LINUXGAMES

Reader Feld noticed on Creative’s Open-Source site mention of both X-Fi (Creative’s current line of sound cards) and more interestingly EAX support. Linux has never had EAX (3D hardware accelerated audio effects), and this would be a great boon to Linux gaming:

The X-Fi series of products are not supported under Linux. Closed-source drivers will be available for the X-Fi series of sound cards in the second quarter of 2007. These drivers will have full support for ALSA (playback, recording, mixer, MIDI, synthesis) and OpenAL 1.1 (with EAX effects).

Of course the closed-source nature of the drivers will probably upset RMS; we’ll see if this plan of added support comes to fruition. The X-Fi series’ main benefit is the on-board RAM of the top model for storing samples and whatnot locally to the card.

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing out that Bioware has released a new premium module for their Dungeons and Dragons RPG Neverwinter Nights, Infinite Dungeons. The module is a departure from their previous effort, the story-driven Pirates of the Sword Coast, in that it boasts 20+ hours gameplay based largely on the randomly generated dungeons feature, similar to the classic roguelike NetHack.

The module is available for download now from the Bioware online store for $7.99; the Linux version is 212 MB. Infinite Dungeons requires a working internet connection for authentication, Neverwinter Nights, Shadows of Undrentide, Hordes of the Underdark and the latest 1.67 patch. There’s also a trailer and screenshots to help you decide whether the module is for you.

It was also just announced (in a somewhat dramatic manner) that this will be the last premium module for NWN1; likewise, it was subsequently reiterated that the next patch, v1.68, will be the last update for the now four-year old game. The next previously planned premium module, Wyvern Crown of Cormyr (which was being developed by the DLA team), will now be released for free at a later date. Furthermore, there’s still scores of user-created modules and other free content for the game.

The Linux hardware site Phoronix has a new article up examining AMD CPU’s which utilize Socket AM2:

After having presented our preview of the AMD Socket AM2 last week, today we finally have our first set of numbers ready to publish. Our first Linux AM2 performance report comes in way of the AMD Sempron 3400+ and AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+.

Linux Game Publishing has announced that X²: The Threat is now available and shipping to customers and retailers:

X2: The Threat is now available! Orders areshipping right now. If you want to try it out first, a demo is available for you to download here.Check out our resellers list for the bestprices!

Version 0.2 of Blob Wars: Blob and Conquer, a 3D action game and the second episode of the Blob Wars Saga, is now available for download from Parallel Realities. Changes:

• 9 playable levels
• On-screen auto aim targetter is easier to follow
• On-screen auto targetting indicator
• Enemies are auto locked by default
• Player’s shots now lead the current target
• Oxygen implemented whilst underwater
• Simple shadows on most objects
• Pushable puzzle blocks
• A couple of new weapons
• A few new enemies
• Proper light shading on doors, lifts, etc.
• MIAs to rescue
• New items such as C4, weapons for Teeka, Teletags
• Sentry guns added

Screenshots: [ View ] Download: [ Blob Wars: Blob and Conquer 0.2 ]

Version 0.12 of Boson, an OpenGl real-time strategy game, has been released. Changes include:

• Shadows. Units and terrain can now cast and receive shadows.
• Radars. A completely new, much more realistic radar system has been implemented that allows for several independent radar stations as well as different radar types.
• Ammunition. Units can make use of ammunition now. Most units have an infinite amount of ammunition, but the feature is there. This sets the grounds for several interesting possible unit types.
• Power Plants. The power plant unit has been in Boson for a very long time – now they actually generate power! If a player has insufficient power, several tasks (such as building new units) take more time.

The Boson team is also recruiting; if interested, please contact them.

Screenshots: [ View ] Download: [ Boson 0.12 ]

The Linux hardware and game site PCBurn has posted a review of three Linux games: Triplex Invaders, a vertical shooter; Maniadrive, an acrobatic track racing game; and Lost Labyrinth, a roguelike RPG.

GPL Arcade Volleyball version 0.9.0 was released recently; it includes several new features, including better network game handling, preference saving, and joystick support. GAV is a SDL remake of the DOS game Arcade Volleyball, with added themes and networking support.

Screenshots: [ View ] Download: [ GPL Arcade Volleyball 0.9.0 ]

Three Rings (who also developed the Linux-friendly MMORPG Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates) has announced the start of an open beta testing period for their new massive multiplayer tactical strategy game, Bang! Howdy. You can also read the development blog or the features page. Please note that the game requires Java 1.5.

The UFO:Alien Invasion team is searching for new members in coding, modeling, mapping, translation, and storywriting positions. UFO: AI is an X-COM-like game based on a heavily modified Quake 2 engine. Contact information can be found here.

If interested, you can get a headstart by reading the content creation tutorials.

Sillysoft Games has announced a charity fundraiser for Memorial Day: 100% of the proceeds from the computer game American History Lux from now until Friday, June 2nd will be donated to the Carter Center, which seeks to “wage peace, fight disease, and build hope.”

Version 0.1 of Warsow has been released. Warsow is an arena style game that focuses on fast-paced gameplay and allows trick jumps and has a power-up system that includes weak and strong fire modes for each weapon. The game is based on the Qfusion Engine, which is an enhanced Quake 2 engine.

Screenshots: [ View ] Download: [ Warsow 0.1 ]

xmame/xmess, a port of MAME, which is a Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator, has been updated to version 0.106. The changelog from this release includes the following items:

• Everything from MAME 0.106 and MESS 0.106
• Reverted a change that was intended to work around some Metacity focus misbehavior but was causing all window managers to have focus problems in fullscreen mode.
• Fixed a link error for messtest. (Arnaud G. Gibert)
• The clean68k target now removes libcpu.a, which fixes link errors for successive builds made without a full clean. (Arnaud G. Gibert)
• Fixed an alignment bug in the OpenGL driver which caused Defender and possibly other 16bpp games, to be skewed.
• The mouse is no longer automatically grabbed in fullscreen mode. Bugzilla bug 877.
• Replaced fuzzy game name comparison with the method used by MAME for Windows, which lists approximate matches when an exact match isn’t found.
• A BadMatch error should no longer occur for the OpenGL target in some cases, such as when 16bpp mode is used with recent releases of the binary NVIDIA driver.
• Fixed the tiny build target. (Mike Frysinger)
• Added CFLAGS for the Blackfin CPU. (Mike Frysinger)
• BUILD_ZLIB and BUILD_EXPAT can now be disabled without having to edit the makefile. (Mike Frysinger)

Download: [ xmame/xmess 0.106 ]

Name/Version: GPL Arcade Volleyball 0.9.0
Summary: GPL Arcade Volleyball is an SDL remake of the old DOS game Arcade Volleyball for several platforms (currently Linux, Windows, BeOS and Mac OS X are supported).
Screenshots [ View ] Download [ GPL Arcade Volleyball 0.9.0 ]

Name/Version: TappyTux 2.2.0
Summary: TappyTux is a children’s educational game suite, created originally for a project by SchoolNet Namibia. The game is Free Software, and all the artwork and sound are under GPL compatible creative-commons licenses. The interface and game code have had a massive overhaul, sound and music support was improved and the game was modularised to allow many different game types to be played on the same engine. The current version ships with two modules, tappywords (a typing tutor) and tappymath (an algebra game).
Download [ TappyTux 2.2.0 ]

Name/Version: Wah!Cade 0.10
Summary: Wah!Cade is a front end for the MAME arcade game emulator, and has been designed with arcade cabinet controls & projects in mind.
Screenshots [ View ] Download [ Wah!Cade 0.10 ]

Today Google launched Picasa for GNU/Linux, a WINE-based port of their photo management software. These comments from the wine-devel mailing list may be of interest to the LinuxGames readership.

One may use WINE to either create a native GNU/Linux executable, linked against winelib, or to execute a Windows-native executable. Google chose the latter (emphasis added):

Many people assume that when porting a Windows app to Linuxusing Wine, the best thing to do is link Winelib into theapplication to create a native Linux application. Not so!It’s just as effective, and a heck of a lot easier, to runthe same binary on both Windows and Wine. So that’s what thePicasa team did. Picasa for Linux uses slightly differenttext messages, but the .exe file is identical for both Windowsand Linux.

On the subject of packaging, we continue to see the profound effects of Loki’s free software efforts (emphasis added):

One interesting challenge when shipping commercial apps forLinux is packaging — do you choose RPM or Debian packages,or do you use a WIndows-style installer? The Picasa forLinux team chose all three, in hopes of pleasing everybody.(Let’s see how well *that* works :-) The Windows-styleinstaller was implemented using the open-source Loki installer,and a few patches were contributed back for that, too.

That’s the news. The rest is my opinion.

I’m a fan of Google but I am disappointed that they’ve chosen to go with this form of GNU/Linux support. WINE proponents will say that this is a necessary first step toward native support, and they could be right. However, with the momentum going in this direction, I would argue it will be more difficult to change direction to GNU/Linux-native in the future. Resources that could have been invested in a GTK+ or Qt port of the product are already invested in the WINE code.

Worse, however, is the example that this sets. Any company researching a GNU/Linux port of an application or a game will see what Google did and some will follow the Google example. Is that the long-term solution we really want?

Version 0.9.14 of Wine, the free implementation of Windows on Unix, has been released. This release contains the following changes:

• Better MS/RPC compatibility.
• Many fixes to Direct3D shaders.
• Several improvements to the header control.
• Lots of bug fixes.

Download: [ Wine 0.9.14 ]

The Linux hardware review site Phoronix has already posted a review of ATI’s most recent display driver revision:

It was only last month that ATI had unveiled its Radeon X1000 series support under Linux. On that April 12 launch, Phoronix was there with coverage, and a handful of articles that had looked at its performance and various features. As was hinted at in those articles where the TV-out support had ceased to exist, we mentioned that ATI would be bringing this support back in an upcoming release, as well as other features. Well, today is the day. ATI’s fglrx 8.25.18 display drivers bring yet another handful of new Linux features to the table, and we at Phoronix have you covered.

ATI has released version 8.25.18 of their display driver for Linux32-bit and 64-bit x86 systems. The requisite changelog can be found in the release notes:

• Support has been introduced for:
  • FireGL V7350
  • FireGL V7300
  • FireGL V7200
  • FireGL V5200
  • FireGL V3400
  • FireGL V3350
  • FireMV 2200 (single card configuration)
• Xorg 7.0 is now supported by the ATI Proprietary Linux installer.
• This release of the ATI Proprietary Linux driver now enables Display Power Management Signaling (DPMS) support in the software display driver by default. The option to disable DPMS support is still available to users by referring to aticonfig –help.
• User locked pages are no longer supported on AGP variants, the internal AGP GART is not available anymore either.
• Many resolved issues like hangs with several running X servers or toggling between virtual console and graphical mode.

ATI also maintains a FAQ page for thedriver.

Download: [ ATI DisplayDriver 8.25.18 ]

While we await more detail on Sony’s Playstation3 Linux implentation, you may be interested in perusing the documentationSony and IBM have already publicly released regarding Linux and the Cell processor, the PS3’sCPU (the Linux kernel supports Cell as of v2.6.16.1):

• SCEI’s Cell Broadband Engine site,which has a publicdownload section with links to architecture and specification documentsand development tools.
• IBM’s CellBroadband Engine resource center, which includes the CBEProgramming Handbook and tutorials.

Ideally, Linux developers will be free to create interesting homebrewapplications and games with off-the-shelf PS3 units; what’s been made available todate seems like a good start.

Moustache man sez: Not as tiny as your wiiner! And also… five months after their major upgrade, the X.Org Foundation announced the first “roll-up” release X11R7.1 of the modularized branch.

This release integrates the X extension AIGLX along with the new GLX extension GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap, kdrive DDX for multiple X servers on slow hardware, enhanced performance of the acceleration architecture EXA which makes better use of XRender, and updated graphics drivers. See the Summary for more.

Meanwhile the release of X11R7.2 is planned for 17. November 2006 and should add a hotplug system for input devices and support for more platforms among others.

Download: [ X11R7.1 ]