Qrow: Created page with " ## Overview Recoil builds some extra binaries that behave differently to the primary 'spring.exe' one. This guide briefly describes what they do and when to use them. ### Headless The headless build only does the simulation and does not do any rendering. Widgets still work and are the main way to provide input, all rendering-related call-ins and call-outs just do nothing. It is great for automated tasks such as: * gathering **data from repla..."

2026-02-24T03:12:48Z

Created page with " ## Overview Recoil builds some **extra binaries** that **behave differently** to the primary 'spring.exe' one. This guide briefly describes what they do and when to use them. ### Headless The headless build **only does the simulation** and does **not do any rendering**. **Widgets still work** and are the main way to provide input, all rendering-related call-ins and call-outs just do nothing. It is **great for automated tasks** such as: * gathering **data from repla..."

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## Overview

Recoil builds some **extra binaries** that **behave differently** to the primary 'spring.exe' one.
This guide briefly describes what they do and when to use them.

### Headless

The headless build **only does the simulation** and does **not do any rendering**.
**Widgets still work** and are the main way to provide input, all rendering-related call-ins and call-outs just do nothing.

It is **great for automated tasks** such as:
* gathering **data from replays, general analysis**. Spectate a replay, use a widget to gather data.
* simulating **AI vs AI** games (either for AI development, or just to produce something analyzable in conjunction with the above).
* simulate games played on a dedicated binary, to **verify results**. See below.
* be a game server for a multiplayer game, though only **on limited scale** (perhaps for important games like tournaments). See below.

### Dedicated (aka dedi)

Simulating games can get fairly heavy, such that a game server would **struggle to simulate more than a handful**.
However, players simulate the game anyway, so **a server technically doesn't need to** - this is the idea behind the dedicated binary.
It only collects and **relays network traffic without running the simulation**.

Typically, dedicated servers are used for **automated hosting in large games** since they are quite lightweight.
In theory this leaves games without a single source of truth, but **replays are still produced** which can be ran for verification **later, as needed**.

Recoil:Headless and Dedicated - Revision history