<html>

<head>

<title>loonygames - print happy version</title>
</head>

<body leftmargin="10" topmargin="10" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
<table width="100%" border="0" height="58" bordercolordark="#000000" bordercolorlight="#000000">
  <tr> 
    <td height="57" width="26%" align="left" valign="top"> 
      <div align="left"> 
        <h1><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b><i><a href="../../index.html">loonygames</a><br>
          <font size="1">a <a href="http://www.bluesnews.com">blue's news</a> 
          publication</font></i></b></font></h1>
        </div>
    </td>
    <td height="57" width="74%" align="center" valign="top"> 
    </td>
  </tr>
</table>
<p><a href="../2.12/feat/index.html">&lt;&lt; Back to Normal View</a></p>
<p>URL: <a href="../2.12/feat/index.html">http://www.loonygames.com/content/2.12/feat/</a><br>
</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>Vol. 
                2, Issue 12<br>

                February 14, 2000<br>
                </b>
              <b> 
                </b>
               
                <b><i>It's 
                  Not Easy Being Green</i></b></p>
                An 
                  interview by Russell 
                  &quot;RadPipe&quot; Lauzon</p>
                <p></p>
              
              

<!--
       function gotoSite(obj)
          {
          var s;
          s=obj.options[obj.selectedIndex].value
                         location.href=s;
          }
// -->


              <?
              
              include("/home/loonygames/loony.timedoctor.org/includes/issues_new.htm"); 
              
              ?>
              
              
              B 
                <i>randon &quot;GreenMarine&quot; Reinhart was one of the original 
                members of the Orange Smoothie mod team, those wacky guys that 
                brought us the OSP Tourney Mod (an early prototype for NetGames 
                USA's ngWorldStats) and their infamous Potato Gun in addition 
                to other things, but these days, he's best known for his work 
                at Epic Games, where he was one of the programmers on Unreal Tournament. 
                He is currently hard at work on the Playstation 2 version of the 
                UT engine</i></p>
              
              <b>Name, 
                rank, and last time you fought in the Mordain wars?</b></p>
              </p>
              Well, 
                if you want me to write some bombastic crap, we should probably 
                do the interview later, since I don't really feel like it now....</p>
              </p>
              I have 
                to be in a certain mood. </p>
              </p>
              That last 
                interview I did, the guy sent me the interview and I wasn't going 
                to do it since he was throwing me a bone. I'd rather just burst 
                into that stuff when people aren't really expecting it and I've 
                just come off of a Bal-Sagoth listen or something. I left the 
                interview and came back later when I felt like writing something 
                odd.</p>
              </p>
              Feel free 
                to use whatever I'm writing in your interview. That might make 
                it more interesting. A realistic interview instead of me being 
                odd. Shrug :)</p>
              </p>
              <b>How 
                did you join Epic and what position do you currently hold?</b></p>
              </p>
              I'm a 
                programmer. I was asked by Tim Sweeney to do contract programming 
                for Epic a little over a year and a half ago. After my contract 
                period they asked me to move to Raleigh and I've been here ever 
                since.</p>
              </p>
              <b>To 
                date, what's been the best part of working on Unreal Tournament? 
                Are there things that come up (such as feedback) that make you 
                look back and say, &quot;Damn, we hit it right on there&quot;?</b></p>
              </p>
              The best 
                part of working on UT has nothing to do with the game, its the 
                work environment. Epic is an amazing place to work, its probably 
                the most liberal game company in the industry. I'll come in to 
                work at two in the morning or something and a bunch of other guys 
                are already here making content or playing games. I've made some 
                really good friends here.</p>
              </p>
              As far 
                as &quot;hit it right&quot; parts of the game. I dunno. There 
                were things that you know are working out well and things that 
                don't. You cut the ones that don't. With UT, it was a very gradual 
                progression. I can't even remember when the game stopped feeling 
                like Unreal and starting feeling like something unique.</p>
              </p>
              <b>At 
                two in the morning? Was that only during crunch-time or is it 
                a regular thing?</b></p>
              </p>
              It&#146;s 
                a regular thing. None of us live on base-24 days. The married 
                guys tend to stick to a recognizable pattern, but the rest of 
                us work until we are too tired, sleep (either at home or at work), 
                and come back when we are done.</p>
              </p>
              I bought 
                new furniture for my apartment, but I haven't bought bedding for 
                my new bed and its been a month or so. I just sleep on the mattress. 
                Before that, I slept on a foam pad for a year. My money goes into 
                savings and investments because I don't have time to spend a lot. 
                I don't watch TV, which gives me a bunch of extra time.</p>
              </p>
              I do have 
                spare time, but its mixed in with the work.</p>
              </p>
              <b>Wow. 
                Do you have a computer at home or is that just a silly question?</b></p>
              </p>
              No. If 
                I worked at home, I'd have a computer there, but I'd rather work 
                at the office. I can listen to my music as loud as I want most 
                of the time and I can easily communicate with the other team members. 
                If I want to get away I'll go home and read.</p>
              </p>
              <b>Let's 
                talk about Unreal Tournament on the Playstation 2. What kind of 
                hurdles are you looking at in terms of the code you're responsible 
                for?</b></p>
              </p>
              I was 
                responsible for everything Playstation 2. I got script execution 
                up and running and the game running in Wireframe. We then starting 
                to shift our focus more on PSX2 so Tim took the rendering code 
                and I implementing minor things like input and so forth. You can 
                actually play UT completely on the PSX2 right now. Its not very 
                fast though. I'm not into graphics programming and I'm really 
                not into low level programming, Tim is much better. He faces the 
                big challenges of working out a fast rendering strategy and making 
                necessary changes to UT's renderer.</p>
              </p>
              Its strange 
                though...our UT project is completely playble, but without fast 
                rendering. The exact opposite of most game development projects 
                :)</p>
              </p>
              <b>What 
                do you know to-date about the control systems (input) that will 
                be available? Are you able to plan ahead?</b></p>
              </p>
              Adding 
                extra features for new types of controller is pretty easy. Right 
                now we are focusing on the Dual Shock and Dual Shock 2. I'll add 
                support for the older non-analog controller also. The input code 
                is more or less done for now. As we get more into the gameplay 
                side of things, input could change. (And things like...menus to 
                select your configuration and so forth).</p>
              </p>
              <b>What 
                do you think of other FPS games that have been ported to consoles, 
                in terms of interface? Do they adequately capture the first-person 
                shooter feel, or will you be trying to better that?</b></p>
              </p>
              I'm not 
                really that impressed, but what can you do with a pad? A hardcore 
                first person shooter doesn't really work that well on the console 
                to begin with. The audience is alot different. We all play a lot 
                of games though, so we'll probably come up with a bunch of good 
                configs to choose from (or customize). So far I like using the 
                left analog stick for strafing, the right for looking, L1 for 
                duck, L2 for jump, R1 for fire, R2 for altfire.</p>
              </p>
              </p>

              <br><br>

              
              <b>It's 
                funny, but there's been numerous attempts by manufacturers to 
                redefine our PC inputs, yet we stubbornly stick with keyboard/mouse 
                combo. Has anyone sat down and said, &quot;Why don't we just stick 
                a keyboard and mouse in the box?&quot;</b></p>
              </p>
              PCs and 
                consoles are becoming more and more similar. At some point, you'll 
                probably see keyboards and mice coming with the console at launch. 
                Right now though, most console developers and designing their 
                games for console gamers. These kids play a lot of RPGs, sports 
                games, fighting games, and platform jumpers, but not a lot of 
                games that require keyboards... I mean, I'm sure they wouldn't 
                mind attracting more PC guys to the console, but its probably 
                much lower on the goal sheet than selling a game they know will 
                be popular.</p>
              </p>
              <b>How 
                do you like programming on the PS2? Is it easier/better/faster 
                than the PC? Than linux?</b></p>
              </p>
              Programming 
                is programming. I'm not bothered by programming for any specific 
                platform, so much as I'm bothered by things like making sure my 
                NT box and my Linux box and sourcesafe are all working properly. 
                I would say programming for the PS2 is hard in that a PC programmer 
                has a lot to learn about the hardware. A lot of low level code 
                to write. The APIs for PS2 aren't really APIs, they are more like 
                simple tools to help you set up your DMA transfers and such. You 
                write a lot of code that deals with registers directly. Like any 
                new programming task its just learning the new tools and experimenting.</p>
              </p>
              <b>Let's 
                talk power. How much more powerful is the PS2 than the original 
                PS?</b></p>
              </p>
              I don't 
                know, really. I don't know a lot about the original Playstation's 
                hardware. My understanding is that the power of the Playstation 
                2 lies less in the CPU and more in efficient use of the vector 
                units. Since I'm not doing any work with the PS2's rendering code 
                now, I've not been pursuing PS2 technology very closely. You might 
                want to ask Tim, but there is a lot of stuff we can't talk about 
                because of NDAs.</p>
              </p>
              <b>From 
                what I understand, the PS2 will be internet ready though it won't 
                be shipping with a modem out of the box. Will you be plugging 
                &acute;net functionality into the code in preparation for Internet 
                play?</b></p>
              </p>
              I don't 
                know anything about Sony's plans for network support. I have not 
                seen any APIs on it or heard any information. If we get information 
                on it, we'll support it.</p>
              </p>
              <b>I understand 
                you were part of the Orange Smoothie team. What do you think of 
                their work on Netgames USA?</b></p>
              </p>
              Its pretty 
                cool. ngWorldStats is a lot of fun to play with, it adds a lot 
                of value to the game. The Net Games guys are really hardcore. 
                They were all professors and research engineers at the University 
                of Kansas and one day they just said &quot;lets go for it.&quot; 
                So they quit their jobs and decided to rough it with their gaming 
                company. That's cool. Its funny because I remember Craig Sparks 
                telling me about his idea for the stat tracking stuff and I used 
                to tell him about how I'd work for a game company at some point. 
                Lo and behold everything worked out.</p>
              </p>
              Lawrence, 
                Kansas must have some kind of gaming enchantment cast on it. KillCreek 
                is from there, you know. So is Scott Dalton from Legend. They 
                both went to KU.</p>
              </p>
              <b>That's 
                very cool. Did you help with the agreement to put support for 
                ngWorldStats support into UT?</b></p>
              </p>
              It was 
                for granted. We worked up an agreement, but was there any doubt? 
                It was a really cool feature and it didn't take much work to add. 
                I think it really helped give UT some extra replay value. Now 
                you can feel like your nightly game sessions have some impact.</p>
              </p>
              I handled 
                all the NetGames/Epic communication and implemented the features 
                they wanted. Mark took care of getting their logo on the box. 
                It was extremely smooth. I still owe those guys a dinner sometime.</p>
              </p>
              I think 
                it's a great feature, except that it shows some of us how poorly 
                we play UT :) </p>
              </p>
              <b>Anyways, 
                just one more question: What's next for you after the PS2 and 
                UT?</b></p>
              </p>
              Shrug. 
                I don't plan ahead. Takes too much time and its against my nature.</p>
              </p>
              <b>Thanks 
                Brandon!</b></p>
              
              <i>-Russell 
                &quot;RadPipe&quot; Lauzon is currently exhausting all his free 
                time researching Beer Goggles.</i></p>
              </p>
              <br><br><p>&nbsp;</p> 
<p><a href="../2.12/feat/index.html">&lt;&lt;Back to Normal View</a></p>
<table width="100%" border="1" height="29" bordercolordark="#000000" bordercolorlight="#FFFFFF" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
  <tr> 
    <td height="20" width="99%"> 
      <div align="center"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b><i>loonygames 
        - the best damn gaming magazine online </i></b></font></div>
    </td>
  </tr>
</table>
<p><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2">Credits: Print CGI is 
  &copy; 2000 <a href="http://www.square8.com">Square Eight</a>. Used with permission. 
  Article is &copy; 2000 its original author. All other content is &copy; 2000 
  loonyboi productions. Unauthorized reproduction is prohibited. You got that??</font></i></p>
 