It has been a long time since the last blog post and after weeks of hard work, we are happy to announce the first release candidate for version 0.9. Yes, you read this correctly, it is 0.9, not as we initially said 0.8.2. The main reason for this larger jump in version numbers is that besides of significant better look compared with the previous release, e.g.:
we also decided to break backward compatibility with older addons - they need to be updated and re-exported to work with the improved lighting our new engine offers.
The main new features since version 0.8.1 is the switch from Irrlicht to Antarctica a new graphical engine. OpenGL 3 is now required, and the minimum supported requirements include an intel HD 3000 integrated GPU. Quite a bit of work has also been done to take us closer to online multiplayer (networking), including features like logging in and managing an online account, and online achievements. However, don't get too excited just now because the actual networked multiplayer gameplay is not yet ready to use (this will come in a future version).
Also note that the old addons website (http://stkaddons.net) will be switched to read only and be replaced by a new upgraded website (http://addons.supertuxkart.net/) ready for the new version. All help is welcome to port and/or create addons for the new version of the game! You can read the official documentation here.
You might also be wondering about the delay with the release candidate. After all, beta2 was released over two months ago. Besides fixing bugs (we have fixed over 330 bugs), we also found some issues with supporting older hardware (e.g. automatic resizing of large textures did not work as expected), and we wanted to try our best to make SuperTuxKart run on older hardware. But as mentioned above, you do need a more recent graphics card and driver. Especially if you have a more powerful graphics card, adjust the video settings till you find one that offers the best combination of looks and frame rate.
As usual, please note that blog comments are not approriate to get support, and that the forum is preferred for discussions and feedback (e.g. what graphical settings worked best with what card/driver/os combination).
You may find downloads for all major platforms here : https://sourceforge.net/projects/supertuxkart/files/SuperTuxKart/0.9-rc1/
Please enjoy! Report any bug you may find on the forum or on github, and remember that you can always help us with translating SuperTuxKart into your language!
Version française ici