Gaming on Linux with ATI

[Weedman]

Ok, I'm going straight into the facts.

I have 2 systems, 1 a laptop, 1 a desktop. Both have ATI graphics cards (xpress 200M & 9600XT respectively). Laptop has Gentoo, Desktop has Ubuntu Dapper.

Explain this. I try to run UT on either of those machines. The gameplay is great, though a little smudgy. But both machines have issues relating to 'input (mouse and/or keyboard) lag'. This is very apparent on the laptop, where UT is totally unplayable. The desktop machine has issues relating to the switching of resolutions. It won't get 800x600. It will get 640x480 or 1024x768, but the latter is on a weird refresh rate (like 80 instead of 60).

Not to mention that I can get perfect visuals with Q3A on the Desktop system, but no sound ever.

Is this just a case of the ATI-tis or UT unplayable on both distros.

This is really pissing me off, to the point of being aggro.

Some input or answers would be great.
weed

[bugmenot]

My problem is pretty similiar to yours. To me, I've installed and (tried) to play Enemy territory and Neverwinter nights. they both run with sound and video smoothly (the hardware is more than capable of running it), but with constant stutters or hiccups. it's strange since other linux games run just fine and smooth, with the exception of these "major" ones. I've also tried to lower their nice value without any progress.

I'm running with propetiary drivers and ati 9000 on laptop, Kubuntu. Any advice on how to improve the situation are highly welcome...

[d38dm8nw81k1ng]

the sound on Q3:A: this is a known problem and try googling quake 3 sound on www.google.com/linux

UT2004 plays fantastically on my gentoo install (nvidia), so it's almost certainly an ATi problem. hope that helps

[Weedman]

the sound on Q3:A: this is a known problem and try googling quake 3 sound on www.google.com/linux

UT2004 plays fantastically on my gentoo install (nvidia), so it's almost certainly an ATi problem. hope that helps

Not one of the suggested fixes for the sound problem worked. It's like /dev/dsp is just a lone, misplaced file that does nothing. Q3A appears useless. I wonder if it is an Ubuntu issue. I'm going to try Q3A on my lappy running Gentoo.

I haven't tried UT 2004, but I know the UT:GOTY certainly doesn't.

weed

[Weedman]

Nup. My laptop running Gentoo refuses to work properly with q3a demo or ut:goty. There (like before) is a second or 2 lag between the mouse being moved physically and onscreen.

Not to mention the sound still doesn't work on either.

Now I am truely thankful that I dualboot both systems...

weed

[mentaldemise]

One way to get the sound to work is to launch the game with aoss, the alsa -> oss app. As for the mouse, I think it has to do with one of the mouse options. I had the issue before and am having it now as well, I believe it's a +set option on the command line of the game you want to play, I'll try to find out and repost it here. The aoss thing sucks, so you know, you'll get barely any sound, unless you want to build oss into the kernel and reboot and try it.