native port for the last 20 years?

From the original blog post:

While working on this milestone I was informed by a member of the community that UT99 worked with VK9 when using the Direct 3D 9 back-end. It had several graphical glitches but didn't crash. So while working on the milestone I added several fixes and enhancements to make UT99 work better.

In other words, according to my interpretation, while working to make some samples render correctly someone mentioned UT99, which the developer then tried and decided to fix some bugs because it's his project, therefore his prerogative. Likewise, you're welcome to fix whichever bugs you like in your own projects.

[Weasel]

Maybe we should be leaving these games buggy

You don't tell people what to do. Go code it yourself.

I mean do we actually want to discourage native ports by making emulation the better option?

Yes.

You can always code your own stuff if you want to push your crappy agenda.

[aht0]

There exists rewrite/reboot of the Unreal Tournament, on modern engine, free game, open source..

[ssokolow]

There exists rewrite/reboot of the Unreal Tournament, on modern engine, free game, open source..

And its name is? I've seen various open-source UT-like games, but none which will accept the game resources from the original game. (And it'd be copyright infringement to do an exact re-creation of things like the BGM tracks which are essential to the experience.)

[Zeioth]

There are still several popular games based on DX9. Guild Wars 2 for example, which performance running on OpenGL is pretty low.

[aht0]

ssokolow curiously, it's name is also Unreal Tournament.
it's 'pre-alpha' but it's playable - Capture The Flag for example.

https://www.epicgames.com/unrealtournament/

[ssokolow]

ssokolow curiously, it's name is also Unreal Tournament.
it's 'pre-alpha' but it's playable - Capture The Flag for example.
https://www.epicgames.com/unrealtournament/

Sorry I took so long to reply. Got distracted by having to have some wisdom teeth out.

That does solve the problem of rights for the backing tracks I like, but it looks like it has a Steam/Origin-esque approach to installation, involving downloading their launcher. I'm a big DRM-free fanatic and I think I'll stick to running either my original UT99 CDs or the GOG.com copy I bought for convenience inside Wine where I can trust there's nothing remotely resembling online activation.