Spring - User contributions [en]

Mods, and their strategies/tactics

2008-05-19T19:15:09Z

Rubenes:

*[[Absolute_Annihilation#Strategy|Absolute Annihilation]]
*[[Final Frontier]]
*[[SWTA#Strategy|Star Wars TA]]
*[[Expand & Exterminate]]
*[[NOTA#Strategy|NOTA]]

Mods, and their strategies/tactics

2008-05-19T19:14:45Z

Rubenes:

*[[Absolute_Annihilation#Strategy|Absolute Annihilation]]
*[[Final Frontier]]
*[[SWTA#Strategy|Star Wars TA]]
*[[Expand & Exterminate]]
*[[NOTA]]

NOTA

2008-05-19T17:21:29Z

Rubenes: Changed Not OTA to 'Not OTA'

=== Overview ===
[[Image:Notascale.jpg|thumb|200px|right|The Arm Battlecruiser next to a medium tank and some peewees]]
'Not OTA', or NOTA, is a re-imagining of the TA universe with an emphasis on realism, scale, and strategy. Units have been altered, scaled, added, and replaced to create a consistent world: infantry kbots are smaller than tanks, aircraft use fuel and have a variety of distinct roles such as ground attack, air superiority, interception, and strategic bombing, and ships are not small boats, but true, full-scale ships, with subs for raiding the enemy's economy, destroyers for hunting subs, and capital ships for engaging enemy fleets. The result is a cohesive, believable world that very much resembles the one seen in the original TA intro video.

=== Gameplay Guide ===
In NOTA, the player begins the game with a stationary base rather than a commander. From here the player can build any level 1 resource buildings, factories, and defenses. Construction units can only build some basic resource buildings and very simple defenses. This means that while the main base is relatively easy to defend, the player will have to rely on his armies, airplanes, and mobile defenses to hold other parts of the map. Additional expansion bases with the same access to defenses as the main base can be built by constructing a nanotower.

[[Image:notanukecan.jpg|thumb|200px|left|A nuclear cannon firing at a distant target]]NOTA focuses more on level 1- advancing to level 2 is pretty expensive and usually doesn't happen until fairly late in the game. The two main types of ground units, kbots and vehicles, are very different from each other- vehicles are much faster and better at raids and assaults, while kbots are slower, but better climbers, and are often more cost effective than vehicles, but also more vulnerable to large area of effect weapons, especially from planes. An important concept to understand in NOTA is armor. While a light laser or EMG is devastating to lighter units such as all level 1 kbots and most level 1 vehicles, it will have trouble penetrating thicker armor like that found on medium tanks, and will be almost completely ineffective against very heavy armor like that found on heavy tanks. Thus, as the game progresses, light tanks(flashes and instigators) and infantry(peewees and ak's), among others, will become less useful as heavier units show up on the battlefield, and should be phased out in favor of units whose weapons can penetrate armor(e.g. medium tanks and rocket kbots).

A combined arms approach to combat is absolutely necessary to be successful in NOTA. Your armies should be supported, both on offense and defense, by a strong and capable airforce. Use fighters to protect your forces from enemy aircraft, while using your own ground attack aircraft like the Arm Hellfish or Core Vashp to support your armies in battle. Mobile Groundbased AA is expensive, and should be used sparingly. Missile launchers are good against enemy fighters, while mobile flak is best against slower-moving planes like bombers. Flak is also the only ground weapon capable of firing on high-altitude strategic bombers. Bases have little to worry about from most enemy aircraft, thanks to missile towers, which are more than capable of destroying any low altitude planes. However, strategic bombers are a significant threat and should be protected against with a mixture of flak and fighters.

[[Image:Nota2nukes.jpg|thumb|200px|right|A zoomed out view, showing NOTA's extensive use of icons]]Later in the game, when you are ready to advance to level 2, you will usually have to make a choice on which type of units to advance to. There are four specialized level 2 nanotowers, each of which allows you to build a specific kind of level 2 unit as well as fusions and other advanced resource buildings. These are Vehicles, Kbots, Aircraft, and Defense. Vehicles have heavy tanks, good for bulldozing through enemy bases, advanced anti-air, and long range heavy rocket trucks, extremely powerful units that can outrange and destroy base defenses with powerful, guided ballistic missiles. While vehicles are generally good for assaulting bases, kbots are better suited for destroying enemy armies. Units like the can, morty, maverick, and zeus are great against opposing armies but lack the combination of speed and armor necessary for a good assault unit. The Level 2 aircraft plant allows you to build several powerful units including the stealth fighter for air superiority, the gunship for short range base defense, and the napalm bomber or flying wing for anti-infantry or anti-armor support, respectively. The defense nanotower allows construction of advanced defenses like doomsday machines, annihilators, long range plasma cannons, nuclear cannons, and nuclear missiles.There is also a much more expensive advanced level 2 nanotower that allows you to build all of the above plus very advanced units like pod factories, krogoth gantries, and orbital lasers.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4089040240642942729&q=nota+trailer

Back to [[Mods]]

[[Category:Mods]]
{{Category:Mods}}

Simple Game Tutorial

2008-04-02T13:51:42Z

Rubenes: /* MOVEDATA.TDF */

Until I Finish [[Mod Development]] is the place to go.

This Tutorial Aims to get a person from knowing nothing about Spring to the point where they can create and edit mods.

Right now I am working from memory so you may want to correct me when I'm wrong, I will try to cross link from my summaries to the appropriate articles available in other places.

I will not go too deep into making 3do's because they are old and dumb... but I'll try to make note of the differences here.

I don't know anything about scripting right now, so that section is likely to be sparse when I write it, I hope that someone will expand on it.

=Book 1: The First Unit=

==Step 1:Planning==
Who cares about planning, you know what you're doing... just come up with an idea for a mod... I made a chess set... if you don't have a real idea and just want to make a model show up in the game... then yeah... this is the place to start... I'd do that if I were you.

Another good thing to do at this point is to creat a "working directory", and inside it create a directory with the name that your mod will have... after many headaches I decided it's best to put this in the root directory of your system so it's really easy to find when you are switching around back and forth between folders and keep having to find your files over and over again.

==Step 2:Getting Da Tools==
You will need a bunch of stuff... here's the list (I assume you are using windows)

''Want:''
*[http://taspring.clan-sy.com/download.php Spring] - The main program, you will likely need this to test if you've screwed up
*A Tiny Map (2x2) - to test your mod fast (suggest [http://www.fileuniverse.com/?p=showitem&ID=2534 Simple Chess Map])
*[http://spring.unknown-files.net/file/3208/Spring_Single_Player_Launcher_v0.9/ SpringSP] - To load up your mod and your map in spring without confusing lobby folks

''Need:''
*'''Program listings can be found here:''' '''[http://taspring.clan-sy.com/wiki/Map%2C_Mod%2C_And_Unit_Development_Programs Map, Mod, And Unit Development Programs]'''
*3D Modeling Program - '''See above link'''
*Notepad - to edit all the miriad of text files
*A Graphical Editing Program - needs to handle RGBA TGAs (aka tga's with alpha channels), I suggest Photoshop if you have it, or The GIMP... needed for all of the texture making for UVmapping stuff... '''See above link'''
*Upspring 1.3 - To convert your models to the approprite s3o format (if you want to fight with 3do builder, then go ahead... a good trick is to get your model into upspring first and adjust all the hierachy, then save it as an 3do... but why bother?). '''See above link'''
*Scriptor - to make and compile your units "animation script"... or steal someone else's and make it work for your unit. '''See above link'''
*Compression Utility - (I suggest [http://www.7-zip.org/ 7zip] - even if you are using zip compression and not 7zip, it's still good to have)

==Step 3:Making a 3D Model==

Go into your 3D modelling program and make a 3D model, [http://taspring.clan-sy.com/w/images/b/b4/WingsCombine.PNG combine] all the objects and UV map the model, then separate it out into any parts that need to move independently of each other. Then Export the UV map as an Image File and Export the whole thing as a 3ds file. Put the original wings file, the UVMap image and the 3ds file into your working directory so you can find them later.

Wings 3D UV Mapping tutorial has been started here - [[Units:CreateModel]]

==Step 4:Fixing Your Images==

[[Basic s3o unit making guide|This Article includes a UVMapping Guide]]

Open up your UVMap in Photoshop (or whatever) go to the layer/chooser thingy and go to the Channels Tab, add a new layer (it should default to alpha) and fill it with 99% black so you can see your texture in upspring. If you want to can paint the UVmap and put white (1% black) on the alpha channel where you want your team colours to show up (you can use something between 1% and 99% to get a blend of your team colour along with the texture... for example 50% will give you your texture with 50% of the team colour mixed in...)

I don't know how to do glow maps... XXreminder for someone to create a Glowmapping tutorial... you don't acctually need one for the model to show up.

Save these images both in the working directory.

Save a copy of these images in tga format into <working directory>/<mod name>/unittextures

==Step 5:Upspring==

===Importing Your 3ds===
Open Upspring 1.3, go to file>load model and navigate to and open your 3DS model you exported, you should see the model in upspring as a 3d mesh. Go to the model tab and set the radius and height values to something other then zero... this defines where the health bar will show up, and more importantly, how big the collision sphere will be.

You will also need to use all of the other tools on those tabs to resize and rotate and move your model to the right place... wings makes models that are 90 degrees off and about 30 times smaller than most spring models... make sure you click the "apply transform" button after any changes that you actually want to show up in the game.

Also, you will want to make the hierachy work using the cut, paste, and add empty buttons. You will need an object called "base" that all the other objects are connected to... the "origin object"... sometimes you get lucky and wings exports it properly... usually not.

===Importing Your UV and Glowmaps===

Go to the textures tab and make your UV/texture/team-colour map as "texture1" and your UV/glow/reflectivity map as "texture2"... it should show up correctly in the preview pane.

===Exporting Your s3o===
Choose File>Save Model As then in the drop down select "s3o" and type an appropriate name. This model should be saved to your working directory, and a copy of it made to <working directory>/<mod name>/objects3d/

==Step 6:A couple Text Files==

===UnitName.fbi===
For Reference visit [[Units:FBI]], but again, the easiest way to do this is to extract an existing mod and find the fbi for a unit that behaves similarly to the one you are trying to make and rename and modify it.

Some More Specific Information Not Clear in the "Units:FBI" article:

'''Name+" "+Description=Spring Display Name'''

So if you have the following settings:

Name=Tiger;
Description=Fast Attack C.A.T.;

The Tooltip will show "Tiger Fast Attack C.A.T."

'''BuildPic Defaults to UnitName.bmp'''

So if you leave out "BuildPic=filename.bmp;" Spring will look in /unitpics/ for a file called "UnitName.bmp" to use as your buildpic.

'''ObjectName'''

If you want to use an s3o object, you will need to specify with "ObjectName=UnitName'''.S3O;'''" otherwise it will look for "UnitName.3do". Also, you don't have to use "UnitName" as the filename and, in fact, multiple Unit's fbi files can reference the same 3D models. It is easier, however, for people to figure out what you are doing in your mod if you follow the standards.

Save this file as plain text in <working directory>/<mod name>/units/

===modinfo.tdf===

modinfo.tdf is a text file that defines a number of things that are used when loading a mod, most of the information is self explanitory but basically what you are doing is defining what is going to show up in whatever mod-selection interface you use as well as what other files need to be loaded into memory in order for your mod to work.

====Making a New Mod with your unit/units====
The following is an example of what will be in your modinfo.tdf file if you are starting from scratch and making your own mod. This is also good when you are just testing one unit to see if it works.

[MOD] {

// The name is shown in the selection interface
Name=My Mod;

// These can be shown by the selection interface
Description=My Mod That I Made;
URL=http://www.theplacepeoplecangetthelatestversionofyourmod.com;

// What kind of mod this is
// 0 - Hidden (support mod that can't be selected, such as OTA_textures)
// 1 - Normal, only one can be selected at a time
// 2 - Addon, any number of these can be selected. Could be used
// for single units for example.
// others - perhaps mutators and addon races that can be
// enabled in addition to xta for example?
ModType=1;

// Number of other archives this one depends on
NumDependencies=4;
Depend0=taenheter.sdz;
Depend1=springcontent.sdz;
Depend2=otacontent.sdz;
Depend3=tatextures.sdz;

// Number of other archives this one replaces
}

====Adding Your Unit to an Existing Mod====
The following is an example of what will be in your modinfo.tdf file if you are adding new units to an existing mod (in this case xta_se_v066.sdz), this is good for adding units to the build tree of an existing mod or adding a whole new team.

// Description of the mod control file recognized by spring:

[MOD] {

// The name is shown in the selection interface
Name=XTASEv0.66 with+My Units;

// These can be shown by the selection interface
//
Description=xta_se_v066 with the cool tank I made;
URL=http://www.fileuniverse.com/exactlocationblahblahblah;

// What kind of mod this is
// 0 - Hidden (support mod that can't be selected, such as OTA_textures)
// 1 - Normal, only one can be selected at a time
// 2 - Addon, any number of these can be selected. Could be used
// for single units for example.
// others - perhaps mutators and addon races that can be
// enabled in addition to xta for example?
ModType=1;

// Number of other archives this one depends on
NumDependencies=5;
Depend0=taenheter.sdz;
Depend1=springcontent.sdz;
Depend2=otacontent.sdz;
Depend3=tatextures.sdz;
Depend4=xta_se_v066.sdz;

// Number of other archives this one replaces
}

If you are not depending on OTA files, you will have to supply your own cursors.

There are some extra bits in these examples, but I work on the "better safe than sorry" principle... which is to wait for someone who knows what they are doing to fix my articles.

You will want to save this file as plain text in <working directory>/<mod name>/

===Armor.txt===

I'm not exactly sure how this works, but the file needs to exist, so either steal one from another mod and modify it... or just make a file that looks like this.

// [UNITNAME]- Good Against Lazer/Bad Against Nukes
[UNITNAME]
{
}

You will want to save this file as plain text in <working directory>/<mod name>/

===SIDEDATA.TDF===

Start by stealing the sidedata.tdf file from your dependency mod if you have one, then edit it to include your units/side.

Basically this file is in the form:

[SIDE0]
{
name=Good Guys;
nameprefix=GG;
commander=UnitName1;
}
[CANBUILD]
{
[UnitName1]
{
canbuild1=UnitName2;
canbuild2=UnitName3;
canbuild3=UnitName4;
canbuild4=UnitName5;
canbuild5=UnitName6;
}
}

...with additional "[SIDEX]" entries for each side/team/commander-choice available in the mod-selector you choose, additional "[UnitName]" sections for each factory of construction unit, and additional "canbuildx=UnitName" entries to all factory/con-units that can build each unit.

You will save this file as plain text in <working directory>/<mod name>/gamedata/

===MOVEDATA.TDF===
This file determines the footprint of your units, the angle of slopes they can climb and in how deep water they can drive. It contains several entries, all in the following format:

[CLASS#] (Replace # with numbers, so you get entries CLASS0, CLASS1 etc.)
{
name=KBOT; (This is the name. FBI files refer to this name.)
footprintx=1; (This is how big the X dimension is of the footprint in Spring units probably?)
footprintz=1; (This is how big the Y dimension is of the footprint in Spring units probably?)
maxwaterdepth=5; (This is in how deep water the unit/unit class can walk.)
maxslope=36; (The maximum angle of slopes this unit can climb.)
crushstrength=10; (This determines if the unit/unit class can crush certain features)
}

===SOUND.TDF===
This file refers to all the sounds your units make, so Spring knows which sound file is linked to what action. It contains entries in the following format.
[NAME] (The name of the unit class)
{
There are lots of different entries, I will list only the basic ones here for now.
select1=sound; (This entry determines what sound a unit makes if you click on it.
ok1=sound; (This entry determines what sound a unit makes if it does an action.
cant1=sound; (" " " " " " " " if it can't do an action.)
underattack=sound; (" " " " " " " " if it is attacked)
count5-count0=sound; (These 6 entries determine how the self-destruct countdown times sounds like.
canceldestruct=sound; (A unit makes this sound if you cancel the self-destruct procedure)
}

==Step 7:Adding a Build Pic==

Add a 96x96 BMP to your <working directory>/<mod name>/unitpics/ folder named either "UnitName.bmp" or whatever you specified in the "BuildPic=" line of your fbi.

==Step 8:Adding a Side Pic==

Add a 16x16 BMP to your <working directory>/<mod name>/sidepics/ folder named "teamname.bmp" or whatever you specified in the "name=" line of your SIDEDATA.TDF for each side/team you have added.

==Step 9:Scriptor==

===Stealing a Script===
Open someone else's script in scriptor that works the way you want your script to work, look at the top where it's talking about "piece names"... then change those piece names to be the piece names of your unit and do a find/replace to make all the places where those pieces show up to be your pieces too. Compile it so its name is the same as the "UnitName=" value in your "UnitName.fbi".

XXreminder to someone to link to a proper scripting tutorial

Put the bos and cob files for your unit script in <working directory>/<mod name>/scripts

==Step 10:Compiling Your Mod==

You may want to check your mod directory and make sure it follows the structure defined [[Mod_Development:Archives|here]].

navigate to your <working directory>/<mod name> and select everything and choose "add to archive <mod name>.7z".

make a copy of this file called <mod name>v0.7z in your working directory so you don't screw anything up later, then make a copy of it called <mod name>.sd7 in the mods directory of spring.

An alternative, added in more recent versions is the ".SDD" folder, to use this, copy the entire <mod name> folder in the mods directory of spring and rename it as "<mod name>.SDD". The advantage to the ".SDD" method is that you can tweak settings and add files without recompressing your mod all the time. When it comes time to distribute your mod use ".sd7".

EXAMPLES:
If your mod is called JoesMod you will have a file called "JoesMod.sd7" or a folder called "JoesMod.SDD" in your spring mods directory.

==Step 11:Testing Your Mod==
Open Up SpringSP, pick your mod from the drop-down at the top (if it doesn't show up you screwed up your modinfo.txt), choose your tiny map from the map list and press start. If it doesn't break and your unit shows up, you have created all the neccessary files... yay!

Gotchas:
*If it doesn't work, check you didn't zip the folder itself, but the contents, ie if you open mymod.sd7 with 7zip, you should see folders such as "unittextures" rather than a folder "mymod" containing unittextures.

[[Category:Mod development]]

Simple Game Tutorial

2008-04-02T13:50:03Z

Rubenes: /* SOUND.TDF */

Simple Game Tutorial

2008-04-02T13:45:37Z

Rubenes: /* MOVEDATA.TDF */

Until I Finish [[Mod Development]] is the place to go.

This Tutorial Aims to get a person from knowing nothing about Spring to the point where they can create and edit mods.

Right now I am working from memory so you may want to correct me when I'm wrong, I will try to cross link from my summaries to the appropriate articles available in other places.

I will not go too deep into making 3do's because they are old and dumb... but I'll try to make note of the differences here.

I don't know anything about scripting right now, so that section is likely to be sparse when I write it, I hope that someone will expand on it.

=Book 1: The First Unit=

==Step 1:Planning==
Who cares about planning, you know what you're doing... just come up with an idea for a mod... I made a chess set... if you don't have a real idea and just want to make a model show up in the game... then yeah... this is the place to start... I'd do that if I were you.

Another good thing to do at this point is to creat a "working directory", and inside it create a directory with the name that your mod will have... after many headaches I decided it's best to put this in the root directory of your system so it's really easy to find when you are switching around back and forth between folders and keep having to find your files over and over again.

==Step 2:Getting Da Tools==
You will need a bunch of stuff... here's the list (I assume you are using windows)

''Want:''
*[http://taspring.clan-sy.com/download.php Spring] - The main program, you will likely need this to test if you've screwed up
*A Tiny Map (2x2) - to test your mod fast (suggest [http://www.fileuniverse.com/?p=showitem&ID=2534 Simple Chess Map])
*[http://spring.unknown-files.net/file/3208/Spring_Single_Player_Launcher_v0.9/ SpringSP] - To load up your mod and your map in spring without confusing lobby folks

''Need:''
*'''Program listings can be found here:''' '''[http://taspring.clan-sy.com/wiki/Map%2C_Mod%2C_And_Unit_Development_Programs Map, Mod, And Unit Development Programs]'''
*3D Modeling Program - '''See above link'''
*Notepad - to edit all the miriad of text files
*A Graphical Editing Program - needs to handle RGBA TGAs (aka tga's with alpha channels), I suggest Photoshop if you have it, or The GIMP... needed for all of the texture making for UVmapping stuff... '''See above link'''
*Upspring 1.3 - To convert your models to the approprite s3o format (if you want to fight with 3do builder, then go ahead... a good trick is to get your model into upspring first and adjust all the hierachy, then save it as an 3do... but why bother?). '''See above link'''
*Scriptor - to make and compile your units "animation script"... or steal someone else's and make it work for your unit. '''See above link'''
*Compression Utility - (I suggest [http://www.7-zip.org/ 7zip] - even if you are using zip compression and not 7zip, it's still good to have)

==Step 3:Making a 3D Model==

Go into your 3D modelling program and make a 3D model, [http://taspring.clan-sy.com/w/images/b/b4/WingsCombine.PNG combine] all the objects and UV map the model, then separate it out into any parts that need to move independently of each other. Then Export the UV map as an Image File and Export the whole thing as a 3ds file. Put the original wings file, the UVMap image and the 3ds file into your working directory so you can find them later.

Wings 3D UV Mapping tutorial has been started here - [[Units:CreateModel]]

==Step 4:Fixing Your Images==

[[Basic s3o unit making guide|This Article includes a UVMapping Guide]]

Open up your UVMap in Photoshop (or whatever) go to the layer/chooser thingy and go to the Channels Tab, add a new layer (it should default to alpha) and fill it with 99% black so you can see your texture in upspring. If you want to can paint the UVmap and put white (1% black) on the alpha channel where you want your team colours to show up (you can use something between 1% and 99% to get a blend of your team colour along with the texture... for example 50% will give you your texture with 50% of the team colour mixed in...)

I don't know how to do glow maps... XXreminder for someone to create a Glowmapping tutorial... you don't acctually need one for the model to show up.

Save these images both in the working directory.

Save a copy of these images in tga format into <working directory>/<mod name>/unittextures

==Step 5:Upspring==

===Importing Your 3ds===
Open Upspring 1.3, go to file>load model and navigate to and open your 3DS model you exported, you should see the model in upspring as a 3d mesh. Go to the model tab and set the radius and height values to something other then zero... this defines where the health bar will show up, and more importantly, how big the collision sphere will be.

You will also need to use all of the other tools on those tabs to resize and rotate and move your model to the right place... wings makes models that are 90 degrees off and about 30 times smaller than most spring models... make sure you click the "apply transform" button after any changes that you actually want to show up in the game.

Also, you will want to make the hierachy work using the cut, paste, and add empty buttons. You will need an object called "base" that all the other objects are connected to... the "origin object"... sometimes you get lucky and wings exports it properly... usually not.

===Importing Your UV and Glowmaps===

Go to the textures tab and make your UV/texture/team-colour map as "texture1" and your UV/glow/reflectivity map as "texture2"... it should show up correctly in the preview pane.

===Exporting Your s3o===
Choose File>Save Model As then in the drop down select "s3o" and type an appropriate name. This model should be saved to your working directory, and a copy of it made to <working directory>/<mod name>/objects3d/

==Step 6:A couple Text Files==

===UnitName.fbi===
For Reference visit [[Units:FBI]], but again, the easiest way to do this is to extract an existing mod and find the fbi for a unit that behaves similarly to the one you are trying to make and rename and modify it.

Some More Specific Information Not Clear in the "Units:FBI" article:

'''Name+" "+Description=Spring Display Name'''

So if you have the following settings:

Name=Tiger;
Description=Fast Attack C.A.T.;

The Tooltip will show "Tiger Fast Attack C.A.T."

'''BuildPic Defaults to UnitName.bmp'''

So if you leave out "BuildPic=filename.bmp;" Spring will look in /unitpics/ for a file called "UnitName.bmp" to use as your buildpic.

'''ObjectName'''

If you want to use an s3o object, you will need to specify with "ObjectName=UnitName'''.S3O;'''" otherwise it will look for "UnitName.3do". Also, you don't have to use "UnitName" as the filename and, in fact, multiple Unit's fbi files can reference the same 3D models. It is easier, however, for people to figure out what you are doing in your mod if you follow the standards.

Save this file as plain text in <working directory>/<mod name>/units/

===modinfo.tdf===

modinfo.tdf is a text file that defines a number of things that are used when loading a mod, most of the information is self explanitory but basically what you are doing is defining what is going to show up in whatever mod-selection interface you use as well as what other files need to be loaded into memory in order for your mod to work.

====Making a New Mod with your unit/units====
The following is an example of what will be in your modinfo.tdf file if you are starting from scratch and making your own mod. This is also good when you are just testing one unit to see if it works.

[MOD] {

// The name is shown in the selection interface
Name=My Mod;

// These can be shown by the selection interface
Description=My Mod That I Made;
URL=http://www.theplacepeoplecangetthelatestversionofyourmod.com;

// What kind of mod this is
// 0 - Hidden (support mod that can't be selected, such as OTA_textures)
// 1 - Normal, only one can be selected at a time
// 2 - Addon, any number of these can be selected. Could be used
// for single units for example.
// others - perhaps mutators and addon races that can be
// enabled in addition to xta for example?
ModType=1;

// Number of other archives this one depends on
NumDependencies=4;
Depend0=taenheter.sdz;
Depend1=springcontent.sdz;
Depend2=otacontent.sdz;
Depend3=tatextures.sdz;

// Number of other archives this one replaces
}

====Adding Your Unit to an Existing Mod====
The following is an example of what will be in your modinfo.tdf file if you are adding new units to an existing mod (in this case xta_se_v066.sdz), this is good for adding units to the build tree of an existing mod or adding a whole new team.

// Description of the mod control file recognized by spring:

[MOD] {

// The name is shown in the selection interface
Name=XTASEv0.66 with+My Units;

// These can be shown by the selection interface
//
Description=xta_se_v066 with the cool tank I made;
URL=http://www.fileuniverse.com/exactlocationblahblahblah;

// What kind of mod this is
// 0 - Hidden (support mod that can't be selected, such as OTA_textures)
// 1 - Normal, only one can be selected at a time
// 2 - Addon, any number of these can be selected. Could be used
// for single units for example.
// others - perhaps mutators and addon races that can be
// enabled in addition to xta for example?
ModType=1;

// Number of other archives this one depends on
NumDependencies=5;
Depend0=taenheter.sdz;
Depend1=springcontent.sdz;
Depend2=otacontent.sdz;
Depend3=tatextures.sdz;
Depend4=xta_se_v066.sdz;

// Number of other archives this one replaces
}

If you are not depending on OTA files, you will have to supply your own cursors.

There are some extra bits in these examples, but I work on the "better safe than sorry" principle... which is to wait for someone who knows what they are doing to fix my articles.

You will want to save this file as plain text in <working directory>/<mod name>/

===Armor.txt===

I'm not exactly sure how this works, but the file needs to exist, so either steal one from another mod and modify it... or just make a file that looks like this.

// [UNITNAME]- Good Against Lazer/Bad Against Nukes
[UNITNAME]
{
}

You will want to save this file as plain text in <working directory>/<mod name>/

===SIDEDATA.TDF===

Start by stealing the sidedata.tdf file from your dependency mod if you have one, then edit it to include your units/side.

Basically this file is in the form:

[SIDE0]
{
name=Good Guys;
nameprefix=GG;
commander=UnitName1;
}
[CANBUILD]
{
[UnitName1]
{
canbuild1=UnitName2;
canbuild2=UnitName3;
canbuild3=UnitName4;
canbuild4=UnitName5;
canbuild5=UnitName6;
}
}

...with additional "[SIDEX]" entries for each side/team/commander-choice available in the mod-selector you choose, additional "[UnitName]" sections for each factory of construction unit, and additional "canbuildx=UnitName" entries to all factory/con-units that can build each unit.

You will save this file as plain text in <working directory>/<mod name>/gamedata/

===MOVEDATA.TDF===
This file determines the footprint of your units, the angle of slopes they can climb and in how deep water they can drive. It contains several entries, all in the following format:

[CLASS#] (Replace # with numbers, so you get entries CLASS0, CLASS1 etc.)
{
name=KBOT; (This is the name. FBI files refer to this name.)
footprintx=1; (This is how big the X dimension is of the footprint in Spring units probably?)
footprintz=1; (This is how big the Y dimension is of the footprint in Spring units probably?)
maxwaterdepth=5; (This is in how deep water the unit/unit class can walk.)
maxslope=36; (The maximum angle of slopes this unit can climb.)
crushstrength=10; (This determines if the unit/unit class can crush certain features)
}

===SOUND.TDF===

==Step 7:Adding a Build Pic==

Add a 96x96 BMP to your <working directory>/<mod name>/unitpics/ folder named either "UnitName.bmp" or whatever you specified in the "BuildPic=" line of your fbi.

==Step 8:Adding a Side Pic==

Add a 16x16 BMP to your <working directory>/<mod name>/sidepics/ folder named "teamname.bmp" or whatever you specified in the "name=" line of your SIDEDATA.TDF for each side/team you have added.

==Step 9:Scriptor==

===Stealing a Script===
Open someone else's script in scriptor that works the way you want your script to work, look at the top where it's talking about "piece names"... then change those piece names to be the piece names of your unit and do a find/replace to make all the places where those pieces show up to be your pieces too. Compile it so its name is the same as the "UnitName=" value in your "UnitName.fbi".

XXreminder to someone to link to a proper scripting tutorial

Put the bos and cob files for your unit script in <working directory>/<mod name>/scripts

==Step 10:Compiling Your Mod==

You may want to check your mod directory and make sure it follows the structure defined [[Mod_Development:Archives|here]].

navigate to your <working directory>/<mod name> and select everything and choose "add to archive <mod name>.7z".

make a copy of this file called <mod name>v0.7z in your working directory so you don't screw anything up later, then make a copy of it called <mod name>.sd7 in the mods directory of spring.

An alternative, added in more recent versions is the ".SDD" folder, to use this, copy the entire <mod name> folder in the mods directory of spring and rename it as "<mod name>.SDD". The advantage to the ".SDD" method is that you can tweak settings and add files without recompressing your mod all the time. When it comes time to distribute your mod use ".sd7".

EXAMPLES:
If your mod is called JoesMod you will have a file called "JoesMod.sd7" or a folder called "JoesMod.SDD" in your spring mods directory.

==Step 11:Testing Your Mod==
Open Up SpringSP, pick your mod from the drop-down at the top (if it doesn't show up you screwed up your modinfo.txt), choose your tiny map from the map list and press start. If it doesn't break and your unit shows up, you have created all the neccessary files... yay!

Gotchas:
*If it doesn't work, check you didn't zip the folder itself, but the contents, ie if you open mymod.sd7 with 7zip, you should see folders such as "unittextures" rather than a folder "mymod" containing unittextures.

[[Category:Mod development]]

Simple Game Tutorial

2007-12-20T12:17:39Z

Rubenes: /* Exporting Your s3o */

Until I Finish [[Mod Development]] is the place to go.

This Tutorial Aims to get a person from knowing nothing about Spring to the point where they can create and edit mods.

Right now I am working from memory so you may want to correct me when I'm wrong, I will try to cross link from my summaries to the appropriate articles available in other places.

I will not go too deep into making 3do's because they are old and dumb... but I'll try to make note of the differences here.

I don't know anything about scripting right now, so that section is likely to be sparse when I write it, I hope that someone will expand on it.

=Book 1: The First Unit=

==Step 1:Planning==
Who cares about planning, you know what you're doing... just come up with an idea for a mod... I made a chess set... if you don't have a real idea and just want to make a model show up in the game... then yeah... this is the place to start... I'd do that if I were you.

Another good thing to do at this point is to creat a "working directory", and inside it create a directory with the name that your mod will have... after many headaches I decided it's best to put this in the root directory of your system so it's really easy to find when you are switching around back and forth between folders and keep having to find your files over and over again.

==Step 2:Getting Da Tools==
You will need a bunch of stuff... here's the list (I assume you are using windows)

''Want:''
*[http://taspring.clan-sy.com/download.php Spring] - The main program, you will likely need this to test if you've screwed up
*A Tiny Map (2x2) - to test your mod fast (suggest [http://www.fileuniverse.com/?p=showitem&ID=2534 Simple Chess Map])
*[http://spring.unknown-files.net/file/3208/Spring_Single_Player_Launcher_v0.9/ SpringSP] - To load up your mod and your map in spring without confusing lobby folks

''Need:''
*'''Program listings can be found here:''' '''[http://taspring.clan-sy.com/wiki/Map%2C_Mod%2C_And_Unit_Development_Programs Map, Mod, And Unit Development Programs]'''
*3D Modeling Program - '''See above link'''
*Notepad - to edit all the miriad of text files
*A Graphical Editing Program - needs to handle RGBA TGAs (aka tga's with alpha channels), I suggest Photoshop if you have it, or The GIMP... needed for all of the texture making for UVmapping stuff... '''See above link'''
*Upspring 1.3 - To convert your models to the approprite s3o format (if you want to fight with 3do builder, then go ahead... a good trick is to get your model into upspring first and adjust all the hierachy, then save it as an 3do... but why bother?). '''See above link'''
*Scriptor - to make and compile your units "animation script"... or steal someone else's and make it work for your unit. '''See above link'''
*Compression Utility - (I suggest [http://www.7-zip.org/ 7zip] - even if you are using zip compression and not 7zip, it's still good to have)

==Step 3:Making a 3D Model==

Go into your 3D modelling program and make a 3D model, [http://taspring.clan-sy.com/w/images/b/b4/WingsCombine.PNG combine] all the objects and UV map the model, then separate it out into any parts that need to move independently of each other. Then Export the UV map as an Image File and Export the whole thing as a 3ds file. Put the original wings file, the UVMap image and the 3ds file into your working directory so you can find them later.

Wings 3D UV Mapping tutorial has been started here - [[Units:CreateModel]]

==Step 4:Fixing Your Images==

[[Basic s3o unit making guide|This Article includes a UVMapping Guide]]

Open up your UVMap in Photoshop (or whatever) go to the layer/chooser thingy and go to the Channels Tab, add a new layer (it should default to alpha) and fill it with 99% black so you can see your texture in upspring. If you want to can paint the UVmap and put white (1% black) on the alpha channel where you want your team colours to show up (you can use something between 1% and 99% to get a blend of your team colour along with the texture... for example 50% will give you your texture with 50% of the team colour mixed in...)

I don't know how to do glow maps... XXreminder for someone to create a Glowmapping tutorial... you don't acctually need one for the model to show up.

Save these images both in the working directory.

Save a copy of these images in tga format into <working directory>/<mod name>/unittextures

==Step 5:Upspring==

===Importing Your 3ds===
Open Upspring 1.3, go to file>load model and navigate to and open your 3DS model you exported, you should see the model in upspring as a 3d mesh. Go to the model tab and set the radius and height values to something other then zero... this defines where the health bar will show up, and more importantly, how big the collision sphere will be.

You will also need to use all of the other tools on those tabs to resize and rotate and move your model to the right place... wings makes models that are 90 degrees off and about 30 times smaller than most spring models... make sure you click the "apply transform" button after any changes that you actually want to show up in the game.

Also, you will want to make the hierachy work using the cut, paste, and add empty buttons. You will need an object called "base" that all the other objects are connected to... the "origin object"... sometimes you get lucky and wings exports it properly... usually not.

===Importing Your UV and Glowmaps===

Go to the textures tab and make your UV/texture/team-colour map as "texture1" and your UV/glow/reflectivity map as "texture2"... it should show up correctly in the preview pane.

===Exporting Your s3o===
Choose File>Save Model As then in the drop down select "s3o" and type an appropriate name. This model should be saved to your working directory, and a copy of it made to <working directory>/<mod name>/objects3d/

==Step 6:A couple Text Files==

===UnitName.fbi===
For Reference visit [[Units:FBI]], but again, the easiest way to do this is to extract an existing mod and find the fbi for a unit that behaves similarly to the one you are trying to make and rename and modify it.

Some More Specific Information Not Clear in the "Units:FBI" article:

'''Name+" "+Description=Spring Display Name'''

So if you have the following settings:

Name=Tiger;
Description=Fast Attack C.A.T.;

The Tooltip will show "Tiger Fast Attack C.A.T."

'''BuildPic Defaults to UnitName.bmp'''

So if you leave out "BuildPic=filename.bmp;" Spring will look in /unitpics/ for a file called "UnitName.bmp" to use as your buildpic.

'''ObjectName'''

If you want to use an s3o object, you will need to specify with "ObjectName=UnitName'''.S3O;'''" otherwise it will look for "UnitName.3do". Also, you don't have to use "UnitName" as the filename and, in fact, multiple Unit's fbi files can reference the same 3D models. It is easier, however, for people to figure out what you are doing in your mod if you follow the standards.

Save this file as plain text in <working directory>/<mod name>/units/

===modinfo.tdf===

modinfo.tdf is a text file that defines a number of things that are used when loading a mod, most of the information is self explanitory but basically what you are doing is defining what is going to show up in whatever mod-selection interface you use as well as what other files need to be loaded into memory in order for your mod to work.

====Making a New Mod with your unit/units====
The following is an example of what will be in your modinfo.tdf file if you are starting from scratch and making your own mod. This is also good when you are just testing one unit to see if it works.

[MOD] {

// The name is shown in the selection interface
Name=My Mod;

// These can be shown by the selection interface
Description=My Mod That I Made;
URL=http://www.theplacepeoplecangetthelatestversionofyourmod.com;

// What kind of mod this is
// 0 - Hidden (support mod that can't be selected, such as OTA_textures)
// 1 - Normal, only one can be selected at a time
// 2 - Addon, any number of these can be selected. Could be used
// for single units for example.
// others - perhaps mutators and addon races that can be
// enabled in addition to xta for example?
ModType=1;

// Number of other archives this one depends on
NumDependencies=4;
Depend0=taenheter.sdz;
Depend1=springcontent.sdz;
Depend2=otacontent.sdz;
Depend3=tatextures.sdz;

// Number of other archives this one replaces
}

====Adding Your Unit to an Existing Mod====
The following is an example of what will be in your modinfo.tdf file if you are adding new units to an existing mod (in this case xta_se_v066.sdz), this is good for adding units to the build tree of an existing mod or adding a whole new team.

// Description of the mod control file recognized by spring:

[MOD] {

// The name is shown in the selection interface
Name=XTASEv0.66 with+My Units;

// These can be shown by the selection interface
//
Description=xta_se_v066 with the cool tank I made;
URL=http://www.fileuniverse.com/exactlocationblahblahblah;

// What kind of mod this is
// 0 - Hidden (support mod that can't be selected, such as OTA_textures)
// 1 - Normal, only one can be selected at a time
// 2 - Addon, any number of these can be selected. Could be used
// for single units for example.
// others - perhaps mutators and addon races that can be
// enabled in addition to xta for example?
ModType=1;

// Number of other archives this one depends on
NumDependencies=5;
Depend0=taenheter.sdz;
Depend1=springcontent.sdz;
Depend2=otacontent.sdz;
Depend3=tatextures.sdz;
Depend4=xta_se_v066.sdz;

// Number of other archives this one replaces
}

If you are not depending on OTA files, you will have to supply your own cursors.

There are some extra bits in these examples, but I work on the "better safe than sorry" principle... which is to wait for someone who knows what they are doing to fix my articles.

You will want to save this file as plain text in <working directory>/<mod name>/

===Armor.txt===

I'm not exactly sure how this works, but the file needs to exist, so either steal one from another mod and modify it... or just make a file that looks like this.

// [UNITNAME]- Good Against Lazer/Bad Against Nukes
[UNITNAME]
{
}

You will want to save this file as plain text in <working directory>/<mod name>/

===SIDEDATA.TDF===

Start by stealing the sidedata.tdf file from your dependency mod if you have one, then edit it to include your units/side.

Basically this file is in the form:

[SIDE0]
{
name=Good Guys;
nameprefix=GG;
commander=UnitName1;
}
[CANBUILD]
{
[UnitName1]
{
canbuild1=UnitName2;
canbuild2=UnitName3;
canbuild3=UnitName4;
canbuild4=UnitName5;
canbuild5=UnitName6;
}
}

...with additional "[SIDEX]" entries for each side/team/commander-choice available in the mod-selector you choose, additional "[UnitName]" sections for each factory of construction unit, and additional "canbuildx=UnitName" entries to all factory/con-units that can build each unit.

You will save this file as plain text in <working directory>/<mod name>/gamedata/

===MOVEDATA.TDF===

===SOUND.TDF===

==Step 7:Adding a Build Pic==

Add a 96x96 BMP to your <working directory>/<mod name>/unitpics/ folder named either "UnitName.bmp" or whatever you specified in the "BuildPic=" line of your fbi.

==Step 8:Adding a Side Pic==

Add a 16x16 BMP to your <working directory>/<mod name>/sidepics/ folder named "teamname.bmp" or whatever you specified in the "name=" line of your SIDEDATA.TDF for each side/team you have added.

==Step 9:Scriptor==

===Stealing a Script===
Open someone else's script in scriptor that works the way you want your script to work, look at the top where it's talking about "piece names"... then change those piece names to be the piece names of your unit and do a find/replace to make all the places where those pieces show up to be your pieces too. Compile it so its name is the same as the "UnitName=" value in your "UnitName.fbi".

XXreminder to someone to link to a proper scripting tutorial

Put the bos and cob files for your unit script in <working directory>/<mod name>/scripts

==Step 10:Compiling Your Mod==

You may want to check your mod directory and make sure it follows the structure defined [[Mod_Development:Archives|here]].

navigate to your <working directory>/<mod name> and select everything and choose "add to archive <mod name>.7z".

make a copy of this file called <mod name>v0.7z in your working directory so you don't screw anything up later, then make a copy of it called <mod name>.sd7 in the mods directory of spring.

An alternative, added in more recent versions is the ".SDD" folder, to use this, copy the entire <mod name> folder in the mods directory of spring and rename it as "<mod name>.SDD". The advantage to the ".SDD" method is that you can tweak settings and add files without recompressing your mod all the time. When it comes time to distribute your mod use ".sd7".

EXAMPLES:
If your mod is called JoesMod you will have a file called "JoesMod.sd7" or a folder called "JoesMod.SDD" in your spring mods directory.

==Step 11:Testing Your Mod==
Open Up SpringSP, pick your mod from the drop-down at the top (if it doesn't show up you screwed up your modinfo.txt), choose your tiny map from the map list and press start. If it doesn't break and your unit shows up, you have created all the neccessary files... yay!

Gotchas:
*If it doesn't work, check you didn't zip the folder itself, but the contents, ie if you open mymod.sd7 with 7zip, you should see folders such as "unittextures" rather than a folder "mymod" containing unittextures.

[[Category:Mod development]]

Simple Game Tutorial

2007-12-20T12:15:30Z

Rubenes: From own experience, you need extra files to make a mod work.

Until I Finish [[Mod Development]] is the place to go.

This Tutorial Aims to get a person from knowing nothing about Spring to the point where they can create and edit mods.

Right now I am working from memory so you may want to correct me when I'm wrong, I will try to cross link from my summaries to the appropriate articles available in other places.

I will not go too deep into making 3do's because they are old and dumb... but I'll try to make note of the differences here.

I don't know anything about scripting right now, so that section is likely to be sparse when I write it, I hope that someone will expand on it.

=Book 1: The First Unit=

==Step 1:Planning==
Who cares about planning, you know what you're doing... just come up with an idea for a mod... I made a chess set... if you don't have a real idea and just want to make a model show up in the game... then yeah... this is the place to start... I'd do that if I were you.

Another good thing to do at this point is to creat a "working directory", and inside it create a directory with the name that your mod will have... after many headaches I decided it's best to put this in the root directory of your system so it's really easy to find when you are switching around back and forth between folders and keep having to find your files over and over again.

==Step 2:Getting Da Tools==
You will need a bunch of stuff... here's the list (I assume you are using windows)

''Want:''
*[http://taspring.clan-sy.com/download.php Spring] - The main program, you will likely need this to test if you've screwed up
*A Tiny Map (2x2) - to test your mod fast (suggest [http://www.fileuniverse.com/?p=showitem&ID=2534 Simple Chess Map])
*[http://spring.unknown-files.net/file/3208/Spring_Single_Player_Launcher_v0.9/ SpringSP] - To load up your mod and your map in spring without confusing lobby folks

''Need:''
*'''Program listings can be found here:''' '''[http://taspring.clan-sy.com/wiki/Map%2C_Mod%2C_And_Unit_Development_Programs Map, Mod, And Unit Development Programs]'''
*3D Modeling Program - '''See above link'''
*Notepad - to edit all the miriad of text files
*A Graphical Editing Program - needs to handle RGBA TGAs (aka tga's with alpha channels), I suggest Photoshop if you have it, or The GIMP... needed for all of the texture making for UVmapping stuff... '''See above link'''
*Upspring 1.3 - To convert your models to the approprite s3o format (if you want to fight with 3do builder, then go ahead... a good trick is to get your model into upspring first and adjust all the hierachy, then save it as an 3do... but why bother?). '''See above link'''
*Scriptor - to make and compile your units "animation script"... or steal someone else's and make it work for your unit. '''See above link'''
*Compression Utility - (I suggest [http://www.7-zip.org/ 7zip] - even if you are using zip compression and not 7zip, it's still good to have)

==Step 3:Making a 3D Model==

Go into your 3D modelling program and make a 3D model, [http://taspring.clan-sy.com/w/images/b/b4/WingsCombine.PNG combine] all the objects and UV map the model, then separate it out into any parts that need to move independently of each other. Then Export the UV map as an Image File and Export the whole thing as a 3ds file. Put the original wings file, the UVMap image and the 3ds file into your working directory so you can find them later.

Wings 3D UV Mapping tutorial has been started here - [[Units:CreateModel]]

==Step 4:Fixing Your Images==

[[Basic s3o unit making guide|This Article includes a UVMapping Guide]]

Open up your UVMap in Photoshop (or whatever) go to the layer/chooser thingy and go to the Channels Tab, add a new layer (it should default to alpha) and fill it with 99% black so you can see your texture in upspring. If you want to can paint the UVmap and put white (1% black) on the alpha channel where you want your team colours to show up (you can use something between 1% and 99% to get a blend of your team colour along with the texture... for example 50% will give you your texture with 50% of the team colour mixed in...)

I don't know how to do glow maps... XXreminder for someone to create a Glowmapping tutorial... you don't acctually need one for the model to show up.

Save these images both in the working directory.

Save a copy of these images in tga format into <working directory>/<mod name>/unittextures

==Step 5:Upspring==

===Importing Your 3ds===
Open Upspring 1.3, go to file>load model and navigate to and open your 3DS model you exported, you should see the model in upspring as a 3d mesh. Go to the model tab and set the radius and height values to something other then zero... this defines where the health bar will show up, and more importantly, how big the collision sphere will be.

You will also need to use all of the other tools on those tabs to resize and rotate and move your model to the right place... wings makes models that are 90 degrees off and about 30 times smaller than most spring models... make sure you click the "apply transform" button after any changes that you actually want to show up in the game.

Also, you will want to make the hierachy work using the cut, paste, and add empty buttons. You will need an object called "base" that all the other objects are connected to... the "origin object"... sometimes you get lucky and wings exports it properly... usually not.

===Importing Your UV and Glowmaps===

Go to the textures tab and make your UV/texture/team-colour map as "texture1" and your UV/glow/reflectivity map as "texture2"... it should show up correctly in the preview pane.

===Exporting Your s3o===
Choose File>Save Model As then in the drop down select "s3o" and type an appropriate name. This model should be saved to your working directory, and a copy of it made to <working directory>/<mod name>/3dobjects/

==Step 6:A couple Text Files==

===UnitName.fbi===
For Reference visit [[Units:FBI]], but again, the easiest way to do this is to extract an existing mod and find the fbi for a unit that behaves similarly to the one you are trying to make and rename and modify it.

Some More Specific Information Not Clear in the "Units:FBI" article:

'''Name+" "+Description=Spring Display Name'''

So if you have the following settings:

Name=Tiger;
Description=Fast Attack C.A.T.;

The Tooltip will show "Tiger Fast Attack C.A.T."

'''BuildPic Defaults to UnitName.bmp'''

So if you leave out "BuildPic=filename.bmp;" Spring will look in /unitpics/ for a file called "UnitName.bmp" to use as your buildpic.

'''ObjectName'''

If you want to use an s3o object, you will need to specify with "ObjectName=UnitName'''.S3O;'''" otherwise it will look for "UnitName.3do". Also, you don't have to use "UnitName" as the filename and, in fact, multiple Unit's fbi files can reference the same 3D models. It is easier, however, for people to figure out what you are doing in your mod if you follow the standards.

Save this file as plain text in <working directory>/<mod name>/units/

===modinfo.tdf===

modinfo.tdf is a text file that defines a number of things that are used when loading a mod, most of the information is self explanitory but basically what you are doing is defining what is going to show up in whatever mod-selection interface you use as well as what other files need to be loaded into memory in order for your mod to work.

====Making a New Mod with your unit/units====
The following is an example of what will be in your modinfo.tdf file if you are starting from scratch and making your own mod. This is also good when you are just testing one unit to see if it works.

[MOD] {

// The name is shown in the selection interface
Name=My Mod;

// These can be shown by the selection interface
Description=My Mod That I Made;
URL=http://www.theplacepeoplecangetthelatestversionofyourmod.com;

// What kind of mod this is
// 0 - Hidden (support mod that can't be selected, such as OTA_textures)
// 1 - Normal, only one can be selected at a time
// 2 - Addon, any number of these can be selected. Could be used
// for single units for example.
// others - perhaps mutators and addon races that can be
// enabled in addition to xta for example?
ModType=1;

// Number of other archives this one depends on
NumDependencies=4;
Depend0=taenheter.sdz;
Depend1=springcontent.sdz;
Depend2=otacontent.sdz;
Depend3=tatextures.sdz;

// Number of other archives this one replaces
}

====Adding Your Unit to an Existing Mod====
The following is an example of what will be in your modinfo.tdf file if you are adding new units to an existing mod (in this case xta_se_v066.sdz), this is good for adding units to the build tree of an existing mod or adding a whole new team.

// Description of the mod control file recognized by spring:

[MOD] {

// The name is shown in the selection interface
Name=XTASEv0.66 with+My Units;

// These can be shown by the selection interface
//
Description=xta_se_v066 with the cool tank I made;
URL=http://www.fileuniverse.com/exactlocationblahblahblah;

// What kind of mod this is
// 0 - Hidden (support mod that can't be selected, such as OTA_textures)
// 1 - Normal, only one can be selected at a time
// 2 - Addon, any number of these can be selected. Could be used
// for single units for example.
// others - perhaps mutators and addon races that can be
// enabled in addition to xta for example?
ModType=1;

// Number of other archives this one depends on
NumDependencies=5;
Depend0=taenheter.sdz;
Depend1=springcontent.sdz;
Depend2=otacontent.sdz;
Depend3=tatextures.sdz;
Depend4=xta_se_v066.sdz;

// Number of other archives this one replaces
}

If you are not depending on OTA files, you will have to supply your own cursors.

There are some extra bits in these examples, but I work on the "better safe than sorry" principle... which is to wait for someone who knows what they are doing to fix my articles.

You will want to save this file as plain text in <working directory>/<mod name>/

===Armor.txt===

I'm not exactly sure how this works, but the file needs to exist, so either steal one from another mod and modify it... or just make a file that looks like this.

// [UNITNAME]- Good Against Lazer/Bad Against Nukes
[UNITNAME]
{
}

You will want to save this file as plain text in <working directory>/<mod name>/

===SIDEDATA.TDF===

Start by stealing the sidedata.tdf file from your dependency mod if you have one, then edit it to include your units/side.

Basically this file is in the form:

[SIDE0]
{
name=Good Guys;
nameprefix=GG;
commander=UnitName1;
}
[CANBUILD]
{
[UnitName1]
{
canbuild1=UnitName2;
canbuild2=UnitName3;
canbuild3=UnitName4;
canbuild4=UnitName5;
canbuild5=UnitName6;
}
}

...with additional "[SIDEX]" entries for each side/team/commander-choice available in the mod-selector you choose, additional "[UnitName]" sections for each factory of construction unit, and additional "canbuildx=UnitName" entries to all factory/con-units that can build each unit.

You will save this file as plain text in <working directory>/<mod name>/gamedata/

===MOVEDATA.TDF===

===SOUND.TDF===

==Step 7:Adding a Build Pic==

Add a 96x96 BMP to your <working directory>/<mod name>/unitpics/ folder named either "UnitName.bmp" or whatever you specified in the "BuildPic=" line of your fbi.

==Step 8:Adding a Side Pic==

Add a 16x16 BMP to your <working directory>/<mod name>/sidepics/ folder named "teamname.bmp" or whatever you specified in the "name=" line of your SIDEDATA.TDF for each side/team you have added.

==Step 9:Scriptor==

===Stealing a Script===
Open someone else's script in scriptor that works the way you want your script to work, look at the top where it's talking about "piece names"... then change those piece names to be the piece names of your unit and do a find/replace to make all the places where those pieces show up to be your pieces too. Compile it so its name is the same as the "UnitName=" value in your "UnitName.fbi".

XXreminder to someone to link to a proper scripting tutorial

Put the bos and cob files for your unit script in <working directory>/<mod name>/scripts

==Step 10:Compiling Your Mod==

You may want to check your mod directory and make sure it follows the structure defined [[Mod_Development:Archives|here]].

navigate to your <working directory>/<mod name> and select everything and choose "add to archive <mod name>.7z".

make a copy of this file called <mod name>v0.7z in your working directory so you don't screw anything up later, then make a copy of it called <mod name>.sd7 in the mods directory of spring.

An alternative, added in more recent versions is the ".SDD" folder, to use this, copy the entire <mod name> folder in the mods directory of spring and rename it as "<mod name>.SDD". The advantage to the ".SDD" method is that you can tweak settings and add files without recompressing your mod all the time. When it comes time to distribute your mod use ".sd7".

EXAMPLES:
If your mod is called JoesMod you will have a file called "JoesMod.sd7" or a folder called "JoesMod.SDD" in your spring mods directory.

==Step 11:Testing Your Mod==
Open Up SpringSP, pick your mod from the drop-down at the top (if it doesn't show up you screwed up your modinfo.txt), choose your tiny map from the map list and press start. If it doesn't break and your unit shows up, you have created all the neccessary files... yay!

Gotchas:
*If it doesn't work, check you didn't zip the folder itself, but the contents, ie if you open mymod.sd7 with 7zip, you should see folders such as "unittextures" rather than a folder "mymod" containing unittextures.

[[Category:Mod development]]

Map, Game, And Unit Development Programs

2007-08-24T07:51:50Z

Rubenes: /* Image Editing */ Added Paint.NET

A Comprehensive list of tools to make Spring content.

*Those that are Open Source are marked with a *
*Those that are Free are marked with a *
*Those that Cost are marked with a *'''

=== Image Editing ===
# '''[http://www.gimp.org/ Gimp]'''** -> Pre compiled Binary files (or installer files) can be found here: '''[http://www.gimp.org/downloads/] -> The DDS plugin for Gimp can be found at [http://nifelheim.dyndns.org/~cocidius/dds/ http://nifelheim.dyndns.org/~cocidius/dds/]
# '''[http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=Corel3/Products/Display&pfid=1047024307383&pid=1047025487586 Corel Paint Shop Pro]'''* -> Jasc was recently bought out by Corel.
# '''[http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=Corel3/Products/Display&pfid=1047024307335&pid=1047022690654 Corel Draw]'''* -> This is Corel's original graphics program. Very easy to work with. I have used an older version of it, and love the photoshop it has.
# '''[http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/main.html Adobe Photoshop]'''* -> The most widely used image editing program ever.
# '''[http://www.getpaint.net Paint.NET]'''* -> Basically an expanded version of Paint. Contains many functions such as layers, and is much easier to use as The Gimp.

=== 3d Modeling ===

# '''[http://www.wings3d.com/ Wings 3D]'''** -> Probably the most popular modeller for Spring. -> Easy to learn modelling and UV mapping environments. -> Excellent introduction to using it can be found [http://www.wings3d.com/doghouse.php here]. -> For help on how to UV map with it just ask around.
# '''[http://blender.org/cms/Home.2.0.html Blender]'''** -> The most used opensource modeler that has its own way of doing things. -> Most popular whitin unit makers using this excellent tool. -> Get basic usage, advanced, and video tutorials [http://www.blender3d.org/cms/Using_Blender.80.0.html here]
# '''[http://www.anim8or.com/main/index.html Anim8or]'''*'''
# '''[http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?id=5659302&siteID=123112 3DS MAX]'''* -> The most widely used and acclaimed modeling program ever. Used in creation of many games and movies (The Matrix). One of the three major modeling programs used by professionals. -> The s3o plugin for 3DS MAX can be found here. NOTE: This is not backwards compatible with versions prior to 7. Also this only exports: '''[http://taspring.clan-sy.com/temp/s3oexport.dle]'''
# '''[http://www.newtek.com/ Lightwave]'''* -> A popular modeling program that's been around a long time. One of the three major modeling programs used by professionals.
# '''[http://www.rhino3d.com/ Rhinoceros]'''* -> A farely new comer to the world of modeling, uses a lot of nurbs surfaces.
# '''[http://www.turbosquid.com/gmax GMAX]'''* -> Great for learning as it is 3DS MAX v4 without rendering and has game packs for a fair amount of games. It is locked in exporting however there are a few workarounds.
# '''[http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?id=6871843&siteID=123112 MAYA]'''* -> The other most widely used and acclaimed modeling program. Used in creation of many games and movies. One of the three major model programs used by professionals.

===3d Model converters/Assemblers===

# '''[http://www.fileuniverse.com/?p=show&a=it&id=305 3DO Builder]'''** -> The most widely used program for converting models to the 3do file format of TA. Follow the tips on the main page in the above link and it will run just fine.
# '''[http://www.fileuniverse.com/?p=show&a=it&id=2317 UpSpring]'''** -> Help information, manual, and tips can be found here: '''[http://taspring.clan-sy.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=2839&start=0] -> This is the only other way to get files into the s3o file format for Spring other then the s3o plugin for 3DS MAX.

=== Scripting And Unit Stats files ===

# '''[http://www.fileuniverse.com/?p=show&a=it&id=70 Scripter]'''** -> The by far best compiler for your handmade .bos scripts into endless lines of letters and numbers that the TA engine reads. The program is large, easy to operate and with broad error tracing (well, better than the other two alternatives). While other versions of this program sometimes refuse to compile on-off functions, this download is guaranteed to work in every condition.
# '''[http://www.fileuniverse.com/?p=show&a=it&id=65 Cobbler]'''* -> This is a very simple script compiler that converts your newly written .bos files understood by humans into a hexadecimal .cob gibberish used by the TA engine. Beware, however, that this program is lightweight, which means that it doesn't provide especially good error tracing, not to mention that it is in French.
# '''[http://www.fileuniverse.com/?p=show&a=it&id=193 Servo]'''* -> Rhad's awesome but somewhat buggy animation scripting program. It features keyframed animation script generation from a 3D positioner.
# '''[http://www.fileuniverse.com/?p=show&a=it&id=62 Brain]'''* -> The Brain is a scripting utility that converts your newly written code rows into incomprehensible hex codes used by the game. This program is in english and can sometimes give you the most wondorous error messages, so it's only recommended as a backup scripting program.
# '''[http://www.fileuniverse.com/?p=show&a=it&id=194 UnCobbler]'''* -> The first (I think) uncobbling utility. Bad english and brute force approach make this one outdated, but here it is for completeness sake.
# '''[http://www.fileuniverse.com/?p=show&a=it&id=1680 Excel FBI editor]'''** -> Lets you quickly edit all your FBI files in an Excel spread sheet. Made by Maelstorm. '''NOTE:''' Microsoft Excel is NOT FREE. -> Help information, manual, and tips can be found here: '''[http://taspring.clan-sy.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=2596]'''
# '''[http://www.fileuniverse.com/?p=show&a=it&id=68 Lazy Scripter]'''* This is a simple yet very useful utility that makes a "blind" script to fit your model. It provides you with just the minimal requirements for a playable unit script, so don't trust it to do all your work for you.

=== Map Compiling ===

# '''[http://www.fileuniverse.com/?p=showitem&ID=1421 mothers MapConv]'''** -> The map compiler used by most people. Supports feature placment.
# '''[http://www.fileuniverse.com/?p=showitem&ID=1507 mothers MapConv special]'''* -> The normal MapConv does not work for some people. If you are one of them, try this one.
# '''[http://taspring.clan-sy.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=2420 SMD Creator]'''** -> Maelstroms SMD creator. Has a few bugs, but a new release should be out in a few days.

=== Documentation and Tutorials ===

# '''[http://taspring.clan-sy.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=2660&start=0 S3O file format for Spring]'''*** -> The above link is to the form were this is currently being disscused and feed back is being provided. Also includes tips and helpful information.

''' [[Main_Page|<- Back to Main page]]'''

[[Category:Map making]]
[[Category:Unit development]]
[[Category:Mod development]]