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Now tell Schnicky he can has "SupportedGameTypes field to UTUIDataProvider_Mutator" and see if he says "Wiiiiiiiii!!!!!!!!!...??"

my friend was telling me how Nvidia let out a new card that was better than their $700 card for $300, (8800 GTS I think I can't remember, we were talking about a lot of stuff) can said card be used for mac?  Perhaps will it or a similar card be added to the configure list for mac pros come the 14th?

Ryan G wrote:

Other stuff:
  Okay, time to calibrate expectations a little.

  I'm getting a lot of email asking about the Mac versions of Gears of War and
  UT3, so here are a few nuggets of truth that are subject to change at any
  time.

  Will there be a PowerPC version? Maybe.
  It is definitely our desire to do one, but it's lower priority. We all
  understand that you bought an uber quad-core G5 that can beat the pants off
  any stupid Intel Mac, and it would play the game perfectly fine. My
  concern is that the vast majority of PowerPC systems simply don't have an
  acceptable video card unless you bought an expensive computer that was
  really meant for high-end professionals (that is, a workstation, not a
  consumer system). That being said, time is being spent making sure that
  various middleware is PowerPC friendly, and I've already added PowerPC
  support for atomic operations, etc. The xbox360 port isn't as directly
  helpful as various Mac forum comments inevitably suggest, but it generally
  does keep everyone honest about byte ordering in data, etc, and
  frankly, those are the most difficult issues to track down. If there isn't
  a PowerPC build in the box, it's a question of running out of time to make
  deadline, and we'll probably ship it in a later patch. Funny how last year
  we were shipping patches to add Intel support.   
  In any case, if we ship a PowerPC version, it will be G5-only, and require
  at least the latest OS X 10.4 release, and will absolutely refuse to start
  otherwise. I don't see any sense in condescending to G3/G4 systems for a
  title like Gears, and we'll need OpenGL functionality that doesn't exist in
  10.3. You have been warned!

  Will there be a 64-bit version? No.
  You really need OS X 10.5 to even start thinking about this on the Mac, and
  it's probably just not worth the effort in the short term. I'm sure
  UnrealEngine3 itself will support this for future games, though, and as I
  work on a Linux/amd64 box, I tend to clean up 64-bit issues as I go.

  Will it work with my video card? Maybe.
  It will definitely work with the X1600 chips in the Intel iMacs and original
  MacBook Pros. We haven't even started testing on the crappy integrated
  Intel video chips in the Mac Minis and MacBooks, but I am not terribly
  optimistic that these will ever give a good gaming experience. The jury is
  still out. I'll report back later.

  Will it support my dual-processor/dual-core machine? Yes.
  There is already threading done inside the engine on all platforms, so if
  the engine sees multiple processors, it will use them. This includes
  machines with multiple "cores" since each is a physical CPU in itself.
  Every Intel Mac (except that one crappy Core Solo Mac Mini) has at least
  two cores, so that's a win.

  I'm sure there are other questions, so I'll add more here as appropriate.

--ryan.

http://icculus.org/cgi-bin/finger/finge … e=16-31-54

Nice lil nuggets from Sept. that were missed.

Sue me I miss counted...End of July may as well been Sept.

Nothing 'amiss'. It's called NDA.

Bat wrote:

LLEVIATHANN wrote:

Sue me I miss counted...End of July may as well been Sept.

C'mon now, if UT3 PC'd slipped 6-8 weeks you'd've had a green hemorrhage.

And feel free to introduce me to Miss Counted if [s]she's hawt[/s] she has a nice personality; likewise Sue Mei.

Nothing 'amiss'. It's called NDA.

I know what an NDA is... funny how it didn't apply to the July update. Makes me think we're overdue for a re-calibration of expectations. The PS3 version went gold some time ago; GoW PC's been out for months. Something's slipped... with UT3 PC selling almost like UT Mac, I wonder if it's been canceled but mum's the word.

Nope cause as it stands now I still can't play it. Still having machine/power issues. NTM it's been patched once already with another in the works. If 6-8 meant a better game I'd be all for it. So much for 'when it's done'. I guess we need to define 'done'... medium rare done or shoe leather done. This one feels a bit under cooked.

Mark's 'bean spilling' is what prompted the July update and Ryan got slammed with emails about it. So he posted but only after Mark went on record. For all we know the games are done and are in contract negotiations with MacSoft or Ryan is just waiting for the dust to settle on the final code considering they are working on patch #2. Speculation behind closed doors...it took a year or more (don't recall the exact release dates) for 1999 to hit the Mac and history has a habit of repeating.

Have the TV adds lifted sales at all?  They are pretty inviting.  From all I hear, this is still an incredibly enjoyable game, hard to believe its tanking so easily.

Metacell wrote:

Have the TV adds lifted sales at all?  They are pretty inviting.  From all I hear, this is still an incredibly enjoyable game, hard to believe its tanking so easily.

It is an enjoyable game from what I've been able to play. I did manage to make it through the single player before my machine went poof. But I think there's enough people out there playing on PCs and PS3s that are saying 'wait for more patches before you buy'. That's the odd thing some are having problems and others don't even though their computer/console specs are near identical. You'd think that if there was a problem ALL PS3 players would have it. However it's not working out that way. Some have zero issues others can't get the Mic or Mods to work. Same on the PC front. Very spotty, so much so that I'm thinking it's more user error than anything else.

Like my problems. I was so ready to blame UT3 and nVidia for bad software. When it really was the machine the whole time. Last night I finally got Xp reinstalled and updated. After adding a second 300w PSU to the mix and for a grand total of 860w of power. The main 560w PSU is driving the bulk and the 300w PSU has it's #4 & 6 pins jumpered so it stays on all the time to power the GPUs. It's an ugly duck but I hope it works. Should know more tonight and on to the weekend.

Problem is Epic made changes to things that were just fine. Instead of improvements they actually took steps backwards. For instance:
The UI is awful. UT99 with UWindows was great. Then Epic switched to Menus and tabbed windows for 03/04. OK not too bad I got used to it. Now with UT3 it's all about drilling down. Click, click, click and some more clicking. Good news the patch has made it better but there are still a lot of options missing in settings. Next is the server browser. Another cluster. After that the whole Game Spy ID and login. Which affect the friends list. UT2K4's friends list worked and so did the server browser why fix it? However the Game Spy ID is growing on me. One thing I noticed is if I log into another machine my keyboard settings follow me. That's nice! Custom crosshairs gone. Every UT before you could pick your crosshair or different crosshair for each weapon. Not anymore. Arc trajectories on Flak ball and X-loc. Why? It's been messed with in every version of UT. I thought they nailed it in 04. I guess they didn't feel the same way. Now it's too damn high to feel natural. That's about it for the bad.

The good stuff is a longer list. First it is beautiful to play in and the engine scales well to lower end hardware. Even on the lowest settings it's still purdy. UT3 is the most balanced UT to date in terms of movement and weapons. The frantic pace of 99 is back. Warfare is a great progression of Onslaught. Full support of vCTF is nice. Basically it boils down to once you get playing its great. Just the steps to get there are a pain in the ass.

Bat wrote:

'C'mon, ship it already!

Well I've been saying that since it was announced. But I'd understand if it slipped a few weeks for more QA. Mark's 'Two Weeks' didn't upset me the last time around.

IMG took a preview look at UT3 1/31, but as not unusual, it's at the game, not the MacSoft port per se.

The last para reads

Much is already known about Unreal Tournament 3, as it has already shipped for the PC, however Mac system requirements are currently unknown. It may or may not be a universal binary application, we just don’t know yet. MacSoft is set to ship Unreal Tournament 3 in the not-so-distant future, so stay tuned for more news and our full review.

Beginning here, if you want their take on the game itself. Really, tho, not much you haven't seen elsewhere.

but are the UT3 servers full enough for 64?  Been awhile since I saw a full roster on Resistance, but it was great hen it came out to play 40 on 40, intense walls of death and bullets

LLEVIATHANN wrote:

There are some high quality 32 player servers out there that I've waited an hour or two to get in. Cain's Lair comes to mind. There won't be many but those who can swing the bandwidth should be pretty full.

That's a pretty big bat

Bat wrote:

Have you gotten your radiator output piped into the stairwell yet? You could save a fair amount on your home heating bill.

(See, Ear? Another argyment in favor of high-powered gaming rigs. Your basement wouldn't be so cold now, and the power company'd likely put a substation in your back yard... Levi's ComEd's second biggest customer now, after the City of St. Charles ).

Earendil the Mariner wrote:

Bat wrote:

...

Thank you, thank you. I'll be here all week!

With a foot of snow on the ground today , if the cable holds up I may not have much choice.

LLEVIATHANN wrote:

Patch 2 in beta

Patch 2 released: 64 Players FTW!
http://gearsforums.epicgames.com/showth … p?t=603779

The final patch changelist is:

V1.2

Gameplay:

- Increased UTGame MaxPlayersAllowed to 64.
- Fixed leviathan turret instant refire exploit.
- Fixed errant lock on warnings when no longer in vehicle.
- Fixed first person weapons in demo playback.
- Fixed translocator telefrag victim message.
- Fixed encouragement sounds not being randomly picked by bots.
- Implemented viewobjective spectating system for Warfare.
- Fixed berserk held by driver applying to all vehicle turrets.
- Only force low gore on German versions that were low gore only before being patched.
- Fix for unnecessary content staying in memory on seamless travel.
- Fixed shaped charge node exploit.
- Fixed the Scavenger exploit.

User Interface:

- Clicking on the settings tab goes to directly to the full settings menu.
- Added VOIP speaker portraits to HUD.
- Fixed character portraits sometimes not showing up on HUD or not staying up long enough.
- The Host server menus will no longer disable internet options if CheckNatTypeDisplayError returns true. It's just a warning now.
- Fixed the CD key always prompting when the user has no network card
- Added support for commandline log in -login=xxx -password=xxx. This also allows Gamespy comrade and other external applications to be used to launch network clients.
- Added UI option to hide objective paths (the white arrows).
- Added UI option to enable joystick support.
- Added JOIN to midgame menu when spectating.
- Added cancel button to "logging in" message box.
- Added support for auto-updating UI with new options.
- Improved language support for French, Spanish, Italian, and German.
- Joystick key bindings in UI display properly.
- Added game and UI support for customizing crosshair scaling.
- Added "Add Favorite" button to Server Browser server list tab.
- Fixed favorites Tab Page server details not updating.
- Improvements to voice menu. Added "status" section.
- Leave "Disconnect" and "Exit Game" on the mid game menu when seamlessly travelling so that players have a way to abort lengthy downloads
- Show "Change Team" button before the match has started.
- Added support for localized "single score needed" string.
- Tweaked some HUD message font sizes.
- Favorites/History lists list servers that are currently offline.
- Favorites/History lists don't stop working as the number of servers in them crosses max threshold for GS query.
- Fix for end of round scoreboard displaying extra "Player" bots.
- Fixed leviathan deploy icon positioning.

Networking:

- Added support for autodownloading packages while in gameplay or while travelling.
- Auto team re-balancing before map transition if bPlayersBalanceTeams is set.
- Fixed dedicated server memory leaks.
- Force client state synchronization when in spectating state. Fixes sporadic issues with players not being able to join games.
- Fixed sounds not being heard correctly by clients if the sound location is the Actor's location and the Actor is not relevant to that client.
- Fixed spectators being unable to move after a level transition.
- Fixed track turrets being in the wrong position on clients in some cases after being destroyed.
- ConnectionTimeout and InitialConnectTimeOut now both 60.0. Addresses both clients failing connection because they take too long to load a level, and initial connections staying open too long.
- Fixed HTTP download compression.
- Fixed a bug where download during seamless travel would break because the downloader was keeping a pointer into the package map's list, which is unsafe while the game is in progress because that list could have more items added to it (and thus the memory rearranged) at any time
- Fixed a bug where in rare cases packages would get downloaded twice.
- Fixed spectators able to enter as extra players in Duel.
- Fixed issue where CTF, vCTF, and WAR maps are listed in the server browers when searching for a DM game when server changed gametypes.
- Fixed bots not replicating their view pitch, so their animation looks better in net games.
- Strip OwningPlayerName= from the URL, as this is determined elsewhere and was breaking dedicated internet servers launched from the UI.
- Fixed package downloading not moving on to the next download method if it successfully downloads the file, but that file is not the version that the server is requesting.
- Fixed client crash if the user disconnects while downloading a file during a seamless travel.

Server administration:

- TCPLink and Webadmin functionality implemented.
- Banning is now based on CD key hash, so players can’t circumvent bans by creating a new profile.
- Fixed being unable to kickban players with | in their names.
- Added versioning information to the game settings
- Dedicated servers don't require DirectX shader model 2.0
- Fixed AdminForceTextMute and AdminForceTextUnmute.
- Restored the compress and decompress commandlets.
- Fixed AdminCmdOk() function not working properly if you were the listen server.
- Banned IDs readability improved.
- Added MaxClientTravelTime config option to GameInfo. If set, clients are kicked if they take longer than this many seconds to travel between maps.

Mod support:

- Added ScriptedTexture, a type of render to texture that gives Canvas access to script/C++ for rendering custom overlays.
- Added a version of DrawTile() to Canvas that takes a Texture instead of Texture2D so render to texture stuff like ScriptedTextures can more easily be used.
- Added Timestamp function to UObject, returns a string in the format YYYY/MM/DD - HH:MM:SS
- Weapons now take roll from player viewrotation.
- Fixed custom character DLC not applying until the next time the game is run because the default object was not updated after combining the .ini files.
- Added a ModFamilies array to UTCustomChar_Data to allow mod authors to add families to the list.
- Fixed Change Node Status Kismet action not working on fully constructed powernodes.
- Merged ageia particle fixes.

Map specific:

- Fixed DM-Deck get out of world exploit
- Fixed DM-Gateway portals sometimes sending you back to your starting point.
- Fixed CTF-Coret collision exploit.
- Fixed kismet spawned key vehicles not showing on host minimap. Fixes tank showing on host minimap in VCTF-Kargo.

AI improvements:

- New orb carrier strategy AI.
- Improved bot hoverboard use.
- Reduced bot orb spawner camping.
- Fixed bots stuck on orb spawner unable to grab flag.
- Low skill bots use artillery properly.
- Tweaked shooting at nodes vs shooting at enemies.
- No human bonus to threat value.
- Improved threat picking AI, taking into account effectiveness of bot's weapon.
- Tweaked bot AI for link gun, flak cannon, redeemer, and AVRiL.
- Bots tend to stay on same enemy more, and focus on key vehicles more.
- Tweaked campaign auto skill adjust.
- Possible safe fix for bot navigation issues with staticmeshcollections on console. Also a performance improvement on PC and console.
- Tweaked rules for whether to attack node or enemy first.
- Improved bot AI for defending nodes with an orb.
- Fixed pathing issues that were causing bots to get stuck in some places. When a move fails, force a route refresh. Add cost to reachspecs when bot fails repeatedly.
- Improved AI code for adjusting around obstacles. If adjust left and right fail, try moving to center of reachspec.
- If previous move failed, don't allow "advanced tactics" (serpentine, etc.) for next move.
- Added FailedMoveTarget and MoveFailureCount to controller to track movement failures.
- Added bForceNoDetours to UTBot. Don't allow detours when bot is approaching a neutral node (more important to touch node first).
- Fixed bots thinking they've reach the orb spawner without quite getting there and touching the orb.
- Fixed cases where bots could get stuck failing to translocate over and over - bots know to give up now.
- Adjusted bot reaction time to seeing new enemies.
- Improved bot AI for dealing with lifts and hoverboards.
- Bots taunt after winning a match.
- Bots now can be fooled by feign death.
- Sandstorm has more impact on bots being able to acquire/aim at enemies.