Spring RTS Engine

maackey wrote:

Can I have a sequence about how we can give complex orders queue to units that aren't even built by a factory which isn't finished yet?

I'm still a bit disappointed you can't queue orders to factories that have been queued but not started yet

Also, good job on the video knorke :)

Me too.


We're so spoiled.

knorke wrote:something like this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sycqjNmQjmc
that is obviously just a quick movie maker project. i hope the idea gets across still :)

Woooo terraform! To make a nice smooth diagonal bridge you could have used ramp. Although from a video point of view level is better as you get to see the blue grid.

What happens in 6 months time when spring downloader has a WPF interface and changed it's name to rocket frog?

I agree the lobby is an important part, but by showing big shots of the interface with the title 'download games' it's hardly lobby agnostic or helpful, and as soon as it changes it becomes highly misleading. The video is meant to show off the engines technical features, not our gameplay ideals and satellite projects.

knorke wrote:brb I will make a quick video what I have in mind.

While I am happy you like it, the video was more meant to show how a spring showcase video could differ from the videos done so far. So I did not put that much time into and used what come to mind. For example I only added"skyboxes" because I found the clip it in my recording folder and the airraid clip was reused from http://www.springinfo.info/air-raid-gam ... deo-added/
Anyway, stuff that be could be shown:
-more clips that show the power of Lua scripting ie "toss the obelisk" from Carrepairer (cant find it on youtube anymore?) where a unit picks up a mapfeature and throws it. Or zwsg's Pacman.
-ressource systems not based on e/m ie THIS, S44 or Gundam
-/water 0 1 2 3 4 modes
-in every scene it could show the games name in a corner or just "techdemo" if its no real game
-Players/Teams: Players sharing controll of a team, coop vs ai, create/break alliances etc
-AI: different languages etc

Lobbys changing:
I do not think that matters. The lobbies can be skinned/colors changed anyway. Springs lobbysystem is quite nice with channels and everything. There will hopefully be a working online lobby, does not matter if it looks like the one in a video. The shots could be in a very general style. Actually I think the "download new games" shot from the video shows off more the different games than the downloader itself.

I think its important to show that multiplayer is actually possible and happening. And a lobby is needed for this.

The video is meant to show off the engines technical features, not our gameplay ideals and satellite projects.

Maybe one must make a difference between "spring engine" and "spring project." In a "spring project" things like lobby, gamedownloader should be mentioned.
Why not show ie Planetwars? It is not active anymore but a good example of spring interacting with different applications and websites. These satellite projects are interessting for developers maybe.

For some features I am unsure if to advertise ie FPS mode and save/load. Both are very techdemo and might disappoint players.

Next version of spring/games will always be shinier if but if seen this way every video is useless. Maybe next week Game X will have really good new models. Maybe not.

Could be good to mention that there are actually several lobby programs to choose from, and that they are capable of downloading content too. More specific stuff about those isn't probably needed.

Indeed there are multiple lobbies.

But, I can still grab a copy of BA and play a game that looks very similar to what was shown in videos from 2 years ago. The same can not be said in 2 years of Spring Downloader, especially considering the plans for it. Even tasclient has changed a fair bit, and what about lualobby?

Id think we'd be better served scrapping that part and replacing it with something about fancy lua shaders or dynamic water and shoreline wave sfx

If you could grab a copy of CA or GRTS from 2 years ago, it would look very different. So don't show mods in Spring video.

If you grab a map from 2 years ago, it will look very different from Beherith's recent work. So don't show maps in Spring video.


For a Spring video to not be misleading, here's what it should only be allowed to show:

That's different, the video is showing off spring as an engine, to which point you can always grab any old game and expect to play it how it's shown because said features are engine features not game features

I can grab spring in two years time and know there will be shadows and strategic zoom.

I cannot do that with spring lobby, especially when the project developers have made concrete plans to dramatically change the project going as far as changing it's name.

I cannot do that with spring lobby, especially when the project developers have made concrete plans to dramatically change the project going as far as changing it's name.

Change its name? Noooooo it will never be the same
I agree that spring lobbies behave in such way that its never possible to know which one is the best at the moment:

But even in 2 years there will be some lobby that allows multiplayer and the trend goes to providing more features, not removing.

I thought the video is suppossed to show what is possible using the spring engine to potential game makers. They do not care that the Pyro's flames look excactly like in the video or even care if it is still in the game. They just care that such effects are doable and can do similiar stuff in their own game.

I don't get the big deal against lobbies. They change over time just like everything else. New engine versions break lots of old games. Name changes are trivial when showing the functional capabilities of the engine or other projects.

Why have the video limited to just the engine? If we have cool tools and features that might bring other developers in, we should showcase them. For someone wanting multiplayer support, community chat, and whatever other benefits the lobbies can provide, it seems rather counterproductive to leave stuff like that out.

The point of showing ingame footage is not to showcase a game, when you see a horde of peewees in the video, your not demonstrating peewees, your demonstrating large numbers of animated units. That the game is BA is inconsequential.

Lobbys do not demonstrate the technical features of the engine in a way that requires fullscreen shots of Rapid or torrent system. Make a lobby video sure, but the video isnt supposed to show off the lobby.

And referring to specific games is showing that you miss the point entirely. Its not that the user wont be able to play that specific version of that game in 5 years time, its that the engine is capable of doing those things. Your also forgetting that with a little work, that version can be brought upto date too.