An updated version of UTV is now available taking the version number to 3.2! It fixes the very annoying flagbug that made it seem like the blue flag was taken all the time. It also has new killing spree and multikill code written by TNSe. It can be found in the Download section. The download is only needed for clients if they want to see multikills announced, otherwise they are compatible. The other bugfixes only require the broadcaster to have the new version.

A server version 3.1 was released some time ago as well. It finally fixed the stability problem and some linux specific problems.

It's time for another update, not really about UTV this time though. I've decided to make available a little utility I've made called UberTunnel. It's a program for tunneling the udp connections that UT use, in order to get around bad routing. So if person A pings well to a server, and person B pings well to person A but not to the server, A can start a tunnel that B can connect through. If the internet worked perfectly this would of course never be needed but that is not always the case.

The main benefits compared to other(tm) tunnel programs are:

• Any number of tunnels can be active at the same time
• Any number of people can use a tunnel at the same time
• Works with passworded servers
• Static tunnels can be added to favorites list in UT and are marked with [UberTunnel]
• Temporary tunnels can be created remotely from within UT

Here's some screenshots.

UberTunnel can be found in the Download section along with the other stuff.

In other news, I have by request created a small mutator to disable centerview and behindview 1 when playing. I think this could use some more testing before making a public release though.

As for UTV 3.1, I have started working on it. But it may be some more time before it's done. :) So remember, don't uncheck separate UTV chat, and broadcasters, restart UT between maps!

Many months ago I wrote a little utility that would automatically pause games when a player drops. I installed it on our server and we tested it once in a game vs [T], and it worked nicely.. But I never got around to actually releasing it.. But [T]Beefcake asked me a few days ago about it and since it was finished anyway I guess I can put it up for download.. Hopefully someone will find it useful. :)

It can be found in the Download section, and it is installed on the server as a server actor, no client download necessary. When a teamgame is started in tournament mode it is activated.

When the game is started it will monitor the number of players to see if anyone drops, and instantly pause the game.

When the missing players enters the game again, it will count down from five and then unpause. It will also only allow the game to be paused for a certain amount of time per pause, and a total amount per game. These can be set by the admin before the countdown begins. The times are calculated separately for the teams so one team can't use up the others time.

Also, if a team decides they don't want to wait for their missing player one of them can type 'say go' and the game will resume. The other team can also type 'say hold' to give the other team one more minute of time. An admin can also force an unpause of the game instantly by pressing pause as usual.

To install it on a server, find the section [Engine.GameEngine] and add the line
ServerActors=AutoPause.APActor

A spectator or player logged in as admin can use these commands before countdown:

admin set autopause.apactor enabled <true/false>
Setting this to false will disable autopause even in tournament mode.

admin set autopause.apactor maxpause <minutes>
The maximum amount of time the game will be paused per pause in minutes. (per team)

admin set autopause.apactor maxtotalpause <minutes>
The total maximum amount of time the game can be paused. (per team)

This little utility has not been tested extensively but it have been tested and it's simple code so I don't expect any problems to occur. If however something should go wrong the admin can always issue a 'killall apactor' to remove the AutoPause actor from the game, which will stop it from interfering. It will come back the next level though so if it is a confirmed problem it is probably good to disable it then.

Oh well, if you find any problems or find it useful feel free to tell me. :)

It's been a while since the last one, but I finally have some new stuff to post

Thanks to Tal of Clanbase fame there is now a Linux version of the server. However I don't know how you are supposed to provide linux software really, so the zip includes an executable that I compiled on my linux machine.. But the source is also included, a simple g++ *.cpp -o utvserver should do the trick.

There is also a new version of the client available! This version is not compatible with the earlier versions since I had to change the network format, so you will not be able to connect to 3.0 servers without upgrading. Version 3.0 includes the following new features:

• UTV now supports weapon stay off
• Redeemer explosion and projectile will be visible (unless it is guided)
• Killing sprees are shown
• Shieldbelt will be visible
• Clients can choose to see less/none UTV status information
• Elevators and doors now move
• Linux version of the server
• Full domination support
• New broadcaster bind: "set utv.utvmenuitem action viewplayer <number>" which switches to that player. Numbers can be enabled to be seen in the on-screen player list
• Clients can show chat separate from the usual chatbox
• Clients can see player efficiency on the on-screen player list
• Broadcaster will be reminded to restart UT

Server and client downloads can be found in the download section as usual!

Also, there seem to be a rumour that the UTV server can only handle about 40-50 connections. This is not true! There was a bug in the server before 2.2 that in combination with win9x would cause it to overflow winsock buffers and causing packetloss. But this problem is corrected in the newer servers, and I have watched a game in #utv that peaked at about 250 people without any problems.

Time for a new version again. Here is 2.5, available in the download section. For a change this one mostly contains new stuff instead of bugfixes. :)

Most of the new things are for use by broadcasters and UTV server admins, but I've also added the possibility for clients to turn off UTV chat if they rather just watch the game instead. Anyway, see the documentation for the list of changes.

I've moved the UTV site to a different host which should hopefully be somewhat more reliable. :) I have also rearranged the site a little, the server listing is now gone. Since it never really was online anyway I guess it doesn't matter. The messageboard has also been removed.

Regarding UTV, I have been working on a new version. New stuff includes the ability for broadcasters to bookmark different locations and go there with a keypress, server message rate limitation, and the possibility for admins to mute or kick watchers during the broadcast.

Also, if you are american or a european that likes to stay up late, check out #utv on irc.enterthegame.com for pretty regular broadcasts. The last game I saw had over 140 people on the UTV server which was pretty cool. :)

Seems like the crashing was not eliminated from version 2.2 after all. But I think I got it this time. :) I've also added score support for team deathmatch and domination, and fixed a few server issues.

To see most of the fixes since 2.0, everyone including the broadcaster, the server and the watcher must use the latest version. I might release a version 3.0 when I am sure that the bugs are gone to force an upgrade, but for now all the 2.x versions are compatible.

New stuff in list format:

• Score support for team deathmatch and domination
• Supports using different ports
• Server should not crash when hitting maxclients limit
• The random crashes should be gone this time

If you should happen to crash in the middle of a game with version 2.3, it would be nice if you posted the last lines of your unrealtournament.log on the messageboard. (Make sure at least a few lines starting with Scriptlog: UTV: gets included).

I guess I couldn't resist.. Here is an update to UTV version 2.2. It does not contain any new features, but should fix a bunch of annoying bugs. Go to the download section to grab it.

Should fix the following:

• Message spamming
• The somewhat frequent client crashes
• Server dropping data with many watchers connected
• No need to restart UT as a watcher if both server and broadcaster uses 2.2. Note however that I still recommend that the broadcaster restart UT after every map change.

I've been wrong before though.. If people still crash a lot with this version I will put up a version with extended logging so I can track it down once and for all.

Okay, time for a new version.. Here comes 2.0! And it isn't a joke actually despite the date... This one works MUCH better than 1.0. :) Some of the highlights:

• Correct animation, players don't look like they are floating around
• Weapon sounds and effects - made quite a difference for immersion
• Possible to switch between3rd-person / in-eyes spectating with fire / altfire when using Lock to current player
• Deathmatch works
• Players dying now looks like that
• No more freeflight (it did not work as most people thought anyway)
• No need to restart broadcaster anymore
• Scoreboard is optional and looks better

I plan to increase the major version number everytime I have to break compatibility.. But I will probably not make a version 3.0 until I rewrite a bunch of the code..

Thanks to everyone who suggested improvements and reported bugs and tested it.

Afternoon update. :) Have been successful in eliminating most annoying bugs, and improved the visuals. It almost looks like a demo now! And it doesn't crash at all anymore. whee. or something.

Whee, now I have watched a real game with this. Seems some people were having trouble with crashes though.. And also the clients needed to restart UT when the feeder switched to a new map. And it looks a little odd with the incorrect animations and death sequences. And so on. But at least you could see what was happening. :)

For the curious, here's what's currently on my todo-list (well, it was here once):

Don't know what the ETA are on this stuff.. I'll probably release a new version when it looks better than the current. Right now it has a certain lagged feeling when watching.