Addondum

Let's see if I can survive even when using such a blatantly silly pun in the title. ;P

This month we saw the first release candidate of the upcoming 0.7.2 release, the main news being the integrated add-on manager. But unfortunately, there were a bug causing the game to fail in creating the necessary folders, creating some headaches and confusions as to what the problem were since not everyone had this problem. One could say that it's not good to release a version with a new feature when the new feature didn't work, but that's why it's called RC, right? We can probably expect a new RC in not too long, which will include the fix.


We've got a new kart in STK; meet Beastie, the mascot of FreeBSD. Thanks to funto for providing the kart and icon.

The big news, however, is the work on a new weapon for STK. That's right, we get even more fun gadgets to use on our opponents. The details and the model for the weapon is still a work in progress, and thus I'll only give a brief description. The hammer/swatter is a close-range weapon which you can mount on the kart by firing it. It will then stay for a set amount of time, or until it finds a target to hit. The target can either be a close-running kart, or a weapon on its way to hit you. If it's a kart, the hammer/swatter will hit it making the kart look squashed, and its top speed is halved for the amount of time it is squashed. If it's a weapon, it acts like a shield and defends against it ( but it only stops explosive weapons thus far). Hard to take a screenshot of how a weapon works, and the current model is only a placeholder, so I guess you'll just have to try it for yourself when the time comes.

There has been a lot of progress in the track and kart exporters for Blender 2.5x, such that most tracks and some karts have been converted to 2.5 in order to fix potential issues with the exporters and for setting up the .blend files to use the new integrated STK properties panel. This doesn't mean it's 100% safe for widespread use, but it's getting there.

Add in the usual bunch of misc fixes, and I think you get the picture: SuperTuxKart only gets better and better. ;)

SuperTuxKart 0.7.2 RC1 has been released

SuperTuxKart 0.7.2 RC1, the first release candidate towards version 0.7.2, has been released.
This version features the following main improvements :

• Added in-game addon manager ( see http://stkaddons.net/ )
• Fixed major memory leaks (STK will no longer saturate your memory after half a dozen races)
• New Snow Peak track by Samuncle
• Improved star track UFO by Rudy
• Show when you get a highscore
• Improve gamepad configuration under Windows (add ability to tell gamepads apart)
• Various other tweaks done and glitches fixed

You may found packages at https://sourceforge.net/projects/supertuxkart/files/SuperTuxKart/0.7.2/

Please test abundantly and report any problem you may have found :)

(In)visible improvements and addons

So, what happens for the time being in the exciting world of SuperTuxKart? Well, we're on our way to a 0.7.2 release, and while we can't give any dates for when it will be released, things look good. The previous releases had a few nasty bugs, mainly related to memory usage, so if you've found yourself short on memory after playing for a while there's reasons for that. Those should hopefully be fixed for 0.7.2.

The porting of the Blender scripts to be compatible with the Blender 2.5 API has also been prioritized, as well as misc fixes such as a recent audio code cleanup and an improved GUI layout algorithm. So while there's been less visible changes to the game lately, activity has continued in other areas. One pet peeve of mine related to the "Random track" button has been fixed - before you could often get the same track twice in a row, whereas now you'll always get a different one. And icons in the GUI, such as the zipper icon, will appear much smoother across various resolutions in the next release.

While I stated that less visible changes has occurred, there hasn't been a complete abundance either. Check out this funky new flying saucer in Star Track:

And this new version of Snow Peak, courtesy of samuncle:

As far as I understand it, samuncle intends to do some more work on the new Snow Peak. Thanks a lot for your continued effort on refreshing our tracks, samuncle. :)
While this is a very good improvement for a number of reasons, I still like the old track, so I will be sad when the old one gets thrown out. But I don't despair, stkaddons is here! sj04736, or Stephen for short, and hiker has been working a lot to ensure a better experience for addon makers and consumers.

So, what is this stkaddons anyway? stkaddons.net will be the site where addon makers can upload their creations (or others, if the licensing is correct), making them available for install from inside the game itself. The integration between stkaddons and the game will hopefully make it easier for artists to show off their work, and users will be able to install additional content without any kind of manual interaction. The addons will be moderated and checked for content and licensing before they become available in-game, so you will be able to let your kids play STK without fear of nasty surprises in the form of explicit addons. There is still no guarantee that stkaddons will be 100% safe (for example from malware), but we will do our best to ensure a good experience.

Will stkaddons allow for any license whatsoever? No - since we get free hosting from the awesome TuxFamily network, and they only do this for free software projects, we require all addons (including every texture and object in an addon) to be under a free license. To stay on the safe side, we recommend to use DFSG-compliant licenses. You are still free to share your "he told me it was okay to use it" type of addons, but not on the addons site we're supporting, and thus it will not be available to install without leaving the game. So please, consider licensing before you start on an addon.

Does STK "phone home" to stkaddons? Not yet. We might introduce some additional features such as ratings of addons, requiring some data to be sent from your computer. This would however remain completely anonymous. And for the time being, this is not an issue since it hasn't been implemented.

Is the site ready for uploads yet? Technically yes, but we would like you to wait with that since it isn't 100% ready. It will most likely be ready for 0.7.2, so when that is out, please share your (properly licensed) creations there.

Lastly I will mention that the domain supertuxkart.net points to the supertuxkart.sourceforge.net domain, while stkblog.net points to this blog. Hopefully a bit easier to remember and more convenient. :)

SuperTuxKart 0.7.1b Released

Somehow a major bug managed to creep into the 0.7.1 release, preventing you from completing challenges. Therefore we have just released SuperTuxKart 0.7.1b, which fixes challenges - please head over to our downloads page and sorry for the inconvenience!

Joerg and Auria (April 21, 2011)

0.7.1 for Windows Hotfix

Hi everyone,

unfortunately there was a major problem with the first Windows installer posted on our website : it included a version of STK that did not include all of the 0.7.1 commits. So if you are on Windows and you downloaded 0.7.1, please download again - the new package is called 0.7.1a.

Sorry for the inconvenience