SuperTuxKart

Hello everyone !It has been a long time since the last blog post and after weeks of hard work, we are happy to announce the first release candidate for version 0.9. Yes, you read this correctly, it is 0.9, not as we initially said 0.8.2. The main ... [More] reason for this larger jump in version numbers is that besides of significant better look compared with the previous release, e.g.:we also decided to break backward compatibility with older addons - they need to be updated and re-exported to work with the improved lighting our new engine offers. The main new features since version 0.8.1 is the switch from Irrlicht to Antarctica a new graphical engine. OpenGL 3 is now required, and the minimum supported requirements include an intel HD 3000 integrated GPU. Quite a bit of work has also been done to take us closer to online multiplayer (networking), including features like logging in and managing an online account, and online achievements. However, don't get too excited just now because the actual networked multiplayer gameplay is not yet ready to use (this will come in a future version).Also note that the old addons website (http://stkaddons.net) will be switched to read only and be replaced by a new upgraded website (http://addons.supertuxkart.net/) ready for the new version. All help is welcome to port and/or create addons for the new version of the game! You can read the official documentation here.You might also be wondering about the delay with the release candidate. After all, beta2 was released over two months ago. Besides fixing bugs (we have fixed over 330 bugs), we also found some issues with supporting older hardware (e.g. automatic resizing of large textures did not work as expected), and we wanted to try our best to make SuperTuxKart run on older hardware. But as mentioned above, you do need a more recent graphics card and driver. Especially if you have a more powerful graphics card, adjust the video settings till you find one that offers the best combination of looks and frame rate. As usual, please note that blog comments are not approriate to get support, and that the forum is preferred for discussions and feedback (e.g. what graphical settings worked best with what card/driver/os combination).You may find downloads for all major platforms here : https://sourceforge.net/projects/supertuxkart/files/SuperTuxKart/0.9-rc1/Please enjoy! Report any bug you may find on the forum or on github, and remember that you can always help us with translating SuperTuxKart into your language!Version française ici [Less]

Hello everyone !It has been a long time since the last blog post and after weeks of hard work, we are happy to announce the first release candidate for version 0.9. Yes, you read this correctly, it is 0.9, not as we initially said 0.8.2. The main ... [More] reason for this larger jump in version numbers is that besides of significant better look compared with the previous release, e.g.:we also decided to break backward compatibility with older addons - they need to be updated and re-exported to work with the improved lighting our new engine offers. The main new features since version 0.8.1 is the switch from Irrlicht to Antarctica a new graphical engine. OpenGL 3 is now required, and the minimum supported requirements include an intel HD 3000 integrated GPU. Quite a bit of work has also been done to take us closer to online multiplayer (networking), including features like logging in and managing an online account, and online achievements. However, don't get too excited just now because the actual networked multiplayer gameplay is not yet ready to use (this will come in a future version).Also note that the old addons website (http://stkaddons.net) will be switched to read only and be replaced by a new upgraded website (http://addons.supertuxkart.net/) ready for the new version. All help is welcome to port and/or create addons for the new version of the game! You can read the official documentation here.You might also be wondering about the delay with the release candidate. After all, beta2 was released over two months ago. Besides fixing bugs (we have fixed over 330 bugs), we also found some issues with supporting older hardware (e.g. automatic resizing of large textures did not work as expected), and we wanted to try our best to make SuperTuxKart run on older hardware. But as mentioned above, you do need a more recent graphics card and driver. Especially if you have a more powerful graphics card, adjust the video settings till you find one that offers the best combination of looks and frame rate. As usual, please note that blog comments are not approriate to get support, and that the forum is preferred for discussions and feedback (e.g. what graphical settings worked best with what card/driver/os combination).You may find downloads for all major platforms here : https://sourceforge.net/projects/supertuxkart/files/SuperTuxKart/0.9-rc1/Please enjoy! Report any bug you may find on the forum or on github, and remember that you can always help us with translating SuperTuxKart into your language!Version française ici [Less]

Hello everyone ! It has been roughly one month since we released the beta. We hope to have vastly improved the handling of different graphics cards, hopefully we detect better now if a driver needs updating, and which options to disable for ... [More] certain cards and driver combinations. So a big thanks to all people who tested our first beta. Hopefully, our second beta will run much smoother on most platforms. We also implemented a new register screen, which should make it easier to see if you are creating a new online account, use an existing account or want to play offline. And samuncle did more work on the "Gran Paradiso Island" track.Project "Let's make a track together \o/" Having a new engine requires some compromises. Sadly old addons won't be compatible with the the new SuperTuxKart. To help you make great tracks and karts we have started to make a series of tutorials. The track will be made as a community project. It will replace the old Shiny Suburbs with an Asian high tech metropol. The video presenting the project If you want more information about the project, go to our wiki. We are waiting to see your beautiful concepts. Don't just follow blindly this tutorial. Make your own concepts, use your own ideas.If you want to submit art, please use our forum http://goo.gl/1x2rPeIf you want to test STK 0.8.2 beta 2 Binaries for Windows, Linux and OSX are on our download page:https://sourceforge.net/projects/supertuxkart/files/SuperTuxKart/0.8.2-beta2/ Just remember it is still a beta, so there are still some known bugs - one of which is that it crashes on OSX when you have more than one kart when you exit a race, which we only discovered yesterday (but apparently our first beta already had that problem). As always, please report bugs here, or even better on our bug tracker at: https://github.com/supertuxkart/stk-code/issues. [Less]

Hello everyone !It has been roughly one month since we released the beta. We hope to have vastly improved the handling of different graphics cards, hopefully we detect better now if a driver needs updating, and which options to disable for certain ... [More] cards and driver combinations. So a big thanks to all people who tested our first beta. Hopefully, our second beta will run much smoother on most platforms.We also implemented a new register screen, which should make it easier to see if you are creating a new online account, use an existing account or want to play offline. And samuncle did more work on the "Gran Paradiso Island" track.Project "Let's make a track together \o/" Having a new engine requires some compromises. Sadly old addons won't be compatible with the the new SuperTuxKart. To help you make great tracks and karts we have started to make a series of tutorials. The track will be made as a community project. It will replace the old Shiny Suburbs with an Asian high tech metropol. The video presenting the project If you want more information about the project, go to our wiki.We are waiting to see your beautiful concepts. Don't just follow blindly this tutorial. Make your own concepts, use your own ideas.If you want to submit art, please use our forum http://goo.gl/1x2rPeIf you want to test STK 0.8.2 beta 2 Binaries for Windows, Linux and OSX are on our download page:https://sourceforge.net/projects/supertuxkart/files/SuperTuxKart/0.8.2-beta2/Just remember it is still a beta, so there are still some known bugs - one of which is that it crashes on OSX when you have more than one kart when you exit a race, which we only discovered yesterday (but apparently our first beta already had that problem). As always, please report bugs here, or even better on our bug tracker at: https://github.com/supertuxkart/stk-code/issues. [Less]

Hello everyone !It has been roughly one month since we released the beta. We hope to have vastly improved the handling of different graphics cards, hopefully we detect better now if a driver needs updating, and which options to disable for certain ... [More] cards and driver combinations. So a big thanks to all people who tested our first beta. Hopefully, our second beta will run much smoother on most platforms.We also implemented a new register screen, which should make it easier to see if you are creating a new online account, use an existing account or want to play offline. And samuncle did more work on the "Gran Paradiso Island" track.Project "Let's make a track together \o/" Having a new engine requires some compromises. Sadly old addons won't be compatible with the the new SuperTuxKart. To help you make great tracks and karts we have started to make a series of tutorials. The track will be made as a community project. It will replace the old Shiny Suburbs with an Asian high tech metropol. The video presenting the project If you want more information about the project, go to our wiki.We are waiting to see your beautiful concepts. Don't just follow blindly this tutorial. Make your own concepts, use your own ideas.If you want to submit art, please use our forum http://goo.gl/1x2rPeIf you want to test STK 0.8.2 beta 2 Binaries for Windows, Linux and OSX are on our download page:https://sourceforge.net/projects/supertuxkart/files/SuperTuxKart/0.8.2-beta2/Just remember it is still a beta, so there are still some known bugs - one of which is that it crashes on OSX when you have more than one kart when you exit a race, which we only discovered yesterday (but apparently our first beta already had that problem). As always, please report bugs here, or even better on our bug tracker at: https://github.com/supertuxkart/stk-code/issues. [Less]

Hello everyone ! It has been roughly one month since we released the beta. We hope to have vastly improved the handling of different graphics cards, hopefully we detect better now if a driver needs updating, and which options to disable for ... [More] certain cards and driver combinations. So a big thanks to all people who tested our first beta. Hopefully, our second beta will run much smoother on most platforms. We also implemented a new register screen, which should make it easier to see if you are creating a new online account, use an existing account or want to play offline. And samuncle did more work on the "Gran Paradiso Island" track.Project "Let's make a track together \o/" Having a new engine requires some compromises. Sadly old addons won't be compatible with the the new SuperTuxKart. To help you make great tracks and karts we have started to make a series of tutorials. The track will be made as a community project. It will replace the old Shiny Suburbs with an Asian high tech metropol. The video presenting the project If you want more information about the project, go to our wiki. We are waiting to see your beautiful concepts. Don't just follow blindly this tutorial. Make your own concepts, use your own ideas.If you want to submit art, please use our forum http://goo.gl/1x2rPeIf you want to test STK 0.8.2 beta 2 Binaries for Windows, Linux and OSX are on our download page:https://sourceforge.net/projects/supertuxkart/files/SuperTuxKart/0.8.2-beta2/ Just remember it is still a beta, so there are still some known bugs - one of which is that it crashes on OSX when you have more than one kart when you exit a race, which we only discovered yesterday (but apparently our first beta already had that problem). As always, please report bugs here, or even better on our bug tracker at: https://github.com/supertuxkart/stk-code/issues. [Less]

Merry Christmas to all of you who have been waiting for the new release!So, better late than never, SuperTuxKart 0.8.2 beta has been released! This new version is the result of months of work from the SuperTuxKart team. Please note that this is a ... [More] beta only, and we know that there are still some bugs around which we intend to fix before the 0.8.2 release (see our bug tracker for a list), but no major ones that would prevent you from enjoying the game. If you download the beta, we are mostly interested in any kind of feedback, particularly about the graphical side of thing. Please let us know if it works just fine, or if you had to disable certain features to make it look good. Report bugs in our tracks (URL see above, but please check that it has not been reported previously). The main highlights include the first release of Antartica, the new graphical engine (more on that later). We have basically added a completely new, shader-based rendering engine - only things like loading meshes and textures are still done by the original Irrlicht. As a result of the new features which are provided by our engine, we have many tracks with significantly improved visuals. The main highlight on this front is two new massive tracks. First of all "Cocoa Temple" that replaces the old "Jungle" track:And "Gran Paradiso Island" that replace the old "Island" track:Thanks to samuncle for all the hard work!Another new feature is the addition of online accounts, as a prelude to networked multiplayer. Just to make it very clear: networked racing itself is not ready yet, but will be our main focus once the release is done. Your account allows you to connect achievements, stay in touch with your friends, etc.The new version includes many more new features - we still need to assemble the full list. But it includes different kart physics, based on this year's GSoC work, random Grand Prix, a Grand Prix editor and more. The windows binary also includes a beta version of the track editor, developed this summer by one of our Google of Code Students (on other platforms, it can built from source). It's not fully polished yet, but you can also start playing with itNew engineAs has been mentioned above, SuperTuxKart 0.8.2 features Antartica, a totally new rendering engine, starting from the foundations of cand from GSOC 2013, and improved a lot by new team member vlj. The new engine features exciting new features like much improved rendering of lights and shadows (for more information, take a look at this page ).An example of DoF (Depth of Field) in action with the snow falling However, it is very important to note that this new engine uses at least OpenGL 3.1, whereas the previous STK version used very old OpenGL 1. This means that we are using many more advanced features of the opengl drivers, and as a result we have been suffering from various driver bugs already. During our development vlj did a marvelous job to work around most problems we have encountered so far. This is why your feedback is so important for us - we can't afford to get a set of different graphics cards to try to work around their specific problems. So we need as many people as possible to test this beta and provide feedback. We will provide some additional documentation about what you can try if this beta does not work as expected for you.Also, using newer opengl features means that unfortunately, older computers may not be able to run the game correctly - we use the HD 3000 as a minimal supported GPU. Obviously you should make sure to update your drivers to the latest available version and, on linux, you may want to try the proprietary driver if the open source one does not work (a recent version of mesa may be required for some features).  That being said, don't panic! You can configure the graphical level in STK options, so if your computer cannot reach a good decent frame rate you can always reduce the graphical details, or the resolution.  An additional note: since this is a beta we have not yet updated the credits, nor declared a string freeze for translations either. We still expect some minor changes to the strings before our release candidate. We are also looking for help creating binary packages for other platforms - especially a static linux package would be great.And in spite of all our testing, a first problem was already discovered :P the Christmas hats were switched on (that happens on the 17th of December), and some of the new karts now have the hats hovering ... around half a meter over their heads :)Quick edit: users of Windows XP should be aware we no longer support it and the game will fail to install.Giving FeedbackPlease use the forum for feedback, as blog comments are inappropriate for support. You might also be especially interested in this post announcing the beta release. It includes details on how to unlock these new tracks, since initially they will be locked.Getting the betaFor Windows Vista and later: http://sourceforge.net/projects/supertuxkart/files/SuperTuxKart/0.8.2-beta/supertuxkart-0.8.2-beta-win.exe/downloadFor OSX 10.9 and 10.10 : http://sourceforge.net/projects/supertuxkart/files/SuperTuxKart/0.8.2-beta/supertuxkart-osx-0.8.2-beta.dmg/downloadUpdate: We now have a combined 32/64 bit linux binary online: http://sourceforge.net/projects/supertuxkart/files/SuperTuxKart/0.8.2-beta/supertuxkart-0.8.2-beta-linux.tar.bz2/download. Let us know if you should have any problems with this binary. Anyone else needs to build from source. We hope to provide a stand alone source package soon. For now see the following links :http://supertuxkart.sourceforge.net/Source_controlhttp://supertuxkart.sourceforge.net/Build_STK_on_LinuxFrench translation of this article available here [Less]

Merry Christmas to all of you who have been waiting for the new release!So, better late than never, SuperTuxKart 0.8.2 beta has been released! This new version is the result of months of work from the SuperTuxKart team. Please note that this is a ... [More] beta only, and we know that there are still some bugs around which we intend to fix before the 0.8.2 release (see our bug tracker for a list), but no major ones that would prevent you from enjoying the game. If you download the beta, we are mostly interested in any kind of feedback, particularly about the graphical side of thing. Please let us know if it works just fine, or if you had to disable certain features to make it look good. Report bugs in our tracks (URL see above, but please check that it has not been reported previously). The main highlights include the first release of Antartica, the new graphical engine (more on that later). We have basically added a completely new, shader-based rendering engine - only things like loading meshes and textures are still done by the original Irrlicht. As a result of the new features which are provided by our engine, we have many tracks with significantly improved visuals. The main highlight on this front is two new massive tracks. First of all "Cocoa Temple" that replaces the old "Jungle" track:And "Gran Paradiso Island" that replace the old "Island" track:Thanks to samuncle for all the hard work!Another new feature is the addition of online accounts, as a prelude to networked multiplayer. Just to make it very clear: networked racing itself is not ready yet, but will be our main focus once the release is done. Your account allows you to connect achievements, stay in touch with your friends, etc.The new version includes many more new features - we still need to assemble the full list. But it includes different kart physics, based on this year's GSoC work, random Grand Prix, a Grand Prix editor and more. The windows binary also includes a beta version of the track editor, developed this summer by one of our Google of Code Students (on other platforms, it can built from source). It's not fully polished yet, but you can also start playing with itNew engineAs has been mentioned above, SuperTuxKart 0.8.2 features Antartica, a totally new rendering engine, starting from the foundations of cand from GSOC 2013, and improved a lot by new team member vlj. The new engine features exciting new features like much improved rendering of lights and shadows (for more information, take a look at this page ).An example of DoF (Depth of Field) in action with the snow falling However, it is very important to note that this new engine uses at least OpenGL 3.1, whereas the previous STK version used very old OpenGL 1. This means that we are using many more advanced features of the opengl drivers, and as a result we have been suffering from various driver bugs already. During our development vlj did a marvelous job to work around most problems we have encountered so far. This is why your feedback is so important for us - we can't afford to get a set of different graphics cards to try to work around their specific problems. So we need as many people as possible to test this beta and provide feedback. We will provide some additional documentation about what you can try if this beta does not work as expected for you.Also, using newer opengl features means that unfortunately, older computers may not be able to run the game correctly - we use the HD 3000 as a minimal supported GPU. Obviously you should make sure to update your drivers to the latest available version and, on linux, you may want to try the proprietary driver if the open source one does not work (a recent version of mesa may be required for some features).  That being said, don't panic! You can configure the graphical level in STK options, so if your computer cannot reach a good decent frame rate you can always reduce the graphical details, or the resolution.  An additional note: since this is a beta we have not yet updated the credits, nor declared a string freeze for translations either. We still expect some minor changes to the strings before our release candidate. We are also looking for help creating binary packages for other platforms - especially a static linux package would be great.And in spite of all our testing, a first problem was already discovered :P the Christmas hats were switched on (that happens on the 17th of December), and some of the new karts now have the hats hovering ... around half a meter over their heads :)Quick edit: users of Windows XP should be aware we no longer support it and the game will fail to install.Giving FeedbackPlease use the forum for feedback, as blog comments are inappropriate for support. You might also be especially interested in this post announcing the beta release. It includes details on how to unlock these new tracks, since initially they will be locked.Getting the beta For Windows Vista and later: http://sourceforge.net/projects/supertuxkart/files/SuperTuxKart/0.8.2-beta/supertuxkart-0.8.2-beta-win.exe/download For OSX 10.9 and 10.10 : http://sourceforge.net/projects/supertuxkart/files/SuperTuxKart/0.8.2-beta/supertuxkart-osx-0.8.2-beta.dmg/download Update: We now have a combined 32/64 bit linux binary online: http://sourceforge.net/projects/supertuxkart/files/SuperTuxKart/0.8.2-beta/supertuxkart-0.8.2-beta-linux.tar.bz2/download. Let us know if you should have any problems with this binary. Anyone else needs to build from source. We hope to provide a stand alone source package soon. For now see the following links : http://supertuxkart.sourceforge.net/Source_control http://supertuxkart.sourceforge.net/Build_STK_on_Linux French translation of this article available here [Less]

Merry Christmas to all of you who have been waiting for the new release!So, better late than never, SuperTuxKart 0.8.2 beta has been released! This new version is the result of months of work from the SuperTuxKart team. Please note that this is a ... [More] beta only, and we know that there are still some bugs around which we intend to fix before the 0.8.2 release (see our bug tracker for a list), but no major ones that would prevent you from enjoying the game. If you download the beta, we are mostly interested in any kind of feedback, particularly about the graphical side of thing. Please let us know if it works just fine, or if you had to disable certain features to make it look good. Report bugs in our tracks (URL see above, but please check that it has not been reported previously). The main highlights include the first release of Antartica, the new graphical engine (more on that later). We have basically added a completely new, shader-based rendering engine - only things like loading meshes and textures are still done by the original Irrlicht. As a result of the new features which are provided by our engine, we have many tracks with significantly improved visuals. The main highlight on this front is two new massive tracks. First of all "Cocoa Temple" that replaces the old "Jungle" track:And "Gran Paradiso Island" that replace the old "Island" track:Thanks to samuncle for all the hard work!Another new feature is the addition of online accounts, as a prelude to networked multiplayer. Just to make it very clear: networked racing itself is not ready yet, but will be our main focus once the release is done. Your account allows you to connect achievements, stay in touch with your friends, etc.The new version includes many more new features - we still need to assemble the full list. But it includes different kart physics, based on this year's GSoC work, random Grand Prix, a Grand Prix editor and more. The windows binary also includes a beta version of the track editor, developed this summer by one of our Google of Code Students (on other platforms, it can built from source). It's not fully polished yet, but you can also start playing with itNew engineAs has been mentioned above, SuperTuxKart 0.8.2 features Antartica, a totally new rendering engine, starting from the foundations of cand from GSOC 2013, and improved a lot by new team member vlj. The new engine features exciting new features like much improved rendering of lights and shadows (for more information, take a look at this page ).An example of DoF (Depth of Field) in action with the snow falling However, it is very important to note that this new engine uses at least OpenGL 3.1, whereas the previous STK version used very old OpenGL 1. This means that we are using many more advanced features of the opengl drivers, and as a result we have been suffering from various driver bugs already. During our development vlj did a marvelous job to work around most problems we have encountered so far. This is why your feedback is so important for us - we can't afford to get a set of different graphics cards to try to work around their specific problems. So we need as many people as possible to test this beta and provide feedback. We will provide some additional documentation about what you can try if this beta does not work as expected for you.Also, using newer opengl features means that unfortunately, older computers may not be able to run the game correctly - we use the HD 3000 as a minimal supported GPU. Obviously you should make sure to update your drivers to the latest available version and, on linux, you may want to try the proprietary driver if the open source one does not work (a recent version of mesa may be required for some features).  That being said, don't panic! You can configure the graphical level in STK options, so if your computer cannot reach a good decent frame rate you can always reduce the graphical details, or the resolution.  An additional note: since this is a beta we have not yet updated the credits, nor declared a string freeze for translations either. We still expect some minor changes to the strings before our release candidate. We are also looking for help creating binary packages for other platforms - especially a static linux package would be great.And in spite of all our testing, a first problem was already discovered :P the Christmas hats were switched on (that happens on the 17th of December), and some of the new karts now have the hats hovering ... around half a meter over their heads :)Quick edit: users of Windows XP should be aware we no longer support it and the game will fail to install.Giving FeedbackPlease use the forum for feedback, as blog comments are inappropriate for support. You might also be especially interested in this post announcing the beta release. It includes details on how to unlock these new tracks, since initially they will be locked.Getting the beta For Windows Vista and later: http://sourceforge.net/projects/supertuxkart/files/SuperTuxKart/0.8.2-beta/supertuxkart-0.8.2-beta-win.exe/download For OSX 10.9 and 10.10 : http://sourceforge.net/projects/supertuxkart/files/SuperTuxKart/0.8.2-beta/supertuxkart-osx-0.8.2-beta.dmg/download Update: We now have a combined 32/64 bit linux binary online: http://sourceforge.net/projects/supertuxkart/files/SuperTuxKart/0.8.2-beta/supertuxkart-0.8.2-beta-linux.tar.bz2/download. Let us know if you should have any problems with this binary. Anyone else needs to build from source. We hope to provide a stand alone source package soon. For now see the following links : http://supertuxkart.sourceforge.net/Source_control http://supertuxkart.sourceforge.net/Build_STK_on_Linux French translation of this article available here [Less]

Merry Christmas to all of you who have been waiting for the new release!So, better late than never, SuperTuxKart 0.8.2 beta has been released! This new version is the result of months of work from the SuperTuxKart team. Please note that this is a ... [More] beta only, and we know that there are still some bugs around which we intend to fix before the 0.8.2 release (see our bug tracker for a list), but no major ones that would prevent you from enjoying the game. If you download the beta, we are mostly interested in any kind of feedback, particularly about the graphical side of thing. Please let us know if it works just fine, or if you had to disable certain features to make it look good. Report bugs in our tracks (URL see above, but please check that it has not been reported previously). The main highlights include the first release of Antartica, the new graphical engine (more on that later). We have basically added a completely new, shader-based rendering engine - only things like loading meshes and textures are still done by the original Irrlicht. As a result of the new features which are provided by our engine, we have many tracks with significantly improved visuals. The main highlight on this front is two new massive tracks. First of all "Cocoa Temple" that replaces the old "Jungle" track:And "Gran Paradiso Island" that replace the old "Island" track:Thanks to samuncle for all the hard work!Another new feature is the addition of online accounts, as a prelude to networked multiplayer. Just to make it very clear: networked racing itself is not ready yet, but will be our main focus once the release is done. Your account allows you to connect achievements, stay in touch with your friends, etc.The new version includes many more new features - we still need to assemble the full list. But it includes different kart physics, based on this year's GSoC work, random Grand Prix, a Grand Prix editor and more. The windows binary also includes a beta version of the track editor, developed this summer by one of our Google of Code Students (on other platforms, it can built from source). It's not fully polished yet, but you can also start playing with itNew engineAs has been mentioned above, SuperTuxKart 0.8.2 features Antartica, a totally new rendering engine, starting from the foundations of cand from GSOC 2013, and improved a lot by new team member vlj. The new engine features exciting new features like much improved rendering of lights and shadows (for more information, take a look at this page ).An example of DoF (Depth of Field) in action with the snow falling However, it is very important to note that this new engine uses at least OpenGL 3.1, whereas the previous STK version used very old OpenGL 1. This means that we are using many more advanced features of the opengl drivers, and as a result we have been suffering from various driver bugs already. During our development vlj did a marvelous job to work around most problems we have encountered so far. This is why your feedback is so important for us - we can't afford to get a set of different graphics cards to try to work around their specific problems. So we need as many people as possible to test this beta and provide feedback. We will provide some additional documentation about what you can try if this beta does not work as expected for you.Also, using newer opengl features means that unfortunately, older computers may not be able to run the game correctly - we use the HD 3000 as a minimal supported GPU. Obviously you should make sure to update your drivers to the latest available version and, on linux, prefer the proprietary driver to the open source one.  That being said, don't panic! You can configure the graphical level in STK options, so if your computer cannot reach a good decent frame rate you can always reduce the graphical details, or the resolution.  An additional note: since this is a beta we have not yet updated the credits, nor declared a string freeze for translations either. We still expect some minor changes to the strings before our release candidate. We are also looking for help creating binary packages for other platforms - especially a static linux package would be great.And in spite of all our testing, a first problem was already discovered :P the Christmas hats were switched on (that happens on the 17th of December), and some of the new karts now have the hats hovering ... around half a meter over their heads :)Quick edit: users of Windows XP should be aware we no longer support it and the game will fail to install.Giving FeedbackPlease use the forum for feedback, as blog comments are inappropriate for support. You might also be especially interested in this post announcing the beta release. It includes details on how to unlock these new tracks, since initially they will be locked.Getting the betaFor Windows Vista and later: http://sourceforge.net/projects/supertuxkart/files/SuperTuxKart/0.8.2-beta/supertuxkart-0.8.2-beta-win.exe/downloadFor OSX 10.9 and 10.10 : http://sourceforge.net/projects/supertuxkart/files/SuperTuxKart/0.8.2-beta/supertuxkart-osx-0.8.2-beta.dmg/downloadLinux users: for now you need to build from source. We hope to provide a stand alone source package tomorrow, and hopefully a static binary as well. For now see the following links :http://supertuxkart.sourceforge.net/Source_controlhttp://supertuxkart.sourceforge.net/Build_STK_on_LinuxFrench translation of this article available here [Less]