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For those that don't know, or forgot, the new Unreal Tournament does in fact have a Linux version. I check on it now and then and it's really starting to come together.

Here's a video of me doing terribly:
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That map brings back some awesome memories of playing the original Unreal Tournament!

The new Unreal Tournament is completely free, without any form of pay to win rubbish. It has source code access available, but it is not open source as it uses their own license.

They will be making money using the marketplace where they will take a cut from sales of modifications. You could sell hats, mods, maps, whatever. The core game will always be free.

The Linux version still isn't officially supported just yet, but they are responding to bugs and making steps towards making it properly official.

If you want to try it, you have to be logged into their forum and visit this forum post for the download link. It's 6.1GB, so it's not exactly a small download.

You will also need to do a few quick things to get it launched. Which I will note for you now.

First of all you need to make the game actually have permissions to be launched which can be found at:
/LinuxNoEditor/Engine/Binaries/Linux/UE4-Linux-Shipping

Then you need to launch it with "UnrealTournament" appended to it, or just use a launcher file like I do:
#!/bin/bash
cd $HOME'/Downloads/LinuxNoEditor/Engine/Binaries/Linux/'
./UE4-Linux-Shipping UnrealTournament


One of the maps does have a major bug right now which is Outpost23. It will be extremely white, as it seems to have no shadows anywhere. I reported it to the developers and the bug report has been marked as a Major issue, so someone will get to it soon.

Apart from that, it seems to run very nicely. It detects the correct monitor on a dual-monitor setup and sets the right resolution on my 4K monitor too, so it's pretty hassle free once you get going. It's a lot smoother than it was when I tried it a while back, and it's actually really fun already.

It's great that we get such games on Linux, as Unreal Tournament used to be such a big name and it's looking like it may well be again when this releases in full. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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29 comments
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musojon74 May 17, 2016
Superb! Used to love that map. Are other classic maps in there?
Redje May 17, 2016
Thanks alot for that launcher, that makes life alot easier :)
rea987 May 17, 2016
Superb! Used to love that map. Are other classic maps in there?

Facing Worlds.

Edit: I missed the "other" part, sorry. :-/ LavaGiant is being made as far as I know; it was available even for Team Fortress 2 and Garry's Mod. :-D


Last edited by rea987 on 18 May 2016 at 8:56 am UTC
ElectricPrism May 17, 2016
Here's my .desktop launcher if anyone wants it

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Unreal Tournament 4
Comment=Unreal Tournament 4
GenericName=FPS
Exec="/home/electricprism/Apps/Unreal Tournmanet 4/LinuxNoEditor/Engine/Binaries/Linux/UE4-Linux-Shipping" UnrealTournament -resx=1920 -resy=1080 -vsync -opengl3
Icon=applications-games-symbolic
Type=Application
StartupNotify=true
Categories=GNOME;Games;
MimeType=text/plain;


You can toggle opengl4 and opengl3 on the Exec line.

I also recall that I think I chmoded +X on the folder as the permissions from the archive wouldn't allow me to launch the game.

I would love to see a Linux client to keep it up to date, I have to manually download the whole thing every time there's a update.
Rhythagoras May 17, 2016
Superb! Used to love that map. Are other classic maps in there?

Deck is there...
Snowdrake May 17, 2016
Superb! Used to love that map. Are other classic maps in there?

Deck is there...
A must have in an UT game !
stss May 18, 2016
This latest version has given a huge improvement to FPS for me. Although strangely it started giving me stuttering problems too.
BabaoWhisky May 18, 2016
Liam, if you launch only the game without arguments, the game runs on OpenGL3 version by default. You need to add "-opengl4" to run with OpenGL4 support.
omer666 May 18, 2016
I'm such a UT fan, the game has been installed on my computers ever since I bought the Macintosh cardboard box back in the day. Still have it somewhere...

I put off playing this until it's complete, but this video got me really optimistic. It looks like a best of both worlds gameplay - by this I mean UT and UT2004. Physics more particularly give the impression of being very faithful.

Facing Wolds looks pretty good in this version, and the gameplay seems a bit more nervous than UT3's.

As far as classic maps are concerned, Epic has a long tradition of porting some of them over, and community map packs complete the job in general. For example Deck and Curse date back to the first Unreal and have been remade for every Unreal game releases ever since... Glad to see it hasn't changed.

Can't wait to play the finished product. By the way, is it in beta state yet? I hope it will be out before next year...


Last edited by omer666 on 18 May 2016 at 4:16 am UTC
lejimster May 18, 2016
I was a huge UT fan back in the day. Played the hell out of ut99-2004 Lost interest by UT3 though.

The new game looks very Alpha. Face looks really dated even with the attempt to recreate it. I guess I'm just not feeling it.. But maybe that opinion would change if I try it. Also not sure how smooth the game runs on Radeonsi without a shader cache there is a lot of hitching last time I checked.
D34VA_ May 18, 2016
On my end, the game renders with lots of square planes and missing textures if I run in GL4 mode. Also, to use the 'Epic' settings, I have to set them to 'High' and back to 'Epic'.
stss May 18, 2016
I just tried running it with the option __GL_THREADED_OPTIMIZATIONS=1 and it really helps improve performance, and even seems to have gotten rid of some weird texture artifacts I was seeing before. It was mentioned in this thread
https://www.epicgames.com/unrealtournament/forums/showthread.php?19980-Can-performance-be-improved&p=226701

In one particularly bottlenecking area of Outpost23 this option gave me about a 10FPS boost without the -opengl4 option, and about 15FPS boost with it.

__GL_THREADED_OPTIMIZATIONS=1 ./UE4-Linux-Shipping UnrealTournament -opengl4

I wonder if this can be used in other UE4 games.


Last edited by stss on 18 May 2016 at 7:23 am UTC
Pecisk May 18, 2016
What's awesome that it works on nouveau with re-clocked Kepler (760 GTX) card with minimal to no artefacts (need texture compression support installed of course). Also game itself looks amazing.
Pecisk May 18, 2016
On my end, the game renders with lots of square planes and missing textures if I run in GL4 mode. Also, to use the 'Epic' settings, I have to set them to 'High' and back to 'Epic'.

Free drivers? Check out for missing texture compression.
coeseta May 18, 2016
It's 6.1GB, so it's not exactly a small download.
If we had 2005 I would agree. But since we have 2016 new games usually have 20gb - 60gb, so I would say 6gb Is pretty small :)

__GL_THREADED_OPTIMIZATIONS=1 ./UE4-Linux-Shipping UnrealTournament -opengl4

Definitely need to test that :)
linux_gamer May 18, 2016
That map brings back some awesome memories of playing the original Unreal Tournament!
Know that map from Nexuiz (now Xonotic).
aL May 18, 2016
do they have assault kind of maps yet?

those were the fun ones
cRaZy-bisCuiT May 18, 2016
After trying it a longer time ago, I'll wait for the final release to play the game. I do prefer ready games. I don't wanna lose the interest in it even before it is released. If you asked me, I'd say they should have done a closed alpha and beta first.
aL May 18, 2016
After trying it a longer time ago, I'll wait for the final release to play the game. I do prefer ready games. I don't wanna lose the interest in it even before it is released. If you asked me, I'd say they should have done a closed alpha and beta first.

I do the same for single players, but this is a mp shooter. Just enter the arena and make some noise. I played previous betas and everything seems to work more or less
Gobo May 18, 2016
Thanks for the heads up on threaded optimizations and the openGL4 parameter, I never understood why the autodetect option always turned every gfx option to "low"... now it looks nice and is performing as expected!

But maybe I got another stupid question: How do I enable the launcher on linux? I'd like to check out the marketplace and some of those maps advertised in the quick challenge menu.


Last edited by Gobo on 18 May 2016 at 11:33 am UTC
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