Looks like Heavy Gear 2 will have some company on Linux:Version 0.51 of the open source 3D mech game LinWarrior 3Dhas been released; screenshots are available here.
LinWarrior 3D 0.51 Source:
http://rhp-supporter.purespace.de/linwar3d.tgz
Version 0.8 of the Game Tool Chest library is now available; changes include:
GTC 0.8 Source:
http://gtc.seul.org/gtc-0.8.tar.gz
Joey Reid wrote in with word that theParsec site updated to announce that theself-running demo will be available soon; furthermore, a newscreenshot has been added to the site. Also,Beth Wasden of A Talent for Warsent in news that they’ve posted four shots from the upcoming demo; they are available at
http://www.atfw.net/screens/parsec/parsecdemoshots.html
id Software’s David “Zoid” Kirsch, who created the original Quake CTF mod andwas responsible for id’s Linux ports, updated his.plan last night to announcehe will be leaving id at the end of the month:
In September of 1996, I made a small modification to the popular id Softwaregame Quake and called it ThreeWave Capture the Flag. That simplemodification grew into the last three and a half years of working withid Software and the Quake community. The job that id Software gave meover this period has been very rewarding. It has also been a lot of fun.I have enjoyed watching the community grow. I was also overwhelmed athaving been able to work on a series of some of the most amazing games evercreated. But, like all good things, it must come to an end.
I feel that I have learned a lot in my time with id, but I find myselflooking for new challenges. I have decided that in order to pursue them,I must leave my association with id Software. Having done so, I planon exploring new opportunities.
My contract with id terminates at the end of this month (Feb). Myzoid@idsoftware.com address will probably stop forwarding to my permanentaddress shortly after that. My permanent address iszoid@threewave.comfor people that wish to reach me.
I would like to thank id Software (and especially John Carmack) for givingme such great opportunities, and allowing me to work with all the talentedpeople there. I am going to miss it.
In March, I will begin a new position at Retro Studios,http://www.retrostudios.com/.I look forward to joining the team there and working on some exciting newprojects.
So long and thanks for all the captures.
/// Zoid.
More Soldier of Fortune news today:
Game Center has wordfrom Epic Games that theUnreal Tournament bonus pack will be released today as an exclusive premiere at their site (expect mirrors to appear shortly after its released). Furthermore;Unreal Universe has a list of issues that will be fixed in UT version 406 (obviously, Windows-specific items such as D3D fixes don’t apply to the Linux version).
id’s John Carmack updated his
Some people took it upon themselves to remotely wreck Slade’s development system. That is no more defensible than breaking into Id and smashing something.
The idea isn’t to punish anyone, it is to have them comply with the license and continue to contribute. QuakeLives has quite a few happy users, and it is in everyone’s best interest to have development continue. It just has to be by the rules.
Happy Puppy (one of the web’s older commercial game news sites) has posted an article this week titled Playing With Linux. It is general overview of gaming on our platform of choice, including its history and current status. The article addresses both open source games and commercial games; thanks to Loki for the heads up.
Joseph Kain of 3dfx passed along the following two Linux Glide updates:
Voodoo Banshee/3 Announcement
There are new Glide releases for Voodoo Banshee, and Voodoo3available. This Glide release is for use with the stand alone(non-DRI) based drivers. These drivers should be used in conjunctionwith XFree86 3.x.This new release has the following bug fixes:
- Initialization sequence now properly initializes X connection
- This fixes level restart problems in MythII
- This fixes resolution changes in UnrealTournament
The files Glide_V3-2.60-15.i386.rpm and Glide_V2-2.60-15.i386.glibc2.0.rpmare now available on the following page:
http://linux.3dfx.com/open_source/download/voodoo3_banshee.htmPlease follow the instructions on the above pages to install thesepackages.
If you experience any difficulty installing any of these driver pleasedirect your questions to the USENET newsgroup 3dfx.glide.linux.Again note that these releases do NOT work with the DRI/XFree86 4.0
Voodoo Graphics Announcement
There is a new Glide release for Voodoo Graphics available.The new release has the following bug fixes and features:
- Shutdown sequence now properly shuts down all Voodoo boards.
- This may fix problems experienced in restarting the video in some games.
- New library naming convention
- libglide2x.so –> libglide.so.2
compatibility symlinks are provided.The files Glide_VG-2.46-5.i386.rpm and Glide_VG-2.46-5.i386.glibc2.0.rpmare now available on the following page:
http://linux.3dfx.com/open_source/download/voodoo_graphics.htmPlease follow the instructions on the above pages to install thesepackages.
If you experience any difficulty installing any of these driver pleasedirect your questions to the USENET newsgroup 3dfx.glide.linux.
Loki updated their news page with word that Mike Sullivan has found that a program called lxrun will play (Loki) games under Solaris. Lxrun is a user-space program that allows users of various operating systems, including Solaris, to run ELF and a.out Linux binaries. For more information, take a look at www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~steven/lxrun.
Version 0.0.8 of The Penguin Machine has been released. The changes in this version are:
TPM Source: ThePenguinMachine-0.0.8.tar.gz
Version 0.29 of phpLanParty has been released. If you are interested in a preview of this LAN party management tool, take a look at their test run.
phpLanParty Download: phpLanParty-0.29.tar.gz
Version 2.12 of OpenGUI has been released. Changes since the 2.11 prerelease include:
OpenGUI Source: OpenGUI.tgz
Two Soldier of Fortune items today courtesy of SoF Operations:
id Software’s David “Zoid” Kirsch was kind enough to point out a workaround for the “Error: Z_Free: freed a freed pointer” issue that’s cropped up with the recent Quake 3 patches:
<Zoid> CrusadeR: Don’t type or move the mouse during level changes.
<Zoid> I can’t reproduce it. I think it’s a libc issue.
id Software’s John Carmack provided some additional commentary last night on Slashdot regarding the QuakeLives controversy:
There are valid, legal ways to provide a level of protection equal to closed source binaries (which is really only a level of obfuscation).I realize that they (proxies / loaders / obfuscated modules) may be more of a hassle, but he doesn’t get to choose to break the license to avoid ahassle. I traded several emails with Slade over the past month, and I still have a degree of sympathy for his position, but I can’t just let him walkaround the code license.
All the conspiracy theories about me wanting to destroy the Quake community are silly. I loved what happened with the DOOM source release,and I hoped that the Quake release would have similar effects.
John Carmack
The Race development team wrote in to announce the release of version 0.1.0 of their 2D overhead automobile game. Changes:
Race 0.1.0 Source:
http://netti.nic.fi/~race/race-0.1.0.tar.gz
Version 4.3 of the itcl-based MUD client SMM++, or Selim’s Magic Mapper, has been released. Changes:
SMM++ 4.3 Source Download:
http://smm.mudcenter.com/downloadunix.phtml
Brandon Reinhart updated his .plan concerning the frustration of being the only one at Epic to grok MST3K (as a side note, the Joel years were orders of magnitude more amusing than Mike’s stint on the SOL):
Apparently I’m the only person in the office who understands Mystery Science Theatre 3000. It is indeed a challenge to work with such small minds.;)
Nicholas sent in this rather cryptic personnel request:
Kosmos Online, an open source Linux game project that I’m not going to tell youabout right now (you can probably guess from the name that it’s an online RPG),is currently looking for modellers, skinners, and a web site designer/admin,all of whom are comfortable with the Linux operating system. This project hasbeen alive for six months and has survived a motorcycle accident, breastcancer, and massive quantities of homework, but we are loathe to reveal ourefforts because (A) we’re all hardcore programmers and have no real modellingskills, and (B) our web site sucks. It sucks so much I’m not going to tell youwhere to find it. (Besides which, it’s out of date)Anyways! (koff) ahem.
No money, but this could attract a lot of attention in the near future (hordesof Everquest addicts will migrate!), and I will happily dole out wonderfulletters of reference. Anybody interested, drop an e-mail to vining@pacificcoast.net.