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 structure
  
• Game specification
  
• Simple Game Tutorial - a bit old and confusing
• Free Assets
• The Complete Guide To Making A Spring Game - this one is the best so far
• Q&A Site for the Spring Engine
• Spring Tutorial Game - (attempt to create) a "template game" for new projects.
• Porting TA content to Spring

Rants, Rambling & Demotivation

• What do I need to create a game? - Planning & Organization (read the text only, the technical stuff is outdated)
• Rate Evo! - Escaping the Spring tar pit?
• Dune: Evolution - Nice models & ideas alone do not make a game.
• AA Forever - A Cenotaph, dark reminder to mankind's oblivion.
• From idea to game in 2 weeks - Unlike those power diets pills, this actually worked out.

Modeling (.3do, .s3o)

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 modeling

• Basic s3o unit making guide (using UpSpring)
• s3o using blender (not using UpSpring)
• Trouble-shooting s3o units

Tutorials

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

S3O 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NOTE: 3do is an outdated model format used by OTA models (Balanced Annihilation, NOTA, etc.).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

Unit Scripting/Animations (.cob, .bos, .lua)

• Differences of .lua and .cob unit scripts

Lua Animations

To edit .lua files you need a text editor.

• Animation-LuaScripting
  • Animation-LuaCallins
  • Animation-LuaCallouts
  • Animation-CobLuaDifferences

COB Animations

The binary '.cob' file format is obsolete and some '.cob' files might be copyrighed by cavedog.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-CobOverview
  • Animation-CobExamples
  • Animation-CobAnimation
  • Animation-CobCallins
  • Animation-CobConstants
  • Animation-CobThreads
  • Animation-CobHitByWeaponID
• Units:LuaCOB - how to interface COB with LUA
• Game Development:Calling basic CEGs from COB
• GPL-compliant sourcecode, scripting code examples, and other things.

UnitDefs (.fbi, .lua)

• UnitDefs - define the attributes of units
• Unit_Categories - define which weapon type aim at which targets
• Unit Collision Volumes - collision detection

FeatureDefs (objects on the map, wrecks of destroyed units)

• Units-FeatureDefs - define the attributes of features

MoveDefs (movedefs.lua)

• Units:MoveTypes

WeaponDefs (.tdf, .lua)

• Weapon Variables : This is the most up to date
• Units:WeaponMainDir
• Weapons:Antinukes: All about antinukes.

Global game variables (modrules.lua)

• Modrules.lua

Explosions (.tdf, .lua)

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

Misc

• VirtualFileSystem
• MouseCursors
• 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

Tools

• 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)

• Development Tools