The Wombelix Post

Linux Installer

The Installer can be downloaded from Linux Installers for Linux Games, i picked unreal.tournament_436-multilanguage.run and unreal.tournament.official.bonus.pack.collection.run - the other one available is for the Game of the Year (goty) Edition.

• Update 2021-02-26: The above link to Linux Installers for Linux Games isn't working anymore and redirect to Github, you can use the following Backup Links instead:
  • liflg.org Page: archive.org #1
  • UT99 Installer: archive.org #2
  • UT99 BonusPack: archive.org #3

Troubleshooting

GTK in Version 1 is required by both installer, after some research i found the package in the openSUSE Software repository.

After installing the GTK package and inserting the Game CD into my external Drive, i just started the installer, adjusted the Install Path and started the installation.

Seems just too easy!?

Yep, after starting UT, i received an error message that libX11.so.6 is missing. Looks like the 32bit version is not installed by default, zypper install libX11-6-32bit solved that problem. Same with the next missing library libXext.so.6, zypper install libXext6-32bit.

Well, next Error:

Signal: SIGIOT [iot trap]
Aborting.

Let's take a look into the log file by running cat ~/.loki/ut/System/UnrealTournament.log:

Log: binding libGL.so.1
Critical: appError called:
Critical: Could not load OpenGL library

Ok, different kind of error message but after some research same as above, there is a 32bit version of libGL.so.1 but, for sure, i only had the 64bit one installed by default. Running zypper install libglvnd-32bit solved that issue too.

Hmm but again the SIGIOT error occurred, let's take a look into the log files:

Log: OpenGL
Critical: appError called:
Critical: Couldn't set video mode: Couldn't find matching GLX visual

Lesson learned, to get a 20 year old game running on a bleeding edge Distribution in 2019, you have to install a bunch of 32bit libraries ;) This time Mesa-libGL1-32bit was missing and need to be installed.

And voila, it's starting! without sound :O ... Quite sure it's a missing 32bit lib again ... I found some hints regarding PulseAudio in the Debian Wiki (Archive: [1], [2]). So i installed pulseaudio-utils-32bit and after starting the game with padsp ut instead just ut i had sound :D

Audio Issues

To get rid of delays in the Audio Output, it was necessary to adjust one line in the config file ~/.loki/ut/System/UnrealTournament.ini as well:

# Change this:
AudioDevice=ALAudio.ALAudioSubsystem

# To that:
AudioDevice=Audio.GenericAudioSubsystem

Play Online

It looks like that lot of audio sample rates which are required to play Online are not supported using the GenericAudioSubsystem. Connection to most of the UT Server fail and you find an Error about unsupported Rate in your UnrealTournament.log file. The workaround so far was to use the ALAudioSubsystem with a delay in the Audio Output :(

Also lot Public Server require an installed NPLoader. Lot of different Version can be found at: http://utgl.unrealadmin.org/NPLoader/

You have to Download either the Linux.tar.gz or the .dll, .so as well .u file and copy all of them in your System folder of your UT Installation.

Well done

Even if i had to look around for some time to locate and fix most of the issues, install a bunch of 32bit libraries, adjust something in the config as well start the game with an extra parameter, it's worth it! Didn't know the exact FPS count but look and feel is like 20 years ago and i love it!

Btw. installing the Bonus Pack was very straight forward with the unreal.tournament.official.bonus.pack.collection.run script.

Enjoy Unreal Tournament from 1999 on your Linux Machine!