Here is a nice (but slightly older) game-play video for those not having played Xonotic yet:
Changes are quite extensive compared to the last official release… most notably an extensive update the the CTF mode, some neat additional features for competitive gaming and an assortment of great new maps.
New maps in Xonotic 0.7
On the technical side of things, the engine DarkPlaces got quite a few performance improvements (mainly due to the fact that the creator now works at Valve software and thus has direct access to Nvidia’s and AMD’s graphics hardware divisions) and that an all new script compiler is now in use. That it runs on SDL 2.0 might also increase it’s usability a lot for some. There are also finally an animation bending feature for the player-models and creation of new characters has never been easier now that the iqm format is used.
Also check out these two still under heavy development mods for xonotic:
Overkill is a mod that attempts to combine the best of minsta gameplay and TDM/CTF. It also has some nice vector shaded new weapons and player models.
DotC is an DOTA like but in 1st person view type of mod.
Last but not least, the awesome all new level editor for quake based games, Trenchbroom is making great advances and should soon allow easy mapping for Xonotic out of the box.
P.S.: If you have a really fast Android device, you can also try to run Xonotic on it via this newly fixed DarkPlaces port. Just don’t expect to be able to compete online with touchscreen input :p
Here is another post about a project I found in the far ends of the internet (“here be dragons”), but which seems really promising never the less.
But first of all a disclamer by the original creator:
The screenshots you are about to see are not yet an eye candy, they’re rather to be seen as a ‘proof of concept’ with lots of crappy placeholders. Work so far has mainly been done on the internal mechanics of game handling such as object interaction (player can carry gun which again can ‘carry’ a mag and the like), realistic calculation of trajectories, hit testing etc.
So what am I talking about? A (most likely) open-source Operation Flashpoint type of game running on the Irrlicht engine with the current working title OpenFlashpoint:
All there is so far is a thread on the Irrlich forums (with a few more details and development screenshots) and sadly the main developer seems to be bogged down by “real-life” ATM. But it seems like a worthwhile project to support.
Oh and get this: it is developed primarily for Linux
(Yes, that is a rather thin common ground to combine these two news in one post ).
Anyways, today there is one for the “FreeGamers”, aka those that are looking for more or less playable games: There is a new release (2.0) of StuntRally, and I guess I can quote Twain here too:
The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated!
And the other one is for “FreeGameDevs”: And as they say: good things come to those that wait, and things are better late then never… so I am happy to also report about the Octaforge 0.2.0 beta1 release.
This friendly fork of the Cube2 engine, brings an impressive list of new features on the table, and should once it becomes more “production ready” be a strong contender for the easiest to mod FPS engine out there!
For 0 A.D., Erik Johansson steps down from project leadership and Michael D. Hafer assumes that role.
In Unknown Horizons, Nightraven steps back and Kilian fills the project management role.
Leadership in free and open source game projects is an exciting topic with much opinion about which style will lead to a successful game – whatever the subject’s definition of “success” is – and too few examples to make objective statements about it.
Are you following any specific projects and their leadership structures an want to comment on these? I must admit that I am out of the loop with many, many projects, although I am pretty sure that for example Flare, NAEV and Valyria Tear have (successful) Benevolent Dictator for Life style leadership.
On related note: FIFE (the isometric 2d engine used by Unknown Horizons) moved to GitHub.
Great news from the people behind the idTech4 powered stealth FPS The Dark Mod: They are making great steps to leave their Doom3 mod legacy behind and a standalone version should not be all that far from now.
New The Dark Mod replacement artwork
You can follow the progress here on their forums, and maybe you can also give them an helping hand.
Interestingly there are two other recently updated Doom3 mods, that could easily fit in as The Dark Mod mods, e.g. going stand alone with The Dark Mod’s help.
Sadly both of them use proprietary themes (and one could even argue that The Dark Mod is borderline infringing on one too), but I am still looking forward to try out these nice community creations once they become stand-alone!
In a pretty surprising move the source-code of the idTech3 based games Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy were released under the GPL by Activision and Raven Software. You can find the original source drops here and here. The content is obviously still propitiatory (e.g. you need to buy it), but some people have already plans to upgrade the source as OpenJK (most likely back-ports from ioQuake3) and make a Linux version most likely. Would be also cool if a nice stand-alone FOSS 3rd person sword-fighting game would come out of this… but the detailed player animations will likely be the biggest road-block.
Ahh well… and since I hate posting something with no pictures or videos I include the pretty nice new Flare 0.18 release:
It includes some pretty nice new features too:
10 Equipment Slots, up from 4 (and easily configurable)
Ok I admit it… I am a bit of a 0 A.D. fanboy! But the new Alpha 13 release is also great again, and deserved an update post:
Also pretty cool is the new OpenMW 0.22 release, that finally features player and NPC animations, and thus starts to look more like a functioning game:
Vanity items and improved colours: dress up and frag with style.
Visible legs in first person: know where you are kicking and parkouring.
New and revamped maps: bringing you even more variety.
Better viewing: level flythroughs, improved third and first person cameras.
Better menus and other HUD elements: easier to see and read at a glance.
New weapon: Mines add a new dimension to the existing gameplay.
New mode: attack and defend in Gauntlet, competing for the most laps.
Automatic demo recording: for those times you just have to watch it again.
User Accounts: donate or contribute, and wear the in-game supporter badge.
Improved weapon balance and gameplay rules, bugs fixed, and much more.
Especially the visible legs in 1st person view add to the parcour movements and overall the game feels much more “complete” now. Here are some impressions of a bot-match I had earlier on:
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