SuperTuxKart is a free 3D arcade racing video game based on Mario Kart, whose main character is Tux, the mascot of the Linux kernel
After a year of development, the release of the new version of the popular game «Supertuxkart 1.4» was announced, a version in which various improvements have been made to the graphics, as well as the introduction of some changes.
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 news SuperTuxKart 1.4
In this new version of SuperTuxKart 1.4 that is presented we can find that en the soccer fields the starting positions were swung, As well as redesigning the placement of items in soccer field races to make competition convenient, regardless of the number of participants (up to one-on-one races). To improve the planning of the route passing strategy, marks have been added in the field.
Another change that stands out in this new version is that added test lap mode, as well as what was added a new animation for elements and stars and implemented support for high pixel density displays (HiDPI).
Regarding the support for OS, it is mentioned that in Windows the ability to generate assemblies for the ARMv7 architecture was implemented, while in Mac OS support for version 10.9 was restored to 10.14 inclusive.
In addition to this, an experimental rendering engine has been added that uses the Vulkan graphics API. The option “–render-driver=vulkan” and the command “/vulkan” are available to enable.
Of the other changes that stand out from this new version:
- Added a function to search for clues on the screen with network operations.
The ability to set a limit on the number of players is provided.
Added new Godette kart. Updated Konqi maps. - Battle Island and Cave X tracks updated. Fixed issues with the Antediluvian Abyss track. Added new textures for the Shifting Sands track.
- Introduced render resolution scaling for the modern renderer, for users with limited GPU power, this allows for significant performance (FPS) gains at the cost of image quality. It can also allow additional graphical effects with the same performance.
- Simplification by removing unused outdated graphic effects
- Lots of updates to texture related code
- Automatic calculation of LOD distances for 3D models configured to use LOD based on track complexity
- Improved screen space reflection
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!