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The free and open source racing game SuperTuxKart [Official Site] has officially released 0.9.3 which comes with a number of improvements.

The Release Candidate was out at the end of October, but now they've officially launched it ready for the wider public to enjoy. This new release adds in three new Karts along with one that was updated, reduced RAM & VRAM use, loading time improvements, two new tracks, various physics improvements and bug fixes, high quality mipmap generation, a built-in screen recorder and Karts now have exhaust fumes and headlights when it's dark.

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It's actually a reasonably big release for this lovely open source game. I tried out the latest release of course and it's quite impressive how far along it is and how polished it's starting to feel, to the point that I actually had fun. Love the bowling ball powerup—hilarious. I think my son will love this.

The sad news, is that due to legal reasons the game will see a delayed release on Steam. The SuperTuxKart developer stated they need to form a company for the game to get onto Steam and they're worried about liability for problems that the game may cause in extreme cases.

I'm actually a little surprised by this, as I wasn't aware you actually had to have a company of some sort to get a game on Steam, even a free one. I'm not sure if they have that exactly right, especially as there's other open source games on Steam, but it's what they said.

See the official blog post here for more info. You can download it here.

Once they sort out the legal issues with a Steam release and get online multiplayer working, this could be a pretty fun game to play with the community. Hopefully that won't take too long.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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9 comments

Perkeleen_Vittupää Nov 24, 2017
One has to have a company in order to have a game on Steam? Behind all those absolute worthless and untested excuses for games there is a company? Really?

Here's an open source (nowadays quality) game just about to reach considerably wider audience and an example how one could possibly also make bigger bucks through it..

Some powers in attempt to prevent the first gates from opening towards mainstream or what?
elmapul Nov 25, 2017
"It's actually a reasonably big release for this lovely open source game. I tried out the latest release of course and it's quite impressive how far along it is and how polished it's starting to feel, to the point that I actually had fun"

LOL finally some one said it.
but to be fair i tested one recent update and the gameplay was good.

being fun is the "bug 0" that every game need to fix.
lucinos Nov 25, 2017
I remember having a lot of fun with STK 0.6, that was a lot time ago and of course the game is a lot different now. (and heavier, I was playing 0.6 on really old computers, 0.8 and later need reasonable new computers)

I wonder how hard would it be for a "company" to be created with the porpuse for bringing open source games to greater audience, So folks from STK or Battle for Wesnoth or other games would need to do nothing themselves for platforms like steam.
Guy Fawkes Nov 25, 2017
Quoting: Perkeleen_VittupääOne has to have a company in order to have a game on Steam? Behind all those absolute worthless and untested excuses for games there is a company? Really?

Here's an open source (nowadays quality) game just about to reach considerably wider audience and an example how one could possibly also make bigger bucks through it..

Some powers in attempt to prevent the first gates from opening towards mainstream or what?

Legal issues haven't prevented them releasing on Google Play right away. What's the difference one might wonder.

GPL also says:

Disclaimer of Warranty.

THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. EXCEPT WHEN OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES PROVIDE THE PROGRAM “AS IS” WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION.

So what is the problem...
lucifertdark Nov 25, 2017
The point is if someone has an epileptic fit while playing & decides to sue, they'll be going after the company & any assets it has & not the assets of the people working for the company, would you like to see the developers lose their houses over it? It does happen to people who are self-employed & get sued, it's safer all round to set up an LLC, it doesn't cost all that much & they will easily make back those costs from Steam sales.
Cyril Nov 25, 2017
Am i the only one who have issues with shadows in-game ?
With my config (which isn't bad) it's locked at 30 FPS when activated (on Low), but the others settings are in Max except Motion Blur and DoF.
Without shadows, the game's running at 60 FPS.


Last edited by Cyril on 25 November 2017 at 7:28 pm UTC
Avehicle7887 Nov 25, 2017
Quoting: CyrilAm i the only one who have issues with shadows in-game ?
With my config (which isn't bad) it's locked at 30 FPS when activated (on Low), but the others settings are in Max except Motion Blur and DoF.
Without shadows, the game's running at 60 FPS.

Just tested it with full details on, including shadows, V-Sync off, FPS went 80+ on my system. I remember a game (Forgot the name) where it halved my frame rate when I turned on MSAA. Try playing with the game's AA setting and V-Sync settings, maybe it's a similar issue.
Arthur Nov 27, 2017
Quoting: GuestI just downloaded it and tried it out on my Debian Stretch rig with a Q9650 and 750Ti. It runs flawlessly with the graphics set to Ultra but I can't really tell the FPS cause the FPS counter it has is confusing. It says 29/29/29 or 39/39/39 or somewhere around there. It feels like its around 40 or sometimes 50 FPS.
Format is minimum/current/maximum.

Thanks for the article Liam, and hopefully 0.9.4 will get even more praise. :)
elmapul Nov 27, 2017
Quoting: lucinosI remember having a lot of fun with STK 0.6, that was a lot time ago and of course the game is a lot different now. (and heavier, I was playing 0.6 on really old computers, 0.8 and later need reasonable new computers)

put the graphics on minimum
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