Lightweight classic desktop environment Xfce continues advancing, with a new pre-release update available for testing pulling in some great features.

Their current plan is to have a second pre-release at the end of September and if needed a third in October. With the aim to have the final Xfce 4.16 release in by November. It's shaping up to be a pretty exciting release, with lots of working going into all areas.

One of the big addition is support for fractional scaling, giving you better options to get your desktop exactly how you want it to be on whatever resolution that may be.

There's plenty more coming like a fancy set of new icons (shown below), they dropped lots of older GTK2 code to improve maintainability, the "About Xfce" dialog has been revamped, they added client-side decorations for settings dialogs, tons of bug fixes and more.

It's not just icons and application adjustments, they've also tweaked and upgraded the main panel user interface of Xfce too. There's a new "Status Tray" plugin, with unifies the system tray and the status notifier plugin to make life easier and more streamlined for users. If you set your panel to autohide, there's also now an animation to make it clear that's what it's doing.

Pictured: autohide animation.

Plenty more tweaks elsewhere to improve the flow. These tweaks include having launcher now show the desktop file action when right clicking (like being able to open a private window with Firefox), the application window list now supports "launching a new instance" in the right click menu, the panel can have a dark mode depending on theme support and the list goes on. Sounds like a real quality upgrade coming.

See the full post here . More about Xfce on the official site .

I have to admit Xfce is a wonderful Linux desktop environment. Especially if you like your classic style. If I wasn't so happy with MATE, Xfce would be my next choice.

Unspottable is an absolutely fantastic local multiplayer game about picking out your opponents from a crowd.

Covered here on GOL back in July , we had a huge amount of fun testing out the few levels it had available in the original demo and it worked great. The idea is that you each walk around various levels, trying to figure out who is not a bot and then give them a good punch. Last person standing out of actual players wins a point. With EGX / PAX now going on, the developer updated it to add in an extra bunch of levels and they're all thoroughly entertaining.

Have a look at their new trailer too:

Watch video on YouTube.com

We've play tested the latest demo ourselves and the new levels are a real treat. It's genuinely hilarious, and sometimes it might even make you jump when you're not expecting to get punched. It's an idea that's been done a few times but Unspottable tweaks the basic idea. Each level has a different mechanic. In the Arena level, even the bots are trying to punch others which makes it all the more eventful. Whereas in the Prison level has a searchlight that reveals who is not a robot, however it's so easy to lose where you are if you're following the light.

If you need a good laugh, Unspottable is going to be wonderful once it's released.

Try the demo on Steam .

Another two weeks have gone by and the team hacking away on the compatibility layer Wine have a brand new development release available.

Need to know what Wine is? Here's a quick primer: it's a constantly improving compatibility layer that allows the running of Windows-only applications and games on Linux and other operating systems. It's one of the driving forces behind Steam Play Proton . Helping you to get whatever you need done on Linux, or perhaps so you don't have to give up that favourite game.

September 11 saw the release of Wine 5.17. The release highlights include:

• ADVAPI32 library converted to PE.
• Beginnings of an NDIS network driver.
• Still more restructuration of the console support.

They also noted 17 bug fixes. Solving issues either with this release or previously for: Deadlight: Director's Cut, Chrome / Chromium, World of Tanks, Risk II, Visual Studio 2019, Motocross Madness 2, The Sims Complete Collection and more. Full release notes here .

If you need help running multiple version, Lutris is good for that. You can also get help in our Forum any time.

Valve's failed deck-building card game Artifact continues undergoing major changes in the closed beta for Artifact 2.0, with another big step taken towards releasing for everyone.

The team mentioned how they listened to tons of feedback, including from players who wanted a more detailed introduction to the game and those who wanted better ways to find matches for certain game modes. Some of this work is now available in the latest update.

Artifact 2.0 now had a matchmaking queue for the Constructed game mode. They say this highly competitive mode will be the biggest test of the game mechanics and all the changes, which will inevitably lead to more changes to come as they tweak it from feedback.

Pictured - Valve's Artifact 2.0 currently in Beta, a clear work in progress.

As much as I did love the original layout, and I genuinely enjoyed the gameplay in the original Artifact with it switching between lanes I think their new approach is a lot clearer having them all on the screen in a more streamlined way. It's a fair amount easier to understand now, which might help keep players when it eventually releases proper.

To help break down the barrier to entry, they've also now started working on a set of tutorials. As they've gathered data during this Beta period they said they have "a much better idea of what concepts need a more detailed introduction, both for players familiar with the original Artifact rules and for new players". Since players have been enjoying the campaigns and puzzle missions, it sounds like the tutorials will follow the same flow.

As for what's to come next. Valve mentioned they're ready to invite everyone else who picked up the original Artifact before March 30, 2020 and signed up for the Beta. So you should already have an invite / see it in your Steam Library under Artifact 2.0 if that applies to you. It's a big step to expand the testing pool on the way to the public release.

You can follow Artifact 2.0 on the Beta page on Steam .

The classic FLOSS racing game returns with more enhancements, as SuperTuxKart now has the 1.2 release officially available. Here's a run over the highlights and what's new.

Part of the good news here, is that online play remains compatible with the previous version so people not rushing out to upgrade won't see major issues. One of the major new features is improved gamepad support, as they're now using SDL 2 for it which means hotplugging is supported, easier remapping and most of their previous issues should be gone. It's quite essential for such a racing game so good to see it in.

On top of that there's a new UI theme named "Cartoon" you can find in the Interface menu, previously known as the Modern skin which we showed off in a previous article :

Also new camera settings, an improved online ranking system, some improved Karts, better addon support for online play, support for IPv6 LAN servers, improved server creation speed and performance, a better tutorial, support for SVG icons, team chat for team games and lots of other miscellaneous small improvements.

Watch video on YouTube.com

They're also talking about what's coming next which includes a continued effort to improve the polish and user experience as a whole. However, after that they're going into a bigger overhaul with a 2.0 release serious with plans for overhauled tracks and a lot more.

Oh, they also dropped a little nugget in the release post that Vulkan support is planned for a future release along with more improvements to their rendering.

Find where to download it here .

Free, open source and pretty essential for anyone doing livestreaming and/or recording videos on Linux; OBS Studio has a new Release Candidate out for testing.

26.0.0-rc1 comes with multiple major new features, along with some really good bug fixes so now is the time to get testing and ensure the 26.0.0 release is a great one. Here's a highlight of some new features across all platforms:

• Added a Source Toolbar to allow easy access to relevant controls for the currently selected source. The toolbar can be toggled via the View Menu -> Source Toolbar
• Added media controls to allow controlling playback of media/VLC sources on the source toolbar when a media source, VLC source, or slideshow source is selected
• Added a new noise suppression method to the Noise Suppression filter, RNNoise, which is an AI-based noise suppression method with significantly better results for voice than the pre-existing method (Speex)
• Added the ability to take screenshots of the previews, sources, or scenes with hotkeys
• Added sRGB color support and made it default for more accurate color representation
• Added a log viewer when going to the Help menu -> Logs -> View Log menu item
• Added a percentage toggle checkbox to the volume controls in advanced audio properties
• Added more audio capture support for BSD operating systems
• Added the option to disable antialiasing for text sources [Codex-]
• Added a right-click context menu option to projectors to make a specific projector always on top of other windows

Game pictured: Children of Morta

After giving it a test run, I genuinely love the UI addition to have this new Source Toolbar for really quick adjustment of sources. You can see it in the above picture where it mentions Properties, Filters and the Screen source being the HDMI input. It's a nice little time saver to have less clicking around. The new Noise Suppression using RNNoise is going to be extremely useful too, nice to see it being pulled in by more projects as it is impressive.

For Linux users especially, there's a few needed fixes included:

• Fixed an issue where the browser source could crash when browsing files
• Fixed an issue with “always on top” sometimes not working with projectors
• Fixed an issue where cameras using V4L2 would not respond correctly to pan/tilt controls
• Fixed an issue where a user’s preferred language could not be detected correctly

Amazing to see all the work that goes into OBS Studio and great to see a new release in testing.

You can find it on GitHub .

Sid Meier's Civilization VI has another free upgrade out now, which thankfully game porter Aspyr Media was able to get onto Linux (and macOS) right away but with a major caveat.

Currently, the cross-play is disabled between Windows and Linux/macOS. Linux and macOS can play together but Windows is by itself right now. The developer, Firaxis Games, mentioned this on Twitter:

While we were testing the August game update, we encountered an issue that was causing PC and Mac/Linux cross-play to become desynced. We have turned off cross-play while we work with our partners at @AspyrMedia to investigate a fix and will share updates as soon as we get them.

With that in mind then, hopefully it can be sorted soon. Faced with delaying the patch for Linux/macOS entirely, or getting it out like this, I personally think that's good compromise, while still disappointing as cross-play has repeatedly been problematic for Civ VI years after release. Anyway, here's the update highlight trailer:

Watch video on YouTube.com

Here's the major free new features it brings in:

• Tech and Civic Shuffle Mode - This new game mode adds variety to the tech tree, as it shuffles techs and civics within their historical eras, leading to different costs and prerequisites than normal. The resulting trees are the same for all players. Techs and civics are also hidden until a prerequisite is earned, preserving the mystery of discovery all the way until the end of the game.
• Natural Wonder Picker - Sick of the Bermuda Triangle? Want to break the Delicate Arch? In Advanced Setup, you can now bring up a new menu to choose which Natural Wonders you would like to include in your next game. Wonders checked are not guaranteed to be in your next game, rather, they are part of the pool of Wonders that will then be randomly selected and placed.

As for what's next? They continue their tick-tock between free updates and DLC, with the next being a paid DLC that should be out in September.

Sid Meier's Civilization VI is for Linux PC is available on the Humble Store and Steam .

Parkitect, the really sweet theme park building game from Texel Raptor is set two expand with two parts: a small paid DLC and a free upgrade for everyone.

The small paid ($7.99/€6.59) DLC is named Booms & Blooms, which will bring a rather fancy Effects Controller, allowing you to create your own firework shows and synchronise special effects with your custom rides. You can even place down speakers to play your own music or trigger sound effects. Also included are new rides: two new thrill rides, one new water ride, and three new coasters and it brings with it a new switch segment to allow certain rides to go backwards. Trailer:

Watch video on YouTube.com

On top of that, there's the free update. This will give everyone the ability to adjust the direction for spinning rides, new basic shape variations for park customization, many old plants can be coloured and many older trees can now be resized too. So lots of nice small tweaks. There's something much bigger too: they "completely" reworked how the game is rendered, making use of more modern GPU features so it should see increased performance.

All this is to launch on Wednesday, September 2 - 2020.

You can buy a copy of Parkitect right now for Linux PC on Humble Store , GOG and Steam .

Need to make some nice models for games? Asset Forge is a nice way to do it, allowing you to kit-bash your way to create some really nice assets.

The idea is that you're given a bunch of pre-made blocks, that you can stick together to create entirely new models. Position them, rotate them around, resize them, export them into common 3D formats, render them as a 2D sprite and much more. It opens up asset creation to a new audience and it's a wonderful idea.

Asset Forge 2.1 just recently went up adding in overhauled texture tiling which should fix all currently reported issues and new options to place selection on floor or in centre. There's also various bug fixes and 50 new pre-made blocks for you to use (some are only in the Deluxe version).

Check it out on itch.io .

The developer, Kenney, is a pretty well known name in game development circles for their lovely and colourful free assets. Kenney also just recently put up a new Space Kit , which contains 150+ ready to use models with a space theme with a public domain license lot a like of their assets.