Spring Engine

History

The Spring engine is inspired by the game "Total Annihilation" (TA) by Cavedog Entertainment. TA, released in 1997 is the best RTS ("Real Time Strategy") game "of all time" according to Gamespy.

Stefan Johansson started the Spring project within the SY clan that had already made the XTA mod for the original TA engine. His goal was to make a engine that could replace the now ageing TA engine.

The original TA engine was very advanced but still had some hard limits. Cavedog went bankrupt some years after it released TA. Before it went under it had released TA:Kingdoms but despite it had a more advanced engine it did not get very popular. So the community kept using the original TA engine.

Atari the current owner of the TA franchise, showed little intention to make a sequel. And Chris Tailor the lead developer of the original TA game was hard at work with his new company "Gas Powered Games" to make the "Dungeon Siege" games.

After some years of private development within the SY Stefan and the others decided to release Spring under the GPL. I was not around but I do understand that this was difficult choice as Spring represented a lot of work. The first version of TA Spring was released on 26 Apr 2005.

With this the Spring Project managed to attract attention from people that would otherwise not be interested. David Anderson was one of them, he started the multi platform port of Spring. Which now after a difficult start will replace the existing Windows only branch. Stefan Johansson was hired by Massive Entertainment and therefore stopped active Spring engine development. Still he is around and keeps XTA up to date.

With the releases of games such as Zero-K and Evolution RTS on Steam, the legacy and spirit of Cavedog is continuing, while always looking for new volunteers to keeping Spring Engine in shape.

For Players Content Games Games that use the Spring engine. Maps All about maps for the Spring engine and where to get them. Getting Spring Content and Links Sites from which you can download spring Games, Maps, and more. AI:Skirmish Skirmish AIs for Singleplayer. Lua Widgets All about installing and using LuaUI widgets. Replays Watching recordings of previously played matches. Community Documents that shape our online community. Help Read Me First Answers to questions often asked - Everyone should read this first. FAQ Has it been asked before? Keyboard Default Keyboard Layout in the Engine. Hosting Spring Autohosting and related topics. Mac OS Mac OSX information. Linux NetBSD / Solaris / Linux / Cross-platform information.

For Developers Content Development Game Development Lots of links to valuable Articles and forum threads regarding Game/Unit Development. Map Development Tutorials and other useful information for creating maps. Lua Scripting Information regarding the use of the supplementary Lua scripting language for Widgets and beyond. Chili UI framework Framework for creating GUIs in Lua. Content Development Programs Links to all kind of useful programs. General Resources Usable textures, sounds and code snippets by the community, for the community. Associated Development Groups Teams, Forums and Groups associated with Spring content and code development. Engine and Native Development Engine Development Starting point for engine development. Compiling Engine How to build the Spring engine from source. Lobby Development (Clients and Servers) Information regarding contributing to the source code of the different lobby clients and servers available for Spring. AI Development Lots of information about developing Skirmish, and Unit AIs for Spring.

This wiki needs your help! "A wiki is a web application that allows users to add content, as on an Internet forum, but also allows anyone to edit the content." - Wikipedia.org The Spring project is very dependent on its community of users to help new players and developers. Learn more here.