Game and Unit development

Development < Game and Unit development

Game development

This information is meant to help newcomers learn how to develop their own games for the Spring Engine.

General

• Game specification
  
• What do I need to create a game?
• Simple Game Tutorial
• Freely available and reusable content for maps and games

Unit Development

Units - Modeling

Spring supports different 3d representations: '.s3o' and '.3do'. The biggest difference between both formats is the workflow to create a new unit. There are exporter plugins for 'blender' and '3ds-max' so that texturing and modeling can be done using these. In contrast: when you model an '.3do' you have to use 'UpSpring' currently.

The animation with can either be done using 'lua' or 'COB/BOS' is does not depend on either, see rigging/animation. For new units use 'lua' scripting.

.s3o

Extends 3do with various new features. Use this for new units

.3do

3do (implemented for compatibility to ta based game, old)

s3o modeling

• Basic s3o unit making guide
• Trouble-shooting s3o units

Models - Modeling, UV Mapping

• Wings UV Mapping Tutorial
• Saving polygons in Wings3d Tutorial
• Runecrafter's 3DS Max UV Mapping Tutorial

Models - Textures

• DDS Textures: How To
• Greeble Tutorial 1
• Greeble Tutorial 2

Models - 3do Files

NOTE: 3do is an outdated model format used by OTA models (Balanced Annihilation, NOTA, etc.).
(Note: UpSpring has some problems with empty objects and groundplates)

• use UpSpring and 3doBuilder to edit those files
• Click here to download UpSpring, our content support tool.
• Argh's UpSpring Easy Workflow Guide
• Maestro's tutorial of Upspring and textures- very outdated.

Scripting and Animation - LUA Files

To edit .lua files you need a text editor.

• Animation-LuaScripting
  • Animation-LuaCallins
  • Animation-LuaCallouts
  • Animation-CobLuaDifferences
  • lua-animation-basic-tutorial to clean
  • lua-animation-synthax-usage to develop and clean

Scripting and Animation - COB/BOS Files

The binary '.cob' file format is obsolete and some '.cob' files might be copyrighed by cavedog. A '.cob' file can be decompiled to see what it is doing or if you have the source, that is a '.bos' file, you can compile it into a '.cob' file.

To edit .bos files you need a program/compiler. The most famous one is Scriptor

• Animation-CobLuaDifferences
• Animation-CobOverview
  • Animation-CobExamples
  • Animation-CobAnimation
  • Animation-CobCallins
  • Animation-CobConstants
  • Animation-CobThreads
  • Animation-CobHitByWeaponID
• PlanetAnnihilation has a nice tutorial
• Units:LuaCOB - how to interface COB with LUA
• Game Development:Calling basic CEGs from COB
• GPL-compliant sourcecode, scripting code examples, and other things.

Units - FBI Files

• Units:FBI
• Units:FBI (variable datatype list)
• Unit_Categories

Units - MoveTypes

• Units:MoveTypes

Weapons - TDF Files

• Weapon Variables : This is the most up to date
• Units:WeaponMainDir
• Units:Weapons : Various informations about the weapontypes (uncompleted)
• Weapon datatype list : All weapon variables min/max/default values and datatypes listed.
• Weapons:Antinukes: All about antinukes.

Explosions

• CEG
  • CEG-Calls
  • CEG-Format
  • CEG-Classes
  • CEG-Operators
  • CEG-Miscellaneous
  • CEG-OldInfo

Misc

• Units:Design
• Units:Textures
• Units:Buildpics
• Units:SideData TDF
• Units:Download TDF
• Units:FlankingBonus
• Game Development:Armor
• Game Development:Cursors
• Game Development:Archives
• Game Development:Sidepics
• Game Development:Custom unit icons

Legacy Porting Tools

Automated Game Creation

• TA2Spring - Automatically adds and converts Total Annihilation unit packs (.ufo files, etc..) into Spring games (requires a base game for the game rules, XTA is recommended, it is probably not properly supported by current Spring)