Vol.
2, Issue 12
February 14, 2000
randon "GreenMarine" 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
Name,
rank, and last time you fought in the Mordain wars?
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....
I have
to be in a certain mood.
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.
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 :)
How
did you join Epic and what position do you currently hold?
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.
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, "Damn, we hit it right on there"?
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.
As far
as "hit it right" 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.
At
two in the morning? Was that only during crunch-time or is it
a regular thing?
Its
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.
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.
I do have
spare time, but its mixed in with the work.
Wow.
Do you have a computer at home or is that just a silly question?
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.
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?
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.
Its strange
though...our UT project is completely playble, but without fast
rendering. The exact opposite of most game development projects
:)
What
do you know to-date about the control systems (input) that will
be available? Are you able to plan ahead?
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).
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?
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.