SuperTuxKart, a free 3D kart racing game, with many tracks, characters, and items for gamers, has been updated and the developers are making some very important changes to it.

SuperTuxKart has been around for a very long time, and for many years, it was one of the few racing games available on the Linux platform. Think of it like Solitaire for Windows. It wasn't something out of the ordinary, but it was fun and it allowed users to play a game in rather restrictive operating systems that didn't really foster development for this kind of entertainment.

For a rather long period of time, SuperTuxKart remained pretty much the same, although it did receive some updates and the gameplay has been tweaked along the way. The graphics were improved over time, albeit in a very slow manner. The game looks much better today than it did five years ago, and anyone who played it regularly would be able to notice it.

The SuperTuxKart game was due a graphics update

The game is now using a new graphics engine, and that should be immediately obvious to all users. This is still a Beta release and it's still not bug-free, but the gameplay should present no problems. Also, it's a good idea to ignore the version number, 0.8.2.

"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."

"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." say the devs.

One of the main effects of this new engine upgrade is the fact that some users with older computers might have a hard time playing the game. As it stands right now, gamers need to have at least Intel HD 3000.

Check out the official announcement for a complete list of changes and improvements. Also, you can download SuperTuxKart 0.8.2 Beta right now from Softpedia to see how it currently looks. For the time being, only the source packages are available.