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    <h1>XRacer: Old News</h1>

		<p><b>Tue Jan 18 23:24:24 GMT 2000</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.95.25:
		  Minor update. Removed all <tt>printf</tt>'s and
		  <tt>perror</tt>'s from the code. Tidied up handling
		  of <tt>--verbose</tt> command line argument.
		  Made compiler warnings much more strict, and removed
		  a ton of buggy code which triggered warnings.
		</p>

		<p><b>Tue Jan 18 21:30:06 GMT 2000</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.95.24:
		  A minor update. Added some more scenery.
		  Some changes to <tt>tracks/simple/control.c</tt>.
		  Fixed RPM builds (slightly more).
		</p>

		<p><b>Mon Jan 17 23:37:33 GMT 2000</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.95.23:
		  I can't believe that until now I didn't have
		  <a href="http://www1.las.es/~amil/ssystem/">a link to ssystem</a>
		  from these pages. Well that's rectified now. This
		  program has been around for a few years now. It's
		  a really beautiful solar system simulator. Get it
		  now (it needs Mesa 3.0). OK, there's no new code
		  in this release. I just got RPMs working (maybe -
		  perhaps someone could mail me if they get the
		  RPM to work/not work).
		</p>

		<p><b>Mon Jan 17 19:24:57 GMT 2000</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.95.22:
		  Nick Lewycky sent another patch in which
		  fixes the mouse controls (actually - makes
		  them work, full stop).
		</p>

		<p><b>Sun Jan 16 23:17:15 GMT 2000</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.95.21:
		  Just playing with Blender and adding some
		  more scenery to the basic track.
		</p>

		<p><b>Sun Jan 16 16:16:09 GMT 2000</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.95.20:
		  Added support for textured scenery objects (although
		  the texturing is not quite right at the moment, and
		  drawing large quads seems to make the engine slow
		  down unacceptably). Added debug of segment number.
		  Fixed a build bug.
		</p>

		<p><b>Sun Jan 16 10:17:18 GMT 2000</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.95.19:
		  Nick Lewycky sent in a patch which fixes the keyboard
		  controls.
		</p>

		<p><b>Sat Jan 15 16:08:04 GMT 2000</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.95.18:
		  Added code to browse directories and load
		  tracks.
		</p>

		<p><b>Sun Jan  9 15:27:20 GMT 2000</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.95.17:
		  Laps code imported from 0.94 release.
		</p>

		<p><b>Sat Jan  8 18:45:44 GMT 2000</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.95.16:
		  Minor patch fixes a warning and CVS problem in
		  previous release.
		</p>

		<p><b>Sat Jan  8 18:27:44 GMT 2000</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.95.15:
		  It's taken me most of the week to figure
		  out a really annoying bug. I added a skeleton
		  outline for the sound code, but this caused
		  XRacer to consistently lock up the machine
		  every time it ran. Eventually worked out
		  that I was calling exit(3) not _exit(2) in
		  the sound subprocess - deeply confusing
		  Mesa/Glide by calling all the atexit callbacks
		  twice over. Here it is - no sound, but the
		  skeleton for sound is in place. Also updates
		  to the FAQ, craft drawn in background
		  a la Elite, and numerous small updates.
		</p>

		<p><b>Mon Jan  3 22:42:58 GMT 2000</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.95.14:
		  Added code to store craft in a file, and load
		  them when the game starts up. Added a simple
		  Blender VRML parser, so that (in theory at
		  least) you can draw craft in Blender. This
		  works, to some extent, but it's not really
		  ready for prime-time.
		</p>

		<p>
		  The mailing list, which had been in a
		  state of not-workingness for some time
		  is now working again. To subscribe
		  to it, do this:
		</p>

<pre>
echo 'subscribe xracer' |
mail -s '' xracer-request@annexia.org
</pre>

		<p><b>Sun Jan  2 17:13:24 GMT 2000</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.95.13:
		  No change. Just updating the website.
		</p>

                <p><b>Sun Jan  2 14:14:25 GMT 2000</b></p>

                <p>
                Version 0.95.12:
                Joystick controls work, but the handling
                is very ropey.
                It's <a href="xracer-0.95.12.tar.gz">here</a>.
                </p>

                <p><b>Sun Jan  2 01:49:40 GMT 2000</b></p>

                <p>
                Version 0.95.11:
                Screenshots work again. Added joystick
                code (but you still can't move around -
                promise that for the next version). Did
                lots of cleaning up of the menu code. There
                are now a few menus you can navigate between.
                It's <a href="xracer-0.95.11.tar.gz">here</a>.
                </p>

                <p><b>Sat Jan  1 17:40:27 GMT 2000</b></p>

                <p>
                Version 0.95.10:
                Fixed a few more stupid bugs. FPS calculated
                correctly now (there was me about to post a
                message about how slow Mesa 3.1 was :-).
                Text is the right way up!
                It's <a href="xracer-0.95.10.tar.gz">here</a>.  
                </p>    

                <p><b>Sat Jan  1 17:15:36 GMT 2000</b></p>

                <p>
                Version 0.95.9:
                Pulled in the powerups, panel, LCD code.
                It's <a href="xracer-0.95.9.tar.gz">here</a>.
                </p>

		<p><b>Sat Jan  1 15:57:04 GMT 2000</b></p>

                <p>
                Version 0.95.8:
                Happy new year to everyone from London, England! ...
                We recently got coverage by the folks at
                <a href="http://www.linuxgames.com/">linuxgames.com</a>.
                This is good news, but please note that the
                0.95.x releases of XRacer are <i>intermediate,
                sub-alpha, unplayable versions</i>. I'm rewriting
                the game engine from scratch now. If you
                just want to play with the game, try version
                0.94 instead.
                </p>
                <p>
                Tracks and textures on the track are now generated
                from a Blender-exported file. A tool converts
                the track description directly into a piece of
                optimized C code which is called upon to draw
                the track. The code is stored in the track
                file. This is how things <i>should</i> work.
                It avoids all the display list clutter and
                problems with parsing track files. Also should
                allow the track scenery to be really dynamic -
                ie. someone could hack together a track file
                with animated textures, or even an animated track.
                </p>

                <p>
                The latest version is
                <a href="xracer-0.95.8.tar.gz">here</a>.
                </p>

		<p><b>Wed Dec 29 21:35:38 GMT 1999</b></p>

                <p>
                Version 0.95.7:
                Fixed a lot of physics problems.
                It's <a href="xracer-0.95.7.tar.gz">here</a>.
                </p>

                <p><b>Wed Dec 29 17:17:37 GMT 1999</b></p>

                <p>
		  Version 0.95.6:
		  As usual, getting the physics to work can
		  prove to be a little bit of a problem.
		  It's <a href="xracer-0.95.6.tar.gz">here</a>.
                </p>

                <p><b>Tue Dec 28 19:19:43 GMT 1999</b></p>

                <p>
		  Version 0.95.5:
		  Wow. You can see the track now. The distribution
		  file
		  <a href="xracer-0.95.5.tar.gz">here</a>
		  is a little bit smaller. I removed some
		  intermediate files which had slipped in
		  there by accident.
                </p>

                <p><b>Tue Dec 28 16:42:08 GMT 1999</b></p>

                <p>
		  Version 0.95.4:
		  More stuff, still no game.
		  It's <a href="xracer-0.95.4.tar.gz">here</a>.
                </p>

		<p><b>Mon Dec 27 16:15:11 GMT 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.95.3:
		  Another release for the brave (or should
		  that be foolhardy). Please read the notes
		  about version 0.95.2 first. And yes, I know
		  the text is upside down :-) It's
		  <a href="xracer-0.95.3.tar.gz">here</a>.
		</p>

		<p><b>Sun Dec 26 17:18:55 GMT 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.95.2:
		  A few people have asked me for source for the
		  new, rewritten-from-scratch, XRacer. It's
		  <a href="xracer-0.95.2.tar.gz">here</a>.
		  This version is extremely incomplete. I have
		  only just started the process of copying code
		  over from version 0.94 into this new series.
		  It's probably not worth sending me patches
		  against this version yet. If you want a working
		  playable game, go and download 0.94.
		</p>

		<b>Important XRacer News</b>

		<p><b>Thu Nov 11 13:45:57 GMT 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  XRacer development is in a temporary lull. There are
		  various reasons for this: Firstly, I was working 25
		  hours a day completing and deploying the Linux
		  rewrite of
		  <a href="http://www.schoolmaster.net/">SchoolMaster</a>
		  - the world's best and most popular community for
		  schools.  It used to run on Notes/NT. 'Nuff said, I
		  think.  This is still on-going, but since the system
		  has been successfully deployed and all existing
		  schools transferred across, development is not quite
		  so hectic now.
		<p>
		  Secondly, I'm in Tokyo, Japan right now on holiday.
		<p>
		  So I hope you will accept my excuses, and now get ready
		  for the good news: refreshed from my holiday, I am full
		  of good ideas for XRacer, and ready to start a substantial
		  rewrite when I get back next week. I even have time off
		  from work to start it.
		<p>
		  <b>Modeller:</b> AC3D was becoming something of
		  a liability. We reached the limits of what was possible
		  very quickly, and it was clear to me that development could
		  not continue without a new modeller. In addition, AC3D
		  is not free software in either free beer or free speech
		  senses of the word. I was loathed to force my codevelopers
		  to have to pay to build tracks.
		<p>
		  I bought the <a href="http://www.blender.nl/">Blender</a>
		  book, did a few tutorials, and now
		  I'm beginning to get the hang of this very powerful
		  and complete modeller. I am convinced that Blender,
		  although it is free beer and not yet free speech, provides
		  the best way forward for easily and quickly building
		  tracks. For a start, I quickly found out that you could
		  draw a bezier curve (circle, actually), extrude a shape
		  along it and convert it into a mesh. Instant track.
		<p>
		  Now Blender is not the ideal tool for the job. One
		  of its main problems is the fact that it is hard to
		  export models in a useful form. In particular,
		  I can think of two features which would be immediately
		  useful: firstly to be able to export the scene objects
		  in complete internal form to a simple ASCII-based format;
		  secondly to be able to export just single objects at
		  a time. Ton has promised to release the source to
		  Blender 2. I hope he decides to do this sooner rather
		  than later so I can add the features I need directly.
		  In the meantime, there seems to be
		  sufficient export capability to allow us to use
		  Blender as a modeller for XRacer with some simple
		  Perl scripts to convert between formats.
		<p>
		  <b>Code:</b>
		  The XRacer code base has become rather
		  tangled. I plan to substantially rewrite and
		  clean up the code to make the flow of
		  execution cleaner and more obvious. Also
		  to allow simpler platform-dependent sections
		  to be written (the original code didn't pay any
		  attention to platforms other than Linux, meaning
		  that a Windows-native port is a tricky affair).
		  Fred Brooks said something on the lines of
		  ``plan to throw away the first version ... you
		  will anyway''. Consider the current version
		  to be the first attempt. The second version
		  should get a lot more things right.
		<p>
		  <b>Track format:</b>
		  The old track format was a definite mistake. Not
		  only are track files large and slow, but they are not
		  even very flexible or useful. For example, you
		  can't program intelligence into objects - so you
		  couldn't have cars moving along a motorway
		  realistically for example. The new track file format
		  will simply be a shared library (a <tt>.so</tt> file
		  on Unix). The track code will perform everything
		  related to drawing and GL, and hence be able to make
		  intelligent track-specific optimizations such as ...
		<p>
		  <b>Display lists &amp; Mesa 3.1:</b>
		  The current implementation is not very intelligent
		  about how it uses display lists. It works well
		  with Mesa 3.0, but as anyone who has tried
		  to run XRacer against Mesa 3.1 will have found
		  out, it fails miserably when display lists are
		  properly implemented. Thanks to a number of
		  comments made on the mailing list, I now have
		  a much better understanding of display lists and
		  how future hardware will be able to optimize them.
		  The new implementation will be built against
		  Mesa 3.1 from the start, and should use display
		  lists somewhat more intelligently where possible.
		<p>
		  <b>Mailing list:</b>
		  The mailing list is (or perhaps isn't) down. This
		  is odd. I could swear that I didn't change anything
		  about the sendmail or majordomo configuration,
		  but I'll check. Anyhow,
		  <a href="http://www.annexia.org/">annexia.org</a>
		  is soon going to be moved onto a different machine
		  at work (for general security / isolation reasons), so I will
		  have a chance to build a fresh sendmail and majordomo
		  installation. Things should be back to normal as soon
		  as this happens.
		<p>
		  That's all for now. Keep an eye on this space for the
		  next two weeks, and you should see things start to
		  happen again. Thanks for your patience.
		<p>
		  <b>Rich.</b> Tokyo, Japan.

		<p><b>Mon Sep 20 20:56:46 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.94:
		  Font and instrument panel scaling patch by Szczepan Kuzniarz.
		  Meanwhile, I've been hard at work learning
		  to use <a href="http://www.blender.nl/">Blender</a>.
		</p>

		<p><b>Sun Sep 12 14:15:42 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.93:
		  Sound patch: DirectSound is now (possibly)
		  supported on Windows / CygWin platform.
		  The patch comes from courtesy of Bart Jaszcz,
		  thanks to him. Feedback is appreciated (I
		  had to modify the patch heavily, and I don't
		  really have a Windows box to test this on).
		  Integrated a patch from Kai Jan Runte
		  which should allow clean compiles on
		  Solaris 2.5.1. Also some patches from
		  Szczepan Kuzniarz for the Amiga.
		</p>

		<p>
		  This is quite a major code-only patch
		  and it's possible that things have
		  been broken (eg. sound).
		</p>

		<p><b>Sun Sep  5 12:12:16 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.92:
		  Some patches to fix Solaris compilation
		  (it still doesn't quite compile correctly
		  on Solaris, but it's nearly there). A
		  <a href="http://members.xoom.com/bpj1138/xracer-0.89-win32-bin.zip">new Windows binary of version 0.89</a>
		  is out. New in this binary:
		  sound support and untested network
		  support. Thanks to Bart Jaszcz
		  for this.
		</p>
		  
		<p><b>Tue Aug 31 23:38:31 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.91:
		  I reversed out the sound changes
		  in 0.90 (which were broken). I still
		  don't know how to use SIGIO (patch
		  anyone!). Anyway, this version can
		  choose to use poll(2) or select(2)
		  at compile time, so it should be
		  much more portable.
		</p>

		<p><b>Tue Aug 24 21:59:22 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.90:
		  Various autoconf patches. You can now
		  build properly in a separate directory.
		  You can also build with Mesa even if you
		  have another GL library (specify
		  <tt>./configure --disable-GL</tt>).
		  Thanks to Filip Van Raemdonck for
		  these patches. You can also disable
		  ESD support (ie. prefer OSS support
		  if you have it) by specifying
		  <tt>./configure --disable-esd</tt>.
		  I also fiddled with the sound
		  parameters, and this appears to
		  get rid of the latency problems.
		  I also replaced the old poll(2) method
		  used by the sound process with
		  asynchronous SIGIO signals. The
		  theory is that this may make
		  the code more portable to platforms
		  which do not support select/poll
		  of audio devices. However, in practice,
		  <i>it doesn't seem to work!</i> I fear that
		  Linux doesn't support SIGIO on pipes.
		  There's no mention of SIGIO in
		  <tt>/usr/src/linux/fs/pipe.c</tt>,
		  but maybe I'm looking in the wrong
		  place or making the wrong syscalls.
		  Any help here would be useful. The
		  relevant code is in <tt>sound_process.c</tt>.
		</p>

		<p><b>Fri Aug 20 14:54:33 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.89:
		  Sorry about the few releases recently. As
		  we discussed on the XRacer mailing list
		  this is because of two factors: no one's
		  sending me patches (!) and I've been
		  snowed under at work. At least you'll see
		  <a href="http://www.postmaster.co.uk/">Postmaster</a>
		  undergo a fantastic transformation
		  next Monday - I've not been wasting my
		  time. Anyway, this is just a minor
		  patch to see if we can't improve the
		  latency of sound samples. It only
		  affects the OSS (Linux native) sound
		  driver.
		</p>

		<p><b>Sun Aug 15 12:34:30 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.88:
		  Somewhat broken ESD (E Sound Daemon) support.
		  The sound is choppy even though I set the
		  socket to non-blocking mode by hand.
		</p>

		<p><b>Wed Aug 11 20:02:03 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.87:
		  This version possibly fixes a problem
		  with the generic sound driver. I need
		  someone to test it on a non-OSS platform
		  (eg. Solaris).
		</p>

		<p><b>Tue Aug 10 08:31:11 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.86:
		  This fixes a couple of small
		  bugs with the fading in/out
		  of menus.
		</p>

		<p><b>Mon Aug  9 21:19:57 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.85:
		  Fixed bug with slow menus in
		  previous release. Added some
		  comments about needing to be
		  able to load textures without
		  using mipmaps.
		</p>

		<p><b>Sun Aug  8 16:34:04 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.84:
		  OK, course over, back to work. There
		  are lots of changes here. Sound
		  effects improved (better wind
		  noise). Menus introduced
		  (implies lots of structural changes
		  to the code and some breakage).
		  Why are menus so slow? There's
		  obviously some GL effect enabled
		  here which shouldn't be.
		  Fixed a bug in text display
		  functions. Tidied up lots of
		  bits of the code.
		</p>

		<p>
		  You need to get the data files
		  again for this release.
		</p>

		<p><b>Mon Aug  2 19:15:54 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.83:
		  Another slow day in XRacer development
		  (we <i>are</i> slowing down now ... think of
		  the heady pace just a few weeks ago).
		  OK - we have one patch from Ilpo
		  in here which allows you to disable
		  sound at runtime. Run xracer with the
		  <tt>--nosound</tt> (<tt>-q</tt>) option
		  if you have trouble with sound.
		  One user has reported that the
		  backdrop (the mountains) don't
		  appear with the Mesa GLX drivers.
		  Can anyone confirm or deny this?
		  Ilpo is still looking for people
		  who have used the LAN or Internet
		  play options - help him out please
		  chaps.
		</p>

		<p>
		  I'm on a database course
		  (fun) all this week.
		</p>

		<p><b>Sat Jul 31 17:52:08 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.82:
		  Major fix to track representation.
		  Craft hang lower on the track, and
		  there is less bounce. You need to
		  get the data files with this release.
		  Updated the FAQ.
		</p>

		<p><b>Sat Jul 31 17:04:58 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.81:
		  Substantially fixed the sky and backdrop
		  code. The backdrop mountains now follow
		  the viewer as you would expect, rather
		  than appearing stationary against the
		  sky. Joe Waters' explanation of display
		  list optimization (see the mailing list)
		  helped a great deal when implementing
		  this.
		</p>

		<p><b>Thu Jul 29 23:33:43 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.80:
		  A bigger, smoother and better looking
		  mountains texture submitted by
		  Darin Ohashi. Sounds are now smooth
		  (provided you use a Voodoo - any
		  suggestions as to why they still
		  break up on a G220?). More sound
		  effects. You need the latest data
		  file.
		</p>

		<p><b>Tue Jul 27 23:47:51 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.79:
		  This version has very broken sound
		  support (developers only). Does anyone
		  know why the sound breaks up, or
		  how to persuade OSS to generate
		  continuous sound? This release
		  also contains various other patches.
		</p>

		<p>
		  You need to get the new data files --
		  they contain the samples. You will also
		  need the <tt>sox</tt> program.
		</p>

		<p><b>Mon Jul 26 22:55:48 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.78:
		  Alan Levy sent gorgeous high resolution photographs
		  of snowy mountains.  Find them in the data source
		  archive, in the directory
		  <tt>images/alanlevy/</tt>. If anyone has enough
		  experience with the GIMP and wants to turn one of
		  two of these images into backdrops and or clean
		  texture maps, please send me a mail. The backdrops
		  need to wrap left-right. The texture maps need to
		  tile in both directions. For the backdrops, it
		  would be helpful if you could remove clouds
		  from the sky and set the sky all to a single
		  colour, or even better produce a separate
		  alpha map the same size as the image (see
		  images/mountains3.jpg and images/mountains3-alpha.jpg
		  to see what I mean by this). Both need to be
		  scaled so that the width and height are powers
		  of 2 (this is a requirement for GL textures).
		</p>

		<p>
		  Meanwhile, I'm still fiddling with the
		  vagaries of the OSS API and database
		  imports.
		</p>

		<p><b>Mon Jul 26 08:38:34 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.77:
		  I'm still writing the sound code. It still
		  doesn't work. This release contains a
		  small patch from Ilpo so you can specify
		  the paths to search for GL and GLUT libraries.
		  Ilpo appeals for people to try out the
		  network code and post results on the
		  mailing list.
		</p>

		<p><b>Sun Jul 25 22:47:56 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.76:
		  This just fixes a compilation bug with 0.75.
		</p>

		<p><b>Sun Jul 25 15:34:41 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.75:
		  This is just a very minor patch. I fiddled
		  with the sound code, but it still isn't
		  close to working. This is just an update
		  to say that the dreaded database
		  export is still ongoing. <tt>annexia.org</tt>
		  and I are working overtime ... so things
		  are still going very slowly on the
		  XRacer front. Bart Jaszcz has put together another
		  <a href="http://members.xoom.com/bpj1138/xracer-0.74-win9x-bin.zip">Windows binary release</a>.
		  Iota put together a page explaining how
		  to get Voodoo Banshees and XRacer to
		  coexist. I've not put it up yet, but if
		  you want info, mail me in the meantime.
		  I also downloaded Mesa 3.1 beta 2, and
		  (yes) it really doesn't work with
		  XRacer, and <i>I don't know why</i>.
		</p>

		<p><b>Wed Jul 21 23:16:18 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.74:
		  Patch from Ilpo - beginnings of network game
		  play.
		</p>

		<p>
		  OK - xracer.annexia.org is up and down. I upgraded
		  it today to a Dual Pentium II-450 with 512 MB of
		  RAM, because it is also being used for a huge
		  database export.  It still runs out of RAM sometimes
		  half way through the export, so don't expect things
		  to be too stable.  The mailing list may also be
		  intermittent for the same reason.  There will be no
		  XRacer updates from me until Saturday (except for
		  simple patches that people send me), because of
		  commitments at work (database export, q.v.).
		</p>

		<p><b>Wed Jul 21 08:53:24 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.73:
		  Fixed bug in texture mapped fonts.
		  Big patch from Ilpo.
		</p>

		<p><b>Tue Jul 20 19:42:02 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.72:
		  Wireframe mode (toggle with 'l').
		  Select number of laps and difficulty
		  level with -l and -d on command line.
		  Fix to configure script should detect
		  faulty glut libraries better.
                  I'm working on sound right now. 
		</p>

		<p><b>Mon Jul 19 23:38:30 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  New screenshots.
		</p>

                <p><b>Mon Jul 19 22:15:47 BST 1999</b></p> 
 
                <p> 
                  There's a <a href="FAQ.html">FAQ</a>. 
                </p> 
 
		<p><b>Mon Jul 19 19:29:33 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.71:
		  Ilpo sent a patch which moves the architecture
		  dependent stuff into different subdirectories.
		  This seems to work OK on Linux, but I need
		  people to test this out on <i>non-Linux</i>
		  systems, and report back whether it works
		  or not.
		</p>

		<p><b>Mon Jul 19 08:34:24 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.70:
		  Fixed time trial mode. Tilable mountain
		  range. X11 window name and class.
		  Miscellaneous bug fixes. You need
		  the new data files.
		</p>

		<p><b>Sun Jul 18 12:02:32 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.69:
		  Fixed laps, lap times and ranks code.
		  Broke time trial mode in the process.
		</p>

		<p><b>Sun Jul 18 00:52:25 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.68:
		  This release is only for the devoted, and
		  really a chance for me to say where XRacer
		  is heading at the moment. The patch contains
		  lots of fixes from Ilpo (also posted to the
		  mailing list), plus a simple bug fix for the
		  frame counter. I'm aiming to get some sort of
		  1.0 release out as soon as possible. I think
		  the list of tasks to be completed is something
		  like this:
		</p>

		<ol>
		  <li> Put together one track with complete
		    scenery. This will be the `snow level' (a clich&eacute;,
		    I know).
		  <li> Sound effects (I have code, I really need someone
		    to send me some samples).
		  <li> Powerups: Laser cannon, missiles, mines.
		  <li> Music (just integrate with
		    <a href="http://www.freeamp.org/">FreeAmp</a>
		    cleanly and sort out CD play).
		  <li> Gtk-based wrapper front-end.
		  <li> Eight different craft models.
		  <li> Laps, lap times, ranks.
		  <li> Fix all bugs which affect gameplay and
		    can be fixed in a reasonably short time. Leave
		    the rest.
		</ol>

		<p>
		  Other features may go in if there's time, and
		  people send reasonably working patches (I'm
		  thinking here of LAN multiplayer mode, of course).
		</p>

		<p>
		  You may wish to update data files for this
		  release - there are some minor changes to
		  track scenery.
		</p>

		<p>
		  By the way, XRacer was 1 month old yesterday.
		  The first code went into CVS on 13th June,
		  and the first release went out on 17th June.
		</p>

		<p><b>Sat Jul 17 15:15:40 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.67:
		  No, it's not a Mesa artifact. It's
		  a bug in the code. Get this tiny
		  code-only patch to improve the
		  look of the fonts.
		</p>

		<p><b>Sat Jul 17 15:07:21 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.66:
		  Changed text so it's implemented as
		  textured quads, not bitmaps. This should
		  make things faster on most platforms.
		  Fonts are also now antialiased (although
		  there seems to be a strange artifact
		  with antialiased textures and Mesa).
		  Laps, etc. implemented properly.
		  You'll need to get the latest data
		  file (for the fonts).
		</p>

		<p><b>Sat Jul 17 00:24:47 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.65:
		  Cleaned up and moved the website.
		</p>

		<p><b>Sat Jul 17 00:18:33 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.64:
		  Fixed an embarrassing bug with the
		  snow effect. Also improved the general
		  look of the snow.
		</p>

		<p><b>Fri Jul 16 23:57:23 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.63:
		  Big code cleanup patch from Ilpo. No
		  visible external changes.
		</p>

		<p><b>Fri Jul 16 21:58:32 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.62:
		  Minor code patch.
		  Snow - it looks a bit crappy.
		  Joystick buttons 3 & 4 are bound.
		</p>

		<p><b>Thu Jul 15 21:42:55 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.61:
		  This release just contains code patches
		  from Ilpo which appeared on the mailing
		  list. I was won over by his technical
		  arguments in favour of his constant speed
		  patch, so that's back in there. Various
		  other fixes for GL drivers which don't
		  properly support GL_REPLACE for textures.
		</p>

		<p><b>Wed Jul 14 22:41:07 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.60:
		  Backdrops implemented.
		  <a href="mailto:alanlevy@pcug.org.au">Alan Levy</a>
		  has kindly allowed us to use photographs from
		  his website
		  <a href="http://www.pcug.org.au/~alanlevy/">here</a>.
		  I've used one to get a basic snowy backdrop. In
		  spite of my best efforts in GIMP, I can't quite
		  get this to wrap correctly. Anyway, I'm hoping
		  to get higher res snaps from Alan soon, so I'll
		  be able to redo it. Fixed transparent textures.
		  Get the data files. The track is now foggy by
		  default - this will make more sense with
		  scenery added.
		</p>

		<p><b>Wed Jul 14 20:30:24 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.59:
		  New logo, inspired by Andre Lohan's design.
		  Profiled the code and made some optimizations
		  based on the profile. Added profiling code.
		  Added XRACER_HOME environment variable, which
		  you will need to set to point to data files.
		  Split data files into required and optional.
		  Shield. Powerup display uses textures. Fixed
		  keyboard repeat problem. Various powerups
		  implemented (the AI don't use their powerups,
		  but you can use yours). I realized there's a
		  huge bug in the track model which explains
		  why the craft sit so high on the track. Fix
		  available later. Remember to get the latest
		  data files. Fog support (see track.c).
		</p>

		<p><b>Sun Jul 11 23:58:12 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.58: Collision detection in arcade mode.
		  New track loading screen. Updated Windows
		  port (<a href="http://members.xoom.com/bpj1138/xracer-0.56-win9x-bin.zip">Windows binary here</a>).
		  The code and data are now packaged in separate
		  files. I'll tell you when the data files
		  change: otherwise you should just need to
		  get either the code release or (ideally)
		  just the code patch. For this release,
		  you <i>will</i> need to get the data files.
		  Started powerups. Why are glBitmap and
		  glDrawPixels so slow? How do I get alpha
		  blending to work?
		  (Version 0.57 was an intermediate release).
		</p>

		<p><b>Sun Jul 11 23:34:27 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.56: This version should
		  compile cleanly on BSD.
		</p>

		<p><b>Sun Jul 11 16:56:14 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.55: Patch from Ilpo which
		  solves the missing loading screen
		  (for those of you <i>not</i> using
		  Mesa). Made the track flatter. Still
		  no resolution to momentum damping bugette.
		</p>

		<p><b>Sun Jul 11 13:51:32 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.54: Rewrote constant-speed
		  code. This version should be slightly
		  faster and also more accurate.
		</p>

		<p><b>Sun Jul 11 13:35:09 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.53: Much improved keyboard
		  handling. For some reason, however,
		  keyboard repeat doesn't get restored
		  when the program exits: you might have
		  to do <tt>xset r on</tt> after playing.
		</p>

		<p><b>Sat Jul 10 15:02:05 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.52: The arcade mode release.
		  The robotic players are a bit stupid.
		  It'll be a lot better with collision
		  detection and weapons.
		</p>

		<p><b>Sat Jul 10 11:31:46 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.51: Two patches which improve
		  keyboard and mouse support from Eden Li
		  and Ilpo Ruotsalainen respectively. You'll
		  need to make sure you have GLUT 3.7 or
		  above. I really am going to try and
		  get arcade out by the end of the day ...
		</p>

		<p><b>Fri Jul  9 20:12:04 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.50: This is a minor patch -
		  just some changes needed to the segment
		  structure before I can commit arcade
		  mode AI. Although I previously announced that
		  mouse support was broken - turns out
		  it wasn't. It was just me unable to
		  remember the correct key to enable
		  the mouse. Display seems a little bit
		  jumpy on this release. I think the
		  constant speed code needs a bit of
		  a rethink (eg. multiply momentum by
		  time length before adding to position?).
		  Track files are now stored compressed.
		</p>

		<p><b>Thu Jul  8 16:30:25 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.49 released: AIX patch.
		  Joystick users: do <tt>./configure --enable-joystick</tt>
		  (Note: 0.48+ have broken mouse support)

		<p><b>Thu Jul  8 12:21:28 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.48 released: Constant
		  speed patch: gameplay should run at
		  a constant speed despite various
		  framerates and load on target
		  machine. (Patched but not checked -
		  if there are any problems, back patch
		  to 0.47 and I'll get a fix out tonight).
		</p>

		<p><b>Thu Jul  8 00:01:20 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.47 released: Track loading
		  screen replaced black screen of
		  nothingness. Still no arcade mode,
		  I 'fraid.
		</p>

		<p><b>Wed Jul  7 19:33:23 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.46 released: Just a little
		  patch - Erik Greenwald's patch displays
		  the frame rate in the top right corner
		  when you press 'f'. I get 75 fps just
		  about.
		</p>

		<p><b>Tue Jul  6 23:50:18 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.45 released: This is <i>not</i>
		  (yet) the arcade mode release. There are
		  other craft now, but they don't go anywhere -
		  they just sit there. A bit more work is
		  needed to make them go somewhere. Other
		  changes: Improved the gameplay so you
		  don't hit the bottom of the track anymore.
		  This release possibly detects if you
		  have getopt_long and copes accordingly.
		  Feedback from FreeBSD and Solaris users
		  welcome. This version may well compile on
		  SGI.
		</p>

                <p><b>Mon Jul  5 22:42:07 BST 1999</b></p> 
 
                <p> 
                  Rich is working on arcade mode (lots 
                  of robotic players). 
                </p> 

		<p><b>Sun Jul  4 15:28:27 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.44 released: I made the
		  track bigger and faster. Go faster
		  spots on the track now work. Tried
		  to fix some of the problems with
		  craft hitting the track and stopping
		  dead - it's slightly better now,
		  but still not right. Preview track
		  in modeller (makes AC3D work at an
		  acceptable speed). Multiple input
		  files to mktrack so you can combine
		  scenery from different sources.
		  (Version 0.43 has a build problem -
		  get the patch to upgrade).
		</p>

		<p><b>Sun Jul  4 11:14:35 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.42 released: Mipmapped
		  textures. Keyboard configuration
		  file. Fullscreen mode.
		</p>

		<p><b>Sat Jul  3 22:54:15 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.41 released: Minor patch
		  fixes sky and depth buffer bug.
		</p>

		<p><b>Sat Jul  3 19:24:57 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.40 released: There is
		  no new code in this release, but
		  there is pretty complete documentation
		  on how to design your own tracks.
		  Anyone want to have a go? If so,
		  post your intentions on the
		  mailing list. What I really need
		  is to bundle a completed track
		  with scenery and textures while I continue on
		  finishing the game engine.
		</p>

		<p><b>Sat Jul  3 12:04:18 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.39 released: I've finished
		  the trigger code completely now. Also
		  some much better textures from Andrew Ford.
		</p>

		<p><b>Sat Jul  3 00:16:30 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.38 released: I've added
		  power-up and go-faster marking on
		  the track. These don't actually do
		  anything at the moment, but that'll
		  be trivial to add soon. Someone is
		  bound to point out that the left and
		  right (chirality :-) of the markings
		  is reversed. I know, and I've fixed the
		  bug, but not bothered to generate a
		  new track yet.
		</p>

		<p><b>Fri Jul  2 21:50:08 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.37 released: Just a few
		  fixes in this one. A major bug re.
		  visibility of scenery objects is
		  fixed.
		</p>

		<p><b>Wed Jun 30 23:34:23 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.36 released: A lot has gone
		  on behind the scenes in this release.
		  I've sorted out a bunch of problems
		  with the old track file format and
		  added a separate track description file
		  which allows you to specify extra per-segment
		  information which cannot go into the
		  modeller file. This puts a lot of
		  infrastructure in place for people
		  who want to develop tracks. eg. You
		  can now do scenery with animating
		  textures. The visible changes
		  are rather slight though - the nasty
		  old start light has gone, and it is
		  replaced with a bit of animating
		  scenery. The start and lap times
		  work (almost) correctly too. There's
		  probably not going to be a release
		  tomorrow night (pub night).
		</p>

		<p><b>Wed Jun 30 17:48:06 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.35 released: I'm not sure if
		  this one even runs (it compiles though).
		  Just wanted to get a couple of patches
		  in there which had been waiting around
		  in my `in queue' for a while; namely
		  CD Audio support and a joystick button
		  fix.
		</p>

		<p><b>Wed Jun 30 08:38:40 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.34 released: Minor patch: Improved
		  sky textures.
		</p>

		<p><b>Wed Jun 30 00:05:50 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.33 released: Nothing major
		  in this release. I just added a couple
		  of pieces of scenery and fixed a
		  depth buffer related bug. (Fixed
		  a missing image file in release 0.32).
		</p>

		<p><b>Tue Jun 29 21:20:43 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.31 released: Redesigned track
		  textures using Perlin noise. Much nicer
		  looking, I'm sure you'll agree. Sky!
		  Actually, the sky doesn't make sense yet
		  without the rest of the scenery, but
		  you get the idea. I smoothed out the
		  bumps in the track that everyone was
		  complaining about and increased the
		  speed a little. Ingo sent me a tidy-up
		  patch which adds getopt_long(3)-style
		  options, fixes version numbers and a
		  lot more.
		</p>

		<p><b>Tue Jun 29 16:26:04 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.30 released: There is nothing
		  visibly new in this release, but in the
		  back-end I've added some code to generate
		  Perlin noise for more realistic looking
		  textures. Thanks to Andrew Ford for
		  that one. There is also an XRacer mailing
		  list. (This is my first tentative experiment
		  with majordomo, so it may or may not work).
		  To subscribe, just do:
		</p>

<pre>
<font size="-1">
echo "subscribe xracer" | \
  mail -s '' xracer-request@annexia.org
</font>
</pre>

		<p><b>Sun Jun 27 22:44:43 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.29 released: This is just
		  a minor fix for mktrack.c, and also
		  a test of patch files. You should be
		  able to get patches to the latest
		  version below.
		</p>

		<p><b>Sun Jun 27 20:24:45 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.28 released: I tweaked
		  the game physics quite a bit. You
		  now sit a lot lower down, which gives
		  a greater impression of speed (you're
		  not actually going any faster, though).
		  I also fixed a stupid bug in mktrackmodel,
		  and started designing a new track.
		</p>

		<p><b>Sun Jun 27 14:41:09 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.27 released: Fixes a
		  few of the broken bits in 0.26.
		</p>

		<p><b>Sun Jun 27 14:17:38 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.26 released: The major change
		  here is you can now use a modeller
		  such as AC3D to add scenery around the
		  track. This code needs some tidying
		  up, but basically it's all there
		  and it works. I even added a bit
		  of scenery - a start light (but it's
		  not wired up yet - we still have the
		  hacky start lights). Various stuff
		  broke in the move (what did you expect?).
		</p>

		<p><b>Sat Jun 26 10:43:00 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.25 released: Distribution
		  bugs in 0.23/0.24 ...
		</p>

		<p><b>Sat Jun 26 10:15:31 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.23 released: This one
		  compiles on Windows (you need Cygwin).
		  Various changes to mouse controls. You can invert the
		  sense of the mouse up and down and change
		  its sensitivity on the fly.
		</p>

		<p>
		  <i>Please</i> when you send me patches,
		  send me unified diffs (see: <tt>diff(1)</tt>).
		  Anything else wastes my time and yours
		  too, because I'll probably ignore any
		  other format from now on.
		</p>

		<p><b>Sat Jun 26 00:25:14 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.22 released: No visible changes
		  again, but more changes to mktrackmodel.c.
		  The ``name'' tag in AC3D means that
		  I can attach arbitrary information
		  to quads. This should mean you can design
		  the entire track and scenery in a modeller
		  and import it directly into the game.
		</p>

		<p><b>Fri Jun 25 23:25:01 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.21 released: No visible changes,
		  but I've moved the track code around
		  so you can export generated tracks
		  into AC3D and edit them there.
		</p>

		<p><b>Fri Jun 25 17:59:32 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.20 released: There is virtually
		  nothing new in this release (see below though).
		</p>

		<p>
		  A Windows binary of release 0.19 is available here:
		  http://members.xoom.com/bpj1138/xracer-0.19-win9x-bin.zip
		  (<i>update: this link now removed</i>). I'm
		  looking at including the source patches back
		  into the main release so that we can have
		  XRacer for Windows (WinRacer&nbsp;...?)
		</p>

		<p>
		  I've got my copy of AC3D now, and I'm
		  playing around with it to develop pieces
		  of scenery and experiment with porting
		  scenery into and out of it. This might
		  take a while - I've got to get to grips
		  with the file format used by this modeller
		  and try to write a parser. In the meantime,
		  please send me patches, and I'll put out
		  minor updates as they happen.
		</p>

                <p><b>Thu Jun 24 11:45:32 BST 1999</b></p> 
 
                <p> 
                  I've just forked over 25 quid to buy 
                  a copy of the AC3D modeller. Much as 
                  I dislike commercial software, and 
                  particularly that half commercial / nearly 
                  there hybrid of ``shareware'', I have 
                  to admit that this the only solid, 
                  simple to use modeller for Linux. (I 
                  discount Blender which is so unintuitive 
                  that I've so far not worked out how to 
                  draw even a simple polygon). I've also 
                  got a semi-coherent plan about how all 
                  the scenery design will work (see here 
                  <a href="xracer-modeller.eps">in Postscript 
                    format</a> and here <a href="xracer-modeller.fig"> 
                    for the original FIG file</a>). 
                </p> 

		<p><b>Wed Jun 23 22:49:40 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.19 released: Mouse support
		  improved slightly. It now warps and
		  grabs the pointer, allowing you to
		  play on a Voodoo without losing focus
		  on the underlying window. Mouse support
		  is still a little ropey though, so people
		  please send me patches to make it better.
		  I completely rewrote the joystick /
		  keyboard / mouse code to make it a lot
		  less crufty. Keyboard support is broken
		  again. I wrote a simple and temporary
		  time trial mode. The red / green lights
		  are temporary -- I'll throw them away in
		  a few releases time! No more updates
		  until Friday. I'm off down the pub
		  tomorrow night.
		</p>

		<p><b>Wed Jun 23 20:23:18 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.18 released: Mouse support.
		</p>

		<p><b>Wed Jun 23 08:28:18 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.17 released: Should compile
		  cleanly on Solaris.
		</p>

		<p><b>Tue Jun 22 23:03:48 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.16 released: This release
		  includes the beginnings of a time
		  trial mode. Bug fixes.
		</p>

		<p>
		  (Releases 0.14 and 0.15
		  contained blatant bugs, in case
		  you were wondering.)
		</p>

		<p><b>Tue Jun 22 21:23:13 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  Version 0.13 released: This release
		  may compile cleanly on FreeBSD now.
		  Further Bezier curve patches. LCD
		  done using display lists. Fixes
		  build problems in previous version.
		</p>

		<p>
		  A brand new website.
		</p>

		<p><b>Mon Jun 21 23:10:00 BST 1999</b></p>

		<p>
		  1000 XRacer downloads!
		</p>

    <hr>
    <address><a href="mailto:rich@annexia.org">Richard Jones</a></address>
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xracer 0.96.9.1-7+b1 / usr / share / doc / xracer / old-news.html
