Modding notes thread

[Guessmyname]

A thread for collecting everyone's notes, tutorials, documentation and 'how to's for modding/'game making' (is there an actual verb for that?) with Spring.

Feel free to add to this.

Many thanks to Flozi, Tobi and Smoth for their aid.

Important Programs
Most of these are listed here.
Spring Specific
Upspring - thanks maackey!
Spring Map Editor
There is also Scriptor, for writing .bos code and compiling it to cob, but if you're starting anew, you're better off using Lua. Chances are, you'll have to learn lua anyway (if you don't already), so at least this would cut down on the confusion.

General (free)
Wings3d
MeshMapper (for generating AO maps for model textures)
Notepad++ - like Notepad, but infinitely better for coding. Includes syntax highlighting and all sorts of useful things. Good for coding lua.
GIMP Image editing suite
Not very user friendly to new users, but very powerful. Can export to the new lua/obj model format and directly to s3o with the aid of plugins.

Documentation
Lua
Official tutorial set on the language (not Spring specific)
Example lua unit script for the Arm Stumpy
Spring Lua Scripting guide (who wrote this?)

General Modding
Starting a new mod from scratch (no TA content)
The Spring Wiki's Mod Development section
Info on modinfo.lua (You might find a few references / pages on modinfo.tdf - you'll want to ignore this, as it is being depreciated.)

Graphics
Models and Textures
PressureLine's Model Export tutorial (wings 3d, upspring)
The Spring Wiki's textures article
CG Textures (royalty free references and photographs)
The Blueprints.com - blueprints, inventively enough. I'd advise that you know what you're looking for before searching through the site, though
A most excellent tutorial on 'painting hard surfaces'
GCTextures' Tutorials section - lots of good tutorials for Photoshop and Paintshop Pro

General Inspiration
Solaris 7. A Battletech site; nifty for mech ideas etc
GW Forgeworld; also good for inspiration, more on the sci-fi vehicle / gribblies side of things
Location Works - a site with lots of pictures of buildings etc. Good for map / feature reference

Setting up Lua for a mod:
main.lua and draw.lua are available here.. They go in moddir/luarules
If you want to use lua to script units, add this lua file to luarules/gadgets

[Tribulex]

wonderful please sticky its getting lost!

[maackey]

I think this is the latest version of Upspring, mentioned in this thread here.

Since you've already got a wings3d link, perhaps add one for blender as well? Even though it is not nearly as newbie friendly as wings, some people might find it of use.

Was leaving out Scriptor intentional? I can totally see why you'd want to leave it out; its obsolete and most all examples written in bos either do things in funky ways or still have remnants of Cavedog code in them. But at least there are lots of examples in bos, which is probably the only reason I even mentioned it.

[Guessmyname]

I knew I'd forgotten something...

[thedude]

Can you please add a link to a new system.lua file (for luaanimation)?

Cause:

Also, do check whether your LuaRules/system.lua is up to date, if you copied this verbatim into your game. (Must be newer then from 5 september 2009)

Please sticky!

[Tobi]

It's in the wiki. Also added a link there.

[bobthedinosaur]

edit: nvm

[FLOZi]

The already linked to main.lua and draw.lua just include the base gadgethandler, which includes the base system.lua itself, so they will always rely on springcontent.sdz which will always be as up to date as your Spring install.

[8611]

all links duplicates of things already on wiki.
or dead, outdated,..