ET: Quake Wars v1.4 Coming Soon

[Michael]

Quake 4 v1.4 will contain a new threaded renderer that will boost quad-core gaming performance (while ET:QW has already been SMP friendly, these are some additional improvements for systems with more than two cores).

[KohlyKohl]

Even with just one core working under Linux, I get almost the same performance under Linux as I do Windows. The difference is like 1-3 FPS in either direction. So I wonder if the extra core will even make a difference. Oh and each core I have is 2.8 GHz.

[d2kx]

Update v1.4 has been delayed until January due to some bugs, one of them being ATI related.

[Crunchy]

ET:QW seems to be CPU limited under windows on my AMD Athlon 64 4200+, both cores run at 85%+ usage. I'll be interested in how it runs on Linux, it might be a big problem if it doesn't use the dual cores properly but if it runs a lot better then theres something fishy about the windows version. I'll be able to test for myself once fglrx work for me.

[KohlyKohl]

Does it do that with ET:QW now? When installing the v1.4 RC I don't remember seeing such an option. I personally always have just stored the base files on a USB hard drive, and then manually transfer all of them over for the different test systems instead of messing with the CD/DVDs.

I do the same thing as it is very convenient. No having to locate a disk to install and no worrying if it becomes unreadable. However, I created an ISO for Quake Wars so I could easily install under Windows and Linux this time around, and I was surprised when the installer found the mounted ISO and copied the files from it.

[KohlyKohl]

The installer will even copy from a mounted ISO file now.

[d2kx]

I just reinstalled QW under Linux the other day. There are 2 installers. There's a 'full' installer which will copy all of the data from the DVD. There is also a smaller 'nomedia' installer which requires you to copy the data from an existing Windows install.

Exactly. But the v1.4 Release Candidate is only awaible as a nomedia update currently. The full v1.4 update will have, like the v1.2 update now already has, an option to install from the DVD.

[janl]

I just reinstalled QW under Linux the other day. There are 2 installers. There's a 'full' installer which will copy all of the data from the DVD. There is also a smaller 'nomedia' installer which requires you to copy the data from an existing Windows install.

[f33l]

I'll see if I can organize the tests

hehe, nice

[Michael]

I'd really love to see a benchmark of QW 1.4, comparing NVidia's new GeForce 8800GT (maybe several vendors) versus AMD/ATIs new generation of graphics cards. I can't think of any other site on the internet that would conduct such a test.

It would be really interesting to me, because due to QW I will buy a new graphics card in January (most likely). However, I'm not sure whether to buy AMD or NVidia. I can imagine that quite a number of linux gamers see themselves in a similar position, right now.

Traditionally, NVidias linux driver support (while binary) was vastly superior to what ATI did deliver. However, recently things are starting to look different. ATI is quickly improving their linux driver codebase, and - even better - are stating to support the implementation of a free (as in freedom) driver by giving out detailed documentation, even without any NDAs.

So, to sum up, I believe AMD should be supported in the long run in their efforts to create a free driver. However, I'm also interested in the performance of their current cards for playing QW on linux. A review like that would be just great.

I'll see if I can organize the tests