Spring Engine

Spring
File:TASpring-Screenshot 87.jpg
Developer(s)	Swedish Yankspankers
Publisher(s)	N/A
Engine	Spring engine
Platform(s)	Windows, Linux
Release	January 2, 2008 (2008-01-02)
Genre(s)	Real-time strategy
Mode(s)	Multiplayer

Spring (formerly known as TA Spring or Total Annihilation: Spring), is a full 3D free/open source RTS game engine originally created by the Swedish Yankspankers, intended to bring the gameplay experience of Total Annihilation (TA) into three dimensions. The core game engine is licensed under the GNU GPL.

Games are played using one of a number of mods. The standard installation comes with a range of prepackaged mods, some which requires that one own a copy of TA to legally play them, and other Free Content mods which may be used free of charge without owning a copy of TA.

Spring is being developed by the Swedish Yankspankers and the Spring community. The initial goal was to have the game run the mods and 3rd-party units from Total Annihilation. This goal is now mostly complete, and the project has moved on to including additional features. The game is mainly focused around multiplayer games over the Internet or a LAN connection. There are currently a few single player missions, built on the basic support for this through Lua scripting. There are also many skirmish AIs, allowing for offline play or extra players in an online game.

The source code

Spring's source code, licenced under the GNU General Public License, is primarily written in the C++ programming language with the exception of its default lobby which is written in Delphi, and its current game server which is written in Java. The C++ code structure is written in an object-oriented manner and is documented to some extent using doxygen. However most of the code has no proper documentation yet. The official source code package includes project files for various IDEs and building tools, including CMake, SCons, KDevelop, Microsoft Visual C++ 7.0/8.0, and XCode.

Multiplayer support

Spring is designed to be played as online multiplayer matches. It uses a deterministic game simulation which is executed on all game clients. Only the user commands are sent to other players, which prevents any active cheating. AMD-64 and i386 platforms are supported for multiplayer on Linux, and i386 on Windows.

The game uses a lobby with a look and feel similar to an IRC client.

Features

Some of the defining features of this game are:

• Deformable terrain (example)
• First-person control
• Customizable user interface
• Continuous improvement from developers
• Fully 3D camera view, allowing complete freedom of view
• Ability to draw and write on the map for better tactical communication
• Easily interchangeable AI and mods
• Realistic 3D trajectories for projectile and missile weapons
• Fully 3D air combat
• Large maps.
• Detailed terrain
• Large battles, with support for up to 5000 units per player depending on hardware
• Compatible with unit files from Total Annihilation, allowing 3rd party units to easily be imported
• Up to max 16 players online (32 players are possible with the use of third-party lobby clients). 16 or even 32 players spectators can watch as well
• Complete physical modelling

Mods

Kernel Panic, a non-TA-based mod for Spring.

Spring has numerous mods in various stages of development. Most are based upon and use content from the original TA, including the most widely played mods: Balanced Annihilation, Complete Annihilation, NOTA, and XTA. However, there are many mods which are derivatives of other works of fiction, such as a Gundam mod, a Warhammer 40,000 mod (with another in production), and a Star Wars mod based on the Galactic Civil War. There are also several fully original mods, including "Expand & Exterminate", a strategic mod inspired by Earth 2150 and "Kernel Panic", a Darwinia-esque mod emphasizing simplicity. Spring is supported on Windows, Macintosh, and Linux.

Mod - Balanced Annihilation

This is the most prevalent mod that is used by the online Spring community. It features all the previous units from "vanilla" TA, plus several extras for each faction.

As the name suggests, the mod is perfectly balanced, with the Arm having an experimental walker, the Bantha, as well as the Core's Krogoth. Units have had their stats kept synced to the original TA stats (a Peewee will be able to defeat an AK, etc), except for minor tweaks to improve overall balancing.

External links

• Spring homepage
• spring-portal.com (download all necessary spring-files like installer, maps and mods)
• spring.jobjol.nl (download location for maps and mods, etc...)
• Spring on BerliOS
• IRC Channel: #sy on irc.quakenet.org
• SpringLobby, a crossplatform lobby client for spring.
• setup guide for spring on linux