Bring Total Annihilation
Get the game from GOG or Steam, or use an installation from your original CDs.
Open-source engine / Development preview
Total Annihilation.
Reconstructed.
A new foundation for a classic RTS. Written in Go, built from clean-room research, and powered by your original game data.
Bring your copy of Total Annihilation. We’ll bring the engine.
Original concept artwork
01 Original game data02 Clean-room research03 Written in Go04 MIT licensed
The projectKeep the game.
Keep the game.
Rebuild the engine.
Total Annihilation gave us sprawling battlefields, mechanical armies, and a very particular shade of green. Nanolathe is rebuilding the engine that makes it all move.
Original file formats. Documented behavior. A modern codebase you can read, run, and help improve. Single-player skirmish and campaign are the focus; development is ongoing.
What we’re buildingStart building
Developer previewYour next battlefield starts here.
Get the source
Install Go and your platform’s build tools, then clone the Nanolathe repository.
Nanolathe on GitHubBuild. Run. Explore.
Point the engine at your game installation and launch directly with go run.
From your Nanolathe checkout
go run ./cmd/nanolathe --root "/path/to/TotalAnnihilation"Development builds only. Signed downloads will follow.
An engine, explained
All documentation The research is part of the project.
01 / File formats
Read the building blocks.
Archives, models, maps, scripts, and palettes. Fourteen references to the data behind the game.
Explore the formats02 / Engine behavior
Understand how it works.
Clean-room contracts for the original engine, with established findings and open questions clearly marked.
Read the researchIn development / GPU rendererOld-school character.
ExperimentalOld-school character.
New rendering possibilities.
A modern GPU rendering path is taking shape alongside the classic software renderer.
Inside the renderer