LINUXGAMES

A reader sent in the following concerning Last Man Standing, a cooperative multiplayer modification for Doom 3:

For anyone hosting a Linux dedicated LMS server the talented folks have a fix for running it with the ROE mod. BTW the LMS team is extremely caring and supportive, as the fix demonstrates.. sure would be nice if commercial game companies had support like theirs!

The thread in question can be found here.

Tux Paint, an open source drawing program for young children, has just received a major update. Version 0.9.17 includes many feature improvements:

• support for SVG-based stamp imagery
• an interface for cycling through the hundreds of stamps
• the ability to input Japanese and Korean characters using the Text tool

Download: [ tuxpaint.org ]

The Free Software Foundation has announced the release ofversion 3 of the venerable GNU General Public License(version 2 was drawn up way back in 1991):

“Since we founded the free software movement, over 23 years ago, the freesoftware community has developed thousands of useful programs that respect theuser’s freedom. The programs are in the GNU/Linux operating system, as well aspersonal computers, telephones, Internet servers, and more. Most of theseprograms use the GNU GPL to guarantee every user the freedom to run, study,adapt, improve, and redistribute the program,” said Richard Stallman, founderand president of the FSF.

Version 3 of the GNU GPL strengthens this guarantee, by ensuring that userscan modify the free software on their personal and household devices, andgranting patent licenses to every user. It also extends compatibility withother free software licenses and increases international uniformity.

There’s been a lot of political wrangling over this iteration of the license,which honestly I’m not familiar enough with just yet. There’s a FAQ page from the FSF, butI was wondering how many readers that have open source game projects areplanning on moving to GPL v3. Please elaborate in the comments below, andthanks!

A new build of the open-source multiplayer deathmatch FPS Warsow is out. The changelog isfairly lengthy, but here are some highlights:

• Added BattlEye Anti-Cheat Engine, supporting both Windows and Linux
• Added Team auto-balance
• Added possibility to save stats to a file after match has been finished
• Made Riotgun’s shot denser, Plasmagun damage upped slightly, EB damage increased, RL splash radius increased/min damage decreased
• Made bots reaction time slower
• Changed CA scoreboard damage-based
• Fixed missing spawn sounds
• Fixed fatal error on a configstring overflow
• Wdm11 remixed, with brand new textures and theme, and slightly changed other maps

Screenshots: [ View ]Download: [ warsow.net ]

Version 7.0 of the Mesa 3D GraphicsLibrary was released late last month (looking back, the last time wementioned this project was way back in 2004… whoops). Changes include:

• OpenGL 2.0 and 2.1 API support.
• Various bugfixes
• Some texture code consolidation and simplifiction (Ian Romanick)
• R300 driver clean-ups.

Download: [ mesa3d.org ]

The QuakeCon site has been updated witha tournament rundown:

The NVIDIA Championships at QuakeCon 2007will be ground zero for never-before-seen gaming competitions with the firstsanctioned tournament of id Software’s new landmark game, Enemy Territory:QUAKE Wars; and the first ever “Quad Damage” tournament spanning all fourQUAKE games. The tournaments will take place during the 12th annual QuakeConwhich is being held at the Hilton Anatole Hotel in Dallas from August 2-5.More than 6,000 gamers from around the world are expected to attend thefour-day event. The total QuakeCon Championship Tournament purse will be$100,000, courtesy of title sponsor NVIDIA.

[...]

Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars makes its tournament debut at QuakeCon 2007. 32teams will compete in the incredible battles between Earth’s Global DefenseForce (GDF) and the invading alien Strogg. Each 6-person team will battle itout in a double-elimination bracket-style tournament, with each team havingthe opportunity to both attack and defend. With a focus on objective andclass-based gameplay, Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars will test each team’sability to combine skill, strategy, and teamwork in tournament play like neverbefore.

This year brings a new twist to QuakeCon’s classic 1 vs. 1 competition withthe inaugural Quad Damage Tournament. Spanning all four QUAKE games, thisyear’s champion will need to be a master of a variety of weapons, maps, andplay-styles – from QUAKE’s lightening fast action and dominating rocketlauncher, to the more strategic gameplay and precision weapons found in thelater QUAKE games. 256 contestants will be divided into 4 man groups with eachplayer battling the others in a set of round-robin 1 vs 1 matches. Two phasesof round robin play will reduce the competition down to the top 32 players,who will then battle it out in a single-elimination, best of 3 bracket todetermine who is truly the QUAKE Master.

TheOpen Source Activist has posted a review of DropTeam, TBG Software’s real-time tactical simset in the far future which was released commercially for Linux last year.

Stendhal,a MMORPG developed with the Arianne multiplayer game system, isnow at version 0.61. Changes:

• Houses in Kobold City (Wofol) have opened their doors
• NPCs in Kobold include a weapons trader and a mountain dwarf who needs errands running
• Ados Barracks buys good armor, shields and legs
• Ados haunted house got a basement and a resident ghost who wants to know about other spirits
• Quartermaster of Mithrilbourgh army requires boots and helmets
• Make fish pies in Fado
• Minor fixes to drops and maps
• Added GM /gag command, to silence players, works like /jail
• Add Push so you can push players, creatures, etc…
• Make a Wish at Wishing Wells, to get money, gold nuggets, gems, wood, etc
• Added several new creatures for levels 30-90: sheepmen, frogmen and several undead creatures.

Screenshots: [ View] Download: [ sourceforge.net]

Version 0.9.40 of Wine, the open-sourceimplementation of the Windows API that allows you to run Win-native games (andother things) on Linux, is out. The changes of chief concern here are someDirect3D fixes.

Download: [ winehq.org ]

Platinum Arts, the developers ofthe Doom 3 mod Last Man Standing, have released Sandbox beta 1.1, which allows multiple players to cooperatively edit and interact with the game world in real-time:

Platinum Arts Sandbox is the sandbox game that is easy enough for kids to use but fun for everyone! Your imagination is the limit as far as worlds you can create. Kids and adults alike are finding sandbox a fun and easy tool to make worlds quickly and easily in real time!

New features:

• fixed the water and corresponding sounds
• reorganized the core textures
• new menu graphics and icons
• a new teleporter model and skins

It’s also noted the next version will include new terrain and map objects.

Download: [ platinumarts.net ]