Spring RTS Engine

The time has come. Linux users, you will now have a single-player menu and campaign system, complete with a music player. Windows users, you too can use this, however it will need to be compiled seperately.

This is still VERY beta, but so far everything is working as it ought. A first public release should be ready after a few days.

I start this thread to ask what you guys want from this menu. I already have a few things I'm adding, such as a built-in music player with playlist eventually supporting progressive music creation (Optional), slide show suppourt for custom map thumbnails, mod selection slideshow, mod-specific maplists, automatic AI difficulty adjustment and selection, Spring options page, SD3 random map generator (Support pending). Before anyone asks, I'm not planning a multiplayer menu. At best, maybe a P2P LAN support, but not for a while.

Does anyone want anything else?

A cupholder.

No, I think you've covered it. Shame I'm the first to comment, but I plan to use it, so I have the right.

Campaign system... dont forget movies before/after and or inbetween missions, and maybe some kind of briefing room. Another important detail would be saving/loading games.

It sounds like you've wrapped up about 5 mtr's at once. Well done

As for suggestions I would imagine poeople would like the ability to customise the interface (graphically) based upon their mod.

Wow, this is great, you are even planning Lan support and a music player Can't think of anything ATM, good luck, looking forward to its release.

Edit: Zpock's campaign menu is a good idea.

Sounds brilliant!

The only form of AI difficulty adjustment is handicap, which isnt very good tbh. This would have to be AI side for the most part.

The sm3 map generator would best be implemented as a seperate program called in by your program.

Also this is c++ right? Not python? I really hope it is c++ and not python. Eitherway I suspect your programs going to be cannibalized by the lobbies for code snippets.

AF: I'm only going to hardcode universal-style AIs (no configs) into this, so handicap will be used. It will still give the illusion of difficulty to the average player, wich should be enough. While the SM3 generator *could* be a seperate program, I would prefer it to interface with the difficulty system. This way, campeigns could be waged over dynamic maps, such as an assault on a core prime fortress. And yes, this IS being made in Python, for several reasons: More readable than C, faster to make than in C, compiles on the fly instead of beforehand (Using Psyco lib), and completely portable to Linux, Mac, and Windows.

There will be an installer included in the Linux release. Somone else will have to do the py2exe for a windows version. (I'm using Foobuntu)

Hurrah for Python!

edit: I have some experience with py2exe so I might be able to build an exe, however, it's been a fair while (2+ years) since I used it.

sounds interesting, how do people specify the maps for their project?

I would argue over the python, as I've never managed to get a python app to actually run in windows, the average user is going to have a field day complaining.

Also by making the sm3 map generator python and integrating it, you lock out the main userbase of people who want that feature but may not want to use your program to get it. You also nuke feature reuse in other programs.

You also take out any chance of reusing existing code in the 2 c++ lobbies, and the spring project itself.

Also one could argue against your statement of python being easier to read and quicker to develop, which I put down to simply being your choice of GUI and wether you use serious languages like C++ or C# often.

In the interest of good programming design, I'd keep the sm3 generator as a library not an integrated script. Difficulty shouldnt be too hard, just pass a number between 1 and 100 to the library/program as a parameter.

How do you plan to deal with difficulty for mods that arent affected by handicap such as kernel panic or comshooter?

AF wrote:I would argue over the python, as I've never managed to get a python app to actually run in windows, the average user is going to have a field day complaining.

Also one could argue against your statement of python being easier to read and quicker to develop, which I put down to simply being your choice of GUI and wether you use serious languages like C++ or C# often.

Gosh you're an idiot.

it would take 3 times as long and work half as well if it was in c++, and then we could go YAY!!!! C++, that old language that sucks for applications if you want to make them fast.

i would like to see more c# on mono, it works really well :) but python is also very good :)

Gosh you're an idiot.

I think AF will be truly baffled by your rudeness and deeply insulted by your post!

ok i should shut up

jcnossen wrote:

Gosh you're an idiot.

I think AF will be truly baffled by your rudeness and deeply insulted by your post!

ok i should shut up

I think he probably will.

lol... must.. resist.. scathing.. witticism... !

Ok, a small update. Still finalizing commands and getting the game interface completed (Almost 90% there), so I've started GUI conceptualization. Here's how it looks so far:



The previews will be animated gifs, with the same name as the mod/map, stored in the mod/previews and map/previews. I put these 2 together (Mod has 4 images, map has 3) just for testing, but I'll see about making thumbnail previews for all good maps. This will be the only pain about this system, but since it's just single player, it should be worth it to just make all the gifs when the mapmakers finish a good map. More on this later.

Again, this is not the final product, just a VERY early beta. (v0.03) Stay tuned for more.

Is there a fullsized image?

It would be good if you could pull it off.

smoth wrote:sounds interesting, how do people specify the maps for their project?

And where would the content creators place the images in their archive?
"/previews" is correct?