April 27, 2024

On the way towards 1.5... and 2.0!

Some history

SuperTuxKart 1.0 was released 5 years ago, on the 20th of April 2019. With the introduction of online multiplayer, among many other changes and improvements, it marked a pivotal moment in the history of the game.

Afterwards, it was decided to commit to a policy of version compatibility: instead of making breaking changes that would prevent online play between different 1.x versions or would make it impossible to compare records between versions, game mechanics and tracks have been kept functionally identical, with very few exceptions (such as expanding some checklines).

Instead, the focus of development has been centered on improving all the other aspects of the STK experience. Releases from 1.1 to 1.4 have featured, alongside numerous bugfixes and UI improvements, many significant enhancements.

Some of these were very visible, such as the release of new arenas and kart models, all tracks included inside mobile releases, the introduction of render resolution scaling, a basketball minimap indicator, a brand new cartoon skin, customizable font size, new respawn animations of track items, etc.

Others have been more discreet but no less important, such as support for IPv6 servers or the adoption of SDL2 (improving compatibility with gamepads, simplifying ports to new platforms and more). The overall changelog contains more details.


SuperTuxKart 1.5 is coming this summer

A year and a half after the release of version 1.4, SuperTuxKart 1.5 is finally around the corner. The list of changes that will be included is not yet finalized, but it brings some notable improvements, such as:

  • Allow to configure STK’s maximum FPS within the game’s options, instead of being limited to a maximum of 120 (30 for Android). The game’s physics, running independently from the framerate, remain at 120FPS.
  • New LoD (Level of Detail) settings to reduce "popping" for a minor performance cost. As STK is fairly easy to run on modern systems, this is an appreciable quality improvement.
  • A new benchmark mode
  • Finer control of the game’s audio levels
  • And of course the usual minor bugfixes and improvements
The new framelimiter configuration and integrated benchmark

There are always many further enhancements and fixes that we would like to see in the next release, but the STK team wants to bring all the existing improvements to the players sooner than later: the release of STK 1.5 is expected this summer.

But this is not the most significant announcement in this blog post.


SuperTuxKart 2.0: an ambitious project

After the release of 1.5, development efforts will officially switch towards SuperTuxKart 2.0, featuring major gameplay changes and more significant track updates than any single STK release in the last fifteen years.

A 1.6 release featuring some backported bugfixes and improvements may happen, but providing a new major release will be the project’s priority.

The 2.0 version will feature a minimum of five new high-quality standard tracks, improved versions of all existing tracks, alongside considerable changes and improvements to all the elements of gameplay.

A substantial proportion of these changes already exist in an experimental branch I created at the end of 2023, coming back from a long break, to start implementing and testing them. This branch, which will be merged in the main development codebase after the release of 1.5, already features major revisions, such as three brand new powerups and a new kart class. Future blog posts will elaborate on the various changes and features coming for 2.0.

An early showcase of one of the new powerups


On the track-making side, efforts are led by Sven Andreas Belting, our lead artist and designer of Black Forest. He is working on several new track projects (many already quite advanced), as well as updates to several tracks, be they graphical or, in coordination with myself, related to gameplay. Typhon306 is also providing significant help.

A preview of two of the new tracks


Our aim is to significantly raise the standard of visual quality for tracks included in SuperTuxKart 2.0, while also providing improved polish and gameplay.

As versions following STK 2.0 will also follow the compatibility principle, we aim for a particularly high-quality for everything that will remain the same in 2.1 and other 2.x releases. Beyond the kart properties, physics, powerups, and obviously standard tracks, this includes things such as a new AI, more fun to play against, and a brand new Story Mode. Nonetheless, we would also like to lift other parts of the game; for example better performance from the engine and progress on the Vulkan renderer, improvement of non-racing modes, refreshing the GUI, featuring some new musics, or an improved addons system.


A labor of love

We are very excited for this, in the genuine sense of the word exciting, that soulless corporate-speak sometimes makes us forget. It is difficult, however, to provide a solid estimate for when this major release will happen. The SuperTuxKart project is alive, has a clear vision and is moving towards some important milestones, but it is also a project of passion carried by a small team.

It is still moving forward because contributors (most having spent more time playing the game than we would like to admit) want it to become better. Its free software licensing allows interested people to contribute.

But this also means that, unlike commercial games, the STK project cannot pay dedicated full-time developers and artists. It often feels better to do something for free, willingly,  for the sake of a work well done, than to do it for a paltry amount of money; and recruiting freelancers to do some things while key contributors investing much more time get nothing also seems wrong. Raising enough funds from the community to truly change this approach has always seemed too far-fetched.

The story of STK is that of the successes of free software games, but also of their struggles.

Hence, to make SuperTuxKart a better game and to reach the 2.0 release sooner, the most important thing we need are new contributors, be they helping with a few specific things or with many. Artists who could contribute new textures, 3D modelling, music, icons; developers who could implement features, fix bugs, improve the code structure or work on the engine; contributors willing to improve documentation, create content advertising the game or meticulously report bugs: there is no shortage of things that could help.


Final words

This blog featured no updates since 1.4’s release, as the activity around the project slowed down until my comeback, and other contributors of the project were not inspired to write. We want to avoid such a hiatus happening again.

I will try to provide in this blog, every one or two months, an update on SuperTuxKart’s progress: future plans, detailed presentation of a new feature, etc.

30 comments:

  1. Thank you very much for all you efforts! I really enjoy playing the game and spending some time with my kids. Looking forward to the new releases.

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  2. Awesome, I thought there wasn't any new updates going to be released.

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  3. Which karts will move to addons from standard in 1.5

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    Replies
    1. There is no new kart currently planned for 1.5, so no current standard kart will move to addons.

      Delete
  4. Exciting!! I really admire your effort and work, and i love the concept und the game itself.
    Looking forward to 1.5 and esspecially for 2.0!
    Thanks for this posting!

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  5. Will there be first person in version 1.5 or 2.0?

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    Replies
    1. There is currently no plan to introduce a first-person camera view, which is usually more suited to racing simulations than to kart games with unrealistic physics and where some awareness of what's right behind you and next to you is more critical.

      However, if there is sufficient demand for this feature, it could certainly be considered for 2.0 or another future version.

      Delete
  6. Let's goooooo ~LX2023

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  7. That's awesome! Let's Gooooo

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  8. I like these implementations. I would try it out on any mobile phone

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  9. Since now finally the current standard kart was moved to addons in 1.4 was Beastie. Godette will be stay in standard currently

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    Replies
    1. Which tracks will be the brand new ones?

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    2. Thank you very much for you work. I (and the kids) really appreciate it.

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  10. Great. I like Supertuxkart very much. Hope it develops easy and fast. Thank you for your great work :)

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  11. Which karts will be updated, revamped or new version of a kart

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  12. Great we love this game, very happy to see an update

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  13. Absolutely despicable gameplay ever, ever since introducing this stupid "skidding speedup". Not only mentioning that the game is already too hard even on the easiest difficulty, but from average player perspective this is something totally impossible to enjoy (and beat when AI starts using it, especially against you), unless you put a bit too much of your life on learning how to play, or are a developer yourself. In early game versions (<0.7 ...0.8) playing was enjoyable regardless of your experience and tracks were simple enough and, most importantly, fun. Now the focus seems to be on pouring as much distracting eye candy bloat as possible and adding various ways to make player suffer even more. You guys took the wrong turn.

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    Replies
    1. Thankfully nearly all STK players, including casual players, manage to beat at least the easiest difficulty, and they like things you dislike such as higher quality visuals.

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    2. Ive been playing this game with my son since he was 6 (he is 8 now), and he never had a problem with the skidding boost.
      We found the learning curve through the difficulty levels quite adequate.
      The only reason why we stopped playing was the lack of new content, and I'm sure we will take a look into 1.5 and 2.0 once they are available.

      Delete
  14. SuperTuxKart has been the only racing game that I play to this day, ever since I discovered it two years ago. Excited on the upcoming 2.0 release.

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  15. Great! but I still have questions...
    Will future versions of STK have interface skins similar to the current "Cartoon" (stl icons, background)?
    Will characters that were low quality be replaced with higher quality characters?

    Sorry for this English, I used Google translate.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. STK 1.5 will feature several new variations of the Cartoon skins using different colors. There is no plan for a completely new skin.

      New higher quality karts to replace some of the outdated ones are among things we would like to deliver for 2.0.

      Delete
  16. Great! But does this mean there will be no version 1.6, 1.7 .... Will the changes be that big? And I have a slightly different question: Will the interface skins take an example from Cartoon? (icons, background, colors). Regards G-Speed.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There may be a 1.6 featuring some bug fixes, but not much else. Maybe not.

      Changing major version and breaking compatibility allows us to make a lot of change to areas of STK that have not changed since the release of 1.0, so yes the changes are really significant.

      Delete
  17. Thank you for such a great game! Looking forward for the 2.0 version

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  18. Good stuff. Been enjoying this game a lot and can't wait for 1.5.
    Though just wondering, for potential 2.0 suggestions... would it be possible to add more customizability options to the audio side of things?

    Like the ability to play multiple songs on the main menu (so it's not just the standard STK theme), and the option to add custom horn sounds and voice lines to karts you make (akin to something like SRB2Kart for the latter). I feel like options like those would really benefit the game and give people more things to customize beyond just karts and tracks.

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  19. Great. This game accompanied me through the entire Phd journey. Happy to see it's going toward 1.5 and 2.0!

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