Uhoh, make sure you have the right version of the UT demo. Here is the update from the Epic Unreal page. The guys on the UT messageboard are already posting their opinions on the demo, feel free to share yours.

It's been reported to me that the ftp2.heat.net server, the PCGamer (futuregamer.com) and Next-Generation download sites do NOT have the correct version. The correct version of the .exe file is called UTDemo3dfx.exe and is 51,305,472 bytes.   I have updated the in-game news page to inform users of the incorrect version (Version 321) that they are not running the right version, and to let me know.    The 321 version was the version we sent to 3dfx before Hurricane Floyd hit Raleigh, as a potential release candidate should the hurricane have knocked us out for a few days

Ok just got done testing out the UT demo and it looks like they failed to mention that the software renderer is included in the demo as well. That means just about anyone can run the demo. You just wont get 3D acceleration unless you have a 3dfx card. Some people are reporting that they cant get it to work though. For the record I got my copy from the 3dfxgamers gigex mirror.

On that subject, I just gave the Creative Labs Unified driver a shot and it works like a charm with the UT demo, so you can use your TNT2 card to play it. I also fixed that little problem on the Shack UT Messageboard. Hopefully you guys wont break it again? :)

Well, with the 3dfxgamers.com website being too busy I'm gonna assume the guys at UnrealFiles.com have permission. Grab the 50meg UT demo from this page. Also if you guys could post mirrors in the comments that would be mighty helpful. Keep in mind this is a GLIDE ONLY demo meaning you need a 3dfx video card to run the demo. If anyone has any success with those Creative Labs glide wrappers post a comment eh? Make sure and post what you guys think of the demo over at the Shack UT Messageboard. (If you post it in comments, it just dissapears after a couple of days.)

update: Mirrors are starting to pop up in the comments. The fastest being the Gigex mirror so far for modem and T1+ users. Mirror list so far:

3dfx Gamers
AGN3D
HEAT.net
MPlayer
PCGamer
SharkyExtreme
Unreal Universe
ftp://bootp.sls.usu.edu" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" class="external
europa.qamex.com
shod.gamers.com

Some more help for the prospective Unreal Tournament server admins over at the UT page. In fact there is an entire section there dedicated to just helping you monkeys out. You can also check out the post from yesterday with more info. UU as always is on top of things. Oh yeah, and someone remind me to put a direct link ot the Shack UT messageboard on that right table?

Another preview of Unreal Tournament for you to munch on. Unreal Universe takes a look at the demo.

Yep, saw it on Blue's. Yellow 5 (that stuff will shrink ya) over at Planet Unreal got some info from Tim Sweeney about what kind of system you need to be able to run the upcoming demo.

The demo should be kickass on a Pentium III / K7 400 MHz or above with 128 megs of memory. It should be solid and acceptable on a Pentium III/K6 300 MHz with 64 megs of memory. It should be playable on any 200 MHz machine with at least 32 megs of memory, but the texture and skin detail settings need to be set to "medium" or "low" for acceptable performance (which is done by default now, so you shouldn't need to tweak).

UT now does a pretty thorough job of detecting your CPU speed, 3D card, and RAM, and setting the default detail settings when you first run it. On a wide range of systems we tested on, we tweaked this to achieve the best (in our opinion) speed/detail settings. So, users shouldn't have to do a lot of tweaking to get acceptable performance. Still, the demo is the first time a widespread audience will get to try the code, so we welcome any feedback on performance, to help us improve the default settings for different hardware.

3D cards:

The best performance by far now is on Voodoo3's with Glide.

Next up are Voodoo2's, TNT2's, Savage4, and the Matrox G400. The Direct3D cards will improve in performance nicely once we update the demo for DirectX7, which has improved performance.

The next tier is the Voodoo1, TNT1, Rage 128, and software renderer. They're all about equal in overall performance.

Fortunately, those crazy "advanced options" settings that Unreal 1 was so dependent on shouldn't be necessary for anyone except the ultra hard-core users. Now we expose nearly all the interesting options through the in-game menus, which are a more self-explanatory than Unreal 1's.

Got some more UT updates here at my soon to be renamed UTShack. Have a look at CliffyB's .plan update at fingershack.com for those of you wanting to have that edge in DM. Cliffy runs down all of the weapons and gives tips for each. He also has tips for a couple of the maps. Oh yeah, Sorry I'm a little late. Had a bit of an emergency here. There was a fire... and a trip to Wal-Mart at 4am.

Even more Unreal Tournament stuff for you guys as the demo keeps getting closer. GreenMarine has a .plan update at fingershack.com with some advice for those of you who plan on running a server:

Server operators should check out the remote admin tool in the demo. You can turn it on under "Networking->Web Based Server Administration" in the advanced options dialog. When its on and you've set your username and password, surf to http://YourServersIP/ServerAdmin" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" class="external to log in. Server Admins should probably run servers with a playerlimit of around 8 to 10. The deathmatch maps in the demo aren't really large enough to handle big free for alls.

Also, I've slapped up an Unreal Tournament messageboard for you guys. You have to create an account to post to the board though. Thems the rules!

Here are a few videos from the 3dfxgamers.com website which is bogging down pretty hard. If you're lucky you'll be able to get them though. Thanks lodgikal

Fractal1.mpg (7872KB)
Fractal2.mpg (9486KB)
Galleon1.mpg (3940KB)
Morpheus.mpg (6054KB)
Pyramid.mpg (12528KB)

Just because I know you guys are getting antsy. (Chill out on the emails! I don't know the release time eh?) A bit more word on the Unreal Tournament demo scheduled for release today. The official Unreal Tournament page has word that they are sending the latest 3dfx build to GT for testing and that whole hurricane thing was just a rumor:

The office internet connection seems to be back. I'm continuing to upload a new build for 3DFX and GT to test from my house just in case but Steve and Tim are heading back to the office. Barring any further minor bugs we're confident the demo release will go ahead as scheduled late today.

As well as the previous email Blue received:

We're not dead, and we do have power. Floyd didn't hit anywhere near as hard as it could have, and we only got knocked out for the night. We're going to continue testing the demo to make sure we have a good release for today.

With the ever looming Unreal Tournament demo FiringSquad has posted a preview of the game through the eyes of Thresh. Basically whatever you want to know about the game is contained in the preview. Also while we're having a dandy Unreal Tournament day check out the new desktop theme 3dfxgamers posted. However here is a quote from the article which Thresh might want to reconsider:

The run speed on UT is considerably faster than Quake 3 and probably on a par with Quake 1.

FYI, Quake3 player speed is identical to Quake1.

Well, ok, I know he probably doesn't care if we get the Unreal Tournament demo or not, but it seems an "Act of God" ie, Hurricane Floyd will most likely delay the release of the second UT demo, the one that will support OpenGL and Direct3D. From what I understand, the first demo supporting 3Dfx will be released. I'm personally in Charlotte, and I'm getting some rain and wind now... Floyd is east of me, as is Raleigh, where the UT team is located, and it will probably cause some nice flooding, power outages and broken trees. Maybe blow the top off of Epic's office. Who knows. Anyway, here's the info:

Hurricane Floyd is expected to hit Raleigh pretty strongly late this evening and throughout tomorrow. This might be my last email for a while. We're expected to get at least 10 inches of rain and hurricane-force winds. The eye of the hurricane is projected to pass one county over from us (which is VERY close!) but hopefully it will be diminished as it travels over land.

In anticipation of the first demo release tomorrow we've launched http://www.unrealtournament.com." rel="nofollow" target="_blank" class="external The UT web site isn't on a server located in Raleigh so it should stay up. I'll try to update it with our progress if I can keep power. We've sent a build of the demo/test off to 3DFX that could be released tomorrow in the event that we're unable to keep power here tonight. We already experienced a 45 minute power loss but power is back on right now. There are a few minor bugs fixes that we're hoping to fix but if power doesn't stay on that won't happen and the 321 build will get released. We've set up utbugs@epicgames.com for people to report bugs and problems with the demo. We're all backed up and I'll be taking a tape backup home in a waterproof container.

For those interested in tracking the hurricane you can visit http://www.ncstormtrack.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" class="external - the internet is pretty clogged tonight with people up and down the east coast hitting the weather and news sites for information about the storm.

There is a good possibility that we'll lose power for several days which could cause the delay of the 2nd demo (all APIs). If that happens we apologize in advance for any delays. A few days extra wait for a demo is nothing like the disaster that is facing most North Carolina farmers who are expected to lose their entire crops for the year due to this storm. Our hearts and concerns go out them as well as those who will be displaced from their homes or worse.

Ok, scratch the above. The security guard for our building just came up and asked us to leave the building. Apparently they're going to bolt the doors of the building so we won't be able to return. Carolina Power & Light told them the power is likely to go out at any time. They already have 15,000 customers without power in the area. We don't know when we'll be able to get back in, hopefully Friday after the storm has passed but we'll only be able to get into the building if it has power. During Hurricane Fran much of Raleigh was without power for an average of 3 days. The authorities say that this storm will be pretty similar to Fran or maybe stronger.

We hope 3DFX users enjoys the demo and we'll do the best we can to ship the full demo (with support for all APIs) as soon after Monday as possible given the events of the next day or two. Wish us luck!

Word from CliffyB's .plan update at fingershack.com is the GameKey guys (who are so kind as to run fileshack.com for me) have a notification system in place that will email you the moment the Unreal Tournament demo is released. Keep in mind the first demo will only work on 3dfx cards though. Might wanna give that Creative Labs glide wrapper a shot though if you have a Creative TNT2U.

Unrealism has a few more screenshots of UT if you still havent had enough.

The guys at AVault have gotten more word on the progress of the Unreal Tournament demo. It looks like we can actually hope for the demo to come out tomorrow, and then a follow-up demo with support for OpenGL and Direct3D towards the weekend. While on the subject have a look at the SharkyExtreme ECTS Unreal Tournament report which gives some hands on impressions of a recent build of UT. Lastly, the guys at Mod Central Unreal have a bunch of details on the mods to be included in the UT demo coming out this week. Here is the release plan from the Unreal Tech page:

• Windows 3dfx demo this week.
• Windows Direct3D/OpenGL next week.
• Linux Glide/OpenGL soon after.
• Mac timing not figured out yet.

UnrealEd has posted one doozy of a tutorial on the map editor for Unreal, aptly called UnrealED.

The Unreal Tournament playable demo is hopefully coming out in the very near future. CliffyB of Epic Games made a post to the GT messageboards with a list of the weapons we can expect in the demo. Thanks UU

Rocket Launcher, Pulse Gun, Shock Rifle, Enforcer/Dual Enforcers, Impact Hammer, and the Translocator Minigun

Also, zero sends word on these details Mark Rein revealed:

The demo/test will have 4 or 5 maps. The plan right now (it is still subject to change) is 3 deathmatch maps, 1 Domination map and one Capture The Flag map. Of course there will be bots and a single player ladder (albeit shortened to the 4/5 levels that come with the demo).

Saw over at Billy's Voodoo Extreme that he yanked a message off of Unreal Universe which says this:

This is more of a demo than a test. It based on a release candidate version of UT. But we will be looking for bug reports and compatibility problems. This is one of the final steps on the road to finishing and releasing Unreal Tournament. We'll certainly see what the users report and that will give us a clear picture of how far we are from release.

Got several email's point out this post on the Unreal Tournament forum that has Mark Rein saying that there will be a test/demo released next week to shake out any remaining bugs. I guess we'll get to see fairly soon if all that whining on the messageboards is warranted :)

Well now, isn't it just UT day.. The guys at Unreality have a bit on decals system similar to Half-Life making it's way into Unreal Tournament. Apparently it wasnt in the game plan at first but Jack Porter from Epic had a little spare time and busted out with the good stuff.

Anyway, I'd pretty much finished my todo list for what needed to be done for UT so I figured I'd have a go at putting them into the engine. I hadn't done much digging inside the renderer so I thought I'd attempt them to get to know the renderer better - and if they worked in time we'd put them into UT and/or the demo. They took about 5 days to get working perfectly, although they were 90% done after a day or so.