Destineer Studios subsidiary MacSoft on Wednesday released an update to Unreal Tournament 2003, their popular first-person shooter. The patch — version 2225.1, according to its read me file — adds a variety of enhancements, including performance improvements.
Ryan Gordon, the game’s Mac developer, claims that performance improvements of 25 percent or more compared to the retail version are typical, thanks to optimizations, lots of new Altivec (or Velocity Engine) code, and a completely rewritten sound subsystem. Single CPU systems get the most improvement out of this version, according to the developer notes.
Good news for users of Mac OS X v10.3, “Panther:” Some users with certain ATI graphics hardware have noted corrupted video; that problem is addressed with this new release.
The game also removes a CD check security feature; while you’ll still need to have a valid and unique key, having the CD in the drive is no longer necessary.
The new update to Unreal Tournament 2003 also gains bug fixes that previously caused certain mods to crash, and has made other mod-friendly fixes and additions. OpenGL and ALAudio fixes have been made; and much more. You can read about all the changes for yourself from the update’s Read Me file, or you can download the patch from the MacSoft Web site.