Modding

If you wish to learn how to script or program using the Lua language, we suggest you start by checking the following sites:

• Lua Homepage: The Lua project homepage is, of course, the definitive source on any information regarding Lua.
• About Lua: If you want to know exactly what Lua is, who makes it, its history, and what you can do with it, check the Lua Org Guide on the Lua users wiki.
• Learn Lua: If you just want to learn how to write and use Lua, then this is the best place to start. Specifically, you'll want to pay attention to the...
• Lua Tutorial: The Lua Users Wiki has an excellent set of tutorials that is well maintained, and covers almost every aspect of the Lua language. You can start here with no prior programming or scripting experience and learn one of the most useful languages in modern game development and modding.
• Downloads: If you're ready to get coding, then you'll need a development environment to do it in, won't you? Libraries, dependencies, and stand-alone executables can be found here. Make sure you read the Packaging page first, to work out which packs you may want.
• Lua Reference Manual: Finally, the technical reference manual could prove invaluable. It is the official documentation (as opposed to the community-driven efforts of the Lua-users wiki) for the Lua project.

If you just want to learn and try out the core concepts covered in the bulk of the tutorials, you can do most of it with the pre-compiled standalone Lua executable, which we have mirrored from Luaforge on FileUniverse. This is the same file available from Luaforge, and at time of writing version 5.1 was current. Using this pack and the tutorial mentioned above is by far the easiest way to get straight into learning Lua today!

3D Modeling

The other area in which you can already begin learning or even start producing content in preparation for Supreme Commander is unit modeling. Supreme Commander Universe has received unofficial, but credible information regarding the format for unit models and animations. While the information is tentative at this time, and the final format will almost certainly be subject to change between now and Supreme Commander's release, the format of the models themselves are fairly generic.

Supreme Commander's units will use relatively rudimentary skeletal animation based 3D models for all units, which we believe will be expressed in a single model file, and one or more animation files, which are then placed in a container file. This particular arrangement is partly speculative, based on the unofficial information we do have, and should be taken only tentatively. What is certain, is that Supreme Commander units will be made using "bone" based pieces, as distinct from the more archaic methods used by Total Annihilation, and TA Spring.

We can say with a reasonable degree of certainty that free, third-party development tools will be available for using SupCom files in conjunction with the free 3D-modeling suite, Blender. Blender was the natural choice for modding Supreme Commander, due to its rich feature set, high level of community support, and the fact that it is a free download. In light of this, if you want to learn how to start making models, you can get some of the most time-consuming work out of the way right now. Below are some helpful tutorials for learning how to use Blender with no prior 3D-modeling experience. I would suggest you focus on those areas of tutorials which concern skeletal animation, and constructing simple vehicles. Due to the angular, robotic nature of most of Supreme Commander's units, learning the more advanced aspects of blended or vertex weighting (which can best be applied to organic structures) will be of limited use.

• Blender 3D: Noob to Pro: A near complete compilation of tutorials on most aspects of modeling with Blender. Focusing on bones, skeletal animations, and vehicle models is encouraged.
• Official Blender Tutorials page: The complete list of official tutorials offered by Blender.org, including a good collection of video tutorials.
• User documentation: Blender.org's official manual, and supporting documentation. This is the definitive technical resource for Blender
• Download Blender: Blender 3D is available for free download for a variety of platforms via HTTP and Bittorent.