LINUXGAMES

3dfx’s Joseph Kain sent out this release announcement:

There is a new Glide release for Voodoo2.

This release has the following bug fix:
- Glide2x and Glide3x now work with AMD Athlon processors.

The files Glide_V2-2.53-6.i386.rpm and Glide_V2-2.53-6.i386.glibc2.0.rpmare now available on the following page:

http://linux.3dfx.com/open_source/download/voodoo2.htm

Please follow the instructions on the above page to intall this package.

If you experience any difficulty installing any of these drivers pleasedirect your questions to the USENET newsgroup 3dfx.glide.linux.

Version 0.1.1 of Me3D, a 3D-modeling program to be utilized in the creation of OpenGL models for games, has been released by Sam Revitch. A screenshot is available here. Changes:

• Fully updated with Gtk+ 1.2 support and GtkGLArea widget
• Autoconf/Automake build environment
• Rudimentary support for surface-of-revolution surface type
• The MF1 file format handler is presently broken

Me3D 0.1.1 Source:
http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/samr7/me3d/me3d-0.1.1.tgz

Randi J. Relander sent in a release announcement to the SDL mailing list for his strategy game project Regimental Command. Changes in version 0.0.1:

• Preliminary GUI windowing system.
• Nonrectangular command console.
• Color mouse cursor.
• Mouse scrolling in radar view.
• Input grabbing.
• Window iconification.

Regimental Command 0.0.1 Source:
http://www-users.cs.umn.edu/~relander/regcom/regcom-0.0.1.tar.gz

Henrik Stokseth wrote in to announce the release of Othello version 2.1. Othello is an open-source reversi-style puzzle game.

Othello 2.1 Source:
http://thunder.prohosting.com/~hstokset/archive/othello-2.1-1.tar.gz

• Looks like the dual Rocket Arena mods for Q3A and UT aren’t far off… as crt updated the Rocket Arena site with an update on Q3A: Rocket Arena’s progress and request artists for the RA3 soundtrack. Furthermore, Brandon Reinhart updated the Rocket Arena: UT site to note that the next iteration of the mod will probably enter testing this weekend for public release at a later date.
• Epic’s Inoxx updated his site with several screenshots from an upcoming six-level UT map pack that will be released for free shortly (thanks zero).
• id CEO Todd Hollenshead updated his .plan to announce that details on the Q3A mission pack have been released to Quake3World and PlanetQuake; the pack will contain 12 new maps and 3 new gameplay types, as well as new player models, power-ups, and so forth (personally I’d rather stick with community mods and maps, but hey…).
• An interview with the legendary mercenary (and advisor for Soldier of Fortune) John Mullins has been posted by FragMag (thanks SoF Operations).
• Loki has added product pages for Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri and Soldier of Fortune.

Version 1.29 pre7 of Doom Legacy has been released. Changes:

• Support for TeamTNT’s Boom port
• More realistic coronas
• Better network support
• Much improved Linux version
• Much improved dynamic and static lighting
• Better decals (aka wallsplats)
• Bugs fixes

Doom Legacy downloads:
LinuxGames/3DDownloads
Sourceforge

Version 4.38 of AEstats, a server log parser, has been released. Changes for Unreal Tournament support:

• 3 new weapons are recognized: Chainsaw, Double Enforcers, Enhanced Shock Rifle
• 6 further suicides: Asphyxia, Crushed, Destroyed, RedeemerDeath, Suicided, shot

AEstats 4.36 Download:
http://aeons.gametown.de/AEstats/files/AEstats-v4.36.zip

AEstats 4.36 to 4.38 Update:
http://aeons.gametown.de/AEstats/files/AEstats-v4.38-DebianLinuxUpdate.zip

Version 1.4.4.3 of LsdlDoom has been released. Changes:

• Misc code cleanup
• Fixed SDL 1.0 incompatiblity
• Added -fasttimer option

LsdlDoom source: lsdldoom-1.4.4.3.tar.gz

Version 0.215 of the 3D driving simulation Car World has been released. This version includes slightly better network support and applies various patches sent in.

Car World source: carworld-0.215.tar.gz

Version 0.41.b5 of QT-based XMame launcher MAMECAT has been released. Changes include:

• added a new tab-dialog for the preview check output
• moved the preview-checker code from src/qmamecat/qmamecat.cxx to the new src/qmamecat/prvcheck.cxx
• the new dialog is non-modal and the preview-check process can be interrupted, analysis output gathered up to this point will be available; a “Refresh” button clears the data and restarts the preview checker
• the progress dialog for the preview checker is ONE instance again, reset in between the two passes
• the new dialog uses some Qt 2.xx features that are not compatible with Qt 1.4x, so we decided to only support Qt 2.xx from now on
• changed the docs accordingly
• successfully tested with xmame-0.37b1.2
• a small popup message is displayed for 2 seconds now when a game is started
• changed some accel-keys in the options-dialog (general settings) for uniqueness
• removed the “Hide” button from the progress dialog for the gamelist refresh and reimplemented the closeEvent() method for this dialog to be able to ignore close events while refreshing the list

MAMECAT source: mamecat-0.41.b5.tar.gz

• The Heavy Gear News Network updated noting that their have been reports of problems detecting Activision’s multiplayer Heavy Gear 2 servers; users have resorted to swapping servers.dat files, which seems to remedy the problem. Agent Grey has provided a replacement servers.dat file here, and Loki’s Michael Vance has posted one at

  http://lokigames.com/~briareos/servers.dat

• The Battlemasters Heavy Gear 2 League has updated with some new rules for conducting and reporting squad duels for ranking.

Also, if you’re looking for Heavy Gear CGI art for your desktop or something, Jose Perez, formerly of Foundation Imaging, has updated his personal site with a Heavy Gear gallery, as the HG TV show contract has been transferred from Foundation to Mainframe.

• An interview with Raven Software’s Kenn Hoekstra concerning Soldier of Fortune has been posted at 3D Action Planet. Incidentally, the Linux version of SoF will be going into beta shortly, so I’ll have some shots and impressions up as soon as it manifests itself.
• Daily Radar fired off an interview with Dynamix’s Dave Georgeson, who’s current project is Starsiege: Tribes 2. Daily Radar also have a preview of Tribes 2 that relates multiplayer enhancements over the previous game in the series.
• Finally, Gamelinks.net interviewed Funcom about their QT-based MMORPG Anarchy-Online, which should be in beta-testing by summer.

The Shugashack has linked several Voodoo 5 previews today which include the first benchmarks of the new card line from 3dfx. However, keep in mind that these benchmarks were made on alpha silicon boards with alpha drivers, and more accurate benchmarks should appear as the V5 nears release next month. Furthermore, Linux drivers for the Voodoo 5 won’t appear for at least a month after the initial release, so don’t rush right out and buy one the first day unless you’re patient :).

Nathan Rowlan forwarded this reply from Intel’s Edward Schmit concerning yesterday’s OpenML story:

We just announced the spec last week and no work has been done. Developmentwill be done by the member companies listed–in that sense it will not beopen, but this is no different than most open source code that thedevelopers need time to get it started. At the point the spec is readythen, we will want some standards to this such that will satisfy all of ourgoals. We plan this to be similar to OpenGL but have not made any decisionson code release. SGI, who named and developed OpenGL, is very involved withthis effort also. As far as the OpenAL, we are planning to contact them andtry to work with them. I do not know where you comments on monetary controlare coming from because no matter what, there will be no licensing fees ofany kind. This is just a bunch of companies who see the need for an APIlike this and are donating architectural talents to work on it.

In other words, it sounds like Khronos is still hammering out the preliminary details of their API and licensing policies; in the meantime, there’s always the Simple DirectMedia Layer…

Bob Zimbinski of the Linux Game Tome sent in the following update on his server situation (which also affects LinuxQuake.com):

Yes, the server was up briefly, but it didn’t come back up after I resetthe hardware clock and rebooted. *throws hands in the air*

In more pleasant news, I have accepted an offer from VA Linux for hostingon their SourceForge network. DNS was changed over last night, and I hopeto have everything back up by the weekend.

Although initially hailed as an “alternative to DirectX”, OpenML (being developed by the Khronos group, an alliance of several large computer industry vendors) is now appearing to be less of an “open” media library than its name would indicate. Initially, Mitch Allmond wrote in to the OpenAL newsgroup to comment on the proposed API:

Actually, this whole Khronos/OpenML thing is looking really bad for linuxusers. For one, the groups that are doing OpenML are planning on making itclosed source and developers will be required to pay for a license to getthe SDK. Second, they do not plan on using OpenAL at all. Third, this willcause major problems with linux and mesa. If things continue the way theyare going, I see this as hurting linux and setting it back further than whatit currently is. We all need to voice out our opinions to them now beforeit’s to late.

Loki president Scott Draeker sent this in response to the list:

The more I hear about OpenML, the more convinced I become that OpenAL isnecessary. Not only will the OpenML license likely be closed source androyalty based, but they aren’t even scheduled to have an API until 2001.

Of course we’ll continue to communicate with the Khronos group, andhopefully they’ll come around on these important issues.

SpeedX, a non-3D-accelerated racer for X, 0.1.2c has been released; changes include the addition of music and a start(ing?) line.

SpeedX 0.1.2c Source:
http://www.isty-info.uvsq.fr/~medernac/SpeedX-0.1.2c.tar.gz

A new alpha release of QuakeWorld Forever beta 3, an effort to end QW cheating online through encryption, is now available; changes include:

• – Fog
• – Coloured dynamic & static lighting
• – Smoke & new particle system
• – Transparency support
• – NO model colouring, for speed reasons. Will play with later :)
• – Skybox support
• – 32bit skin support, in alpha testing (not so good atm)
• – A few speed tweaks, probably not noticable, just to offset theeffect of the other enhancements.
• – view_ofs (MegaTF)
• – Flymode (MegaTF)
• – Larger limit support (bigger qwprogs.dat size, map valuesincreased, etc)
• – Customisable reject message
• – Enhanced key hiding, and packet checking to prevent piggybacks

QuakeWorld Forever Beta3 (Alpha) Source:
http://www.qwforever.com/downloads/qwf_source_0.03.tar.gz

Dynamix’s Rick Overman, who is currently developing the multiplayer sci-fi combat game Starsiege: Tribes 2, wrote in to the OpenAL mailing list to request a division of header files, as he is implementing OpenAL support into Tribes 2 (OpenAL mailing list archives are available at news://news.lokigames.com/loki.open-source.openal:

For those developers who will be dynamically loading OpenAL DLL’s or sharedlibraries it would be very clean to have function definitions and type/enumdeclarations in separate headers. al.h and altypes.h is a perfectseparation.

I propose that alc.h, alu.h & alut.h have a corresponding alctypes.h,alutypes.h aluttypes.h headers.alc.h would then include alctypes.h, etc, etc. this would be backwardcompatible with the existing codebase.

I am currently integrating OpenAL into Tribes2 (dynamically loading the DLLof course) and the fact that type and function declarations are mixed in theheaders is causing me some anguish.

Unfortunately, the Tribes 2 Linux client is still up in the air, but perhaps the addition of OpenAL support will make releasing the client more feasible for Dynamix/Sierra. Thanks to Nelson Rush for the news.

Graphics Muse has published an article in which they name Loki and and Sam Latinga one of the The Top 20 Influential People, Products and Companies in the Linux Graphics Marketplace. They cite not only Loki’s leadership in the game porting market, but also open source contributions from Sam and the gang like SDL and SMPEG.

(Note from Crusader): Several other important individuals, companies, and projects were also mentioned, including Dirk Hondel, ATI, 3dfx, NVIDIA, Daryll Strauss, and Mesa.