Q1: Programmer X, please tell us your involvement with the Pie In The Sky
GCS, and how your relationshiop with Kevin got started, and how you were
brought in on the Pie In The Sky Programming Team.
This is sort of a long story but It all started about 3 or 4 years ago
I
guess, when I had a copy of the DOS GCS for programmers. This was when
Duke
Nukem and Doom2 were big. I spent about a year rewriting that engine and
it
ended up doing everything those 2 games could do and more. We had flying
vehicles you could get in and shoot from, rear-view displays, underwater,
remote-cameras, the works... The game we were doing got abandoned for some
unfortunate reasons, and so we ditched the whole project and I moved on
to
work on other engines.
This past January I saw the Pie in the Sky website (I was mildly shocked
because I thought they'd gone out of business), and was somewhat impressed
with the screenshots. I wrote Kevin asking about what features were in
the new
engine, and I sent him a list of everything I'd done with his DOS engine
to
see if he had yet implemented any them. Next thing I know, I got a job
offer
to help put that list into the current engine, so here I am. Basically
it all
started from a simple email.
Q2: Quickly tell us about the major modifications that have gone into GCS
2.0,
and how much time was involved and the difficulties, if any, you
had.
What hasn't gone into the GCS would probably be easier to answer.
There's
really too much to list here because there's so much more than just what
was
publicized on the web - a lot of "under the hood" things. Ive focused a
lot on
the motion code, lighting, and exploiting some of the few (very few) goodies
offered by DirectX like fog, translucency, specular blending. Some other
things were enhancing polygons, adding FX registers, fixing pre-existing
bugs,
and so on... but words and screenshots can only convey so much. You really
have to see it all in motion to grasp the overhaul this engine has undergone.
All in all it's so far amounted to around 350 hours work, dating back to
January 16th.
The difficulties have at times been enough to drive me to the brink of
insanity, but these cases have usually been from having to conform to the
brutal logic imposed by DirectX. Kevin's laid a wonderful groundwork with
this
engine, however, and in that regard it's made my job easier probably than
it
should be.
Q3: What would you compare the GCS 2.0 engine with at this moment IE: Duke
Nukem, Blood, ect.
Right now It's hard to say. This is still a work-in-progress and drawing
fair
comparisons at this point is difficult. But it's potential thus far ranks
right up there with Quake or Quake2 in my opinion. Once the polygonal models
are integrated and some more things finished it should bounce ahead into
the
upper 10-20% bracket of what's out currently out there, and surpass all
but a
very few.
Q4: Please tell us some of the modifications you plan to add to GCS by
the
time the upgrade reaches version 3.0.
Underwater terrain, a more flexible weapon system, maybe an alternate guard
system with new AI, animated floor/ceiling/polygon textures, a better
inventory system, increased architectural capabilities. I would really
like to
tap more into Direct3D effects, but until Microsoft's brain-trust gets
a clue
and rewrites this dreadful API they call "Direct3D - Immediate Mode", I
think
I'd profit more watching paint dry. Nonetheless, I do plan on adding more
cool
stuff, either through the API or home-cooked software methods.
Q5: What do you think is the biggest problem with the operation Kevin is
running at Pie In The Sky?
I don't really see any problems. Kevin is doing an excellent job with the
company, and if anything he is probably doing too much - programming, customer
support, tech support, etc... I'm thankful for the opportunity he's given
me,
and I'm just trying to relieve some of the burden while helping keep the
engine up to par with current technology. This company has some the best
group
of supporters in the world, and it's great to be a part of it and to be
able
to interact directly with the customers.
Q5: Do you think GCS will ever become comparable to that of Quake 3 or
Unreal
when you Finnish the job Kevin brought you into do?
That's my intention, yes.
Q6: Fill us in on you back history? Like what you did before you were with
Kevin on the Pie In The Sky team.
I started programming when I was 13 (if you bought a computer back then
you
had no choice but to learn to program it because there wasn't much you
could
buy for it.) I made my first game when I was 16, it was a fantasy text-
adventure. After highschool I got into writing and wrote some short fantasy
stories, then started on a series that ended up forming a half uncompleted
novel. Then I moved back to computer-related studies, taught myself to
program
in C, a little assembler, and recently visual basic. In the past 10 years
I've
worked on a number of projects, and me and some friends formed a little
game
enterprise called Cynergy Creative. This was going to be a 3D action game
company, but failed because the game we were hinging our success on was
written in DOS at a time when 3D game technology was suddenly transitioned
to
Windows and DirectX. I for one didn't feel like trying to rewrite it for
Windows, and frustrations in the group mounted, so the project just got
dropped and the game was never completed. Since then i've spent most of
my
spare time researching the API's of Windows game development, and working
on
small personal projects.
Q7. Are you being paid? Do you work from home or at the Pie In The Sky
office?
How many hours do you plan on putting into GCS? Has it interfered with
your
regular life at all? Do you enjoy working on making the GCS better?
Am i being paid - yes. I work on this engine from home, keeping contact
with
Kevin through email. Hours I usually spend on it are anywhere from 4 to
12 per
day, around 60 per week, and it has consumed all my spare time, but I love
doing it so it's really not bad - so long as their is coffee around. I
want to
make the GCS as good as it possibly can be and I hope everybody enjoys
it
because that's what counts most. I'm not doing this for myself - i'm doing
it
for the GCS community and their appreciation is really all the reward I
need
to make this effort worthwhile.
Q8: Tell us what you think would make GCS better all around? Maybe a better
level editor?
Definitely a windows level editor. Having to kludge modifications through
the
DOS editor is a pain for both me and the users. Putting a graphical interface
on everything that would otherwise require editing text files would be
nice,
like a weapons and pstr.txt program for example. Adding .BMP file support
would be a plus, especially in the Windows environment where we could use
virtually any paint program we wanted for texture work.
Q9: What is your favorite programs to use along with GCS?
I haven't been making an actual game with the GCSW so really I can't answer
this fairly, but for texture work in general I like paintshop pro 5 - it's
simple, quick, and does a decent palette conversion. For WAV's i use an
old
program called Sound Impressions, I dont think they make it anymore but
it
does a reliable job with WAV effects and the CD includes 3000 sample sounds
in
every conceivable category.
Q10: Any last words or comments you may have?
Again, im thankful to Kevin Stokes and Pie in the Sky for giving me this
chance, and especially for the warm reception of the program's users. The
core
of GCS supporters are the greatest people in the world and I feel lucky
to be
a part of it. My goal, as long as I'm permitted to, is to continue to push
the
capabilities of this program as far as it can be taken, and help see that
it
fulfills the needs of everyone who uses it.