SuperTuxKart 0.8 Alpha Release

SuperTuxKart 0.8 Alpha Release

Postby hiker » 31 Oct 2012, 03:49

Hi all,

We are pleased to announce the first pre-release version of the upcoming 0.8 release, namely SuperTuxKart 0.8 alpha, available from:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/supertuxkart/files/SuperTuxKart/0.8alpha/.

Please note the following:

This is not the final version of 0.8 and thus contains more bugs, unfinished translations and is meant for testing and feedback. If you want a stable and polished SuperTuxKart experience, please download 0.7.3 from our website.

If you have installed SuperTuxKart previously, you will lose your previous highscores and challenge progress. Do not install this version in the same folder as any previous installations, and do not install a previous version in the same folder as this version.

When reporting bugs (https://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/supertuxkart/report/1), please check if it has already been reported and remember to add the necessary details to your report (whether you can reproduce it, under what circumstances you can reproduce it, operating system and hardware details, ...).

The most important changes from 0.7.3 are:
  • Story mode and new challenge set
  • Improved AI
  • Skidding and better collision physics
  • Reverse mode
  • New green valley track and Blackhill Mansion track
    Thanks to their authors Wolf and samuncle
  • Updated XR591 track, Fort Magma track, Updated jungle track thank to samuncle and auria for their work
  • Updated menus

Besides general feedback we are especially interested in the following areas:
  • New skidding: Note that the skidding works completely different from the old 'sharp turn' key, and that it will take time to get used to it. Please try a while before you form your opinion, you have to 'unlearn' the sharp key handling! In certain curves it is now necessary to brake in order to take them. If you skid for a short while you will get a boost when you stop skidding, so this has to be taken into account.
  • AI levels: The AI is significantly stronger now, so much that we actually had to make it easier, since we were struggling to beat the AI on hard. We have particularly problems with judging the easy and medium AI, but are very interested in every level. Level 'hard' is expected to be quite a challenge, whereas 'intermediate' should be challenging but not frustrating for the average layer and 'easy' should be suitable for new players or younger players.
  • Challenges: The challenges are now integrated in the story mode, and support three difficulties for each challenge. Again it's very difficult for us to see which challenges are adequate, and which aren't. So we would be very much interested in people doing a complete play-through of all challenges at a certain level, and provide feedback which ones are too difficult, too easy, or right.


Happy testing :)
Your STK team
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Re: SuperTuxKart 0.8 Alpha Release

Postby Hero » 31 Oct 2012, 04:03

Thankyou. Will get/test/play/dissect on Friday! (When we have time!) Expect a server overload.
Last edited by Hero on 01 Nov 2012, 00:38, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: SuperTuxKart 0.8 Alpha Release

Postby Ludsky » 31 Oct 2012, 22:54

Thanks You All !!
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Re: SuperTuxKart 0.8 Alpha Release

Postby bonifarz » 01 Nov 2012, 12:25

This is looking great so far. The overworld map has potential to make challenges much more addictive, and the new sliding mechanics feel much more suitable than the sharp turns to me, even though I am still far from mastering them, of course. The AI level of difficulty seems fine to me so far. I have only run through the first five gold challenges, which posed no problem at all, so the difficulty curve will probably vary nicely. I'll give more feedback once I've gone through all the gold challenges.
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Re: SuperTuxKart 0.8 Alpha Release

Postby Haldric » 01 Nov 2012, 19:04

Hello,
-story mode is well done and the challenge against Nolok in fort magma is really wonderful. (And I like the allusion to The Battle for Wesnoth in the fort magma track.)
-Updates on XR591 track and jungle track are greats, so congratulation to auria and samuncle. Congratulation to Wolfs too for Green valley.
-skidding is very good
-Black mansion have a little short-cut which permit to win at least 2 or 3 second. See the screenshot. IAs always follow the green arrow but it's possible to follow the red arrow. Using this shortcut, you can easily overpass 1 or 2 karts. To correct this, you can perhaps build a wall to make a corridor...
-challenges are interesting but perhaps you could make one challenge in "Time trial" mode. Maybe you can make a GP challenge in "Follow the leader" mode and/or in "Time trial" mode too.

In my opinion, hard level IAs seem to be a little easy to beat now.

Some questions:
-are there any differences to win Fort magma challenge in easy, intermediate or hard level (because points become useless after this)?
-if you find that hard IA is enough hard, maybe you can add a difficulty level which will be unlocked when player will have gold cup in all challenges (=when player will have all points, currently 240).

Bugs:
-When I loaded the overworld, I randomly had this twice (see screenshot)

French translation;
-(fr) Dans "options"> "Graphismes"> "Niveau d'effets visuels: Réglages personnalisés", le libellé pour l'Anti-aliasing est trop long ("Lissage [Anti-aliasing] (requiert redémarrage)")
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Bug in overworld
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Black mansion shortcut
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Re: SuperTuxKart 0.8 Alpha Release

Postby Hero » 01 Nov 2012, 19:27

I think the "Black mansion shortcut" is fine. It can be hard to do and adds thrill.
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Re: SuperTuxKart 0.8 Alpha Release

Postby ctdabomb » 01 Nov 2012, 19:39

Hi all I tested on WinDoze 7 and here are some thoughts and bugs mainly on overworld:

Overworld:
* the cutscene music is too quite compared to other music.
* how hard a challenge is is confusing. like AI difficulty or regular, time trail, or Follow the Leader - for example, follow
the leader on star track, I had no way of knowing that it was follow the leader until I was almost eliminated for kicking
everyone's butt in that "race"
* in the begging cutscene sometimes the text goes over sides of the screen. I couldn't get any screenshots. the screen was at
the default resolution.
* Does tracks unlock at all? if so maybe the game should tell you then? maybe I just didn't get that far....
* splatting not working?
Capture.jpg

* It would be nice if each time you start the overworld it shows your current cutscene and of course you can skip it. I just
like watching it.
* the hard challenges are a bit too hard especially hacienda
* You can complete the whole overworld just doing bronze challenges. you should at least have to do a couple of silver or
gold challenges.
* Winning a grand prix says "you unlocked a new feature". nothing else does. is that on purpose?
* All Black Mansion challenges are too hard.
* loosing a GP brings yo back to the main menu.
* Maybe there should be something so that you have to do the Fort Magma race, last?
* I did the whole overworld in 2 hours mainly on the silver mode.

tracks:
* vertex painting on farm is still bad. If you look in the blend, you can see that those parts just need to be repainted.
* the invisible walls in Hacienda are annoying.
* Green Valley: the bridge after the start has weird texturing.
* Black Mansion: this is really hard to drive. AI is really good. road is really thin. maybe a bit too dark? and going down the ramp in the house, is hard or really impossible to make in one smooth move.
* XR591: looks really awesome especially the lightmap, but is kinda hard to drive.

Other:
* The new skidding is fun and smooth
* the AI is still a bit too hard but better.
* the AI isn't random any more in grand prix's
* bumping into karts from the back gives them a huge boost and slow you down crazy much.
* I need to test out some bumping on other karts
* The new water shader is really AWESOME!!!
* Wolfs name isn't on the credits.


I think that's all I have noticed so far. WONDERFUL JOB!!!
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Re: SuperTuxKart 0.8 Alpha Release

Postby RaceAce » 01 Nov 2012, 20:14

Just been playing! It's awesome!

Rolling haybale on Bovine Barnyard is pretty cool.
Blackhill mansion is cool, I don't think the challenges are too hard, as ctdabomb said.
Amazonian journey revamp is cool.
The "LEADER" sign on follow the leader is nice.
I don't really like the new xr591 as much, but the curiosity rover is cool.
Challenge overworld is great.
The AI is quite challenging, but I at least am up to the challenge.
I don't really like the new skidding as much, I still think it would be better like this viewtopic.php?f=17&t=3578

Overall, I think you did a great job so far. Kudos!
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Re: SuperTuxKart 0.8 Alpha Release

Postby Haldric » 01 Nov 2012, 20:53

ctdabomb {l Wrote}:You can complete the whole overworld just doing bronze challenges. you should at least have to do a couple of silver or gold challenges.

I think it is interesting to be able to unlock all tracks, GPs and karts playing only easy challenges (for children). But, I think it's important too to have a feature to unlock which require to win some/all gold challenges; that's why I proposed a new difficulty level.
Rahl43 {l Wrote}: maybe you can add a difficulty level which will be unlocked when player will have gold cup in all challenges (=when player will have all points, currently 240).

It could be interesting for people who didn't find the hard level enough challenging.
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Re: SuperTuxKart 0.8 Alpha Release

Postby asciimonster » 01 Nov 2012, 22:11

Sjees, you guys have been busy. And indeed, the physics needs some tweaking.

Here are some remarks:
  • Could the steering be a little less direct? I have some trouble with overcompensation.
  • Oi! That AI nicked my nitro! :)
  • Pressing skid and down at the same time is funny... You stop and then skid in reverse... :D
  • Why does the system pause when I return to the garage in the overworld?
  • Suggestion: at near zero speed, you may use the skid button to do a donut skid. Good for showing off, or get the kart turned around when you have gone the wrong way.
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Re: SuperTuxKart 0.8 Alpha Release

Postby Auria » 02 Nov 2012, 01:01

Hi everyone,

thanks a lot for the feedback :)


Rahl43
The only difference you get between beating fort magma at easy/medium/hard is really the satisfaction to have a achieved a higher level ;) sorry maybe someday we will unlock goodies when you beat more difficult levels but we didn't had time to code that yet.
And I am noting the bug about french translation



ctdabomb
Regarding black areas on the overworld : apparently in the windows build, irrlicht was not patched like on other systems :( for the real release we will make sure to fix that
Regarding the quietness of the cutscene music, it needs to be this quiet or it drowns Nolok's voice.
And yes tracks do unlock. I agree it would be nice if the game told you, I haven't got around to coding that yet however.
Regarding going back to the menu after a GP, this is known, I will fix that before the release candidate. thanks

* how hard a challenge is is confusing. like AI difficulty or regular, time trail, or Follow the Leader - for example, follow the leader on star track, I had no way of knowing that it was follow the leader until I was almost eliminated for kicking everyone's butt in that "race"


I am not sure I understand. The game mode is written at the top of the dialog where you pick the difficulty (granted it could be more visible). AI difficulty is always 'easy' for bronze, 'intermediate' for silver, and 'hard' for gold

* in the begging cutscene sometimes the text goes over sides of the screen. I couldn't get any screenshots. the screen was at the default resolution.

This is definitely something we will check before the release candidate

* You can complete the whole overworld just doing bronze challenges. you should at least have to do a couple of silver or
gold challenges.

The concept was that children, or people not used to playing games, would be able to play the whole game and unlock everything without the need to cheat. Of course more experienced players are encouraged to try going for gold ;)

Maybe there should be something so that you have to do the Fort Magma race, last?

Yeah I did give it some thought. I may try to do that before the RC.

* vertex painting on farm is still bad. If you look in the blend, you can see that those parts just need to be repainted.

Gee I thought we'd fixed that. I will fix it. Thanks

* Wolfs name isn't on the credits.

Now it is :) thanks for noticing


asciimonster
Could the steering be a little less direct? I have some trouble with overcompensation.

This is very difficult. Steering used to be slower, but then people complained it was hard to take sharper curves. In the end frankly the only way to have perfect control is to use analogic input like a gamepad instead of keyboard. I am not sure it is even possible to find a setting that will make steering good enough in all cases on keyboard :/

Why does the system pause when I return to the garage in the overworld?

Because you are returning to the garage, so maybe you went there to pick another kart ;) ok it's easier to do by using the escape key but I found that to be a nice little touch. I have no strong feeling about it.
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Re: SuperTuxKart 0.8 Alpha Release

Postby Hero » 02 Nov 2012, 01:43

Auria {l Wrote}:ctdabomb
Regarding black areas on the overworld : apparently in the windows build, irrlicht was not patched like on other systems :( for the real release we will make sure to fix that


We don't have black areas in ours (Linux) but we do have colours such as red and blue.

* You can complete the whole overworld just doing bronze challenges. you should at least have to do a couple of silver or
gold challenges.

The concept was that children, or people not used to playing games, would be able to play the whole game and unlock everything without the need to cheat. Of course more experienced players are encouraged to try going for gold ;)

I am an 11 year old child and don't have much trouble with the difficulty. However others might. And I hope their are younger kids playing. Make them addicts earlier and they'll stay with you longer. Mwah Ha Ha Ha Ha!
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Re: SuperTuxKart 0.8 Alpha Release

Postby Auria » 02 Nov 2012, 04:33

red and blue colors are probably a driver and/or GPU issue. the best you can do is probably disable shaders in the graphical options
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Re: SuperTuxKart 0.8 Alpha Release

Postby hiker » 02 Nov 2012, 05:44

Auria {l Wrote}:
asciimonster
Could the steering be a little less direct? I have some trouble with overcompensation.

This is very difficult. Steering used to be slower, but then people complained it was hard to take sharper curves. In the end frankly the only way to have perfect control is to use analogic input like a gamepad instead of keyboard. I am not sure it is even possible to find a setting that will make steering good enough in all cases on keyboard :/

Asciimonster - what exactly is the problem? We all have that feeling now and again, and are not entirely sure what the problem is.

Is it that it takes too long to reach full-steering? Or steer too much at higher speed? Or after you have turned and stopped turning does it take too long to stop turning again (which atm will be 0.2 seconds, during which the kart will still be turning, plus the physics might contribute a bit as well). At what kind of speeds does it happen - high-speed without bonus, or at very high speed (due to skidding boost or zipper or so)?

You can try changing the value for
{l Code}: {l Select All Code}
 <turn turn-radius="0:2.0 10:7.5 25:15 45:25"
          time-full-steer ="0.2"  />

in data/stk_config - documentation for the values is in the file. But either decreasing (or increasing) the time, or perhaps increasing the turn radius at higher speed (e.g. 45:30, which would also somewhat affect speeds between 25 and 45, since they will be interpolated.

Thanks!
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Re: SuperTuxKart 0.8 Alpha Release

Postby RaceAce » 02 Nov 2012, 15:16

Auria {l Wrote}:asciimonster
Could the steering be a little less direct? I have some trouble with overcompensation.

This is very difficult. Steering used to be slower, but then people complained it was hard to take sharper curves. In the end frankly the only way to have perfect control is to use analogic input like a gamepad instead of keyboard. I am not sure it is even possible to find a setting that will make steering good enough in all cases on keyboard :/

So THAT'S why my joystick feels better than the keyboard when driving!
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Re: SuperTuxKart 0.8 Alpha Release

Postby RaceAce » 02 Nov 2012, 18:35

possible bugs and some ideas.

possible bug: When you are doing the race with Nolok and get a switch powerup. If you use it, then drive over one of Nolok's gum, the nitro that turned to gum stays that way for the rest of the race. Is that a bug?

Ideas for overworld: More knockable items (like the mine car and skulls) would be fun. Water and lava should have splashes/steam clouds.

Wacky idea for overworld: If you drive into the lava lake and it rescues you, when you are set down your kart would be all black. To revert back you would have to rescue again or drive into the water.
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Re: SuperTuxKart 0.8 Alpha Release

Postby bonifarz » 02 Nov 2012, 23:14

Just completed story mode doing only gold challenges and had plenty of fun (well, except for the crash after beating Nolok ;)). Most challenges were easily beaten in the first try. I see there is a wonderful new array of AI settings in the config file, so it should be easy and convenient to test the full potential of the AI... which I will try soon :D
Keep up the good work, these are some great improvements.
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Re: SuperTuxKart 0.8 Alpha Release

Postby Haldric » 03 Nov 2012, 09:21

There are some mistakes in French translation.
"Vallée luxuriente" => "Vallée luxuriAnte"
In options, "Afficher le nombre d'imageS par seconde"
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Re: SuperTuxKart 0.8 Alpha Release

Postby Ludsky » 03 Nov 2012, 11:50

Bug: Bronze, Silver, Gold trophy for the Hacienda, Scotland, it was not good music is the music of the grand prize (the end)

It's a good Music or ...?
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Re: SuperTuxKart 0.8 Alpha Release

Postby RaceAce » 03 Nov 2012, 12:21

bonifarz {l Wrote}:Just completed story mode doing only gold challenges and had plenty of fun (well, except for the crash after beating Nolok ;)). Most challenges were easily beaten in the first try. I see there is a wonderful new array of AI settings in the config file, so it should be easy and convenient to test the full potential of the AI... which I will try soon :D
Keep up the good work, these are some great improvements.

I get that crash too; occasionaly it works.
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Re: SuperTuxKart 0.8 Alpha Release

Postby RaceAce » 03 Nov 2012, 12:24

Well, I have now spent a few hours testing 0.8, and I am becoming better with drifting. It works really good with my joystick, and I'm learning to gauge the curves and stretches it can be used on. So I don't mind it, but I still kinda have mixed feelings about it. I'll probably get used to it. ;)
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Re: SuperTuxKart 0.8 Alpha Release

Postby ctdabomb » 03 Nov 2012, 15:05

I found a bad bug. In the first cutscene when GNU is taken up into the ship, when the ship turns around and flies off, GNU is left behind
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Re: SuperTuxKart 0.8 Alpha Release

Postby Ludsky » 03 Nov 2012, 17:03

Bug : Grand prix (pour les jeune manchots) Silver (same for Gold) : See picture

brand that I won the challenge while it remains "Scotland", the cup appears and after i begin the last track.
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Re: SuperTuxKart 0.8 Alpha Release

Postby Haldric » 03 Nov 2012, 17:22

Have you ever completed subsea challenge before ? Perhaps it's this challenge you win.
Finally, have you run scotland after you took the screenshot?
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Re: SuperTuxKart 0.8 Alpha Release

Postby Ludsky » 03 Nov 2012, 18:02

Rahl43 {l Wrote}:Have you ever completed subsea challenge before ? Perhaps it's this challenge you win.
Finally, have you run scotland after you took the screenshot?

You don't understand, it's a Grand Prix and I finnish one of Subsea track and all track before.

"You have completed the challenges" should appear at the end same for the Cup which appears after Subsea after Scotland and after the podium
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