Plans for writing a new rts engine

Post by **jcnossen** » 17 Oct 2006, 14:11

A part of the spring developers (the most active part probably.. tvo, trepan, and me) are going to write a new rts engine. We'll probably be support most of the spring binary formats (S3O,3DO, SMF,COB) either directly or with converters.

The idea was already posted with more detail on the mailinglist before: http://lolut.utbm.info/pipermail/taspri ... 01623.html

We have a new site at http://www.osrts.info, it will contain the homepage at some point...

However we are still planning to do a release of 0.73b2 at some point.

Nemo · Post by **Nemo** » 17 Oct 2006, 14:36

Do you know what implications this will have for modders, especially long term mod projects?

You mentioned that s3o/3do/SMF will be supported. What about the bos scripting format (as crappy as it is, there has been a LOT of work done in it), or the tdf/fbi data?

Basically, I'm wondering how much work it will be to jump a mod from spring to this new engine, once its done.

Or perhaps I'm reading this incorrectly - does this mean that Spring is no longer getting worked on after 73b2, or what..?

NOiZE · Post by **NOiZE** » 17 Oct 2006, 14:40

The development of Spring would be a lot slower, but still that's the same with a comercial game. The spring gaming community will live on till @ least supcom i think. And even futher, perhaps this next project will fail, then we still got spring.

Post by **jcnossen** » 17 Oct 2006, 14:41

The development of Spring would be a lot slower, but still that's the same with a comercial game. The spring gaming community will live on till @ least supcom i think. And even futher, perhaps this next project will fail, then we still got spring.

Yay that's the spirit

You mentioned that s3o/3do/SMF will be supported. What about the bos scripting format (as crappy as it is, there has been a LOT of work done in it), or the tdf/fbi data?

COB too, I'll correct that.

NOiZE · Post by **NOiZE** » 17 Oct 2006, 14:51

jcnossen wrote:
The development of Spring would be a lot slower, but still that's the same with a comercial game. The spring gaming community will live on till @ least supcom i think. And even futher, perhaps this next project will fail, then we still got spring.
Yay that's the spirit

Well i am trying to say, even if development for spring stops, spring will still be worth it!. Of course i hope the next project will be a success and that it will be better then spring

Just to clear that up

Relative · Post by **Relative** » 17 Oct 2006, 14:59

Sounds like a good idea, too much of the work on the spring engine seems to be about workarounds. One question, is this a separate project to the current spring. What I'm to say, poorly, is will this eventually take the place of the current engine or is this a "spin-off" from the community.

Post by **jcnossen** » 17 Oct 2006, 15:47

We'll be using a different site and different name, so you could call it a spin-off...

Soulless1 · Post by **Soulless1** » 17 Oct 2006, 16:11

ooh, looks interesting

I'll definately be following it then

Dragon45 · Post by **Dragon45** » 17 Oct 2006, 17:24

I think that, IMHO, its very important that *all* official news etc of the new engine stay off the site and community, and let the rumor mill take care of itself. The last thing needed at this barely-fertilized-egg stage is hype, or even attention. Project will more or less need to develop in total shadow until the modders can be unleashed to make GPL content for it.

Its the D.N. Forever curse if ya don't!

Yarrrrrrr!

AF · Post by AF » 17 Oct 2006, 17:39

In light of the great dissapointment that site was (a few links under each other), I'd be happy to setup the initial website in the next 3-4 days for you then let you take it on from there on your own.

Some previous work:
http://taspring-linux.berlios.de
http://www.darkstars.co.uk
http://ntai.from-hell.net

And good luck!

Sheekel · Post by **Sheekel** » 17 Oct 2006, 19:09

K-man is back? I thought he went to Massive Entertainment

Good luck with the project.

OOmiz · Post by **OOmiz** » 17 Oct 2006, 19:19

I wish the best of luck to you guys. A clean sweep sounds like the cure to lots of headache...

Relative · Post by **Relative** » 17 Oct 2006, 19:52

jcnossen wrote:We'll be using a different site and different name, so you could call it a spin-off...

Well ok, but once it reaches a certain level of stability and playability will OSRTS merge with the old spring site and community?

Edit: You should think about doing an FAQ.

FoeOfTheBee · Post by **FoeOfTheBee** » 17 Oct 2006, 20:10

I wish the dev's the best with their new project.

Who will be taking over as lead Spring developer now?

It would be a shame to see spring development stop when windows/linux play seems so close.

Wolf-In-Exile · Post by **Wolf-In-Exile** » 17 Oct 2006, 21:17

Looks pretty good, has many *modern* graphical features not available in Spring.

I'd support a project on this engine if it means more frequent releases, and the ability to use stuff like normal/spec mapping, those nice shaders and skeletal anims.

I'm pretty impressed with it, considering its an open source project; has capabilities on par with commercial current-generation engines.

Zenka · Post by **Zenka** » 17 Oct 2006, 23:10

I assume you all thought this over thoroughly. So I can only say: Good luck, and don't worry about community support, you know you have it ^.^

REVENGE · Post by **REVENGE** » 18 Oct 2006, 02:12

+1

And btw, have you guys looked at the Pacific Storm screenshots? I mean, holy shiit do they resemble the Spring engine or what?!

http://www.ogre3d.org/index.php?set_alb ... _photo.php

http://www.ogre3d.org/index.php?set_alb ... _photo.php

Snipawolf · Post by **Snipawolf** » 18 Oct 2006, 02:17

But thats a MUCH larger scale, look at the range those ships are shooting at the planes..

FPS!

http://www.ogre3d.org/index.php?set_alb ... _photo.php

Android_X · Post by **Android_X** » 18 Oct 2006, 05:14

Any plans for campaign/mission features?
Is saving/loading single player games planned?

mongus · Post by **mongus** » 18 Oct 2006, 06:26

So you depart spring proyect and are making a "compatible" engine.

Altough ive read a bit on it, and how its gona be "better", its very concerning, as this engine is nearly mature, yet has so many bugs in it that got broken in the way or from new works made to the game, and needs to be fixed/finished.
And this goal looks quite close.

You know im just player, so cant understand rigth why you decide to move.

But, it seems to me that, leaving this project as IS (which im not sure will happen), is a big waste of time for the people involved in developping it.

What about the hole work on the linux version?
And the last 5 or 6 months of work the current Lead dev and the other programmers have put into it?

I know its been slow on releases, but many things in the last 2 releases seem worth it, not to mention the work prior to that.

Seen spring as a supcom competitor, this is like a crittical hit, and its has the potential of killing the project as supcom makes it out the next months, people will derail from a partially finished rts to embrace a fully developped, and commmercially availabe/supported rts.
(wich is not right, but its the only engine standing in TA legacy, as supcom will be, and the only OS Rts i know has made this great)

Ive read that the current code is a mess, and its not worth cleaning, or keep working with it.

And that your new project will be built ontop of ogre, and that is supposed to have only advantages. d3d, gui stuff, squeletal animation support, linux compatiblity etc...

There are 2 things that are crucial for your project, and will affect the hole spring comunity aswell.

The time in which you will get your new engine near current spring functionality. ( i think you will reuse some code )

The success/gained code cleanness/support/features? in that new engine, comparing it with spring, and with supcom.

With this in mind, I wish you (and we) the best luck in the turn you have taken for this game.

And, as you will be working in the other engine, who will take charge of Spring lead and dev?.

oh, finally...

Will your project be commercial?

Spring RTS Engine

Plans for writing a new rts engine

Plans for writing a new rts engine