December 29, 2009

"STK w/Irrlicht": Blow up, or be blown up!

The community is waiting intently for SuperTuxKart version 0.7, but there's still much to do before the team will make a stable release. Fortunately, there will be an alpha release out quite soon (no exact date, but a week or two has been mentioned as an estimate). Do not expect the alpha release to be ready for regular players, as most content and some important features will not be there. The alpha release will be for artists who can help out with converting old karts and tracks to the new format with Blender, and perhaps start creating their own stuff with the new features included.

While we wait for the alpha version, it's time for some special effects!

New explosion effect

Just a quick demonstration of it against the wall. Pretty hefty explosion I'd say, so I'll be more careful next time I go bowling.

Recently hit star effect


No, we're not talking about a pop star with a recent hit, but just an effect indicating when a kart was recently hit by an exploding weapon or banana item. One could say it's pretty useless, but it's eye candy; eat it! :P

Furthermore, time trial now works as usual. We also got a final lap message patch from Stephan Hillebrand; thanks.

The Irrlicht branch has been moved to trunk, so the current location is https://supertuxkart.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/supertuxkart/main/trunk. Please wait for the stable version of STK 0.7 if you do not intend to contribute. The team is not giving general support for the svn version.

There's been a lot of bugfixes and undercover changes recently as well thanks to the STK development team. Why don't you register yourself at the new forum and tell them how great of a job you think they do? And if you've got some contributions to make as well, it would be even better. ;)

December 6, 2009

"STK w/Irrlicht": Icons, fonts and more

About time for another update, isn't it? I know many of you have eagerly awaited some news, but there simply hasn't been much to write about in the last weeks. Right now there's only two developers on the main game, and they could really use some help. If you want to help out, register yourself at the mailing-list(s) or get in touch in another way, though the list is the preferred place for development talk.

On to the news.

New fonts and improved animation

At the top you can see a brand new font, in style with the new STK logos, and on the bottom button the font has also been improved. Much better. Now the animated box also contains something, in this case the Gnu "kart".

New icons

There are more new icons than just the tab icons in this screenshot, but they are spread across several screens, and you'll see them later anyway. Just wanted to give you a little feeling of what they look like. There are still font issues, but they're probably not top priority right now.

In other news, a few more turning animations made by Rudy85 and exported by xapantu have been included. And a binary for STK 0.6.2a for Solaris-SPARC has been made by Ten Little Indyans. You can find it at the SuperTuxKart download page, as usual.

The forum admins at FreeGameDev, where our subforums is located, has decided to use different forum software and leave the old forum read-only. The old posts were unfortunately unrecoverable. The old forum is still in use, but expect this to change soon. If you want, you can register at the new forum, though there aren't many users there yet. (Please note, that http://freegamedev.net and http://www.freegamedev.net are not the same. Stick to one of them if you want auto-login to work as expected.)

Whew! I hope I didn't forget anything. If I did, leave a comment, and I'll include it in the next update if it concerns the main game.

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Note: As the "STK w/Irrlicht" branch is still in a very unstable state, the general public is recommended to use the latest stable version (0.6.2a) of SuperTuxKart.

November 7, 2009

"STK w/Irrlicht": Some news

Sorry for the lack of news lately; this was caused by several matters, including my own laziness. ;) But I got some news for you. While the developers have been busy fixing bugs and doing other, more important things not related to STK, there is some stuff I haven't presented yet.

Pause dialog

All the buttons works like intended, and it's possible to go back to this pause dialog after changing the options or looking through 'Help'.

After race menu

As you've probably figured by now, it's possible to complete a race and get the results. While the results for the computer controlled players isn't shown, everything else seems to work.

The SuperTuxKart forums is now located at http://ghoulsblade.schattenkind.net/freegamedev/forum/. The posts that were written before the forum crash is not recovered yet, but work is still going on as far as I know.

I mentioned a few blog posts earlier that we were looking for menu icons. We have someone who are dealing with that for the moment, so if you want to partake with that you'll have to be quick and join the developer's mailing-list and get in touch. There'll be an alpha release of STK ready later on for artists to test and improve on.

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Note: As the "STK w/Irrlicht" branch is still in a very unstable state, the general public is recommended to use the latest stable version (0.6.2a) of SuperTuxKart.

October 19, 2009

Hotfix for 0.6.2 released

A hotfix for 0.6.2 named 0.6.2a has been released. This hotfix is for Windows Vista/7 only, and makes it unnecessary to run the game as administrator anymore. If you don't want to download everything once more, just replace the 'supertuxkart.exe' in your STK 0.6.2 folder with supertuxkart-0.6.2a-win-executable-only.exe, and then rename it to 'supertuxkart.exe'.

To repeat; if you're not using Windows Vista or Windows 7, you don't need to do anything at all. If you are, and have to run it as administrator every time, this little fix will do the trick.

Edit:
Note that you will lose your settings and highscores (on Windows). If you want to keep your 0.6.2 data: start the new binary and quit. Then copy the files supertuxkart.cfg (for settings and key bindings) and/or highscore.data to $APPDATA/supertuxkart.

October 12, 2009

"STK w/Irrlicht": Fancy stuff

SuperTuxKart has changed much the last few weeks; sorry for not supplying you with the news sooner. Anyway, here we go.

Ambient lighting test

This test changes the ambient color to light red, and furthermore, it is activated and deactivated by crossing driveline quads! This can be awesome for track designers wanting to spice up their tunnels with different lighting.

Character animation test

If you look closely, you'll see that the character on this screenshot leans towards left while turning left. Compare it to the screenshot above, and you'll see that it leans the other way when turning right. The road for simple animations on the characters, like this one, is clear. Thanks to Rudy85 for the animated model.

Animated cutscene test

Sorry for the somewhat fuzzy screenshot, but the refresh rate made the chest look uglier than it really is. This little animation shows a key for the "Feature Chest" being inserted. I guess it's not finished yet, but it shows what we can expect for STK 0.7. Furthermore, the background texture is also animated.

As you can see, there's more than enough to play with for artists of any kind: sound effect makers, 3D modelers, animators et cetera et cetera. We need your help in order to make 0.7 a milestone in the SuperTuxKart history.

In other news, the development version is mostly ported to work with the new version of Irrlicht (version 1.6).
Also, a SuperTuxKart 0.6.2 binary for Solaris and a binary for Linux-PPC has been made by xeno74. They can be found at the SourceForge download page.

The forum is down due to a hard disk crash, and it has been so for a week. The FreeGameDev staff are trying to save all the posts on the FGD board; take a look at the FreeGamer blog for details and news regarding this issue.

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Note: As the "STK w/Irrlicht" branch is still in a very unstable state, the general public is recommended to use the latest stable version (0.6.2) of SuperTuxKart.

September 22, 2009

"STK w/Irrlicht": New icons!

Hi everyone! After the great new logo we got, we've just got a set of main menu icons. Many thanks to yekcim for making those. :)
They blend very nicely in with the new logo, don't you think?

There's still a lot more icons needed. If you are interested in helping with this, you can contact the STK crew beforehand to get some advice on what we're looking for, and avoid duplicating work. Eventually, if you're comfortable with it, you can get the latest SVN version of SuperTuxKart and find one/several icons you want to improve. Most icons, excluding the new main menu ones, are only placeholders until we get something better.
We are looking forward to your contribution; icons or otherwise. ;)

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Note: As the "STK w/Irrlicht" branch is still in a very unstable state, the general public is recommended to use the latest stable version (0.6.2) of SuperTuxKart.

September 12, 2009

"STK w/Irrlicht": New logo!

Hi everyone, just a quick update: SuperTuxKart 0.7 will feature a brand new logo, designed by rastapax. Thank you very much for this. :)

In action


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Note: As the "STK w/Irrlicht" branch is still in a very unstable state, the general public is recommended to use the latest stable version (0.6.2) of SuperTuxKart.

September 6, 2009

"STK w/Irrlicht": Track preview updated

As time goes, the GUI gets better and better.
I've posted a screenshot of the track preview before, but it didn't do it much justice. Now it looks quite good, except for some minor details that will be solved later.

Track preview


In other news, a static binary of 0.6.2 has been created for Linux by Stephen, and a package for OpenSUSE by Dominique. They can be found at our download page.
Edit: A binary for FreeBSD has been made by xeno74, and it can be found at the SourceForge download page.
Thank you all very much. :)

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Note: As the "STK w/Irrlicht" branch is still in a very unstable state, the general public is recommended to use the latest stable version (0.6.2) of SuperTuxKart.

August 30, 2009

"STK w/Irrlicht": Player joining

Welcome to another development update.
A lot of changes has happened under the hood, and as this blog is mainly for the players, I won't go into detail on it. But I want to thank all you developers, and especially our newest crew members for doing such a great job. :)

This time around, I will show how several players can join a game locally.

Two players in the same screen

As the descriptive text at the top says, other players can join simply by pressing 'fire' on their device. In this example, Player 1 had the gamepad assigned, and Player 2 joined thereafter by pressing 'fire' (in this example, the Ctrl key on the keyboard).
The green square shows what kart Player 1 have selected, and the cyan square is for Player 2.
Neat, is it not?

Now, I joined myself, and I'm not that good at multi-tasking that I'll be able to drive two karts at the same time, but anyway we got to wait for the split-screen interface to be recreated.
In the meantime, have fun playing SuperTuxKart 0.6.2, and please report any bugs you might find.

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Note: As the "STK w/Irrlicht" branch is still in a very unstable state, the general public is recommended to use the latest stable version (0.6.2) of SuperTuxKart.

August 20, 2009

SuperTuxKart 0.6.2 released

SuperTuxKart version 0.6.2 has just been released. This is a bugfix release, meaning that there is no additional or removed content, only improved stability and quality.
Download SuperTuxKart 0.6.2.

Changelog:

SuperTuxKart 0.6.2 (August 2009)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  • Bugfix: The game could crash in rare circumstances.
  • Bugfix: Restarting a GP (with the in-race menu ESC) would not subtract already allocated points.
  • Bugfix: A race could be finished with an invalid shortcut.
  • Bugfix: Playing a challenge after a splitscreen game would play the challenge in split screen.
  • Bugfix: Items explode over void.
  • Bugfix: Grass in castle arena slowed down the kart.
  • Bugfix: GP result showed kart identifier instead of name.
  • Improvement: there is now 1 sec. wait period for the race result screen, avoiding the problem that someone presses space/enter at the end of a race, immediately quitting the menu before it can be read.

August 5, 2009

10 000 pageviews!

Yes, you read that right. This blog have gotten over 10 000 pageviews and over 6300 visits from 83 countries. "Now, who cares?" you might ask. Well, it proves to me that there are actually interest in regular updates about the SuperTuxKart development. But we would never have come this far without all you faithful readers; thank you for following us. :)

Furthermore I would like to thank our project leader hiker for leading the development; without him I don't think STK would have existed in the shape it's in now. And a special thanks goes to Auria, for helping with the blog layout, giving extra information here and there and proofreading my posts.

Now, if there's anything you readers want changed in the blog, you got the chance to tell now. Perhaps the regularity of postings, what topics we cover and so on (yeah, I know, correct information will help a lot; see my previous post for a bad example ;)). I can't promise to please everybody, but we'll try to do our best.

July 28, 2009

Bugfix release 0.6.2 planned [UPDATED!]

EDIT: Sorry everyone, I was concluding too quickly. After writing to our project leader hiker, I got this answer:
If we get confirmation that the 'sudden crash' bug is fixed, and Auria and myself have time, we'll do a .2 release.
Thus, don't count on it, and I am very sorry for this incident. I did not intend to create hopes for something that might not happen. Next time around, I will make sure if a new branch means a new release.
Let's hope 0.7 will come soon to replace your disappointment with joy.

ORIGINAL MESSAGE:

Because of some minor bugs, one of them regarding the plunger item, a new bugfix release has been suggested by the SuperTuxKart team. One of the reasons behind this decision is the upcoming version of the popular Linux distribution 'Ubuntu'. 0.6.2 will probably become the last version of the SuperTuxKart 0.6 series.

July 21, 2009

"STK w/Irrlicht": Race details

Okay, I'll admit that the previous blog post wasn't that informative, so this time I'll try to give more info, and less blah blah.

In-race GUI

As you can see, the timer, kart positions, minimap and lap counter have been added, as well as FPS reporting and countdown at start, and so forth.

Another thing is the boxy and ugly look of the track. This is because karts/tracks/objects now need to be exported with normals included in order to get proper smoothing, which most stuff doesn't have at the moment. So for all modelers wanting to create for 0.7 and beyond: export everything with the normals included in your b3d file - if you have questions about this, please look at the wiki pages or ask at the forums.

Also, xapantu has made a kart exporter for the Irrlicht version of SuperTuxKart, which can be found in this forum thread, together with details on how it works.

Lastly, but not leastly, we have got some help with the plunger and cake by david, making them easier to use with success in the game.

Now it might seem that SuperTuxKart got more than enough contributors, but that just isn't the case - there are only two main contributors at the moment (maybe more in some time), so we are always looking for more programmers, modelers, musicians, donators or simply useful feedback.

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Note: As the "STK w/Irrlicht" branch is still in a very unstable state, the general public is recommended to use the latest stable version (0.6.1a) of SuperTuxKart.

July 20, 2009

"STK w/Irrlicht": Player math

Welcome to the first update this month. There have been so many changes since last time that I'll give you some of the news now, and the rest of it later, so stay tuned. :)
You may wonder what "Player math" was supposed to mean. It doesn't have with "Oliver's Math Class" to do, but good guess.

"Players" screen

Here we do the math: adding and subtracting and multipl(a)ying... erm, at least the first two. It impacts the kart/profile selection screen now as well.
Not only that, it's now possible for another controller to join the game as another player, though work has just been started on the complicated matters of offline multiplayer. Online multiplayer is, as you might know, not scheduled for SuperTuxKart 0.7.

In other news, there's been a lot of code cleanups, work on the new driveline system and animation support, optimizations in the menus and so on. Most of this is quite a work in progress, but as I said, there's more news to come.

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Note: As the "STK w/Irrlicht" branch is still in a very unstable state, the general public is recommended to use the latest stable version (0.6.1a) of SuperTuxKart.

June 28, 2009

"STK w/Irrlicht": Previews in the menu

Hi fellow SuperTuxKart fans, time for another update on the current development version. Don't get too excited yet; the developers are working on some cool new features, but most of the features of earlier versions needs to be rewritten as well.
And I'm not covering everything that happens on the development side.
But I'm starting off with one well-known feature.

Kart preview

Tux is spinning around in a smooth animation, showing off his great kart, like in 0.6 and earlier. The other karts aren't ready for this yet, but it looks promising. BTW, the black rectangle behind the kart isn't supposed to be there; just a bug showing up on my computer only as far as I know.
As you can see here as well, the old background picture (the checkerboard background) is now replaced by the one made by elisee.

Track preview

This pops up when selecting a track, showing a proof of concept. "High Scores & Track Info" will obviously be replaced with... guess what: high scores and track info.
"Track 1" will be replaced with the actual name of the track.

I was asked to mention that "there is now support for deciding which edges are smooth and which are not, allowing for better shading". Not completely sure what that means, but modelers wanting to create for 0.7 should bear this in mind when they are making models.

Most places in the world have mid-summer now, and vacation, so that might impact somewhat on the speed of STK development. Whether it'll be in a positive way or not, time will tell, but it might turn both ways. Personally, I'll be away for a couple of weeks now, but as I'm not a developer, just a "reporter", it'll only mean that you might not see another update here in a while.

"Sun is shining,
weather is sweet.
Makes you wanna move
your dancing feet."

Happy summer to everyone! :D

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Note: As the "STK w/Irrlicht" branch is still in a very unstable state, the general public is recommended to use the latest stable version (0.6.1a) of SuperTuxKart.

June 12, 2009

"STK w/Irrlicht": Racing

Hi, and welcome to another update on the Irrlicht branch of SuperTuxKart.
While screenshots of the menu is interesting, most of the time you'll probably be racing in STK 0.7. So this time I'll show you a couple of in-race screenshots.

Racing at the beach

As you can see, AI karts have been reimplemented, and work has been started on the new driveline system as well. The screenshot above is unfortunately quite skewed due to lagging; the computer I'm using isn't the best. But you get the general idea. ;)
Btw, the kart I'm driving (the closest one) is the improved version of Nolok.

"Street" burning by the lighthouse

Work is underway for different particles for different terrain. Here, the sand/grass texture shows smoke when skidding on it. It's just a proof of concept; in the end skidding here will most likely show sand or grass particles, while the smoke will be used when skidding on the road. Splash effect when driving into water is among the goodies this feature will bring.
Btw, the kart I'm driving here, is Pidgin, the replacement for Penny. Penny will probably end up as an add-on.

Another thing I want to mention, is that compiling the Irrlicht version is somewhat tricky, and driving around is currently very unstable. So if you don't plan to contribute and/or you're not comfortable with compiling on your system, it's strongly recommended to wait until things have settled more down. One of the developers compared the current development version with a building site, where the materials are slowly being put together, forming a larger and better building than the previous. Continuing the analogy: if you are going into the building site, expect some falling objects and unsafe areas. But if you have some knowledge, it can work as a safety helmet, protecting you from the worst disasters. And... um... what was I talking about again? Better get some sleep....

May 27, 2009

Another update on "STK w/Irrlicht"

Some days have passed, and it's about time to let you know we're still alive.
New, visible features are of course most exciting, so that's what I'll cover this time as well - sorry devs, we all know you have to do lots of boring work too, but it's not that easy to take screenshots of solved bugs. ;)

The kart selection screen

What "works":
Everything as far as I've seen. Some of the karts have been revamped, for example Nolok. It looks a lot better; he got a cooler looking kart more in style with his nature. :)

'About'/'Credits' screen

I was thinking of writing 'What "works:"' here as well when I realized there isn't much to do in here.
Nonetheless, you can lean back and enjoy a nice animation showing if not all, then most of the contributors to STK. The animation is simple but smooth; I've proposed adding an option to stop and/or change back and forth the different "pages". It's on an internal ToDo list, but obviously it's not top priority - if you want to help out with this or anything else, you are very welcome to do so. Just be sure to contact the developers first - preferrably via the mailing list - in order to avoid duplicating work and to get some coordination.

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Note: As the "STK w/Irrlicht" branch is still in a very unstable state, the general public is recommended to use the latest stable version (0.6.1a) of SuperTuxKart.

May 8, 2009

Quick update review on "STK w/Irrlicht" branch

Well, time for another review. Don't expect a world of a difference yet, since the devs have been really busy with other matters for a while. Fortunately, things are still improving, slowly but steady.
Okay, let's peek into a couple of screens.

The 'Options' screen

What "works":
Turning volume on/off, and up/down. Support for changing this with gamepad is lacking should work at the moment.
The video settings needs more work.

The 'Race Setup' screen

What "works":
Only normal race mode. As far as I know, changing the difficulty has the same impact on speed as in 0.6.1a, though it's not that easy to notice since there's no competing karts yet.
You wonder what's up with the font? Well, font handling is under development, and it's harder than expected, so for now it's rather messy. Don't worry, it won't stay like this forever. ;)

Different camera handling is being worked on as well, but exactly how it's going to behave in the end is not decided yet.
And, SDL is not in use anymore. It's no longer necessary, since Irrlicht and libOgg+libVorbis are going to take care of the SDL jobs for SuperTuxKart 0.7.

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To sum up, there's still much work to do, and to all possible contributors - come on, join in, we need you! ;)
Note: As the "STK w/Irrlicht" branch is still in a very unstable state, the general public is recommended to use the latest stable version (0.6.1a) of SuperTuxKart.

April 25, 2009

Did you know? 10 facts and claims about STK

Did you know that
  • STK is ranked as 219 in "Games" at SourceForge, and the amount of SourceForge downloads is 503 802?
  • a search at Google for "supertuxkart" results in around 106 000 pages?
  • the SuperTuxKart forum has in total 3644 messages inside 308 topics?
  • this blog has over 2500 pageviews?
  • version 0.6(.1a) is considered to be the first fun version of SuperTuxKart by its project leader?
  • the developers wants to blur the "MarioKart" and "TuxKart" stamps, making STK a game more on its own?
  • there's even a Facebook group named "SuperTuxKart Addicts"?
  • SDL will be dropped for 0.7?
  • the 0.7 version will feature at least one new track?
  • YOU can make a difference either by contributing to STK, or by giving a donation?

April 15, 2009

[No Joking!] Work on the irrLicht port

I'll now post my long-awaited review of "STK irrLicht" progress, with a few screenshots.

First, let's take a look at the main menu screen.

What "works":
'Race', 'Options', 'Help' and 'Quit'.

Visually the green hover circle animation (yes, it's a small animation) is too glossy, and the STK developers would like some ideas/contribs on hover. Most of the icons will probably be replaced too, so contributions are highly welcome.

The 'Help' screen

What "works":
Everything, but some graphical change is still needed.
Notice the "Back to main menu" button - I think it got a neat look. :)

The track selection screen

What "works":
Almost nothing. Every track icon you click on leads to the same level. (Addition by Auria: the reason behind this lack of functionality is simply that at this time, we have only 2 tracks converted to the new format! watch the forums, once we believe the track setup is stable enough we might ask for help with converting all tracks and karts to the new format :) )

But as a show-off it's certainly interesting, as it shows how track selection might be in 0.7. Notice the small arrows which will later lead to more tracks, as well as the different tabs at the bottom. The kart selection screen also got tabs to deal with different kart groups.

Racing in revision 3386

What "works":
Driving around, items, nitro and playing with gamepad.

Not too much to see yet - I guess some of you may be disappointed by the looks, but remember changing from PLib to irrLicht isn't done in a day. The developers know how much is missing, and they are working at their own pace to make STK 0.7 better than - not worse than - SuperTuxKart 0.6.1a.
Small addition by Auria : Also, consider this is almost a total rewrite in the graphics area, therefore we are starting from nothing, so we first need to get to the plib level before going beyond ;)

Regarding the "burning trees", it's only a bug caused by trying to implement explosions - quite a rare sight! One of the funniest looking bugs at the moment.

And by the way; "works" means that it kind of works, though it's not in a finished state.

A few additions by Auria :)
* The font used in the menu is going to be replaced with a better one
* Icons are currently scaled down with very poor quality; irrLicht developers were informed of this limitation, and they promised it would improve in next version of irrLicht
* The current background image can't stay in for license reasons; we'll need to get someone to make another one. This might be a good thing anyway, because the current placeholder has dark and light areas, which makes it hard to find a font color readable everywhere
* Lots of work also happened in the input module; someone who'd never been able to play STK using his gamepad reported that all worked fine in the new branch. Also, input configurations will no longer be tied to a specific player, which means you can play sometimes with gamepad, sometimes with keyboard, and don't have to reconfigure everytime like in 0.6. Last but not all, 0.7 will be able to tell which gamepad model you're using, which means you can use a different configuration for different gamepad models.

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To sum up, there's still much work to do, and to all possible contributors - come on, join in, we need you! ;)
Note: As the irrLicht branch is still in a very unstable state, the general public is recommended to use the last stable version (0.6.1a) of SuperTuxKart.

April 6, 2009

New skin for the web site

Tom Jenkins from icecubewebdesign.co.uk has designed a new skin for the SuperTuxKart homepage. If you have any concerns, don't hesitate to give feedback; the website is still to evolve =)
The blog will also adapt the new design, hopefully soon.

The GUI for 0.7 might as well take inspiration from it, though this isn't decided yet.

Happy wiki surfing! ;)


EDIT: Blog style now updated accordingly :)

April 1, 2009

[April's Fools Joke] Work on the irrLicht port

For the first time, we are giving you screenshots of the current state of SuperTuxKart, as being ported to irrLicht! The game features real-time shadows and lighting, moving clouds and advanced particles effects. It also features soft body dynamics simulation for plants, and liquid physics for water. We are also integrating a hologram library, which will eventually allow SuperTuxKart to come out of your screen in real 3D.

It is also expected that next version will be able to run on Nintendo Wii, Xbox360, iPhone and Nintendo DS (and maybe iPods, not sure yet)

With no further ado, here is a screenshot :


March 25, 2009

12.03.09-24.03.09 commit summary

SuperTuxKart "Irrlicht version" is now the main focus, hence the short list of changes.
But don't worry, the following is a short summary of the changes regarding the Irrlicht version.
  • One kart (Tux) and two tracks (Beach and Lighthouse) was implemented, together with items and a preliminary graphical user interface.
Doesn't sound like much has happened? Well, remember this is only a short summary, and there's really a lot of work behind those few lines in this blog post. First, the developers needs to rewrite the old code to have a good foundation for more features later on. So it will obviously take some time before the Irrlicht version will be playable in the right meaning of the word.
Also, I'm not writing from a programmer's view, hence the somewhat dull summary. ;P

Anyway, as the time goes by, I'll give some peeks of the development and the new features that'll come.
And remember, if you want to help out with SuperTuxKart you're most certainly welcome.

PS: Regarding the screenshots of STK "Irrlicht version" my main computer just broke down, so it might take a while before my promise will be a reality.

March 12, 2009

01.03.09-11.03.09 commit summary

  • An improvement for the 'Mozilla' kart was added
  • Catalan translation was added
  • New track 'Secret Garden' was added, to make sure it won't be forgotten for 0.7
  • Configuration and highscore files in Windows are now stored in $APPDATA/supertuxkart (instead of .). This avoids problems with losing configuration and highscores when uninstalling the game (e.g. while installing a newer version)
Lots of work on the Irrlicht part has been done lately. Actually, it's so much I won't write any of it here, but I'll rather make a more informative post once I've got some questions cleared out with the developers (things are changing quite rapidly now).

March 1, 2009

20.02.09-28.02.09 commit summary

  • The music for 'Snow Mountain' was updated
  • Lots of texture replacements due to unwanted licenses were made
  • Better explosion handling was implemented
The Irrlicht implementation is still progressing nicely. Height computation, items that rotates and can be collected, and improved XML handling/support is among the work done in the last days.

February 25, 2009

Plans for STK 0.7

Here's a list of planned features for SuperTuxKart version 0.7. This may not be a complete list, and plans might change later on, but these are some of the main goals:
  • Move from PLIB to the Irrlicht Engine. This includes a total rewrite of the GUI.
  • Support animations for kart drivers, and for track features.
  • Replace drivelines with a more flexbile graph-based data structure.
  • Support moving (environmental) objects on the track better.
  • Replace shortcut detection with check lines, so track builders have more control over possible shortcuts.
As you see, there's lots of exciting stuff the developers want to achieve, and some of this is already under development. But there's always room for more programmers and artists (2D, 3D, music, sound), so if you want to help out, see the FAQ for more detailed information.
Any help would be highly appreciated.

February 19, 2009

Hotfix for 0.6.1 released

Due to a bug related to groups in battle mode, new binaries under the name of SuperTuxKart 0.6.1a have been uploaded. For those who have 0.6.1 already installed, patches for Windows and MacOS are available, containing nothing but the bugfix. So, no need to download the whole game again if you have STK 0.6.1 installed.

Go to the downloads page

We are sorry for the inconvenience.

February 18, 2009

SuperTuxKart 0.6.1 released

SuperTuxKart version 0.6.1. fixes some minor bugs of the 0.6 release, adds a new kart, a new battle map, and better support for add-on packages. We also release a first add-on package, which contains 7 additional karts and 6 tracks. Some of the tracks and karts in this package are new, some are models that were removed from the main distribution. Note: you need SuperTuxKart 0.6.1 to use the add-on package. Both can be found on our download page.
More extensive changelog is below.

















SuperTuxKart 0.6.1 (February 2009)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  • Added new kart ("Puffy"), new battle map ("Cave"), and new music for Snow Mountain.
  • Fixed bug in track selection screen that could cause a crash when track groups were used.
  • Fixed crash in character selection that could happen if an old user config file existed.
  • Fixed incorrect rescues in Fort Magma.
  • Improved track selection screen to not display empty track groups.
  • A plunger in the face is now removed when restarting.
  • Added slow-down for karts driving backwards.
  • Somewhat reduced 'shaking' of AI driven karts.

13.02.09-17.02.09 commit summary

  • Slowdown removed when being off-track in 'Canyon' (since karts would not be able to drive at all on the uphill section)
  • Czech translation was added
  • AI steering made less shaky, and as a side effect AI is easier to push away
  • Some texture improvements, and licenses are now more in terms with Debian standards

February 13, 2009

06.02.09 - 12.02.09 commit summary

  • New kart named Puffy was added
Puffy
  • Mr. Iceblock was updated
  • Track- and kart-specific textures are now automatically used instead of textures in data/textures (in cases where there are two files with the same name)
0.7 work is progressing; tracks and kart models are now loaded, with physics and some visuals.
Note: the SVN version isn't using Irrlicht yet, in order to be fully playable.

February 6, 2009

25.01.09 - 05.02.09 commit summary

  • Compilation fixes were made, among them GCC 4.4 fix
  • New music for 'Snow Mountain' track
  • 'Fort Magma' driveline tweaking
  • Several track and character selection issues fixed
  • A fullscreen to window mode bug was fixed
  • The camera "jump" at race start was fixed
  • 'Wilber' & 'Hexley' were made bigger
  • Terrain dependent slowdown when reversing added
  • Old config file bug was fixed
  • Improved run script for Linux added
  • 'Cave X' battle arena added
  • A few texture improvements were made
  • Various other bug fixes and code cleanup were accomplished
The developers have reported that they are making good progress with the switch from PLIB to Irrlicht, but currently there are no visible changes in trunk.

STK 0.6.1 work is mostly finished, but some work is still needed for the release; let's see what the next days can bring in this regard.

January 27, 2009

Bugfix release for 0.6 planned

Because of some minor, but possibly troublesome bugs for the players involved, a bugfix release has been suggested by the SuperTuxKart developers. When STK 0.6.1 will be ready depends on the workload and time the devs have, but please submit any bug you encounter if it isn't already in the bug tracker, in order to make 0.6.1 the most stable version ever created at that time.

P.S. As jpenguin kindly stated in his comment, there will most likely be a MacOS 10.4 binary for this version.

January 22, 2009

SuperTuxKart 0.6 released

We have finally released SuperTuxKart 0.6. Binaries are on our download page. Changelog is below.

Here's a video of the actual game play:


SuperTuxKart 0.6 (January 2009)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  • New improved physics and kart handling
  • Added sharp turns and nitro speed boost (replacing wheelies and jump)
  • Totally rewrote powerups (plunger, bowling ball, cake, bubblegum) and new look for bananas
  • New and improved tracks : skyline, snow mountain, race track, space track, old mine, XR591
  • New game mode : 3-Strikes Battle
  • Major improvements to AI
  • New/improved karts (and removed some old ones) : wilber, eviltux, hexley
  • Improved user interface
  • Karts now have a visible suspension effect
  • Fully positional audio with OpenAL
  • New music and sound effects (including engine, braking and skidding sounds)
  • Better support for mods and add-ons (kart and track groups)
  • New/updated translations (ga fi de nl sl fr it es ro sv)
  • Allowed 'Grand Prix's of Time Trial, Follow the Leader, or any other mode
  • Challenges are now specified in config files, and are thus easy to create by users
  • Improved build system to better detect missing dependencies
  • Improved shortcut-detection
  • Initial work towards networking (disabled and hidden by default)
  • Bug fixes and code refactor/cleanup/documentation
  • Fixed 'joystick locks' (kart would turn even if the joystick is in neutral), thanks to Samjam for the patch.

January 21, 2009

Welcome to the SuperTuxKart blog!

Welcome to the development blog of the kart racing game
SuperTuxKart!

This blog will feature frequent updates about STK’s development, with screenshots and comments.

Stay tuned!


P.S. Thanks to Hofi for handing over the domain name.