LINUXGAMES

A new version of the ever-so-cool flight simulator Flight Gear has been released. This release incorporates many changes and bugfixes, such as:

• Tools for parallelizing the scenery building tasks. For instance by using 20 Linux machines in parallel, scenery for the entire USA can be regenerated in just over 4 hours vs. 70+ hours on a single machine.
• Texture scale can be specified (and changed) in the materials file. The sim must be rerun for the change to take effect.
• Windows version now uses plib joystick code so rudder pedals should work.
• FGFS now builds against Steve Baker’s plib
• Source code changes for better compiling with the Borland compilers, and with MacOS and IRIX.
• You can now fly across the international date line.

Believe me, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Go grab it now and start flying!

John Carmack updated his Q3 worklog again this morning:

* basic joystick controls
some work still needed for advanced controlers
* r_dlightBacksides 0 option
* forced cvar_restart when version changes
* fixed some flare-in-fog problems
* fixed skin color in menus
* print obituary message even when you are the killer, so all
kills get an entry in the logfile
* fixed bugs in line token parsing when quotes or commands aren’t
white space separated
* multiprocessor acceleration “r_smp 1″
* increase menu dimming
* increased rocket damage radius from 120 to 150 units
* check for running server in all server commands (dumpuser, etc)
* new cvar cheat setup — by default, only archived
variables can be changed when not cheating
* “cg_drawstatus 0″ only removes status bar
* “cg_draw2d 0″ removes all 2d

J Webb has written an article detailing his E3 impressions. Webb scoured the expo for Linux-related news and announcements, and queried the developers and publishers about their plans for supporting Linux in the future. He also covers non-Linux-related news from E3, such as console developments and PC gaming in general.

Ludus Design has released version 1.0 of their multiplayer Linux tetris game Quadra. Quadra is shareware, with a US$10 registration fee after 30 days. It features:

- 10 levels with colorful background images and matching sound effects
- Worldwide highscore table with recordings of your best performances
- Fully configurable multiplayer mode with team play
- TCP/IP support for internet or LAN multiplayer games
- Server administration tools to keep everything under control

Quadra is available in RPM format from http://ludusdesign.com/download.

Eh, our former comrade-in-arms, has returned to the Linux Games staff from his self-imposed exile. He will resume his updating routine shortly, and the entire LG staff welcomes him back warmly :).

Macmillan Software is now taking online orders for the Linux retail versions of Quake 1: The Offering and Quake 2: Colussus. The ordering pages state that Linux Q1 and Q2 are in stock, and retail for $39.95 US and $49.95, respectively. The release of the retail Linux versions for both id titles had been announced at E3. The news-whirlwind Kornel fired this one in.

Gamespot is running an “Instant Poll” on their main page asking their readers if “With its speed and flexibility, would you consider making the switch to Linux?”. So far the poll has had over 2300 responses, with around 49% claiming they would consider moving to the Linux operating system. Thanks Xolox.

Linux3d.net’s Kornel, who has been really hunting up news today ;), wrote in with word that Creative Labs has released version 1.0 of their Voodoo Banshee drivers for Linux. The gzip’ed drivers are available from the Creative FTP site.

The Linux Game Development Center is running an article covering the development of XShipWars, the open-source “space-themed universe engine designed exclusively to be played through the Internet”. The article, written by Taura, “highlights each stage of XShipWars’ development and gives specifics and issues with Linux game development via the X Window system.”

Riptide has released version 0.07 of X11Spy, his GTK+ based Quake 3 server browser. There has been some code restructuring and new master servers are now saved between sessions. The latest source:

ftp://ftp.linuxquake.com/pub/misc/x11spy/.

Version 3.1 beta 2 of the Mesa 3D Graphics Library has been released. Changes in this beta include “some optimizations specifically in the Q3A rendering path”, so be sure to grab it if you’re using Q3Test. The tarballed source tree for 3.1b2 is available at ftp://ftp.mesa3d.org/mesa/beta/. Thanks to Kornel for the news.

Lionhead lead designer Peter Molyneux has stated in an IRC question and answer session held on 3dnet #lionhead today that Lionhead will attempt to port their upcoming sim Black and White to the Linux platform:

(Peter_M) yes: we hope to do a lixus[sic] version, and we are also considering a Mac version, simple if it were not for the 1 button mouse.
(Peter_M) wh|2: Yes The Linux will be in a sepperate box cos we will not do the conversion until the end of the game

Dark Fiber has released version 0.4.5 of the Sarien AGI Interpreter, which allows classic Sierra titles to be played under Linux. Changes in this release:

- Better SVGALib support
- Minor graphical fixes
- Mixed Up Mother Goose works again now.

The 0.4.5 source tarball is available from http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~entropy/agi/sarien-0.4.5.tar.gz.

Kornel of the Linux 3D Gaming Initiative wrote in with the news that the GLX Acceleration for XFree86 and Linux page updated with news of a Linux MGA-G200 GLX Module site complete with binaries (Debian and RPM), FAQ’s and a mailing list. Linux3d.net also has a blurb about the Riva Enlightenment Project, an attept to get nVidia to release “register-level programming info for the Riva TNT and Riva 128 chipsets”. In a similar vein, Vidar Hoel also wrote in with news of his nVidia Linux driver petition to expedite nVidia’s TNT2 driver release and encourage development of Riva 128 drivers.

Slashdot is reporting that Nintendo has switched into heavy-handed-evil-corporation mode and managed to cause the shutdown of Snes9x.com, the home of the open-source Super NES emulator. Snes9x developer Jerremy Koot states that Nintendo has made the claim that “emulators are illegal” and have posted a legal (bleagh) FAQ at http://www.nintendo.com/corp/faqs/legal.html.

UPDATE (1999-05-23 10:38:14)
Dave’s Video Game Classics is reporting that Snes9x has found a new host (no word yet on who it is) and will be returning shortly.

Release 11 of the Crystal Space beta 0.13 is out… changes in this new version:

- Dynamic LOD for triangle meshes with vertex morphing
- MazeD runs again and can save/load (but is not fully stable)
- Optimized triangle drawing
- Implemented lightmaps on curves! MUCH improved lightmap precalculation (use ‘-recalc’ to see the effect)
- Other platform specific fixes and optimizations

The new source tree (as well as documentation, levels, and extra utilities) is available from the Crystal Space download page.

Vicarious Visions programmer Chuck Homic has written a detailed explanation of their plans for the Linux port of Terminus, Vicarious Visions’ upcoming space combat game. In it, Chuck states that although the Linux port is still in the early stages of development, they will most likely utilize Mesa to implement their Exodus renderer under Linux, which might prompt the release of the Exodus engine source under the LGPL. Thanks to Maniac for the heads-up.

David Nordlund has released version 1.1 of Snes9express, his gtk-based front-end for Snes9x. The changelog for 1.1:

- Added support for features of snes9x-1.19
- The profiler now works with multiple profile selections
- Fixed the configuration scripts, it should compile with versions of GTK >= 1.2.1 now

The 1.1 source tree can be grabbed from ftp://ftp.linuxgames.com/snes9express/.

id programmer John Carmack made a follow-up .plan update regarding his work implementing SMP support in Quake 3: Arena. Carmack states that the only thing still broken under the SMP build is light flare support, and the SMP-related code cleanup has optimized Q3 for single-processor systems as well. He then went on to describe the benchmarks under the new build for his NT dual-CPU system:

On my development system, a dual 300 mhz intergraph realizm II, the low restimedemo scores went from 27.8 to 37.8 with “r_smp 1″. This is only a 35%average speedup, but at some times (lots of dynamic lights in complex scenes)the speedup is 90%+. Gameplay is noticably smoother.

The rendering thread is almost always the blocking factor, so the faster thecard and OpenGL driver, the larger the speedup will be.

This is explicitly a two thread producer / consumer, so there is no benefitto more than two processors. The app is well behaved, using sleepingsyncronization so that you usually still have half a processor free for otheroperating system functions.

Hopefully we will be able to test with some fast consumer cards sometimesoon.

Carmack also explains his earlier attempts to implement SMP support and the technical issues one must deal with when considering whether multi-threading will give useful optimizations for a particular project.

Beta 2.1 of LibGGI 2.0 has been released. LibGGI is part of the General Graphics Interface project, which aims “to develop a reliable, stable and fast graphics system that works everywhere”. The changelog for 2.0b2.1:

- Better autoconf checking for some targets and other bugfixes
- fbdev target uses acceleration on kernel-native matroxfb
- better mode-switching for non-kgicon fbdev drivers
- svgalib target enhanced
- X target fixed for remote displays with different endianness as well as small enhancements for LibGII (especially for the Linux-Console input).

The gzip’ed tarball is available from ftp://ftp.ggi-project.org/pub/ggi/ggi/2_0_beta_2.1/.