Hi, just a call for help from Star Wars Spring.
While I'm still bursting with pride, we have recently been mentioned in UK PC Zone. You can read a scan of the article right here.
The article mentioned that Star Wars Spring (SWS) was a bit difficult to run and understand. We understand this entirely. Infact, shortly after this article came out, we released:
The in-depth Star Wars Spring Manual
This manual covers everything you could possibly want to know about Star Wars Spring, from its history, to installation, how to get a game working on multiplayer (dead easy, by the way), an in-depth unit guide and a strategy and tactics guide.
Hopefully this should clear up any problems anyone might have been having.
Also, the article mentioned that SWS was a bit "rough around the edges"; which is a fair enough comment. However, just for the record (;)) this is because Star Wars Spring is a port of the original Total Annihilation mod (as the article mentions). More specifically, the old TA engine could only manage units with around a maximum of 200 polygons; and from its fixed camera position, one could only ever see a limited amount of all units (for example, all ground units in TA have their bottom-facing polygons deleted; no point rendering those faces if they are never seen!). Therefore, the majority of the units seen in SWS are straight ports (With a few minor touch-ups here and there) of the original TA units, which is why they look somewhat blocky.
We are currently in the process of remodelling every single unit in SWS, but this will take a while. Of our remodelled units, in-game theb]Stormtroopers[/b] are all recently remodelled; as well as the Imperial All Terrain Reconnaisance Transport (ATRT). You can see a stormy atop an ATRT here:
This brings me to the main focus of this post. We really need some specific help here. The Old Total Annihilation method of texturing is now obsolete in the Spring engine, and we are only beginning to learn how to skin and texture models correctly, in the method of UVwrapping and skinning units, which most people are familiar with. We have a bunch of models, just itching to be skinned; but noone with the knowledge to skin them. Without a skinner, SWS will more or less grind to a halt until we bring ourselves up to speed (however long that will be).
If you are able to help us out, we would really appreciate the help, and gladly take you on as a member of our team. For an example of some of the things you would be skinning (we've figured out how to UV wrap), here are some of the models sitting around, waiting to be textured:
I really hope those images lure some prospective skinners. We have advertised on our moddb page, but unfortunately this has had no responses, so I felt I should try another route community.
Should you have any further questions, want to organise a game, or like to help out, feel free to email me, or come to our IRC channel:
Server: irc.gnug.org (a popular Total Annihilation server)
Channel: #swta
For further information, including download links to Star Wars Spring, and Star Wars TA (including a playable demo of Star Wars TA for those of you who don't own Total Annihilation), please visit our website:
http://www.planetannihilation.com/swta
Thanks for your time,
Warlord Zsinj
Co-Leader of Star Wars Spring and Star Wars Total Annihilation
