OpenTricky 0.1.4: First stable release

Fifth public release of OpenTricky, and the first stable one. Everything since 0.1.3 in one release: evenly paced frames, a race display in HD, new graphics options (most with a preview of each value), a cleaner launcher that works with every connected controller, and a round of fixes to the picture and to stability. More on opentricky.com.

💿 No disc image, music or video from the game is distributed. You need your own copy of the game: a disc image (.iso or .xiso) of SSX Tricky for the original Xbox, USA release.

Download

OpenTricky-0.1.4-win64.zip: extract it into a new, empty folder, start OpenTricky.exe and choose your disc image: click the disc label at the top, or the drop area, to pick it from the SSX Tricky (USA) disc images found on this computer (Find my disc image) or to browse for it. Windows 10/11 64-bit with Direct3D 11, or Linux and the Steam Deck through Proton. You can check the download against SHA256SUMS.txt (its signature is SHA256SUMS.txt.sig).

• Coming from 0.1.2 or 0.1.3: let the launcher update you. Your saves, your settings and your disc image are kept.
  • If your settings match a preset (Recommended, Original Xbox or Steam Deck), they move to that preset's new values. If you changed them yourself, your values stay, and each new setting takes the value of the preset closest to yours.
  • No update shown? Your 0.1.2 or 0.1.3 launcher checks GitHub once a day: close it, delete update-cache.txt (next to settings.ini; it's safe to delete), then open it again.
• Coming from 0.1.1: install 0.1.4 fresh, in a new folder: the 0.1.1 launcher can't install it. If your saves were inside the old folder (a Saves folder with portable.txt, or an hdd folder), copy that folder (and portable.txt) into the new one. Don't copy settings.ini: choose your disc image again (and your save folder, if you had chosen one), make your shortcuts again (the game is now bin\SSX Tricky.exe), then delete the old folder.

Fixes

Closer to the original game. These fixes are always on, in every preset, Original Xbox included:

• Flicker on Garibaldi and Merqury City: the lattice towers and the speaker pole on Garibaldi, and the lit windows of Merqury City, no longer flicker.
• Rival icon above 60 FPS: the marker over a rival stays on the rider instead of trailing behind.
• Tricky meter: at any Race HUD size, the gauge stays in one piece: its head stays on its rail when it bounces as you earn a letter, and its letters no longer fly off with a trick's points. Above 60 FPS, it spins at the original speed instead of too fast (up to 2.3 times as fast at 144 FPS in our tests).
• Thin lines (cables, wires) keep their width at high resolutions instead of getting thinner.
• Replay screen on ultrawide monitors: the panel background reaches both edges.
• Trick names are centred on their button icons, and as sharp as the rest of the race display with HD HUD.
• Pause menu with HD HUD: the pause screens look as in the original game, like the screens after a race; the HD race display comes back on the first frame after the pause.
• Look like the Xbox is gone from the settings: its fixes (fog volumes, lens flares, board tops, colours) are part of drawing the game correctly, so they are always on.

Stability:

• Rare freezes and crashes: when the game had no room left for a rider's model or shadow, it could freeze; that piece is now left out and the race goes on. A disc image the game can't start from now gives a message instead of a crash.
• Other fixes: to the game's internal clocks in long sessions, to the sound, and to some translated code that could give odd results with some compilers.
• settings.ini is written in full before it replaces the old file, and PLAY tells you when your settings can't be saved.
• Accented folder names: when Windows is set to use UTF-8 for all languages, disc images and folders with accents in their names now open.
• Screenshots (F12): they show what you see on screen, at your window's size, and are saved in the background without a stutter; two screenshots in the same second no longer overwrite each other. Shift+F12 saves a burst in a folder of its own. A short .txt beside each screenshot (one per burst) notes the track and your settings, without your folder names.

Frame pacing and input delay

• At 60 FPS with VSync on (the default), on a 60, 120 or 240 Hz screen that reports its refresh timing, almost every frame now stays on screen for the same time; 0.1.3 left some frames up longer than others, a slight stutter. The price is a few milliseconds of delay (in our tests, about 3 ms on a 240 Hz screen, more on a 60 Hz one). This is the frame rate of the Original Xbox and Steam Deck presets; for the Steam Deck, see the known issues below.
• With Match screen (the default Frame rate limit) on a screen above 60 Hz, the game follows the screen's exact refresh rate (for example 239.98 Hz, not 240), so frames no longer wait in a queue: in our tests on a 240 Hz screen, the picture reaches the screen 1 to 2 ms sooner than in 0.1.3. With VSync set to Off, the delay drops a little too. On a 60 Hz screen (59.94 Hz included), Match screen runs at 60 FPS, like 60 (Xbox).
• Above 60 FPS, with a frame rate limit (Match screen by default), frames are evenly spaced and the limit is held exactly when your PC keeps up. Each frame shows the game at the time it reaches the screen, so motion stays smooth.
• Less stutter from the log file: the game's log (on by default, for bug reports) is now written in the background, and its periodic diagnostics are left out of it. In our tests on Elysium Alps, the number of frames that took longer than 8 ms fell by about three quarters.
• Under the hood: the game's clock ticks every millisecond, so its frame limiter keeps time, and the graphics card starts on each frame sooner.

New options

Most new options show a preview in the launcher, one picture per value. HD HUD, Lightmap smoothing, Snow look (Soft) and Smoother terrain seams are on in Recommended and off in Original Xbox; Render scale and Shadow softness stay at 100% in every preset.

• HD HUD (Graphics): the race display in HD (timer, gauges, positions and their text), clean at any resolution. On in Recommended and Steam Deck. HUD art by Bl4ckH4nd.
• Render scale (Display, 50 to 200%): draws the 3D below or above your resolution; menus and the race display stay at full resolution. Above 100%, the picture is averaged down for smoother, finer edges. At 100% (the default), the picture is the same as before.
• Lightmap smoothing (Graphics): smooths the light baked into the snow and the slopes, with no more diamond-shaped steps; the light itself is unchanged. In our tests, it costs about 1% of frame rate when the graphics card is the limit.
• Snow look (Graphics): Soft, the default, gives smoother snow without grain, with visible board trails; Original keeps the original grainy snow.
• Shadow softness (Graphics, 40 to 150%): the width of the soft shadows' edge. 100% is the shadow of 0.1.3.
• Smoother terrain seams (Advanced): hides most of the lines between pieces of terrain, a quirk of the original game. The seams are cached instead of being worked out on every frame.

Also changed:

• Texture filtering is 16x in Recommended and Steam Deck: distant slopes look clearer. Original Xbox sets it to Off (Xbox).
• Smoother legs in turns is no longer marked experimental.
• Riders are always drawn with their most detailed model, in every preset, so they no longer switch to a simpler one in the distance.
• Shorter setting names: in Frame rate limit, The screen's refresh rate is now Match screen and 60 (as on Xbox) is 60 (Xbox); in Race HUD size, Like the Xbox (stretched) is now Stretched (Xbox); in Texture filtering, Off (as on Xbox) is now Off (Xbox); Save games folder is now Save folder.

Launcher

• Cleaner and easier to use: shorter help, the same clear focus ring on every control, and menus that work with every connected controller, not only the first one.
• New look: clear status labels for your disc image and for updates, sharper buttons and panels, every label aligned to the pixel.
• Find my disc image: when you click the disc label at the top or the drop area, the launcher looks in your OpenTricky folder, in Downloads, on the Desktop and in Documents (on Linux and the Steam Deck, also in your home folder and on SD cards), checks each disc image it finds, and lists the SSX Tricky (USA) ones; pick one with the mouse or a controller. If it finds none, the file browser opens.
• Updates: a Check now button; Cancel stops the download and changes nothing. An update or a restore cut short is put right at the next start: finished if every file was already in place; otherwise undone, so the version you were using comes back as it was. The launcher asks GitHub at most every 6 hours. Update channel is Stable or Beta (formerly Unstable).
• Window: its shape now stays between 16:10 and 2:1 when you resize it (at least 960×600).
• PLAY tells you when the game from this folder is already running, or when Windows won't start it. A disc image that was cut short (an interrupted copy) is now told apart from a complete one. If you drop a file that isn't a disc image, the launcher says so.
• About and licences: About OpenTricky now credits SSX Tricky PC, xboxrecomp, xemu, SSX-Library, SMAA and the HUD art; THIRD-PARTY-LICENSES.txt also includes the licences of the game's third-party code, not only the launcher's.
• Launcher theme: the launcher goes through all ten track themes before repeating one.

Known issues (short)

• Above 60 FPS, the controls respond one game step later (about 17 ms): set Frame rate limit to 60 (Xbox) for the original game's exact timing.
• Only Xbox-style (XInput) controllers are supported natively; with Steam Input or DS4Windows, pick PlayStation modern or PS2 original in Button style.
• Linux / Steam Deck (Proton): with Proton Experimental, performance may be lower. If so, try Proton 10 or PortProton, and report it with your logs.
• At 60 FPS on a 60 Hz screen that doesn't report its refresh timing (the Steam Deck, some laptops), frames can wait in a queue and reach the screen later than in 0.1.3.
• Smoother terrain seams hides most seams, not all: a few remain, as in the original game.

Full list on opentricky.com.

Reporting bugs

Open an issue, or post in #bug-reports on the Discord, with your settings, your PC and SSX Tricky.log (or the zip from Settings → Advanced → Bug report → Prepare…, also offered after a crash).

Thanks to everyone who played the test releases and reported bugs on Discord and GitHub.

Build it yourself

build.bat "<your .iso>" builds the game and the launcher from your own disc image. See Building from source.

Unofficial fan project, not affiliated with Electronic Arts or Microsoft. SSX and SSX Tricky are trademarks of Electronic Arts.