After several years of work, It is now available SuperTuxKart version 1.5, the free and multiplatform kart arcade that competes reliably in the field of casual driving, and continuing the evolution started in previous versions such as Super Tux Kart 1.3It arrives as a major update, with technical tweaks, visual improvements, and minor tweaks throughout.
The launch is not limited to polishing details: it incorporates a performance measurement mode, graphical tweaks to reduce popping, new audio options, and more playable content. All of this is accompanied by interface changes and engine optimizations to make the game feel more stable and responsive.
New graphics and performance features in SuperTuxKart 1.5
The team has fine-tuned the renderer Vulkan and has introduced adjustments to Level of Detail to minimize sudden appearances of objects. In addition, SSAA and soft shadows by Percentage-Closer Soft Shadows for those with powerful GPUs, along with better anisotropic filtering at low and medium qualities and Cascaded Shadow Mapping improvements, following improvements initiated in Super Tux Kart 1.2.
To expand compatibility, visual effects have been added for old graphics driversPerformance has also been improved when iterating through scene nodes, new shadow settings have been enabled, and karts, tracks, and modes are now rendered more clearly on-screen.
SuperTuxKart 1.5 Interface and Accessibility
In the UI section, there is a specific display settings tab, a search engine for karts and arenas, and an in-game blog announcement system. Six themes have been added, font scaling and interface have been improved, and the game also includes new fonts to display more languages ​​correctly.
Gameplay, audio and content
There are three new ones egg hunts in Black Forest, Gran Paradisio Island and The Old Mine, and three official courses for football mode. Courses can be marked as favorites to keep them handy, and color and sound indicators appear when an elimination is approaching. Follow-The-Leader and the parachute and landing animations are fine-tuned. chewing gum shield.
In sound, new music has been added for Las Dunas Arena and Las Dunas Soccer, along with finer volume controls. The accuracy of the frame limiter and the Irrlicht motor's smooth scrolling is activated for more pleasant menu navigation.
Performance and network options
A classic request is finally fulfilled: the maximum FPS limit can be configured from the game itself, instead of being fixed at 120 on PC and 30 on Android. Along with the new mode of benchmarking, includes network improvements and bug fixes that improve stability in online matches.
Download and platforms
On GNU/Linux, you can download the package for x86_64 and AArch64 from GitHub; just extract it and run run_game.sh. It's also available as a Flatpak on Flathub. For macOS, there's a signed build in the official repository, and on Windows the title remains actively supported. Multiplayer works both online and locally, and there is also an iOS version being tested using TestFlight.
Roadmap and project support
The developers offer a donation package with early access to two circuits for $5, which will later be extended to everyone. In parallel, the team is already concentrating its efforts on SuperTuxKart Evolution, where a revamped interface, new layouts, and a updated story modeAs a farewell to Story Mode 1.x, the overworld receives a final facelift in 1.5.
The update represents a clear step forward: improves visual quality, accessibility and stability, adds content and makes it easy to measure performance to fine-tune the game for each team. Those who haven't ridden a kart in a while will find reasons to come back, and those who are new to it will have easy-to-use options to get started.
