Ok so there hasn't been that much news lately in the UT scene. Even this is late news. I myself have been very busy with life, and relocation due to my job and the new GF I picked up at Quakecon (talk about one in a million) so I haven't been able to post much. I live in Dallas (Quake country) so opportunities to play UT3 seriously have been scarce.

Though this isn't news for many of you, I thought I'd comment on this story all the same. Joystiq reported (here) that Epic confirmed an expansion pack for UT3.

The following isn't so much news as it is my take on the situation and an open letter to Epic Games.

Many long time UT devotees have felt lot of animosity towards Epic as of late. I don't blame them, I have been one of those people. This animosity is mainly due to Epic largely ignoring the community after the beta release in the month or so before release. Sure we can't expect them to tailor the game to a select few and imbalances and movement issues were at the top of many lists. But forcing a terrible 'made for console' UI on PC users was the LAST thing they should have done. The UI was so big of a step backwards for Epic it made everyone sick. Plain and simple it was one of the shittiest I've ever seen in a game. Sure Q3 was pretty bad too, but that was a game in the 90's.. This was nearly 10 years later. For a company that has before made one of the best UI's in the gaming industry the (UT99 gui), the trash that is the front end of UT3 was in....

As part of the ongoing Make Something Unreal 2008 contest, 3DBuzz and Epic Games decided to release the tutorial videos that came on the second DVD of the collector’s edition to help anyone become a part of the contest. Though it appears to be a copy of the DVD that was precompiled before release, I’m not sure if there are new videos in this pack that aren’t on the DVD. If you didn’t buy the collectors edition and want to make a map/mod, head over to file planet and grab it. The pack is a hefty 3.3 GB and contains many hours of tutorials and instruction on Unreal Ed, Kismet sequences, producing animations, level design, game materials, FX effects particles and much more. It was put together by the guys over at 3DBuzz in cooperation with Epic Games. The Videos are tailored for new users, showing everything from an introduction to the program, its interface, and functions to advanced tips used by pros to create the game we all enjoy. So even if you’ve never tried to make a level before, this pack will help get you started.

You can grab it Here

12/18/07 - Ryan @ icculus.org

The Linux dedicated server is now available for download. It is built from the 1.1 patch, and is network compatible with all retail UT3 clients.

To install: set the download to be executable and run it; it will show
the license text and then unpack itself.

Prounreal Mirror: UT3-linux-server-12172007.bin (1.6gb)
MD5 (UT3-linux-server-12172007.bin) = 70149f802efc087455a87f92c1485982

**This is the UNIX/Linux Dedicated server ONLY**

Rather than more of the same old when it comes to game reviews, [H]ardOCP has made a unique hardware performance perspective review of our beloved UT3, and more specifically its implementation of Unreal Engine 3. In the review [H]ardOCP Tests UT3 with 6 video cards on performance and quality perspectives with surprising results. The tests use various settings to find the highest playability and best performance. Here are the cards used in the tests.

The three high end video cards:

• GeForce 8800 GTX
  
• The new GeForce 8800 GT 512MB
  
• GeForce 8800 GTS 640 MB

The 3 Medium range video cards:

• GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB
  
• The new ATI Radeon HD 3870
  
• The new ATI Radeon HD 3850

The Results show that even the medium range sub $200 cards can play UT at respectable frame rates while still looking beautiful. So If you’re in the market for a new vid card, I suggest checking it out to see what will best suit your UT/Performance needs. Though most pro players turn everything off that they possibly can in the quest for the smoothest gameplay and highest visibility, this review is still worth a look.

Take a look --> Here

Epic has been releasing patch candidates almost weekly since the game's release in November. Kudos to them.

Complete details and download links for the current beta patches and official complete release patches are located in this thread here as they're released. Bookmark!

Lotus says:

CustomUT is a customization mutator for Unreal Tournament 3. CustomUT is all about making the game your own. You can change your skin colors, customize your crosshairs, play warmup till you're ready, and get the hit feedback you want. Just customize it!

To get started, just load the mutator and press the menu key, f5 by default.

*Please note, that on the first run of the mutator, UT3 will compile a number of resources. Just sit back and be patient while the the game thinks*


Download: CustomUTv1 (external download link)

It is a surprise that UT3 was shipped with the lack of a decent dedicated server... an even larger surprise is that there may very well not be a Unix dedicated server released anytime soon due to legal issues. I did a bunch of research and made a few phone calls and I'll cover those legal issues, who's involved and why you simply won't believe who is to blame for holding up the Unix dedicated server process further in this post.

First I must point out the importance for having a unix dedicated server for any online game.

Most hosting facilities with any decent networking connectivity and good clean bandwidth availability host on Unix based platforms. These platforms can include all the Linux based distros (RedHat, CentOS, Slack, Debian, Ubuntu, etc), FreeBSD, Sun, and NCSA variants such as tinyHTTPD. Collectively these Unix based servers outnumber online Windows based servers almost 2:1. Why? Simple! The majority of these unix based operating systems are widely available for free or at little cost with the exception of RedHat Enterprise and Sun. Windows servers for rent to the masses are generally avoided in large hosting houses due to expensive licensing issues and expensive hardware needed to facilitate hosting large numbers of users on the same machine to offset increased licensing and hardware costs.

Combining licensing and expensive hardware makes the costs of having a Windows based onl....

Since the release of Unreal Tournament 3, Epic has been hard at work preparing for the upcoming patches that are somewhat necessary to better facilitate online playability and fix some rather unpleasant client-side issues. While I disagree with releasing the game until these issues were worked out, I will give them credit for working diligently by creating 2 beta patches already within the 2nd week since the game hit the shelves.

The beta patches are being released to a fairly small group of server administrators and players on the Unreal Developers Network. They have leaked into the public which is no surprise; I'm quite sure Epic realized this would happen for obvious reasons. If you have downloaded any of the Beta patches and experienced problems please keep in mind that they are just that.. BETA.

In my opinion, 2 very important features that the game needs right now are a Web-based server administration tool AND the release of the Unix Dedicated Server - neither of which will be addressed in the first public release of the 1st official patch.

Once the beta patches have been combined, a release patch will be available - tomorrow wouldn't be soon enough. Here is a fairly detailed list of what the upcoming Release patch will address:

code:

---

We're testing beta 2 of the patch internally. If all goes well, we will be
making it available to you later today or tomorrow. We believe this v....

The tournament is finally over and de`pain came out on top after stryfe` put on an amazing comeback from the lower bracket by winning on Deck 3 times in a row but de`pain was able to recompose himself and finally clench a victory on Deck and then finished the job on ShangriLa...not without a little controversy!

Both guys fought hard and it was great to watch them go at it as they had both dominated a lot of players throughout the tournament. Let's not forget that flux was up there too and that he had only lost to de`pain and stryfe` who were 1st and 2nd place.

With everything said and done, we have our standings as follows:

1st place and $125: de`pain
2nd place and $50: stryfe`
3rd place and $25: flux

It's been busy these past few days and while we had our share of obstacles, we hope everyone enjoyed the matches and at least found something to be excited about in UT3!

We really were able to meet a lot of goals and surpassed many expectations but we couldn't have done it without our players who put on many great matches and were patient while we caught up during the first rounds. Thanks to everyone that supported the tournament by watching the casts on PwnageTV and for spreading the word out and thanks to our affiliates for putting up the news about the tournament!

We also want to thank PwnageTV and BattleGear: Servers for really supporting our first tournament with everything they've done. A....

The following is the original Signature and Avatar Policy. As of November 8, 2007, I have updated it as per the bolded section.

....................

Attention prounreal members! All avatar and signature images/text must from now on be ‘reasonably work-safe’. We ask that you review your own avatar and signatures and ask yourself if it would be allowed at your place of employment or in front of your parents (for those who do not work hehe). If you think it wouldn’t be allowed we ask you to please change it to something more ‘reasonably work-safe’.

All images must be kept to under 300k.

Also, at this time I would like to remind everyone of two very nice features here at prounreal. First, all users have the ability to disable signatures and avatars through their account preferences settings. Lastly, we do have an ignore feature that will allow you to ignore prounreal members of your choice (except mods and admins).

Thank you for your continued support.