Engine
Most games for Spring are designed to be played online, in multiplayer matches. Spring uses a deterministic game simulation which is executed simultaneously on all game clients. Only user commands are sent to other players, preventing any active cheating. Multiplayer is supported on both Linux and Windows. A pre-game lobby uses a specially designed protocol similar to that of Internet Relay Chat to facilitate chat, player match-making, and the adjustment of battle options. A number of spring lobby clients exist.
The lobbies for the game allow setting up single player games as well. This can be done either by using a special single player mode, or using the multiplayer mode with a password and adding bots to the game. Instead of using bots, some games also support special game modes that allow single player gameplay. Most popular in this area are the "chicken" modes of Zero-K and Balanced Annihilation, where a player has to defend against waves of monsters. Since version 0.79, Spring also features missions. A mission editor with advanced functions while being intuitive is bundled with the game.
Skirmish AIs (or bots) are needed to get a normal single player game running. They take over the role of controlling a team and can therefore be seen as a machine equivalent to a human player but are of course less cunning. The engine supports Skirmish AI plugins to be written in a variety of programming languages. Currently these are Lua, C, C++, Python and the JVM Languages like Java and Groovy. It is also possible to develop plugins to support more languages.
Spring's rendering features include deformable terrain, 3D projectiles and multiple water renderers. The unit files of Total Annihilation are compatible, allowing third-party units to be imported. The scripting language allows for a customizable gameplay and user interface modifications. Team Players can also draw and write on the game map to coordinate tactical moves with other players. The third-party AI allows for varying degrees of difficulty.
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