LINUXGAMES

Vasileiou Nikolaos has releasedversion 0.3 of the Utopia 3DVisualization/Game Engine(changelog);several screenshots are also available.

Utopia 3D 0.3 Source:
http://download.sourceforge.net/utopia3d/utopia3d-0.3.src.tar.gz

Version 0.2.5 of Nautix, a 3D real-time strategy game,has been made available. 0.2.5′s feature set:

• Simple roleplay: You are a character in the game, called an Avatar, who has special properties and interests. It is only a staticcube and sphere for now, but this will change quickly.
• Multiplayer: Using Zombie, you can already join a game, create teams and see each other.
• Planets: Nautix is real 3D, even the battlefield is a large sphere. A level consists of 1 Planet.
• Chat: Using the chat, you can speak to all or to selected persons as well as gather information.

Nautix 0.2.5 Source:
http://download.sourceforge.net/nautix/nautix-0.2.5.tar.gz

Version 1.2.3 of the Java MD3 Model Viewer has beenreleased; changes for this iteration of the Q3A model tool can be readhere. Linux Java packages are availableat the Blackdown JDK project’s site (and GL4Java can be found at http://www.jausoft.com/gl4java/).

Java MD3 Model Viewer 1.2.3 Download:
http://fragland.net/md3view/download.html

The WolfPack Entertainment development team has a new site at http://wolfpack.twu.net/; the WolfPack has worked on several gaming-related open source, includingXShipWars, a space strategy game. Further information on the teamand their efforts can be read here. Finally,they’ve released a playable version of their latest project,Search and Rescue, a SAR helicopter sim(source).

The XFree86 development team has announced thatthey have made their CVS repository (including the source tree for the current 4.x series)accessible to the general public. Instructions for accessing it are located at

http://www.xfree86.org/cvs/

Furthermore, there are several mailing lists one can join to follow development as it proceeds;descriptions of each list and instructions for joining are locatedhere.

Dean Hamstead of theBrotherhood of Network Gamers wrote in to requesthelp in developing IntraLAN, acomprehensive Perl/SQL-based system for LAN parties. Current features include:

• User Authentication based on Cookies
• Users can be restricted to the individual function level
• Ability to set exactly what a user can do through permissions
• Ability to actively change/edit a users permissions
• Ability to add/edit/view/delete users
• Add/delete important links to the latest mods / files etc…
• Fully integrated Jukebox, modified to include permissions

If interested in helping with the project, contact Dean at dean@penrithcity.nsw.gov.au.

IntraLAN 0.1:
http://members.optusnet.com.au/~k_finn/intralan/intralan-20000629.tar.bz2

Evil Smokin’ Dude of Evil3D.nethas produced a HOWTO for the Linux versionof Unreal Tournament. The document includes links to dependencies,detailed instructions for installation and applying patches, and addresses common questions and problems.

Furthermore, there’s also the OpenUT project, the effortto improve the Linux-specific UT source code released by Epic;their HOWTO is located here.

Matt Matthews has posted a preview of Loki Entertainment Software‘s next port: Soldier of Fortune, the secret military mission-oriented FPS based on the Quake II engine. The preview is based on Matt’s participation in the beta testing of SoF. In the preview, Matt states:

With its collection of relatively realistic weaponry (most are incendiary or projectile firearms), Soldier of Fortune reminds me a great deal of Action Quake 2. My observation has been that people either love or despise AQ2, and as one of the former, it is great to see AQ2-type action brought back to the masses. And while I do object to the level with which the violence in Soldier of Fortune is portrayed, I will admit to the guilty pleasure of enjoying SoF multiplayer.

After a few beta releases, Version 1.11.0 of the GPL’d Civilization 2 clone Freeciv has been released. Changes since 1.10.0 include:

• Internationalization extended
• Added full Fog of War
• Added explicit Diplomatic States between civilizations: war, neutral, no-contact, cease-fire peace and alliance
• Allow terrain changes to/from land/ocean
• Increased maximum number of players to 30
• Fortifying now takes a turn to complete (like Civ1/2)
• Added correct Civ2 style of Apollo wonder
• Aggressive sea units no longer cause unhappiness when in a city
• Added Civ2 rule that firepower is reduced to 1 for both the defender and the attacker when a ship bombards a land unit
• Improved the global warming danger indicator
• Added warning of incipient city growth
• Added “fixedlength” server option to make all turns exactly “timeout” duration
• Added goto for air units
• Improved goto algorithm and implementation
• Improved map and unit movement drawing code
• Added “End Turn when done moving” local option
• City production penalties now applied more correctly
• Added Sentry and Fortify to Present Units’ City Dialog pop-up
• More nations added
• Improved network code for more reliable connections
• Split nations.ruleset into individual .ruleset files
• Lots of bug fixes and code cleanups.

Freeciv 1.11.0 downloads:
bzipped source: freeciv-1.11.0.tar.bz2
gzipped source: freeciv-1.11.0.tar.gz

The Parsec news page has been updated announcing that the monthshot for June has been posted. This shot shows off a Bluespire (ship) using a photon cannon, a very powerful weapon in Parsec. For more information on this upcoming space-combat sim, visit parsec.org.

Version 0.16r002 of the 3D engine Crystal Space has been released. Changes include:

• Glide renderer did not compile because of some missing definitions for pure virtual functions.
• There was a compile bug in CSWS (csTree) due to a class definition that was private and being accessed from outside the parent class.
• Fixed the bug that could cause severe problems when loading a world for which the octree isn’t valid anymore. The partially loaded octree was not cleaned up properly.
• Worked around a bug which could cause dynamic lights to overwrite memory. This bug mainly manifested itself in the room.zip level.

Before you download this, however, be aware of a bad bug in this version that was found soon after its release. The fix consists of adding a single line to the source and recompiling, so if you feel up to the task, go the the Crystal Space news page and read the details. A new version fixing this bug will likely be released when Jorrit, the CS author, gets back from LinuxTag.

The 0.5.8b release of the Advanced Linux Sound Architecturehas been made available; changes include:

• minor corrections in the YMFPCI driver
• CS4236 updates (added new ISA PnP ID)
• mixer update
• ES1968 driver fixes (detection, deadlocks, memory management)
• ICE1712 driver updates (S/PDIF setup)
• Opti92x/93x updates
• sequencer code updates
• changed EMU10K1 rear volume handling

ALSA 0.5.8b Download:
ftp://ftp.alsa-project.org/pub/driver/

John Gowin sent in word that LinuxOrbit has reviewedGnomeHack(screenshot),a GNOME/GTK+ port of theoriginal Nethack. The review covers installation,basic gameplay, and some hints towards recovering the vaunted Amulet of Yendor.

• Release 201 of the Q3SDK (essentially beta2) has been released. This version of Q3Radiant is in sync with the Win32 build 201.

  Downloads:
  ftp.lokigames.com
  LinuxGames/3DDownloads

• Version 1.3.0 of Setup, Loki’s graphic game installation program, has been released. This version includes misc improvements and internationalization support (German, Spanish, French, Italian, Swedish included).

  Downloads:
  ftp.lokigames.com
  LinuxGames/3DDownloads

• Gamers Depot has published an interview with Loki president Scott Draeker. The interview covers Loki’s mission, the selection of games ported thus far, the future of Linux third party porters, Loki’s relationships to game developers, and the benefits of gaming under Linux.

• LinuxMall has published an article on Loki, specifically based on the recent announcement that Loki will be porting MindRover: The Europa Project to Linux. The article includes background on MindRover and CogniToy (the games developer), as well as quotes from other sites’ reviews of the game. (Thanks to Linux Today)

• games.tucows.com has published an interview with Loki programmer Sam Lantinga. The interview covers Sam’s past, what he has done for Loki, the birth of SDL, Maelstrom, challenges involved in porting, how it is decided what ports are made, and more.

(Update from Crusader):

• The open-source advocacy site BeOpen conducted a dual interview with Loki president Scott Draeker, and the Crystal Space 3D engine’s Jorrit Tyberghein, concerning the continuing debate over open-source game development. Both interviewees address the issue of artistic involvement in the genesis of a game and how it affects “open” development, and what models of game creation are the most efficient (and profitable)… Scott also makes what can be considered a call to arms to those wanting a larger Linux gaming library (vote with your dollar/pound/yen/deutschmark/etc.):
  

  Building the Linux game market is also the responsibility of Linux users. They have to stop buying Windowsgames. If you buy Windows games, the market will reward you with more Windows games.

  All this is made all the more relevant by Lionhead’s Peter Molyneux stating he intends to open-source his upcoming god game Black & White.

Indrema has released a shot of their new designconcept for the L600Linux-based console system aimed at the home user market (the old design can be seenhere). There haven’t beenmany specific details regarding this venture as of yet, but we’ll keep you postedas events develop.

In an IRC chat (run by MadOnion) with the 3D Realms developers working on Duke Nukem Forever, Chris Hargrove addressed the issue of a Linux port for the upcoming Unreal Tournament engine-based game:

02:11 <gene_MOM> <crosma> What support does 3DRealms have for the Linux O/S?

02:12 <ChrisH3DR> We aren’t focusing too heavily on Linux support right now, at least not in-house, although that might be something we farm out in the same way as console ports (although it’d be a simpler task). That’s still up in the air.

The Linux Game Development Center has published an interview with Robert Ruehlmann – the new Angband maintainer. The interview covers Robert’s history with the Angband project, his job as maintainer, development, the various ports, development and supported hardware, and Angband’s game rules.

Games.Linux.com has posted a press release from Vicarious Visions stating that the epic space combat RPG Terminus is now shipping. To order the game, go to Vicarious Visions’ Online Store.

As soon as you receive your copy of Terminus, you will want to patch it right away up to version 1.2. There is also a patch for the demo to bring it up to v1.2. These patches include:

• Added GameRanger support
• Fixed gauntlet docking bug
• Added force software mixing option, snd_force_softmix, to work around bad soundcards

Terminus 1.2 patches:
Retail Version: TerminusLinuxRetailPatch12.tar.gz (600 KB)
3ddownloads Mirror
Demo Version: TerminusLinuxDemoPatch12.tar.gz (500 KB)
3ddownloads Mirror

On a slightly related note, LinuxMall.com has published an article on Vicarious Visions which focuses, of course, on Terminus and Terminus’ history and development. (Thanks to Linux Today)

NOTE from Crusader: This title is something of a milestone, in that A) this is the first non-Loki-published mainstream retail Linux game B) It’s the first title to include binaries for Linux and other supported platforms all in one retail box.

Last week, the O’Reilly Network (a ‘net news venture fromO’Reilly & Assoc.) posted a series of three articles with the commontheme of “OpenGL Game Development on Linux”: Creating Real Time 3D Graphics With OpenGL,Preparing to Build an OpenGL Application, andOpenGL Rendering and Drawing, providing an overview of the 3D API’s history, purpose, and basics.

The articles inspired discussion in a Slashdot thread, in which id lead programmer John Carmack weighed inwith his opinions on the future of OpenGL in game development:

DX8 is good. Microsoft has a long history of shipping an initially crappy product (DX3), then aggressively improving it until itis competative or superior to everything else. Many people underestimate the quality of microsoft’s products by only formingopinions on early versions, and never revising them.

The crucial advances of DX8 are the vertex and pixel shaders. I think that the basic concepts are strong, and they will give realbenefits.

I expect that that functionality will be exposed through OpenGL extensions by the time I need it.

For one thing, DX8 is modeled pretty closely on Nvidia’s hardware, and Nvidia’s hardware is already fully exposed throughtheir register combiner extension, even somewhat moreso than under DX.

The issue will be finding consensus between the other hardware vendors.

The upside is that not all hardware designs are exactly in line with DX8, and some usefull and interesting features exist that DX8 doesn’t expose. It is looking like several hardware vendors are making moves to expose ALL of their functionality through OpenGL extensions to be available when the product ships, rather than at the next DX cycle.

The other issue is still portability. I am 100% committed to delivering our next title on linux and MacOSX (NOT MaxOS-9), inan effectively simultanious timeframe. That would be more troublesome if I was gung-ho for DX8.

I’m happy that microsoft is doing a better job, but I don’t feel that I will be in a disadvantaged position continuing to work withOpenGL.

So there it is… the next Doom will be released for Linux nigh-simultaneously with the other versions, just asQuake 3: Arena was. Unfortunately, not all developers have Carmack’s financial freedom to do the Right Thing,and multi-platform compatibility may become even less of a priority for most developers when Xbox rolls around,as Raven’s John Scott points out in his.plan:

Referring to Mr Carmacks .plan, and presuming the XBox will be a much larger market than the PC for games (likely). I must also say all of the following is pure speculation =)

If the XBox does support OpenGL, then that will put NVidia in control of the development of OpenGL for the PC. They will be able to lead from the front and pretty much decide how the API develops in the future. If the XBox supports feature Y, then all other card manufacturers will have to, or get left behind. Responsibly used, this control could be a very good thing for OpenGL.

It is likely that the XBox will be the primary format for most games, and the PC will be of secondary concern. I think this will mean that the minimum spec for PC games will shoot up to somewhere around the XBox, and then stay there until XBox sales taper off. We can code some scalability in, but there is only so much we can do; especially if the PC is the minor market.

Cross platform compatability is exactly what MS do not want. They want exclusivity to their console, or at the very least exclusivity to their OSes. They will make money from XBox game sales, and do not make any from PC game sales. MS could kill OpenGL support on the XBox for exactly this reason. The biggest reason for them not to do this is Mr Carmack’s plan update today. This was their original plan for DirectX, tocharge a royalty for its use. OpenGL saved us there too.

Not checking later versions of MS products : guilty. The last time I looked into DirectX was over 2 years ago, but it did leave such a bad taste in my mouth that I am not eager to relive that nightmare, ever. I really ought to force myself though.

Even if Xbox turns out ot be a successful platform, if NVIDIA can muscleOpenGL support into the console, it would bode well for future Xbox/PC to Linux ports at the very least(although Direct3D to OpenGL ports are not impossible, i.e. Heavy Gear 2 for Linux)… something to mull overas this drama plays out over the next several months.

Version 1.1.7 of Advanced Strategic Command(no, the game’s motto is not “Peace is Our Profession” ;) ), a multiplayerturn-based strategy game,has been released. Changes:

• Fixed a bug that crashed ASC when trying to ascend with an aircraft near the border of the map.
• Fixed a bug that crashed ASC during replays.
• Fixed cursor movement in text fields
• The graphic set for a map is now selectable in ASC too

ASC 1.1.7 Download:
http://www.asc-hq.org/download_linux.html