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Q: Can you give us some examples of how
Tribes:Vengeance takes advantage of those features?
A: Some examples are:
- Pixel and vertex shader animated water running
entirely on the GPU
- High precision bump mapping
on characters, with per light source specular
- Precomputed
global illumination bump mapping on scene
meshes, with global specular approximation
- Precomputed global illumination bump mapped
lightmapping
- Fullscreen light blooming on explicitly
tagged scene geometry
Q: What 3D features do you like the most
and why?
A: The best 3d feature at the moment is definantly
high precision pixel shaders. Suddenly they open
up a whole new realm of rendering possibilities...
things that weren't even conceivable to do in
real-time only a couple of years ago. The best
thing about the new shaders is that they are
generalised enough to let developers produce
their own custom shading techniques, rather than
being limited by the hardware standard... this
will lead to some really stunning looking games
in the near future.
Q: If you could ask for only one new 3D
feature, what would that be? How would you
use that in your games?
A: You know, i think that new 3d features in
each hardware iteration are becoming less and
less important. What is becoming important is
the speed, instruction set and resource limitations
of the shader pipeline. Already we are at a point
where a lot of things that could be considered
hardware 'features' can just be implemented in
a generalised way using shaders.
Q: If you could sum up your view on ATI's
future in 3D market, what would that be?
A: ATI has set an extremely high standard with
the R300 core. As i mentioned above, one of the
important things going into the future is going
to be the power and speed of the shader pipeline,
which is something ATI's hardware already excels
at. I'm looking forward to seeing ATI continue
this trend with even more powerful hardware,
both in the PC and console arena.
Q: Give us a brief history of Irrational
Games.
A: Irrational has been around for a while now,
producing the critically acclaimed System Shock
2 and Freedom Force on PC. We are currently working
on Tribes Vengeance, and a sequel to Freedom
Force.
Q: What do you think is Irrational Games
1 key advantage above other developers?
A: Irrational's primary focus is always on gameplay
and story. You can be guaranteed that an Irrational
title will always have fun, polished gameplay
intertwined with a compelling story and characters.
Q: Tell us a bit about the people who developed
Tribes: Vengeance.
A: T:V has been developed by people with a range
of backgrounds and experience. We have people
who have worked on fps games before, people with
experience in strategy titles, and a few people
from the tribes community itself. This has created
an interesting dynamic, and allowed for a lot
of varied input as to how to make T:V a more
accessible, fun game, while still remaining true
to the original tribes titles.
Q: How do you go about creating a game as
a team?
A: You have a lot of meetings and write many
many documents :) The important thing is to take
on board everyone's opinion, while still having
a core group of people who are ultimately responsible
for all decisions.
Q: How long has the development taken for Tribes: Vengeance?
A: Excluding the prototype, about 1.5 years so far.
Q: Tell us about Tribes: Vengeance and how it came about.
A: Towards the end of work on the original Freedom Force,
Sierra approached us indicating that they were considering
another Tribes title. Along with other companies, we were
invited to submit a design proposal outlining our vision
for where we could take the tribes franchise. Eventually
Irrational's proposal was selected by sierra, and we moved
onto developing a proof of concept prototype. This took about
8 months, during which time we mainly fleshed out how a single
player tribes title could work. After the prototype was complete,
it was evaluated by sierra who than gave us the green light
to start work on the full game.
Q: What new ideas / features did you bring to Tribes:
Vengeance?
A: Too many to list here :) I guess the most obvious thing
Irrational has brought to Tribes is the addition of a large
single player campaign to what was previously a multi-player
only title. We've also done a large amount of streamlining
of the existing tribes gameplay concepts. Its been a tough
balancing act for the designers trying to make a more accessible
game that still appeals to veteran players, but i think they've
done a great job.
Q: What have been the best and worst moments during
development?
A: Best moment was playing with some Tribes newbies for
the first time, and actually seeing them pick up the game
really quickly and start enjoying themselves. Worst moment,
well, I'm sure there will have been one by the time we ship
:)
Q: How do you decide which graphic features to support
in a game given the development time of your titles?
A: Make your best guess about what kind of hardware the
majority of people will be using by the time you ship, pick
a target platform spec, and then develop everything so that
it works fine on that platform. Once the core stuff is working,
you start looking into additional little eye candy features
that you can implement for high end users only. That way
your game runs on a variety of platforms, while still keeping
up to date with the latest hardware trends.
Q: How closely have you been working with ATI and how
do you see that continuing going forward?
A: We have been working extremely closely with ATI, who
have been very supportive with sample hardware and technical
advice. Going forward I think this relationship will continue,
and help us make some really cutting edge titles.
Q: What is next for Irrational Games?
A: Newer, better, funner games :)
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