Linux Gaming News Archives

When SDL3 development kicked off last November for this open-source library that is widely used by cross-platform games and other software, QNX support was removed alongside other old targets. Just months later, the QNX platform support is being revived.

Development work on SDL3 continues at full-speed for the next version of this hardware/software abstraction library that is commonly used by cross-platform games. The newest feature merged is support for child pop-up windows.

FEX-Emu 2303 was published today as the newest version of this open-source software for enjoying x86 64-bit Linux software to run gracefully on 64-bit ARM (ARM64 / AArch64) including the likes of Linux games and Valve's Steam client with Steam Play (Proton).

The Godot engine developers are starting off March with a bang... The much anticipated Godot 4.0 engine that has been in development for years has been released as stable!

As written about last year, the Laminar Research developers responsible for the incredible X-Plane flight simulator software have been working to make use of Mesa's Zink for leveraging OpenGL atop Vulkan to thereby avoid vendor OpenGL drivers that can vary in quality across platforms. With X-Plane 12.04b3, that goal is finally realized.

The much anticipated Godot 4.0 open-source, cross-platform game engine release is imminent. Out today is Godot 4.0 RC3 which could end up being the final test release before this big game engine release.

Lutris 0.5.13 Beta is out this weekend as the newest test release for this open-source game manager that makes it easier to install and play video games from multiple game stores, emulators, and integration with other services.

The open-source Godot 4.0 game engine will finally be released soon while being christened today is the initial release candidate.

Unvanquished 0.54 was released overnight as the latest update across the array of many releases going back a decade for this open-source first person shooter game. With Unvanquished 0.54 there continues to be enhancements to its renderer, the project is now providing ARM binaries on Linux to complement their x86/x86_64 builds, user-interface improvements, and gameplay enhancements.

With the Linux 6.2 kernel Sony DualShock 4 controller support was added to the "hid-playstation" driver as the newer open-source driver maintained by Sony and started out originally in supporting the PlayStation 5 DualSense controllers. The DualShock 4 controller was long supported by the "hid-sony" driver while now in the Linux 6.3 kernel that support will be removed.

FEX as the open-source project working on allowing x86_64 software to run atop Linux AArch64 (64-bit Arm) systems -- including games and the likes of Valve's Steam Play (Proton) -- is out with its newest monthly feature release.

It shouldn't be too surprising given the pace of beta releases and planning for post-4.0 releases, but the open-source Godot game engine is planning for its major Godot 4.0 stable release to happen in the "first months" of 2023.

The long-awaited Godot 4 open-source game engine release is getting closer... The developers have already begun drafting plans past Godot 4.0 and they have now moved to weekly development snapshots as this much anticipated release nears.

FEX-Emu is the open-source software project working on speedy x86/x86_64 software emulation on AArch64. FEX-Emu is one of the leading options for running x86 binaries on 64-bit Arm and has matured enough for allowing Linux games and Steam Play titles to run on Arm. FEX 2212 is out as the newest shiny feature update to this promising software.

With SDL 3.0 in development and it taking a more modern focus and doing away with various pieces of old code, one of the latest chunks of code being retired is the OpenGL ES 1.0 2D render path.

DXVK-NVAPI 0.6 is now available as the newest feature release to this open-source project that bridges the DXVK Direct3D-on-Vulkan layer with NVIDIA's proprietary driver NVAPI library for utilizing various NVIDIA-specific features.

The much anticipated Godot 4.0 open-source game engine continues inching closer to release. When that release is finally out, Godot 4.0.x point releases will likely be coming in quick and some plans for Godot 4.1 are already being discussed.

It was just a little more than 24 hours ago that SDL 2.26 released for this widely-used library by cross-platform games and other software for abstracting software/hardware interfaces. With SDL 2.26 released, SDL 3.0 is now in development. One of the first stages of that big Simple DirectMedia Layer update is removing a lot of old platform code and other obsolete targets.

SDL 2.26 has been officially released as the latest version of this widely-used library by cross-platform games and other software wishing to abstract various hardware/software differences between systems. With the release of SDL 2.26 out, SDL 3.0 is now officially under development.

While Razer still sadly isn't officially supporting their various gaming-focused computer peripherals under Linux, the OpenRazer project providing open-source drivers for Razer products continues working out well and offering broad hardware support under Linux.

SDL 2.26 RC1 was released today as the pre-release for the upcoming SDL 2.26 library.

In addition to the very successful FEX-Emu emulator for enjoying Linux x86/x86_64 games on AArch64 and other x86/x86_64 software on Arm there is also the Box86 and Box64 projects with similar goals. Out today is Box64 v0.2 and Box86 v0.2.8 for running Linux binaries on other architectures.

In addition to Godot 4.0 adding a movie maker mode, some additional news for this popular open-source game engine this week is the debut of Godot 4.0 Beta 5.

In addition to the Vulkan renderer and plethora of other enhancements coming with Godot 4.0, a late v4.0 addition for this very successful open-source game engine is introducing a movie maker mode.

Last month I wrote about a Linux sensor driver being written for the AMD-powered OneXPlayer Mini gaming handheld device. The good news is that this driver has matured enough that it's now queued for introduction in the Linux 6.2 kernel.

DXVK 2.0 is out as a major update to this Direct3D on Vulkan implementation used by Steam Play (Proton) for enjoying D3D9 to D3D11 Windows games on Linux with great speed.

Making good progress this year has been the open-source FEX-Emu emulator for running x86/x86_64 Linux binaries on 64-bit Arm (AArch64). This isn't only for running Linux x86_64 applications on Arm but with Steam and Steam Play (Proton) can mean running Windows games on Linux 64-bit Arm. With FEX 2211 out today more progress has been made on the Proton front for getting more modern games running.

The Godot open-source game engine had been part of the Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC) as many open-source projects utilize for handling fiscal sponsorship duties and the like while now the Godot Foundation has been established as its own legal entity.

SuperTuxKart 1.4 is out today as the newest feature release to this open-source kart racing game originally inspired by Mario Kart.

For those interested in the OneXPlayer handheld gaming consoles, a x86 platform driver for the Linux kernel has been posted for getting working sensor support on the AMD-powered OneXPlayer Mini.

sdl12-compat is the library implementation allowing old SDL 1.2 games/software to work atop SDL2. This sdl12-compat can allow for Wayland support if there is no other direct X11 usage by the software itself, native support for PipeWire, improved input controls, and the many other enhancements enjoyed with the much more modern SDL2 library. Released yesterday was sdl12-compat 1.2.60 as the newest stable release for this conversion/support library for vintage software.

Ahead of O3DCON kicking off tomorrow in Austin, Texas as a developer event around the Open 3D Engine game engine backed by the Linux Foundation and numerous organizations, O3DE 22.10 has been released.

FEX-Emu as the open-source project aiming for speedy x86/x86_64 games and other software on Arm AArch64 including the likes of Steam has issued their newest feature update. FEX-Emu 2210 is today's newest release for this binary emulator and continues on a nice trajectory for being able to enjoy x86 64-bit binaries on modern Arm Linux systems.

DDraceNetwork "DDNet" as an open-source cross-platform game building off the DDRace and Teeworlds games recently introduced a Vulkan renderer.

It was just a few days ago that Godot 4.0 Alpha 17 was released while also announcing that W4 Games as the start-up created by Godot Engine developers has raised $8.5M USD to advance the open-source Godot ecosystem. They are now celebrating by releasing the long-awaited Godot 4.0 beta release.

Released last month was Cemu 2.0 as open-source software and with Linux support for this Nintendo Wii U emulator that for years has been in development but up to that point closed-source and Windows-only. Cemu 2.0 continues advancing with another bug-fixing update out today.

Godot 4.0 Alpha 17 is out today as the newest development release for this open-source game engine. Also announced today that the new start-up W4 Games that was started by Godot Engine developers has managed to raise $8.5M USD to support this open-source game engine ecosystem.

Last week Laminar Research promoted X-Plane 12 to its early access public beta phase. This realistic flight simulator continues to natively support Linux -- and doing so well for many years -- and now with X-Plane 12, the Vulkan steps up past their long-used OpenGL renderer.

Ahead of the upcoming Godot 4.0 Beta, this impressive open-source game engine has been tacking on a few more improvements in another Godot 4.0 alpha build.

Last month saw the Cemu project go open-source and introduce Linux support with Cemu 2.0 for this Nintendo Wii U emulator that has been in development for years. Cemu 2.0-1 is now available with Linux improvements.

The sdl12-compat is a SDL 1.2 compatibility layer implementation atop SDL 2.0. This sdl12-compat project allows for old, out-of-date games and other applications relying on the old SDL 1.2 interface to in turn run via the modern SDL2 library for better compatibility with input devices, Wayland support (assuming no direct X11 hard dependencies), support for PipeWire audio, improved input controls, and various other enhancements only found in SDL 2.0 and not the unmaintained SDL 1.2.

Lutris as the open-source game manager that integrates with the likes of Steam, GOG, Humble Bundle, and other game collections and emulators is out with a new update.

Cemu is a popular emulator for the Nintendo Wii U that can successfully run many games as well as homebrew titles. Cemu started off with just Windows support but then at the beginning of the year laid out plans to go open-source and provide Linux support. They've pulled that off and the code is now out there in a public GitHub repository.

SDL 2.24 has been released as the newest update to this widely-used abstraction layer library commonly used by cross-platform games, including heavily by games on Steam.

Those on rolling-release Linux distributions that are quick to adapt to new toolchain updates are finding Easy Anti Cheat (EAC) enabled games breaking when running on the recently released Glibc 2.36. The breakage stems from the DT_HASH section being dropped in GNU C Library but EAC being among the few software still expecting that section rather than DT_GNU_HASH.

DXVK 1.10.3 has been released as the newest update for an upcoming Proton release, which powers Steam Play for allowing Windows games to run often very well under Linux.

Released on Sunday was Unvanquished 0.53 Beta as the latest in a long string of betas for this one of the most promising open-source first person shooter (FPS) games.

The Godot open-source game engine developers announced on Thursday that next week will mark the Godot 4.0 feature freeze as they prepare to ship the Godot 4.0 Beta 1 in September. But ahead of that feature freeze, Godot 4.0 Alpha 13 was released on Thursday afternoon with yet more feature work -- including variable rate shading and other renderer improvements.

Godot as one of the most successful open-source game engine projects is preparing for its Godot 4.0 Beta 1 milestone and as part of that will begin the feature freeze for this major engine update.

Canonical engineers continue working on their Steam Snap for making that confined version of Valve's Linux game client viable and useful to Ubuntu gamers.