LINUXGAMES

S2 Games has posted an update on the Linux port of Savage 2, the mixed-genre (FPS/RTS) sequel to Savage: The Battle for Newerth:

It appears we are 2-4 weeks away from having a Linux beta client. We are busy writing all the OGL shaders which is very time consuming but we’re working hard on it.

FreeOrion 0.3.8 is out with bugfixes and improved Python-based AI scripting. FreeOrion is a multiplayer turn-based strategy game inspired by the Master of Orion series. You should read the compilation guide to get started.

Screenshots: [ View ] Download: [ freeorion.org ]

Thanks to irritant for letting us know that Alien Arena 2008, a follow-up to a critically-lauded open source first-person shooter, is scheduled to be be released on March 1^st, 2008:

The release will feature all new player characters, revamped and updated weaponry that has been balanced, and sixteen new maps. The game also features a slightly darker, intense theme, with a mix of hi-tech and retro sci-fi that is unique to Alien Arena’s universe. The client has been greatly optimized and streamlined, resulting in dramatic performance increases across the board.

There are also nine new screenshots and a video trailer at their media page.

Version 0.8 (”Philidor” – releases are named after great historical chess masters) of PyChess, a Python-based chess client, has been released:

• Online chess play on the FICS servers.
• Ability to undo and pause chess games.
• Support for UCI engines like Fruit, Glaurung and Shredder.

Thanks to lobias for the heads up, who has also been of excellent assistance in trying to squash a bug I’ve run into while trying to play. He also included this note:

The development of PyChess Stauton 1.0 has just begun. We strive to make
this the greatest free chess client out there, so if you have opinions,
don’t let them go unheard on the mailing list!

If you would like help fix the translation of PyChess in your language,
see http://code.google.com/p/pychess/wiki/RosettaTranslates to get
started.

Instructions for adding additional chess engines can be found in the project FAQ.

Screenshots: [ View ] Download: [ googlepages.com ]

Wine, the free implementation of Windows on Unix, has been updated to release 0.9.56. The new items and features in this release include the following:

• Proper handling of OpenGL/Direct3D windows with menu bars.
• Stubs for all the d3dx9_xx dlls.
• Several graphics optimizations.
• Many installer fixes.
• Improved MIME message support.
• Lots of bug fixes.

Download: [ Wine 0.9.56 ]

War§ow 0.41 came out earlier this month; the changelog for the open-source first-person shooter includes the following bugfixes:

The missing texture bug on wca1, the rocket projectile speed (weak and strong are both 1000up/s like they were supposed to be), some fixes in the movement area (cg_oldmovement 1 should really feel like old movement now), and some additional maps (the two ctf maps which got playtested in the Warsow pickup channel for a while), and adding some missing settings in graphics and options menus.

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

Kotaku is reporting on an advertising partnership announcement for id Software’s Quake Live (announced at QuakeCon 2007 as Quake Zero), the browser-based project derived from Quake 3: Arena:

IGA Worldwide Inc., the leading independent in-game advertising network announced today from the 2008 Game Developer Conference that it has partnered with id Software to manage all advertising, sponsorship and creative branding opportunities within the forthcoming QUAKE LIVE web site and free-to-play version of the popular action series.

Created by id Software as an all-new way to deliver the excitement and energy of first-person multiplayer action to a broader audience than ever before, QUAKE LIVE offers game players of all skill levels a totally free and easily accessible multiplayer gaming experience and community through a single website at quakelive.com. Every element of the experience, including friends lists and communication, sponsored events and tournaments, matchmaking, stats tracking, and even the game itself is accessed and delivered free of charge through the web browser. Integrated with IGA’s proprietary SDK, QUAKE LIVE will offer companies and agencies fresh opportunities to dynamically-target brands to audiences within a broadly accessible version of one of the world’s premiere game franchises, while also offering gamers a totally free premium game, fun events and a vibrant, active community of other players.

While Linux users missed out on Enemy Territory: Quake Wars‘ in-game advertising (as there was no Linux port of the ad middleware), that probably won’t be the case here. What do y’all think of in-game ads? Are the community features compelling enough to make you want to play Quake Live over something like, say, Warsow?

Edit: in case you were wondering, the beta signup at www.quakelive.com is just for the Windows version at present.

The Gnome Hearts team sent in the following announcement:

Lone Wolves is happy to announce the immediate release of gnome-hearts version 0.2.1. This release fixes a number of bugs in the AI code that could cause a crash the game under rare circumstances. Also, a number of improvements to the build system have been backported from Debian Lenny. Finally, two new thanslations for the game (German and Spanish) and three new translations for the documetation (Greek, Slovak and Simplified Chineese) have been added.

Gnome Hearts is an implementation of the card game Hearts for GNOME, featuring configurable rule sets and editable computer opponents.

Download: [ jejik.com ]

Thanks to Jure Repinc for notifying us of the release of Thousand Parsec’s version 0.3.0 client. The space-themed turn-based 4X strategy game has the following improvements:

• Easier server-finding: with support for the metaserver protocol the client can display lists of both remote and local servers.
• The user interface has been rewritten so that it now uses the wxWidgets AUI interface and takes advantage of XRC (an XML-based resource system).
• The client now supports internationalization and has been translated to Slovenian.
• Downloading the universe is significantly faster, less likely to get stuck and more informative.
• The star map has been drastically changed and you can now,
  • Choose how objects are coloured, either on a per player basis or on own versus enemy basis.
  • See the resources availability using the resource pie-chart overlay.
  • Quickly see what is in a star system with new information pop-ups for objects.
  • Issue move orders painlessly with a new waypoint mode and context menu for quickly issuing single orders.
  • Use shortcuts to manipulate the star map using the keyboard.
• The interface has been drastically improved on long latency links through the ability to see the pending status of orders. The client now works correctly when there are many outstanding changes of any type.
• You can now filter the systems panel to quickly find the objects you are looking for.
• You can easily find objects which are idle with new “Object without Orders” window.
• Quickly changing orders is now much easier with the addition of keyboard shortcuts for order manipulation.
• Support for easy Debian packaging.
• Bugfixes

Screenshots: [ View ] Download: [ sourceForge.net | thousandparsec.net ]

Speaking of physics-based efforts, Phun is a sandbox project:

Phun is meant to be a playground where people can be creative. It can also be used as an educational tool to learn about physics concepts such as restituion and friction.

It’s in beta, but still usable, and has the following features at present:

• Polygons, circles, planes and springs
• A very simple physics engine (temporary)
• A GUI for choosing different tools (brush, plane, circle and spring)
• A console and the Thyme scripting language

Media: [ View ] Download: [ umu.se ]

Free Gamer has pointed out a fascinating project: Portalized (videos), an ogre3d-based 3D puzzle game inspired by the recently released Windows-only title Portal.

The author also notes that while he’s not sure which license he’ll utilize, there’ll be at least some degree of documentation:

One thing that you’ll find for sure, though, is a paper describing all of the techniques used. Including the portals and the rest of the physics, and some of the rendering (lighting through portals which is planned, etc.). There’s also tons of Lua to be finished (right now just the portals and “some” physics are Lua-scriptable) which is “open source”, of course, and lots of shaders which I’m planning on releasing as “learning resources”, especially for Ogre3D users.

It’s not available yet, but there will be a version 0.5 public beta with Linux support.

Terra Soft Solutions has announced that you can now purchase Sony PlayStation 3 game consoles from their online store with the Yellow Dog Linux distribution pre-installed. You can, of course, also install any distribution with ppc64 architecture support on any PS3.

I’ve had a PS3 I’ve been meaning to finish installing Gentoo on for a while now; has anyone done anything nifty with their console? I just wish Sony allowed GPU access…

Version 3.1.0 of Glest, an award-winning open-source 3D RTS project, has been released. Changes:

• In-game chat
• Main menu background model changed
• Server IPs are now stored in a file, and can be used later
• Network status key
• Map changes: Added ‘Swamp of Sorrow’ and ‘Valley of Death’, removed ‘One on One’ and ‘The Ruins’
• Balance changes

Linux users need to download the game data; you can then download the source code or use the official binaries, but the developers warn self-compiled executables have had a tendency to lose network synchronization in multiplayer.

Screenshots: [ View ] Download: [ glest.org ]

LordsAWar 0.0.8, a clone of the turn-based strategy game Warlords II, is out! New features:

• added explosions to the fight window
• added configurable shieldsets and citysets
• implemented varying degrees of difficulty
• random maps now automatically connect cities with roads>/li>
• stacks can now go through ports to get to water
• added change-vector-destination in the vector dialog
• fixed many more bugs

Download: [ lordsawar.com ]

Version 2.2.0 of ZDoom, a DOOM engine source port, has been announced. The changelog seems to mostly include bugfixes, and there’s a compilation guide at the project wiki.

Download: [ zdoom.org ]

A reader pointed out a new online video review show devoted to open source gaming, Sauce the Game. Two episodes are available to date; the first covers Tremulous, and the second discusses Open Arena. There’s also a link to a series of articles on Tremulous tips.

Thanks to patton73 for letting us know that there’s a new tech release for Freelords, an open source turn-based strategy game project inspired by the Warlords series. While not yet playable, the Java-based version 0.0.2 adds the following features:

• Complete network handling
• An isometric map engine
• XML-based user-interface
• Server engine improvements
• JavaDocs for source code

Also, new contributors are always welcome.

Download: [ sourceforge.net ]

Wine, the free implementation of Windows on Unix, has been updated to release 0.9.55. The new items in this release include the following:

• Direct3D improvements, including driver version emulation.
• Beginnings of support for OLE objects in Richedit.
• Several fixes to the animation control.
• A bunch of fixes for regression test failures.
• Lots of bug fixes.

Download: [ Wine 0.9.55 ]

Mod DB has announced the results for their 2007 Mod of the Year contest, which include several projects available for Linux:

• Best Indie Games:
  • 1. BSG: Beyond the Red Line
  • 3. Warsow
  • 4. World of Padman
  • 5. Tremulous
• Editor’s Choice (unreleased):
  • Mind (Doom 3)

Shrapnel Games released a new patch for Dominions 3: The Awakening with the following changes to the fantasy-themed strategy game:

• A new late ear nation called Bogarus!
• Bakemono got a new scout.
• New random events.
• Spell AI: Touch of madness and Berserkers avoids casters and archers to some extent.
• Spell AI: No longer casts LoS on armorless units.
• Modding: Increased maximum nbr of descriptions.
• Modding: Max number of nations and nametypes increased.
• Modding: New monster commands.
• Modding: New item commands.
• Modding: New spell command.
• MR bless bonus was sometimes displayed incorrectly, fixed.
• Dominion sometimes spread in incorrect ways, fixed.
• Legions of Steel bug fixed.
• ‘y’-screen bug fix.
• Caster of Stygian Paths took 1 point of damage for each unit under his command instead of the units taking the damage.
• Stygian Paths reported random number of lost on the way.
• Ritual cating magic items could malfunction, fixed.
• Bug preventing more than a hundred sprites or so in mods has been squashed.
• Several minor fixes to monster stats and magic sites.
• More magic sites enabled in caves.
• Scathach got her magic and flight.
• Hydra sacred all the way.
• Dance of the morrigans fixed.
• Setting 1920×1200 resolution didn’t work properly, fixed.

Demo Download: [ atomicgamer.com ] Download: [ atomicgamer.com ]