# SuperTuxKart stk-code: what the C++ repository actually ships > SuperTuxKart is a free kart racer built around fun rather than simulation, and stk-code is the C++ engine behind it. Here is what the repository contains, how to build it, and where it stops being the right choice. **supertuxkart/stk-code** — The code base of SuperTuxKart - Repository: https://github.com/supertuxkart/stk-code - Stars: 5,379 · Forks: 1,235 - Language: C++ - License: NOASSERTION - Published: 2026-09-22 · Updated: 2026-09-22 · Language: en - Canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/supertuxkart-stk-code ## What stk-code is, and who it is written for SuperTuxKart is a free kart racing game. The README is explicit that it "focuses on fun and not on realistic kart physics," which sets the tone for every design decision downstream: the engine exists to serve a playable arcade racer, not to be a general simulation framework. stk-code is the C++ code base that implements it. The audience is narrower than the game's. Players do not need this repository; they need the release binaries, which the README points to on the GitHub releases page, with preview builds in a separate preview channel. The people who need stk-code are contributors, packagers, and anyone embedding a kart racer inside a larger product. The README sends contributors to a dedicated "How to contribute code" guide on the project site before they touch the tree, and that guide is where the acceptance criteria live, not in the repository itself. ## How the tree is organised and how the engine reaches the screen The top level tells you most of what you need. src/ holds the C++ sources, data/ holds the game assets, lib/ holds bundled third-party dependencies, and sources.cmake enumerates the source files that CMake consumes. Platform-specific directories sit alongside: android/, switch/, and windows/, with cmake/ holding the build modules and tools/ holding helper programs. The rendering contract is stated plainly in the README: any hardware supporting OpenGL 3.3 or OpenGL ES 3.0 should run the game, and Android 5.0 or greater is required on that platform. The README's own reading of that baseline is generous: dedicated Nvidia or AMD GPUs released after 2010, integrated GPUs released after 2012, and Android phones released after 2014. It also concedes that weak devices will run the game, just not with high-quality graphics or high resolution. One detail worth internalising before you open a model file: the coordinate systems differ. SuperTuxKart uses X right, Y up, Z forwards. Blender uses X right, Y forwards, Z up. The README notes that export utilities perform the transformation, so in Blender you work on the XY plane as ground and the result appears correctly in STK, which uses XZ as ground in code. If you skip that note and hand-edit coordinates, you will spend an afternoon confused. ## Building stk-code from source with CMake The README does not duplicate build steps. It points at INSTALL.md in the repository root, and that file is the authority for your platform. The repository ships a CMakeLists.txt at the top level and a sources.cmake file listing the translation units, which is the standard CMake layout, so a typical out-of-tree build looks like this: ```bash git clone https://github.com/supertuxkart/stk-code.git cd stk-code cmake -B build cmake --build build -j ``` Run those from the repository root. The configure step reads CMakeLists.txt and sources.cmake; the build step compiles the sources in src/ against the dependencies in lib/. If configuration fails, the error will name a missing dependency, and INSTALL.md is where the per-platform package list lives. Do not invent flags here: the README documents none, and INSTALL.md is the file that does. Once a binary exists, the README says instructions are on the in-game help page, so the first real use is launching the game and reading that page rather than hunting for a manual. There is also a Brewfile at the top level, which is the macOS dependency route. ## Where stk-code is the wrong tool The most common mistake is treating this as a reusable 3D engine. It is not packaged as one. There is no engine API document in the top level, no stable ABI promise, and the build produces a game. If you want a general-purpose renderer or a physics library, you are reading the wrong repository, and no amount of reading src/ will turn a kart racer into a framework you can drop into an unrelated product. The second limitation is hardware. The OpenGL 3.3 / OpenGL ES 3.0 floor is not negotiable in the README's framing, and the README itself warns that a better CPU is what keeps online multiplayer smooth. A machine that technically clears the graphics bar can still deliver a poor multiplayer experience. Third, the licence field on the repository page reads NOASSERTION, while the README states the software is released under the GNU General Public License, found in the COPYING file. Those two statements are not in conflict, but they are also not the same statement, and anyone embedding this code in a commercial product should reconcile them before writing code, not after. ## What a general-purpose engine gives you that this does not If your goal is to build your own game rather than modify a kart racer, the honest comparison is with a general-purpose engine such as Godot or a rendering library such as OGRE. The difference is not quality; it is scope. A general-purpose engine exposes a documented scene graph, a scripting layer, and an editor as first-class products, and its documentation is written for people who have never seen the code base. stk-code inverts that. Its documentation assumes you are contributing to SuperTuxKart: the README points to a contribution guide, INSTALL.md covers building, NETWORKING.md covers the multiplayer layer, and OPUS.md covers audio. There is no editor-as-product story and no scripting layer described in the README. What you get instead is a finished, playable game whose entire implementation is readable C++. For a team that wants to study how an arcade racer is assembled, or to fork a racer rather than start from zero, that is a real advantage. For a team that wants to ship a different genre, it is a dead end. ## Maintenance cadence, upgrade cost and licence The repository is not archived, and the last push was on 2026-09-22. Releases are numbered on a 1.5 line, with 1.5 published on 2025-10-20, preceded by 1.5-rc2 on 2025-09-06 and 1.5-rc1 on 2025-05-27. A CHANGELOG.md sits at the top level, so upgrade cost is at least partly discoverable rather than guesswork. For a fork, the practical upgrade question is how much of your diff touches src/ versus data/. The engine and the assets live in separate top-level directories, which helps, but sources.cmake is a single file enumerating translation units, so adding or removing source files will conflict with upstream changes there more often than elsewhere. Budget for that file specifically. On licensing: the README states the software is released under the GNU General Public License, with the text in COPYING. The repository page's licence field reads NOASSERTION, which means GitHub could not classify it automatically. The engine's GPL terms and the licensing of the artwork and audio in data/ are separate questions, and nothing in the README resolves the second one. That is a question for the project's community channels, not for a reviewer. ## Conclusion Adopt stk-code if you want a complete, GPL-licensed kart racer whose C++ engine you can read, build and modify, and if your hardware meets the OpenGL 3.3 or OpenGL ES 3.0 baseline the README states. Do not adopt it as a general-purpose 3D engine, and do not expect the repository to hand you a packaged binary; releases live on GitHub. Before committing, verify three things: that INSTALL.md covers your platform, that your GPU driver reports the required OpenGL version, and that the NOASSERTION licence field on the repository page is reconciled with the COPYING file, because asset licensing is separate from the engine's GPL terms. ## FAQ ### What is SuperTuxKart stk-code? It is the C++ code base of SuperTuxKart, a free kart racing game that the README says focuses on fun rather than realistic kart physics. The repository holds the engine sources in src/, the assets in data/, and the build files at the top level. ### Where do I download SuperTuxKart instead of building stk-code? The README points to the latest release binaries on the GitHub releases page, with preview releases in a separate preview channel. Building from source is only necessary if you intend to modify or package the game. ### What hardware does SuperTuxKart stk-code require? The README states that any hardware supporting OpenGL 3.3 or OpenGL ES 3.0 should run it, and that Android 5.0 or greater is required on Android. It names dedicated Nvidia or AMD GPUs released after 2010, integrated GPUs released after 2012, and Android phones released after 2014 as the practical baseline. ### How do I build stk-code from source? The README directs readers to INSTALL.md in the repository root for building instructions, and the top level ships CMakeLists.txt and sources.cmake. A standard CMake configure and build from the repository root is the expected flow, with per-platform dependency details in INSTALL.md. ### What licence is SuperTuxKart stk-code under? The README says the software is released under the GNU General Public License, with the text in the COPYING file. The repository page's licence field reads NOASSERTION, so the two should be reconciled before you rely on either. ## Sources - [Issues](https://github.com/supertuxkart/stk-code/issues) - [README](https://github.com/supertuxkart/stk-code/blob/master/README.md) - [Releases](https://github.com/supertuxkart/stk-code/releases) - [supertuxkart/stk-code on GitHub](https://github.com/supertuxkart/stk-code) --- Hysen Labs editorial analysis, written from the project's own repository and release notes. Cite the canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/supertuxkart-stk-code