About the Author

UMark, UMark for Linux, and UMark Online are all designed, programmed, and documented by myself, Jeffrey Bakker. I have been developing Open Source projects since 2001, which include Windows® software, Linux software, and Unreal® Tournament modifications. Outside of UMark, my other Open Source works include (but not limited to):

Evil.DamnClan (Various UT200x Additions/Modifications)
Web C Plus Plus (Source code to HTML converter)
CgiBlast (Bioinformatics search tool interface)

About UMark

UMark is a free graphical user interface that allows gamers and hardware reviewers to easily configure and run benchmarks on Unreal® Tournament 200x (UT2003 and UT2004, both demo and retail versions). Benchmarking with UMark is very flexible, as it can run totally customizable benchmarks. At the same time, it also offers standard benchmarking which imitates the official UT200x benchmark batch file tests.

UMark supports three types of UT200x benchmarking: "botmatch","flyby", and "timedemo" benchmarks. Each benchmark type has its own upsides and downsides.

Timedemo
Timedemos are pre-recorded matches that can be played back as fast as your computer can render it. While timedemos have the consistency of flybys and the gameplay accuracy above that of botmatches, there are no official demo recordings, therefore they are non-standard.

Flyby
Although flybys are standard and more consistent by always following the same paths, not all maps support them and they don't include the abundance of animated sprites or process the game rules that you would find in playing a typical match of UT200x.

Botmatch
Botmatch benchmarks include the things that make up an actual UT200x match, and have close framerates to a "real" game of UT200x, yet they function primarily on AI, which may cause the benchmarks themselves to be inconsistent when using different options.

UMark specializes in botmatch bencharking because botmatches are widely supported and have the most response to UMark's flexible configurations.

UMark also provides an engine for gathering results for saving and loading at another time, or to submit into an online score database (UMark Online) where users can search and compare results with other users based on a number of factors. Results are displayed in numbers and bar graphs, along with hardware information. UMark Online members may post links to their scores so they can be viewed publicly by their peers.

About UMark Online

UMark Online is a members-only area of the UMark website, which allows subscribers to submit their UMark scores and system configuration information through UMark and later login to view, search and compare scores with other members. Members can search specific benchmarked maps, benchmarks by category, or search benchmarks based on what type of computer system was used. Members may publicly post links to their online scores to be viewed by non-members.

UMark and UMark online implement several security measures to help prevent cheaters from modifying their benchmark scores. This will help ensure that the scores on UMark Online are all fair, and it may be possible to hold benchmarking contests.

UMark Technology

UMark and UMark Online was created by the open source programmer, Jeffrey Bakker. There is quite a diversity in the technonlogies that were used to develop it all. Between UMark, UMark for Linux, and UMark Online, development technologies include:

• C
• C++/MFC
• CSS
• Glib/Gtk+
• HTML
• Javascript
• PERL
• PHP (with Pear DB)
• SQL (mySQL)
• UNIX Shell
• Win32

Other independent or pre-developed technologies that UMark or UMark Online utilizes in order to work are:

• RSA Data Security, Inc. MD5 Message-Digest Algorithm
• Unreal® Engine 2