The release of the new version of the popular racing game SuperTuxKart 1.2 in which several quite interesting changes were made and of them the improvement of online qualification stands out, as well as gamepad improvements.
For those who are still unaware of Supertuxkart, they should know that this is a popular free racing game with a lot of karts and tracks. Besides that, comes with characters from various open source projects which include several race tracks. Previously this was a single player or local multiplayer game, but with this new version things change.
There are several types of multiplayer competitions available, which They include regular races, time trials, battle mode and the new Capture-Flag mode.
Main new features of SuperTuxKart 1.2
In the new version presented a change is made instead of the Irrlicht motor by library SDL2 Used for low-level windowing and input processing.
Besides that SDL2 has significantly improved gamepad compatibility, including support for hotplugging gamepads as well as has helped to be able to fix the problems related to the gamepad and simplifying the redefinition of buttons.
Another important change is that in this new version added the ability to configure game camera (distance, field of view, angle of view).
Besides that se has implemented a chat for team gamesas well as improved online rating management.
Furthermore, a new "Cartoon" design theme has been added with an alternative set of icons.
Besides that server creation speed improved, server performance and also added support for connecting to servers via IPv6.
While for compilation for Android already includes all the official tracks, Besides that a custom splash screen can now be used on startup and a better progress indicator during data extraction after download.
Of the other changes that stand out of this new version:
- Support for resizing the window during gameplay was implemented.
- Added support for the Haiku operating system.
- The ability to use additional cards in online games is provided, even if other players do not have the necessary plugins installed.
- A new Kiki map and two improved Pidgin and Puffy maps have been proposed.
- Added support for SVG icons.
Finally if you want to know more about it About this new version of the game, you can check the details in the official announcement. The link is this.
How to install SuperTuxKart on Ubuntu and derivatives?
As such, SuperTuxKart is quite popular and is found within most Linux distributions, but as you know the updates are not applied immediately in the repositories so, in order to enjoy this new version you need to add the game repository.
This can be added to any Ubuntu-based distribution be it Linux Mint, Kubuntu, Zorin OS, etc.
To add it, just open a terminal (Ctrl + Alt + T) and type the following command:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:stk/dev
Update our entire list of repositories with:
sudo apt-get update
And finally proceed to the installation of Supertuxkart in our system:
sudo apt-get install supertuxkart
Other method to be able to install this great game on your system, is with the help of flatpak packages and the only requirement is that you have enabled support for this type of package on your system.
To install using this method, just open a terminal and type the following command in it:
flatpak install flathub net.supertuxkart.SuperTuxKart
Finally, if you can't find the launcher in your application menu, you can run the game installed by flatpak by typing the following command in the terminal:
flatpak run net.supertuxkart.SuperTuxKart
And ready to enjoy!