SuperTuxKart 0.8 Alpha Release

[hiker]

ah, i remember it now, karts and balls go through roofs a lot,

I've tried to avoid this, but in some cases the ball still slips trough. I might revisit that part of the code, but in my experience it shouldn't happen often (which is why I would tend to consider this a minor issue).

and quite often after getting hit, you go through the floor after falling down and get rescued. really annoying.

That was recently fixed, so it won't happen in the release anymore (try the nightly build to verify).

Cheers,
Joerg

[hiker]

I found a bug (on win 7) nolok is now dropping green bubblegum and no more pink. I don't know if this has always been like this, i just noticed it now.

We are discussing if this should be the case (in which case we would need different icons), or not. ATM it's done on purpose

and i think that this has been reported before, but: steering on keyboard is jerky.

Not really. What do you mean with jerky? When exactly? Is it related to steering when coming out of skidding? The only issue I am aware of is asciimonster mentioning oversteering. Is this what you mean?

running into walls makes you go backwards into walls, and there was one more thing but I forgot it.

When does this happen - while driving 'normally', or driving around looking for shortcuts? I've added some push back towards the track, which in most cases works pretty neat, but if you are doing something unexpected (too far off road etc), it sometimes gives rather odd results. That's easy to reproduce, but not usually when driving along normally.

Cheers,
Joerg

[ctdabomb]

Not really. What do you mean with jerky? When exactly? Is it related to steering when coming out of skidding? The only issue I am aware of is asciimonster mentioning oversteering. Is this what you mean?

steering with the keys isn't as accurate. you can't lightly press it anymore and you turn. you have to fully press it, and you turn a lot.

running into walls makes you go backwards into walls, and there was one more thing but I forgot it.

When does this happen - while driving 'normally', or driving around looking for shortcuts? I've added some push back towards the track, which in most cases works pretty neat, but if you are doing something unexpected (too far off road etc), it sometimes gives rather odd results. That's easy to reproduce, but not usually when driving along normally.[/quote]
if you are just driving along and run into a wall, and you try to back up, you go backwards but stay stuck on the wall. I didn't describe this the best.

[enz]

Here is a small bug I found in the 0.8 alpha (last tested with SVN 11909):

When you start a single-player race for the first time, the number of KI karts is set to some resonable default value. If you play a race in story mode then (with several KI karts) and after that start a single-player race, the number of KI karts is suddenly set to zero. I am not sure if this is a bug but it is at least an unexpected behaviour.

[Ancalagon]

Hello,

Great work on this brand new release.
I've played on it since i found the nightly builds and now i can't turn back to the previous version, skidding and the new IA improve too much the pleasure and the challenge (once you've get used to it of course).
The new versions of the tracks, the overworld and the challenges progression are also remarkable.

However i think it might be interesting to put an "Best time" record on GPs too.
I don't know if it's possible, but once i come across a topic where people started to post their personnal best times on GPs to compare their personnal skills, but to do so one has to keep record of his own best time on a separate location.
I think such a topic is very interesting and can provide new challenges for players (and i hope one will be open for the new 0.8 release), but for it to be really efficient it could be good that the game itself saves our best time not only on the tracks but also on GPs.

Wonderful Job!

[SxperiaS]

Not sure if bug ou if it is part of the game in "Park of Penguin" challenge the new weapons only appear to be showing up to the AI and bouncing ball is coming up to often.

What do you call "new weapons"? But weapons are definitely distributed evenly between human players and AIs, there is no cheating. Maybe if the AI is always ahead or behind of you, you might get this impression, since what you get depends somewhat on your position

New weapons such as the hammer and the green spike strips, i have the seen the computer with it and i or the people who play with me can't seem to get them

[Hero]

Use Nolok. It's he who uses them. They are the equivalent of bubble gum and swatter but for Nolok only.

[Arthur]

Yep, it's just a cosmetic thing. The weapons have the same effects.

[Haldric]

Regarding XR591 (again), just play a little race on it and after you have finished, wait and look drive your kart (1 full lap)... I think there is a link with the bug I reported here
Concerning Fort Magma, the second way (when you turn left in front of the Wesnoth logo) seems to have no driveline. It's not on the minimap and ia karts never use it.

[Totoplus62]

(Sorry for my bad english, i apologize in advance)
Ok so, the new skidding is really nice ! Challenges are adequate. AI is great
Just a few suggestion:
- Put a little particle effect when two karts collide each other (like the particule effect you use with the bubble-gum that protect new tracks for example) with another sound because this sound of " iron sheet" sounds weird (that's a detail ^^)
- animations and voices for different character during the race

Maybe another people said that:
Some track are really boring like (it's my opinion) "Sables mouvants" and a few others are too much wise (but i know that only few people develop the game :S, they can't do everything)
But the new tracks are great! The best track for me is still "basse cour cocorico" (his update is really amazing xD)

I don't know why, but i had lot's of fun just on the Story mode' map ^^ maybe because of the unlimited boost and bumps
Now with the new collision physics system maybe people can create kind of "Rallye, off road race" in jungle with lot's of bump, lot's of boost and tall grass (because we want more and more fun ! )

A big "Thanks !" to developers of this new amazing version

[Auria]

Totoplus62:

agreed, particles on collision could be interesting. Low-priority, but will try to remember that Regarding the collision sound; we welcome help in making new sounds, getting good sounds for kart collision is very difficult

Regarding voices for each character, that's certainly something we want, it's just incredibly difficult to get that much good voice acting. If people feel like submitting voice acting "auditions" we are listening though

Apart from that, I know the shifting sands track is boring, but the good news is that a new version of it was added to STK a few days ago, so for next release expect a much more interesting shifting sands track

[Hero]

Just an idea. The same effect that is used for the skidding bonus sparks could be used for collisions signifying high friction.

[Totoplus62]

When i have free time (not so often with my studies O_o), i will try to find good sounds for this, with no "copyright", " libre de droit in french".
For voices somethings could be nice : The evil guy could speak like us, but the others make "vocalize" not a real language (expression doesn't need language ) it could be funny

[ChemBroTron]

With the new shifting sands map, you need to adjust the challange timings. At the moment, it is unbeatable.

[Ludsky]

I would like test the new battle arena but i can't play multiplayer on the same keyboard :'(

[hiker]

I would like test the new battle arena but i can't play multiplayer on the same keyboard :'(

Is this a bug report (i.e. it doesn't work as expected), or just a statement of 'keyboards are evil"?

If it's the first: you need to press the select key for the 2nd player, not the fire key.

Cheers,
Joerg

[Ludsky]

It's a bug, it's right

My keyboards work good with last version of STK

[Hero]

I've had a problem with the Numpad. In previous versions you could use the Numpad but now:
8=up
4=left
5=home
6=right
2=down
3=page down

Generally the numpad would be like this if you pressed numpad with the exception of 5. 7 should be home.

Note that pressing numpad does not help. It always helped in previous versions.

Auria said this was a problem with Irrlicht so that might be the reason for all these problems. Hope it's a problem with STK though because then you could probably fix it.

[Funto]

Hi all,

Finally, I could take some time to test STK 0.8 alpha!
The game improved again from the previous version, congratulations to all! I didn't follow the whole development, so maybe I will say things that have already been said, sorry for that.
I noticed some bugs and have remarks and suggestions. I didn't check if the mentionned bugs were already present in the database, sorry again ^^.
Here I go:
- I love the history mode, that really gives a sense to the whole game IMHO. I only saw the intro cinematics, which are kind of cute I think some parts could be accelerated, to augment the general pace, particularly the part where Gnu is captured inside the ship. On the modeling side, I think the cherry tree and the rocks behind Nolok and Gnu at the beginning could be improved. I really like the sounds, except I think Gnu should not keep silent while he is being captured, should he?
- I think I saw some improvements to the existing tracks
- In the overworld, there is this part where the ground is totally black, which feels totally unnatural. Why isn't there grass like everywhere else??
- The karts do not make engine sounds in the overworld, which is highly noticeable...
- During a race, it would be nice to have some gauge to know how much nitro we have left.
- I liked the new skidding Now with this extra boost we can get from it, it gives something to do when there is nothing else to do, which is quite important in any gameplay (think of games where you have a long way to travel, you're happy to be able to jump or do whatever you can not to get bored on the way). However, I think there is no sound associated to the moment we get the boost, and I didn't feel such a difference between the yellow and green boost. Again, as for nitro, I think a gauge indicating how far we are from getting the next "boost color" would be nice
- Bug: I usually use the "Peach" menu theme. However, when I went to the Options panel, the indicated menu theme was "Glass", which was wrong. The selector however still worked as intended.
- Good to see we can have custom settings for the graphical options
- Bug: From the overworld, I chose the option to change my kart from the menu. When the kart chooser menu appeared, the kart I was using (Beastie) was selected but the 3D model was not visible. Hovering any other kart icon with the mouse cursor made that kart appear and the problem disappeared.
- Bug: from the overworld, after winning 2 races, I chose the Shifting Sands track, but ended up alone in the race, with no opponents. Either that's a bug or I didn't understand what happened...
- Bug: translation (French): "9 point" -> "9 points" (for the number of points which was displayed after we win a trophy in history mode)

That's all for now, and again, congratulations to all and good luck for the final release

[Hero]

- I love the history mode, that really gives a sense to the whole game IMHO. I only saw the intro cinematics, which are kind of cute I think some parts could be accelerated, to augment the general pace, particularly the part where Gnu is captured inside the ship. On the modeling side, I think the cherry tree and the rocks behind Nolok and Gnu at the beginning could be improved. I really like the sounds, except I think Gnu should not keep silent while he is being captured, should he?

I agree. I thought he was a bit too peaceful and unnoticing though he represents a very tolerant license. Unless he represents GNU (GNU's Not Unix).

- In the overworld, there is this part where the ground is totally black, which feels totally unnatural. Why isn't there grass like everywhere else??

If this is a bug occasionally if you toggle pixel shaders it will sort of fix itself.

- During a race, it would be nice to have some gauge to know how much nitro we have left.

What?

- Bug: from the overworld, after winning 2 races, I chose the Shifting Sands track, but ended up alone in the race, with no opponents. Either that's a bug or I didn't understand what happened...

Do you mean in a grand prix? If not this is probably because you were running a collect nitro in which case you don't want AIs

- Bug: translation (French): "9 point" -> "9 points" (for the number of points which was displayed after we win a trophy in history mode)

Would it be possible to implement something that would take the S off the end of the 1 laps? It's a major grammar problem and I don't really like seeing it. Remember it goes 0 tracks, 1 track, 3 tracks.

[Auria]

Funto:

thanks for the feedback! regarding the gnu being silent, do you know someone that can make nice gnu voices?

the black ground is because the build you are using does not use our patched irrlicht. This will be solved for next release, and is already solved in svn

- During a race, it would be nice to have some gauge to know how much nitro we have left.

Huh, there IS such a gauge, on the right?

- Bug: I usually use the "Peach" menu theme. However, when I went to the Options panel, the indicated menu theme was "Glass", which was wrong. The selector however still worked as intended.

Sorry, cannot reproduce

- Bug: From the overworld, I chose the option to change my kart from the menu. When the kart chooser menu appeared, the kart I was using (Beastie) was selected but the 3D model was not visible. Hovering any other kart icon with the mouse cursor made that kart appear and the problem disappeared.

Okay I will check this one

- Bug: from the overworld, after winning 2 races, I chose the Shifting Sands track, but ended up alone in the race, with no opponents. Either that's a bug or I didn't understand what happened...

Well the shifting sand challenge is one where you need to collect nitro, there are no opponents

- Bug: translation (French): "9 point" -> "9 points" (for the number of points which was displayed after we win a trophy in history mode)

Okay fixed. thanks

[Funto]

thanks for the feedback! regarding the gnu being silent, do you know someone that can make nice gnu voices?

Not sure but I can ask

the black ground is because the build you are using does not use our patched irrlicht. This will be solved for next release, and is already solved in svn

Cool then

- During a race, it would be nice to have some gauge to know how much nitro we have left.

Huh, there IS such a gauge, on the right?

Oops right, sorry, forgot it...seems not to be so much noticeable, although it's not so small. Probably adding a simple animation showing the gauge filling up would make it more noticeable and pleasant to watch (everyone loves watching progress bars!).

- Bug: I usually use the "Peach" menu theme. However, when I went to the Options panel, the indicated menu theme was "Glass", which was wrong. The selector however still worked as intended.

Sorry, cannot reproduce

Actually I couldn't reproduce it either, maybe this was related to me launching 0.8 alpha for the first time after installing it over an existing 0.7.1 ?

Okay I will check this one

Cool

Well the shifting sand challenge is one where you need to collect nitro, there are no opponents

Ah, maybe I went too fast in the menus and didn't see the explanation then, but to an average player I think this would be seen at first as a bug...Maybe adding some big message "Collect the nitros!" at the start of the race would solve that? (in this kind of style).

- Bug: translation (French): "9 point" -> "9 points" (for the number of points which was displayed after we win a trophy in history mode)

Okay fixed. thanks

Thanks to you

Some other minor remarks (I tested on Windows, full-screen, 1280x720)
- The first pixel line in the loading image (with the racing flag), at the top, seems to be empty (alpha=0?), or at least appears weird.
- Capital letters: in the Windows packaging, "supertuxkart" is written all in small letters, and the names of the GUI themes are not consistent ("peach", "ocean" and "Glass"), I would put capital letters to all those.

[Hero]

I always thought the grammar was a bit off.

[Auria]

Funto: I agree giving a little more feedback about the type of each challenge would be better, let's see what we have time to do before the release however

[dany777]

Good, but i guess you can improve the drifting

Why dont we make it in mario kart 7?

You press V and it jumps
You press V while turning, and it jumps and starts drifting

If you drift to the left or right and keep holding the left or right arrow, the drift will gain power faster
If you drift to the left or right and no key is holding, your drift just gain power medium speed
If you drift to the left or right and press the oposite key, like drifting to the right, i hold left arrow, the drift power will gain slow

How you like my idea?