LINUXGAMES

The Wine Success Stories section has been updated and now includes entries for both Caesar III and Dethkarz. There are a bunch of Caesar III screenshots included as well.

The XRacer team has updated their Frequently Asked Questions page with information on recent development; issues regarding compiling issues, bugs, and supported platforms are all addressed there. Also, version 0.82 has been released, you can download it from http://xracer.annexia.org/xracer-0.82.tar.gz.

PC.IGN.com is running an article which gives an overview of the recently announced features that will be found in next-generation 3dfx chipsets. T-Buffering, with full-screen spatial anti-aliasing, motion blur, depth of field, and soft reflections/shadows, is demonstrated in a few screenshots and MPEG’s available for download. This technology will presumably be available in 3dfx Linux drivers as well.

The free implementation of Windows under Unix, Wine, has released a new developer version. The Changelog for 990731 includes:

- Separation of spec files into their respective DLLs.
- Still more painting fixes.
- Many SHELL and COMMDLG improvements.
- Lots of bug fixes.

Make sure you check out the Wine Success Stories and e-mail us if you have any additions.

Version 0.9.0 of XQF, the Quake/QuakeWorld/Quake2/Quake3 server browser for Linux/X11, has been released. Changes include:

- Major code clean-up.
- Redesigned Preferences -> Games dialog to include all the supported games.
- Option “client should grab mouse” is dropped. If someone needs it, I’ll undo the changes.
- Added Q3A statistics.
- A lot of bugs are fixed.

The source for 0.9.0 can be downloaded at ftp://ftp.linuxgames.com/xqf. Version 2.3d of QStat is also required.
There is also a new message board to discuss issues and problems you might have with it.

The Linux Game Development Center has posted two new articles for you to peruse this weekend: Christian Reiniger has updated his open-source game project management tips list to include some suggestions recently mentioned on the LGDC mailing list. Also, Philipp Gühring, author of Würstelstand, has written a tutorial for Dialog, the user-AI conversation utilized in his trading-simulation.

The Loki Portal Page’s Revie has taken a few screenshots of Loki Entertainment Software’s Linux port of Railroad Tycoon 2. The screenshots are located at http://revie.com/rrt2/, and show the introductory screen and some gameplay shots.

Wayde Milas wrote in with word of his Linux XFree86 Performance and Benchmarking. The site currently lists 2D XFree86 perfomance tested via x11perf for the Millenium I, the G200, the Voodoo 3, the Viper 330, the TNT STB Velocity 4400, and the TNT2U Viper 770. Wayde states that he is currently in the process of setting up 3D performance data, so be sure to send him some feedback and data on your X11 setup.

Loki Entertainment Software has released a demo version of their soon-to-be-released Myth II Linux port. The demo is available for both Intel and PowerPC platforms and weighs in at around 60 megs. The mirror list for the demo can be found at

http://209.223.115.151/products/myth2/demo.php3

Myth 2 is an excellent 3D real-time tactical game, so be sure to give it a try before the retail release August 9th.

UPDATE: The LinuxGames mirror is located at ftp://ftp.linuxgames.com/myth2_demo/

Loki Portal Page Mirror
http://loki.linuxgames.com/~loki/myth2-demo-x86.tar.gz
http://loki.linuxgames.com/~loki/myth2-demo-ppc.tar.gz

id guru John Carmack updated his .plan today to comment on the lack of a Mac version 1.07 Q3Test release, and note that a new build may be released as early as Monday for all 3 platforms:

I apologize for not getting the Mac version released this last time.

All conspiracy theories aside, here is what actually happened:

I had my San Jose travel scheduled a while ago, and we were expectingto have the release done before I left. We didn’t quite make it, andnobody else at the office knew how to build the mac version afteCash made some last minute changes.
When I got back, Graeme was taking off to move his family down here.Graeme is in charge of building all the installs for our releases.
I considered just tossing new executables with the latest fixesfor everything, but some data has changed, and it just isn’tworth the hassle right now.

We will be making proper new releases for all architectures mondaynight when he gets back.

He also tacked on his latest worklog:

* fixed marks fading properly in fog volumes
* show weapon in fov >90, adjusting position down as needed
* allow run/bob variables to be changed in non-cheat games
* update scoreboard info while at intermission
* fixed angles on resetplayerentities, corrects twitch on
players as you come through a teleporter or respawn
* print “waiting to play” for tourney spectators
* fixed tied rank with 0 score and spectators
* return to roaming spectator when a followed client quits or spectates
* release windows cursor when running windowed and the console is down

Following up his Linux Quake 1 article, Redbeard has written a new review for Games Weekly covering the Linux build of Q3Test. Redbeard gives an overview of Quake 3: Arena, examines the installation, configuration, and performance of version 1.07 test release, and concludes with a nice endorsement.

Version 0.1.2 of Pingus, the Clanlib-based Lemmings clone, has been released. 0.1.2 changes:

• A bogus main menu
• Some changes in the particle handling
• Some more error catching
• Rewrote the plf reader
• Changed the level file format
• Much more error checking while reading the level file
• Some bugfixes
• Colmap are now loaded from pcx files
• Automatic colmap generation on bitmap maps
• Some internal changes
• An Armageddon button
• Some changes in the Armageddon function
• A level description screen

The source tarball can be downloaded from

http://dark.x.dtu.dk/~grumbel/pingus/pingus-0.1.2.tar.gz

Thanks to the Game Tome for the news.

The 3dFinger doing the auto finger checking has found an update to John Carmack’s .plan file, which contains a fresh worklog for us to view. Before you write to id Software with a bug report for Q3Test make sure to check out this list.

* log all client transitions, item pickups, and kills
* changed joystick axis to act just like arrow keys so theycan be bound in the controls menu for strafing.
Yes, this does remove slow walking from joystick movement,but it makes everything a lot cleaner.
* fix up PantherXL trackball support
* removed bad clear command from dedicated console clear button
* tournement queuing of spectators to enter the game
* track wins and losses as long as you stay on a tourney server
* spectators are now in fly mode instead of noclip, and use teleporters
* pass serverTime instead of msec for command timing, preventstimescale cheating
* track dual eventParms on player state
* draw crosshair and name in spectator mode
* fixed rcon
* r_colorMipLevels texture visualization tool
* don’t allow weapon select and cycle when in follow mode
* archive cl_yawspeed and cl_pitchspeed
* don’t draw place line on scoreboard when spectating
* fixed console chatting during intermission
* better recursive error handling
* fixed curve surface flags (no impact when landing on a curve bug)

The Crystal Space dev team has announced that a pre-release of version 0.14 is now available. There are many changes in Crystal Space, a multi-platform open-source 3D engine, 0.14r000, so be sure to send bug reports to Jorrit Tyberghein so they can be fixed before the official 0.14 release. You can download the new source code from 0.14 pre-release page.

Ridah has fired off another beta release of the Kingpin client/server binary for Linux. Fixes in 1.15:

+ made server 100% backwards compatible, but detects new clients, and uses new features accordingly (more names on scoreboard, less bandwidth, etc)
+ lengthened intermission time
+ bullet weapons don’t gib live players

Due to the new backwards-compatibility, Ridah is encouraging all server operators to try 1.15 in dedicated mode.

Files:
kingpin-1.15beta_glibc-1.i386.rpm
kingpin-1.15beta_glibc-i386-unknown-linux2.0.tar.gz

Thanks to natas for the news.

Kind of off topic, but if you’re looking for some Myth 2 art for your X11 background, Craig Mullins, a big Bungie fan, has produced 2 high quality pieces for Myth 2 promotional material available from his Goodbrush portfolio site:

Soulblighter
Thrall

PlanetStarSiege has conducted an interview with Dynamix’s Mark Frohnmayer about his work on the upcoming Starsiege: Tribes 2. Among the questions was the now-standard-query regarding a Linux client port:

PlanetStarSiege: Do you think it likely that there be a Linux client port in addition to the server port?
Mark Frohnmayer: We’ll see… it’s definitely possible. If it doesn’t make it in time for the boxed release we may release the binary on the net.

I saw on the newly designed Loki Entertainment website that Upside Today has done an interview with Scott Draeker called ‘Open Season’. Some very interesting points and a little discussion about the new partnership with Terra Soft Solutions concerning porting games over to the PowerPC Platform.

The Freeciv site updated with news that the source code to the popular open-source Civilization II clone is now browsable. Thanks to Reinier Post you can view, search, and compare the source files for Freeciv versions 1.7.2, 1.8.0, 1.8.1, and the CVS tree. If you haven’t tried Freeciv yet, you can get the current stable source tarball from
ftp://ftp.freeciv.org/freeciv/stable_version/freeciv-1.8.1.tar.gz

The folks at flipCode have posted a review of the open-source 3D engine Crystal Space, which is being utilized in projects such as Time City. The in-depth review lists the engine’s features, runs through some system benchmarks, investigates its stability (under Windows), and explains the environment’s visual appeal. The article (written by Luke Hodorowicz) is well-researched, so be sure to give it a read. Thanks to Voodoo Extreme for the SITREP.