SuperTuxKart 1.5, the latest version of the free, open-source kart racing game, has been released after several years of development. This major update comes three years following the previous version, SuperTuxKart 1.4, and introduces numerous exciting features and enhancements.
In SuperTuxKart 1.5, players can look forward to new egg hunt challenges on the Black Forest, Gran Paradisio Island, and The Old Mine tracks. The game now includes a benchmark mode and new Level of Detail (LoD) settings designed to minimize graphical "popping." Additionally, the update allows for more precise control over audio levels, and the addition of support for spotlights further enhances the gaming experience.
Graphically, SuperTuxKart 1.5 offers significant improvements, including updates to the Vulkan renderer which enhance the display of karts, tracks, and game modes. The departure from the 1.x Story Mode has led to upgrades in the overworld visuals. Notable features such as SSAA (Supersample Anti-Aliasing) and Percentage-Closer Soft Shadows improve the quality for users with powerful GPUs.
Additionally, this release refines animations for the parachute and bubblegum shield, and allows players to customize STK’s maximum FPS settings—previously limited to 120 FPS on PCs and 30 FPS on Android. New fonts for multilingual support have also been introduced.
The soundtrack has been updated with new music for the Las Dunas Arena and Las Dunas Soccer arenas. Improvements extend to gameplay with smoother scrolling capabilities in Irrlicht and enhanced accuracy in the framerate limiter. Other graphical effects for legacy video drivers and performance improvements in Cascaded Shadow Mapping are included.
Players can download SuperTuxKart 1.5 for the 64-bit or AArch64 (ARM64) GNU/Linux systems directly from the project’s GitHub page. Alternatively, users can install it as a Flatpak application via Flathub.