Ryan Feltrin Interview
Demo Release
A: Ryan Feltrin (A.I. and effects programming)
Q: Kunfu
Q: When and how did you get hooked up with Xatrix? I'm guessing it was through your Eraser bot work.
A: I started working for Xatrix towards the end of their work on the mission pack. My first task was to R&D new Kingpin tech, and produce a navigational system for general use.
My Eraser work was obviously a big factor. Although having built up a track record of sticking with projects through to the end was probably a big factor.
Q: Hows does your Eraser AI differ from Kingpins AI? Does Kingpin use the way point method? I mean do they have completely seperate ways of doing things?
A: The Eraser is in essence a totally different product, from both a gameplay and a technical standpoint. 'Bot' type AI and single-player character AI have totally different implementations, right from design through to the end behaviour.
Kingpin uses a hybrid of a node/waypoint and an area description method. In a similar way to that which Quake2 uses BSP as it's basis for rendering, but uses Portals to enhance that system, I adopted a similar approach to navigation. Navigational data is still collected from within the game, but it samples the environment as well as monitoring movements. So when an AI character wants to go somewhere, they can either look around to them to see how they should go about it, or if the information for that area is available in the navigational structures, it'll use that to do things much faster. It does the job, keeps dev time down, and game speed up.
Kingpin's AI is very interactive, and I've tried to make it as realistic as possible, whilst keeping it fun. The most obvious area of interactivity is the talking system. You basically have positive and negative talk keys, which will effect the way the character's relate to you. If you start talking trash from the start, then it's going to be tough from then on to re-gain that character's respect, and therefore getting information from them, or getting them to help you knock someone off will be tough (ie. it might cost you more).
In terms of the tactical AI, this is still evolving, but once again it is extremely different to the "run to closest weapon, kill or collect anything you can" type Bot AI. Most characters in Kingpin are just standing around talking, guarding a position or something before you get to them. So it's like you walk into this world where you are just another character roaming the streets. You could just join the others and spend your time chatting if you'd like. You might make some great friends, but obviously that's not what you'll have paid to see or do.
To get the ball rolling, you start with a lead pipe, and by walking around and collecting bits of information from the various characters, you'll find that there are ways of building up your arsenal, which gives you a much higher chance of getting out of the hell-hole that is Skidrow.
That just gives you an idea of the sorts of work we've put into creating a highly interactive AI sub-system. Ontop of that lies an intricate network of tactical routines, which allow AI characters to hide/retreat, find better positions to attack from, ducking and popping out from behind corners, running off to get backup, etc.
Q: Can you tells us about the 'moral' rating the characters have? How does this work?
A: The moral levels determine how each character reacts in these hide/retreat, get backup, etc scenarios. A character with a higher moral (shall we say, psychotic) is less likely to get scared at the first sound of gunfire and run away. That's not to say he'll just stand there and let you pump him full of lead, but if you see him flee, he's most likely found a better way of wiping you out.
Q: How do the characters interact with the player? Is it limited like Half-life?
A: Well, it's definately not unlimited, but the interactivety is definately at such a level that it's a big part of the game. You can start a fight just by saying the wrong thing about a certain bad-asses mother. In some cases just getting in someone's face for too long is enough to start hostilities.
Q: Is there any possabilty of seeing DM bots straight outta the box? If not, what about later in a patch?
A: This is something we'll have to look at down the line. It is such a huge task, that it would need to be really justified in order to spend several months developing them. As has been mentioned several times before, single player games these days require a huge amount of effort in order to be competitive, so maintaining a high level of single player and multiplayer gaming requires large teams and a fat budget. Right now we're doing the best we can to make the single player experience as good as it can be, without totally ignoring the multiplayer aspect. Bots is something that we'd look at adding once the multiplayer (human vs human) side of things was done and looking as cool as we're expecting it to be.
Q: How complete is the AI be in the demo? Has it been cut down in anyway?
A: The AI in the demo will be fundamentally complete for the content at that time. There may still be more scripted events and tweaks to various aspects as a result of user feedback, and more time to playtest the game, but I think you'll find it does the job, and gives you an indication of things to expect.
Q: Your also doing the effects programming too. What cool effects wizardry have you got up your sleeve?
A: Probably the best effects so far would be the Flamethrower and the Rocket/Grenade Explosions & Fireworks. Setting people onfire is a very rewarding experience also.
Some of the things I've added so-far include:
- Marking/Charring of BSP surfaces. So when a rocket explodes in a corner, all surfaces around the impact point have a charred look. Note that this doesn't use any sprites, or decals, so the speed loss is nil.
- Guarad Shading of characters. We've all seen this in the shots.
- New model format, so that characters are split into many parts, for more accurate hit-detection and pain skins. Also allows us to turn on/off individual parts of a model.
This was developed in conjunction with Rafael Paiz (Lead Programmer) and Barry Dempsey (3D Art Direction/Supervisor). - Specular Highlights on BSP surfaces. A subtle effect, but looks great in real-time. Note that this most likely will not be functional until after the demo release.
- Real-time (dynamic) sound reverb.
- Vehicles. Currently only the motorcycle and jetpack are being used. In terms of the motorcycle, think of MotoRacer with weapons.
Q: Can you explain what 'Procedural smoke and fire effects' are?
A: This is just the way of describing an effect created by generating a smoke or fire animation in real-time. The end result is you cut-down the texture memory used, and reduce the repititous look of animated textures.
Q:. Is there anything else you'd like to add?
A: I hope you enjoy the demo, as much as we enjoyed making it.
Kingpin Release
A: Ryan Feltrin (A.I. and effects programming)
Q: Kunfu
Q: Kingpin is out, are you happy with the way it turn out? And the communities reaction to it?
A: I'm happy with most of the comments I've heard. Obviously it's not the sort of game to appeal to everyone, but I think it hit a spot that needed to be hit.
Also we never really pushed it as a multiplayer game, and the "on-line" community is largely dominated by people that only or mostly play multiplayer games. Since it's hard to actually gauge the response of the single player market, all we can do is wait for sales figures to come in.
Q: on the note of "its not the sort of game to appeal to everyone" do you think the violence and bad language was over done, maybe even putting people off from buying it?? how about the media reaction too, do you think they went alittle 'over board' on the violence thang?
A: I don't think the violence was overdone at all, but it all depends on which context you are looking at it from. You could look at it from the point of view of the language, and say that it's the most profound game ever made. You could also look at it from the perspective of it being another form of entertainment, and say it's not very profound at all, in respect to what else is out there.
The general theme is where I think Kingpin targets a certain audience. It's not a generic hero saving the world type game. In fact you could argue that the player takes the role of a bad guy, but that's not set in stone. It's up to the player to decide whether they want to be a good or bad guy.
Q: There was alot of cool shit that got dropped from kp like the vehicles (in which you coded the psyhics for too), and most notably the weapons. Do you wish they vehicles could have stayed?? and what about dropping all the sci-fi weapons? I personally wanted to see the different weapon ammo but it looks like Drew was listening to the communities voice on that one and went for balanced real weps instead.
A: I would have liked to see the vehicles make it in, unfortunately we didn't have the time or resources to get them in a state we felt compfortable releasing them in. There is a lot more than just code required to make vehicles work, there is also a lot of tweaking involved to get the gameplay right, which isn't easy in an FPS engine. The weapons were modified after we got a lot of feedback from the demo, that suggested people wanted more realistic weapons. This was also a matter of the game evolving through development, and it becoming apparent that futuristic weapons just wouldn't fit the theme.
Q: Is there anything you would like to have in Kingpin, just something you yourself would have liked to have seen, gameplay or techwise. I remember an old .plan where you mentioned thanks to a couple of guys at ATI and nVidia and that kp would have some special features for their cards? What was this feature and was it ever included? I'm guessing it was stencil buffering right?
A: I was working a bit on dynamic specular lighting on BSP surfaces. It was a very hard effect to get everyone to agree on, since it varied so greatly with different surfaces. I'd see it on one surface, like ceramic walls, and think it was cool, others would only like it on metal floors, for instance. It was one of those things that needed everyone to devote some time to it in order to get it in, but unfortunately we just never found the time to do so.
Even though that particular effect didn't make it in, I was able to use the information to make the environment mapping look somewhat clearer on those cards.
I was using the stencil buffering to play around with volumetric shadows, but I found the trade-offs too high to warrant spending the time finishing the technology off.
Q: Whats your thoughts on the current crop of upcoming fps games being multiplayer based? Do you think Q3, Unreal Torunament, and Team Fortress 2 are the right way fps games should go? Or do you just think of it as a genre within a genre?
A: I think there is a market for multiplayer-focused FPS games. I for one am looking forward to playing each of those games, they all have some parts of their feature set that stand out above the rest. Quake3 obviously uses the Quake brand name and is made by id, therefore it will kick ass. Unreal Tournament sounds like it will have a nice range of game types, which should make it fun, and I know Steve Polge is just busting to show his AI talents haven't rubbed off over the years. Then somewhat in a class of it's own you have Team Fortress 2, which despite having an Aussie influence, I'm sure will still be very cool ::grins::. Valve are doing great things for the FPS genre at the moment, and I doubt they're going to stop anytime soon.
Q: What about the Voodoo4 and GeForce256, do you think 3dfx have eventually got their act together and made a card that looks good as well as moves like the wind, or do you think the GeForce will steal its glory?
A: I haven't seen or heard enough about either of those cards to draw any type of conclusions at this stage. From what I've seen, it looks like each of those cards have a largely different feature set, which probably means they'll have pros and cons against each other. Only time will tell which will survive the battle for the consumer dollar.
Q: In yout time away from coding, what other games have you digged recently and have played alot of? Any that your really looking forward too?
A: Unfortunately I haven't had the time to play much lately. I did buy Driver for PSX a few weeks ago, which is very cool, although I haven't had a chance to play it since the day I picked it up. We got up to a stage that was really difficult, and unfortunately it's one of those games that makes you replay a large section if you get killed. I hope to finish it off eventually.
Q: With the SDK coming out soon (or probably out by the time i post this) what are some of the mods you'd like to see for Kingpin?
A: I wouldn't mind seeing someone make use of the motorcycle code I put in. The tracks are a pain to make, but we will be including an example map which may help guide the design process a bit.
Q: Anything else you wanna add?
A: I was going to use a stupid gag involving a calculator, but that just wouldn't be cool.
7 April 1999
on www.3dspotlight.net
A: Ryan Feltrin (A.I. and effects programming)
Q = Julio Franco
I had the opportunity to ask Ryan "Ridah" Feltrin from Xatrix Entertainment a couple of questions about the upcoming Quake 2 engine based FPS, Kingpin: Life of Crime, here's what he could tell me about the game:
Q: Tell us about yourself
A: Name: Ryan Feltrin, Age: 23, Music: R&B/HipHop, Movies: Sandler, Leslie Nelson, Chris Tucker, Car: S/charged VT, currently undergoing surgery after shredding another S/charge belt. *sigh*.
Q: Could you tell us about the Kingpin concept for the people that is still in the dark ? (which is pretty improbable after the popular demo release)
A: A game of violence & profanity, filled with thugs, punks, runts and bitches. Not a game for the weak of stomach.
Q: How do you expect the Kingpin concept will make a difference in gameplay, I mean what does Kingpin have that other FPS don't?
A: I think after playing Kingpin, those that dig the "theme" will come to expect a certain level of interactiveness and individuality with other characters. I also think we're pushing the extremes of model detail and quality, and the environments will show a wide range of settings, from the grimmy back-alley's of Skidrow (which you see in the demo), to the lavish mansions of the current "Kingpin".
Q: What are the biggest changes you've done to the Quake 2 engine?
A: Several additions come to mind here. The new sprite system, 32bit source art of course, entirely new AI system, guorad shaded models, localized damage zones and skins. We've more than doubled the original code that makes up the Quake2 engine.
Q: I know FPS aren't just about graphics enhancements but... How do you think Kingpin graphics will do against other FPS based on more advanced engines such as Q3A, Duke Nukem Forever and Unreal Tournament? According to the screenshots and the demo its going to do, very well, but there still are some features missing like curved surfaces, what's your opinion...?
A: I have a favourite saying that applies to many things in life: "It's not the abilities you have, it's how you use them". While we may not have the ability to do all the things some of those other engines can, but we have made good use of the technology we have expanded upon, and our design/art teams have done a very good job in bringing out the best of our engine. There is a definate advantage in spending more time tweaking and working on gameplay, than enhancing an engine beyond the competition.
Q: Will there be a lot of difference if we run Kingpin at 16 or 32bit color?
A: Depends on the card. Most cards have very good quality 16bit performance, like the TNT, Rage128, G200, etc. So you'll only notice the different by walking real close to smoke and fire effects. For 3dfx-based cards, you'll notice a huge difference when switching to one of these other cards.
Q: How do you think Kingpin will do against other "deathmatch only" games like Quake3 and Unreal Tournament in the multiplayer part of the game?
A: I think that many people will get into Kingpin multiplayer simply because it's a different, more realistic atmosphere. Hopefully we'll be able to support some team games to spice things up a bit.
Q: Unreal experience was cool the first 3-4 levels but then all scripted sequences were gone and we went back to the classic, a bit boring FPS, but Half Life changed that, do you think, Kingpin will have as many scripted sequencies as Half-Life? Should we expect that kind of interactivety?
A: The thing with Kingpin, is the only "scripted" sequences are the cut-scenes. These don't take much at all to do. The most work goes into creating the personality of each character, recording the voices, keying in the responses to that characters, and how they interact with the player/other characters. There is no doubt areas of the game will "feel" like the classic shooter, but that will be because you're deep in enemy territory. These situations will be few and far between.
Q: Will vehicles be present in Kingpin? If yes, how much would them affect gameplay?
A: At this stage we're not sure. We're focusing on touching up the other aspects of the game right now. Once that's done, I'll jump back onto the vehicles and see if we can get them in the position where they live up to the quality of the rest of the game.
Q: Do you think the recently released Kingpin demo captured most of Kingpin gameplay experience?
A: It gave a glimpse. We got a lot of feedback from the demo, and we're making a lot of changes. It was a good thing to release a demo at that point, now we have a clear focus of what the gaming public wants to see.
Q: Now... on the 3D APIs thing, should we expect just OpenGL support as in Quake or have you also planned adding Direct 3D support? I can't ignore 3D Audio, will Kingpin support EAX and/or A3D 2?
A: At this stage nothing is planned. Time permitting, I'd like to add support for every API out there, but obviously that's isn't being very realistic. First and formost our objective is to polish the gameplay.
Q: What about KNI and 3DNow! optimizations? Should we expect them out of the box or maybe in a later patch?
A: I can't really comment on this, since I haven't had much time to look into the work required to do this. There is no doubt that the biggest performance boost will come from using optimized drivers.
Q: What are the basic machine specs to run Kingpin at a decent frame-rate?
A: Whatever runs the demo at a reasonable speed, will obviously run the final game nicely. We have a lot of optimizations left, the biggest of that being the memory requirements.
Since different 3d cards/CPU speeds & brands/memory mix to produce large variations in performance, it's difficult to give a flat miminum spec at this point.
Q: What is your favourite weapon in Kingpin?
A: In Single Player, the Shotgun owns. In multi, I like the Tommy Gun, or the Flamethrower.
Q: Anything you would like to add about Kingpin?
A: Just that it's been a pleasure to work on.
26 April 1999
on http://www.shugashack.com/samhell/previous/ridah.htm
A = Ryan Feltrin (A.I. and effects programming)
Well, he's back! That's right friends and neighbors, Toolshack returns this Wednesday with his weekly column, ToolShack's Shameless Plug of the Week! You can look forward to Tool's own brand of wit and wisdom. Actually, he was quite fit to be tied Sunday, with the whole Q3releaseforthemacandnotthepcs™ thing that happened. He came about that close to spending his strip poker winnings on a mac, then decided front row tickets to see Barbara Streisand would be money better spent.
This week, 10 Questions has a chat with Xatrix's own Ryan Feltrin. Ryan has contributed countless hours to the gaming community with his project we all know and love, the Eraser Bot. After setting the bot aside, he wound up working for Xatrix on this little number called Kingpin (word on the street is that they are going to advertise this game on the Teletubbies show and the 700 Club...but I can't seem to confirm these rumors). Want to discuss something about Kingpin? Be sure to check out the Shack's Kingpin Messageboard! Anyway, enough of me, let's check out Ridah!
Q: What kind of ideas and feedback did you get from working on the Eraser bot that you added into the Kingpin AI?
A: Not very much really. I guess I took (from Eraser) a clearer understanding of the different hurdles I would have to overcome. The actual decision making is entirely different, the part of Eraser that actually influenced Kingpin AI is the navigation, and even that is totally revamped.
Q: What was your motivation behind making the Eraser Bot?
A: A desire to get into the gaming industry. There is no doubt that making a good bot gets you recognition from within the FPS industry.
Q: How will the AI in Kingpin differ from other types of AI, such as what we saw in Half-Life?
A: First, the Kingpin AI is very different to that of Half Life (which I admire in a big way). We have several additions to the decision layers, for instance the weapon holstering, and how it effects the way characters respond to you. So each character has a special "relationship" with all other characters in the game, and that relationship is globally binding. If you leave one level, move onto various other levels, then come back, the characters (still alive) in the initial level still have this memory of you, and will remember how you treated them if you should meet them again.
I have also done a lot of work on the hide/retreat type combat AI, and also characters with weapons have a much more advanced combat layer. They'll hide behind corners, duck out, take a few shots, then duck back. If they get hurt a little, they'll try and find some backup, or get the f*** outta dodge. This is all influenced by a unique "moral" value given to each character, so a higher moral will be less likely to run and hide.
Q: When you began programming for Xatrix, were you forced to drop any projects you had been working on? Anything out there you may still pick back up at a later date?
A: I was in the process of finishing off the Eraser, and still continued working on it in a sub-conscious state in order to achieve my goal of not dropping it if something else came up. That resulted in getting out a final version 1 done, but I still am not happy with how it ended. I might go back and finish that at some point.
Q: In your opinion, what is one feature that will make Kingpin stand out from other FPS?
A: It's probably evident from the demo, but I think the willingness to be true to the "gangsta style" and not have the content influenced by what gamers are used to seeing, and tolerating in an FPS. One of the complaints from the demo was the language, and well, to me it doesn't seems a double standard, that blowing a character's head off is acceptable (and quite cool) yet a certain 4 letter word is obscene.
Anyway, that aside, we've obviously pushed the current hardware to the upper realms of what it can take, and at the same time not lost the focus of what makes a game fun to play. Although we've only had a year to cram the current content in there, I think given more time to fine tune it and develop the story a little more so that it's more obvious to the player what it is
they're trying to achieve, I think it'll be pretty obvious to the player that this isn't your average Quake2 engine liscense.
Q: What is your favorite gangster movie and why?
A: Mobsters. I like the idea of starting out with nothing, and building yourself into something. If that means cussing a few people and killing the odd thug, then that's the way it is. <g>
Q: When you have had time lately, what game have you been playing the most?
A: Oh man, the last 2 months have been so hectic I really haven't played anything, other than a few games of NBA 99 with some friends. That game truly rocks the big one, if only it had LAN play.
Q: Ok, 3 part question. What are your thoughts about Kingpin being banned in Germany? Do you foresee American politicians getting into the act? And to follow-up, What are your thoughts on politicians using the game industry as a reason for them to discuss family values and censorship?
A: It's impossible to say what will happen after the release of Kingpin. Someone once said, however, any publicity is good publicity. Although that has NEVER been an objective of ours. You simply can't build the atmosphere of a dark and dirty crime world, without the odd profanity. We actually started out trying to avoid them where possible, with the result that the game just felt "weak". We want something explosive, something that makes the player feel they're involved in a setting that is on the "edge", where they really have to watch what they do, and who they do it to.
Politicians are always looking for someone to point the finger at. The fact is, you can't tell someone what they should and shouldn't enjoy doing. As far as I'm concerned, as long as you don't hurt someone in the process, you should be allowed to do whatever you want for entertainment. What the politicians (and others with the same stance) need to realize, is the biggest influence on a young mind, are those around them. That includes parents, grand-parents, role models, etc. If a child is taught from a young age that killing animals is good, that will certainly have a big influence on the rest of their life. More so than playing a game, whether it be cops and robbers with plastic guns or a video game such as Quake, Half-Life, or of course, Kingpin
This question was asked of Ryan prior to the horrible incident at Columbine High -Sam
Q: What are the specs on your home computer? What will be the next upgrade you get?
A: My main system is a P2-350, 256mb RAM, 18gig HD, TNT, that sort of stuff. My next upgrade will be when I get time to go to the hardware store and find something worth buying. I also have several items on their way which will help adding support for them into Kingpin.
I should note that I have several other systems which I use for compatibility/performance testing
Q: If you had to recommend only 1 book to people, which one would it be? Why?
A: Where's Wally. I dislike reading books with a passion, the only books I read are vehicle physics and 3d math type stuff. Not something I go around recommending <g>.
I also have a large collection of Wheels and SLAM mags. Cars and hoops are my other passions in life.
9 August 1999
on http://powergamerz.com/pc/interviews/ridah.htm
A = Ryan Feltrin (A.I. and effects programming)
Q = Power Gamerz
Q: As a programmer im sure you are always trying to think up new ideas to keep the gamer interested. Have you ever thought about persistent online worlds such as a living Kingpin world, which is only filled with other players? Add some RPG elements and it could make for some interesting play. What do you think?
A: I was just thinking about this a few days ago, actually. I think if executed correctly, it could be very cool. The problem with the "persistent online worlds" is they require a large amount of development resources, and therefore a big budget, in order to make it successful. I think we will see a big expansion of this type of game in the near future.
Q: Is there any substance to the rumor that Xatrix's next project may be a sequel to a certain game done by id Software, which was created sometime before Doom and after Commander Keen?
A: I don't comment on rumors, whether they are true or false.
Q: Keeping in mind the recent technology advancements such as curved surfaces, what do you think will be the next significant breakthrough to create more realistic visuals?
A: We are currently limited in the number of polygons we can display at once. I think the curved surfaces is a good step in the transition from large textured polygons, to large numbers of small polygons. We are probably 2 or 3 generations of 3d hardware away from being able to throw such large amounts of polygons at a scene, that it will be difficult to tell in-game graphics to pre-rendered cut-scenes. Hardware transform and lighting is a good step in that direction, the ability to store static geometry in onboard/onchip memory will be the next "big" step.
Q: It seems today that most game companies put 90% of their resources into the visual aspect of games, and not enough toward artificial intelligence. Why do you think this is? Could it be that programmers today just dont have the resources and time to create detailed AI?
A: A lot of this has to do with publisher confidence. If you can show your publisher a good-looking game, they are more likely to push your game harder in it's marketting campaign, give you more time to work on the game, etc. These days, you really need a programmer solely devoted to the artificial intelligence. Also another large factor in the performance of the AI, is to have all the levels completed well before the ship-date. That way you can spend the time making sure the environments within the game don't pose any problems to the existing AI routines.
Q: Do you have any idea whether Kingpin will be released for any home consoles such as Sega's Dreamcast (considering its immediate online capability)?
A: I have no idea.
Q: Finally, what do you think the future of engines and rendering may hold: BSP, Portal, NURBS, other
A: I think we'll continue to see engines that use a mixture of approaches, until the 3D hardware is able to take this task away from the software. Then we'll probably see Portals taking over, or perhaps another hybrid approach. This brings us back to the idea of storing static geometry on-board. If you are able to store the entire world on the 3d hardware, then there is no need to sort the polygons in software, if the hardware is advanced enough to take on this task itself. We may see a transition phase however, where some early cards with this technology will require the software to tell it which geometry to draw, but eventually we'll be able to leave this to the hardware. Having said this, it's easy to forget how far we've come in the last 4-5 years. To try to imagine where we'll be in the next 5 years, with the current level of competition in the 3d hardware and gaming industry, is a very difficult task indeed.
11 August 1999
on voodooextreme.com/reverend/Articles/ridah_frames.html
A =Ryan Feltrin (A.I. and effects programming)
Q = Anthony
Q: What do you think of the AMD K7?
A: I think it sounds good, from what I've heard in the media.
Q: You said that you think the K7 sounds good...you do not have one to test with?
A: No. Should be getting one soon.
Q: How has the gaming community responded to Kingpin? Why?
A: I'm not sure I'm the right person to ask that question, simply because I don't really interact with the community that much.
I read maybe 2 or 3 web pages a day, the rest is spent programming and reading email. The email I have got has been very positive, so going by that I'd say it's doing ok.
Q: What do you think of some countries (eg Singapore) banning Kingpin?
A: I think it's their right to do what they like, there is nothing we can do about that. That doesn't mean I don't care, since obviously it means less people will enjoy it.
Q: What are Xatrix's project after Kingpin? What is it about and how is the development going? What is the projected time frame for release?
A: It's not my place to comment on un-announced projects. I wish I could, but that's not the case unfortunately.
Q: What are your opinions on the competition between nVidia and 3dfx? What, personally, is your favourite gaming card?
A: I think it's a very healthy thing for the community as a whole. I personally have at least one of all cards these companies have released. I have enjoyed them all at some stage in the passed, and continue to do so. They are great companies that are doing great things for both gamers and developers alike.
Q: Still on 3D cards/chipsets, what features would you like to see implemented/excite you?
A: I'm waiting for the next "big" step as everyone else is. We are closely approaching this with the introduction of hardware transform/lighting, and new approaches to rendering such as 3dfx's T-Buffering technology.
Q: A bit more on 3D chipsets and features....would you agree that larger texture sizes is more important than 32-bit rendering output? Why?
A: Depends on what sort of trade-off you're talking about. Most textures are stored as 16bit no matter what the depth of the buffer, so unless you're eating into texture memory, this shouldn't be much of a concern. Also as hardware advances and we're able to push more polygons, the need to store ultra-high resolution textures will decrease slightly.
Q: Whose voices were used for Kingpin's in-game speeches? Did they enjoy the, er, "foul" languages?
A: Most of them were recorded by Drew Markham, who also led the design and concept for Kingpin. They came very natural to him.. some may call it foul, we call it humour.
Q: Do you sleep at all? :-)
A: Sleep?
Q: Kingpin uses the Quake2-engine albeit highly tweaked by your team. (a) Why choose this particular engine?
A: Because it's very solid and we were all used to its inner-workings from previous projects.
Q: (b) Was the Unreal-engine ever a consideration? If not, why?
A: No, at the time we made the decision to go with Quake2, the Unreal engine was a bit behind in some departments.
Q: (c) And what are your opinions of the Unreal-engine?
A: I think it sounds like Tim Sweeney and his troops have big things coming to them in the future. They obviously have the ability to duke it out with the best.
9 November 1999
on kingpin.iplaygames.com
A = Ryan Feltrin (A.I. and effects programming)
Q = Tanx
Q: What is your feeling on the the way the mod scene is taking off?
A: The "mod scene" has always been a good entry point for wanna-be game developers, and is a relatively easy way for one to put their name on a game that may or may not become famous. For that reason there will always be a steady supply of mods within the community, as long as there are games that support such a concept.
It may not be as exciting as the "old days" when everything was new, but it's still cool to watch others take their shot at fame.
Q: Now that Kingpin has been out for a fair while, in your opinion has the game been as successful as you would have hoped?
A: That's tough to answer, since Kingpin isn't really targetted at the on-line community, you can't use that audience to gauge it's success. I think we knew from the start that some people would be turned off by the adult content, and that didn't really bother us. So we weren't looking at a genre smashing game anyway. I think we did our part though, in spicing things up a bit, in a genre where it once thought impossible to base a game on realistic earth settings.
The very concept that you are not a soldier or out to save humanity, I think put Kingpin in a class of it's own. So it was always going to be an uphill battle, whether it proved successful or not.
Q: You've probably been asked this a lot, but what do you think are the chances of their being an official/officially endorsed mission pack?
A: I really wouldn't know, I'm not involved with that side of things.
Q: What are the chances of Kingpin 2? Sorry I had to ask :-)
A: Ditto.
9 March 2000
on hypothermia.gamershardware.com
A = Ryan Feltrin (A.I. and effects programming)
Q = Steve
Ryan is another one of the AMAZING individuals I have had the fortune of interviewing. I could go on and on about the Quake 2 Misson Pack: The Reckoning work he's done or carry on about KingPin all day, but what people want is to know more about the guy who's going to do the next installment of the Wolfenstein 3D series on the Quake 3 Arena engine. This is NOT your regular interview either, after Ryan spills his guts here, you'll learn how to win an "Authentic KingPin Cigar" as well as a Voodoo3-2000 from Ryan himself. Read on. . . . .
Steve: How'd you get started in the Games game and/or who was your inspiration?
Ryan Feltrin: I got started on the constructive side of gaming back in the Doom days. My first mod was for Doom2, called "Flame Warfare". Although it was largely a mix of various other mods, along with my own bits and pieces, including lots of DeHacked modifications. This was in the prehistoric times of mod making, before the jaw-dropping classic Quake came out and took my heart away, quite literally. I was happily dating a nice girl I met at college at the time, but soon found myself wanting to spend my time playing with QuakeC rather than doing the dinner and movie thing.
At the time, I didn’t really have much of an external inspiration, it all came from within. I just really enjoyed making stuff that you could see in the game. As time went on, however, and I got more involved with the online community, I started drawing more inspiration from people like John Carmack, who just amazes me with his class and dedication, through thick and thin.
Steve: What's the most memorable thing to happen to you in recent history ( opposed to ancient history)?
Ryan Feltrin: Shipping my first real commercial product. The circumstances meant it wasn’t the "best" thing to happen to me in recent history, but it was very memorable.
Steve: People you admire in the industry. please limit your answer to 2 people and EXCLUDE me, thats a given. . )
Ryan Feltrin: People I admire… well John Carmack is a given. I can think of many others I’d like to put here, so it’s a real injustice to only be able to mention one other. I respect and admire many of my work collegues, as well as many other people that do lots of important things in the industry that aren’t necessarily in the public eye. So I’m going to be a pain and avoid naming a second.
Steve: What's the most annoying thing to deal with as a Programmer?
Ryan Feltrin: That annoying thing called "real life" which prevents me from spending more time doing the things I think of when ever I’m tending to it.
Steve: Does your WIFE still nag you to "Get off that damn computer before I break it" now that your a famous Game DOOD?
Ryan Feltrin: Any future wife will need to be aware of my famous game dood status, and therefore will need to be considerate of my severe lack of ability to understand what it means to be a husband.
Steve: Tips you can give young-programmer-jedi in training?
Ryan Feltrin: If you can feel a force, it usually means a bathroom break is imminent. Resistance is futile.
Steve: Drink of Choice?
Ryan Feltrin: I’m going to be incredbly boring, and admit to a healthy addiction to juice. Every now and then I’ll go crazy and sample a nice port, or I might take it a step beyond insanity and have a beer if it gets hot enough, and there are is a big enough army forcing it down my throat (like a few mates).
Steve: Favorite Times?
Ryan Feltrin: Since I’m in the spirit of being incredbily boring, I’ll have to say coming up with a new algorithm or neat effect which only takes a few minutes to write and works like a charm. I can think of a few I’d put in this category from just the last few months.
For something more tangible, I’d have to say the recent new year’s eve was up there. It was nice being reminded of some things that I’ve let slip by over the last few years.
Steve: Babe of Choice?
Ryan Feltrin: Alicia Silverstone would have to be the best complete package I can think of. I didn’t see Excess Baggage (it feels more like a bad dream than reality), so I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt. I really feel for Adam Sandler for having to go through a break up with her, it must have been devastating. The closest I’ve seen him look like a real person was when responding to a question regarding just that. Perhaps it was the lack of a response that said the most. Anyway, she rules.
Steve: Tunes of Choice?
Ryan Feltrin: I'm a big R&B fan.. R-Kelly, Sisqo, D'Angelo and Krayzie Bone are high on the rotation right now. One of the problems associated with being a games developer, is there is never enough new music to fill the working day. For that reason, I'm willing to listen to almost any form of music, except country. What the hell is the deal with that?
Steve: The real answer to no. #9 for the married guys who had to say their wives.
Ryan Feltrin: Oh you got me there. Ok I’ll say… ;-)
Steve: Your working on a new project. . . . . HOW MUCH ASS IS IT GOING TO KICK!?!?!
Ryan Feltrin: I am very happy with the progress of our current project. I’d hate to sound like I’m slipping into some generic PR mode, but it’s about the most honest I can be without sounding pompous. It’s hard work, so you have to be confident in order to stay commited to such long hours, but I think the circumstances are right.
Steve: Since we are old friends, and hang out together all the time, share a little something with us that many people might be suprised to know about you.
Ryan Feltrin: Ok, I’m going to get into trouble for this, but what the heck.
You remember the original Crocodile Dundee movie? Well I’m not sure if you’re aware of this, but I’m an Aussie. And at the time they were filming, I was on a vacation up in the area they were filming. Anyway, there is a scene in the movie in which Mick (Dundee of course) wrestles with a croc and puts it to sleep. You remember that scene right? Very important, since it sets up his character, and hence, the whole movie.
So anyway, we were in the area, so we stopped by the set to check it out, and were quickly asked to vacate the area immediately. So we started walking back to the car, when we heard some lady screaming and girgling and all, which was pretty hard to ignore. To we ran down to get a look at what the fuss was, only to find a lady in the water being chased by a 20 foota (technical term for a bigg-ass croc). I looked across and saw some guy in a black cowboy hat running into a car to hide. I thought to myself, "this isn’t good, that sheila over there’s gonna get her ti.. ti.. ti.." (I had a stuttering problem at the time), so before I could finish thinking about what I was thinking, I dived over the cliff, fell down about 15 meters or so into the creek, thinking I’d save the sheila from the clutches of death, and be a real hero.
Two days later I woke up in hospital, with a big bandage around my head. It was then I was told that it was a rubber croc, and that I’d cost the movie blokes a few thousand bucks, and that the guy in the black hat was pissed off because he had to get his make-up re-done after the heat made it run while they waited for the flying doctors. They say he was running to his car to get his knife, but I still think he’s a wuss for needing anything other than a thumb.
On closing, I’d just like to to say, if you ever see an aussie give you the thumbs up, he’s not only saying "cool mate", he’s also reminding you of what to do in case of a croc attack.
Win an authentic KingPin Cigar owned by Ryan "Ridah" Feltrin
O.K. freaks, this is the deal. Ryan Feltrin is ponying up an authentic KingPin cigar and a Voodoo3-2000 for our cool little KingPin contest. What the hell is an "Authentic KingPin Cigar" you ask?? I happen to have one of these bad boys sitting right here, take a peek:
Next question, how the hell do I win it? ? ? Well, Ryan himself came up with a good idea that goes something like this:
Shoot a virtual cigar from a virtual thug in Kingpin. You must not lose any health, and the victim must survive the ordeal.
You must use the friendly guy outside the Pawn-O-Matic in the first level. Take a screenshot to show that he no longer has the cigar in his mouth.
So if your the kinda guy that thinks he can pull this off. . . . or you've done this zillions of times already. . . then snag a good screenshot and send it in to ME with the "subject being "KingPin Contest" I'll select a winner if there is multiple submissions. So crack out the KingPin. . . brush up the skills and keep one finger on the trigger and the other ready to take that screenshot.
If there happens to be no one who has gotten the screenshot without taking ANY damage, than the one who has taken the least damage will then be selected. Cool??
Need the KingPin demo. . try here.
20 December 2005
on method.gamedesign.net
A = Ryan Feltrin (A.I. and effects programming)
Q = Yan Ostretsov aka Method
Method: Please tell us about yourself and how you got into gaming industry?
Ryan Feltrin: Born and bred in Adelaide, Australia, I studied at Blackfriars Priory School, moving onto the University of South Australia, for a Bachelor of Information Science. Never a keen student, but always a keen gamer, I soon found myself getting poor grades, but mastering the art of gaming, and writing useless programs to feed my appetite for creation. After receiving runner-up in my final year project, I got a job working with a lecturer and began my seemingly exciting journey into the professional programming world.
However all was not rosey, as I had once thought. Working with computers was actually quite frustrating and difficult when stressed out clients were involved, and business type ethics came into play. I soon found solice in creating my own games, and decided to give it a real shot at getting into that professionally.
The next 3 or so years were packed with over-enthusiastic ideas, long hours locked away in a room at my parents house, madly programming away and attempting to assemble what I thought to be the ultimate games. It didn't take long for reality to kick in, and for me to realize that this thing ain't as easy as it seems from the outside, however I still enjoyed it enough to stick it out, and get each project I started, to a point where it could be released.
These projects ranged from silly little mods for the classic CTF and the exhaustive QuakeRally mod for Quake1, through to the rather large and popular EraserBot for Quake2. These were released under the "Impact Development Team" logo, which enjoyed a rather successful stint in the old Quake community.
During the final days of the QuakeRally project, I found myself involved in my first commercial gaming project, the X-Men: Ravages of Apocalypse add-on for Quake1. Not the most successful project I've been involved with, however it was a valuable learning process and gave me a lot of insight into the industry and how difficult it can be for startup companies to get.. started.
Following this, I began work on the EraserBot for Quake2, and was later hired by Xatrix Entertainment to develop technologies for their upcoming game, Kingpin.
Meth: What kind of work you did for Kingpin?
Ryan: My role for Kingpin was initially just to provide navigation and AI, however it soon branched out to include most technological additions and enhancements, like multiple colored light sources on characters (very important for the look and feel), character interaction system (RPG element), persistent level data (returning to a previous level should restore the world as it was when you left), effects (like flamethrower, bullet sparks, rocket flames), locational hit detection, multiple pain skins, shootable body elements (hats, cigars) and finally, the multiplayer code (and related Linux ports) and "Bagman" game mode.
Meth: What kind of challenges you encountered while working on Kingpin?
Ryan: So many challenges, the biggest was probably the introduction of the RPG interaction, and trying to make that work in an FPS setting. It really was a huge challenge and I think it turned out quite good.
Meth: How did you come up with idea to make a Bagman mode for KP?
Ryan: This was something that still there is a lot of conjecture over, however I remain adament that it was my idea. I was always a huge CTF fan from Quake1 and even moreso Quake2. So adding a similar element to Kingpin was very important to me. However, I wanted to make sure it had that Kingpin feel, so it couldn't just be a straight copy. Since a fundamental aspect of the game was money, I figured this should be the basis of the multiplayer also. The design just flowed from there, pretty much.
Meth: What kind of things didn’t make into the final version of KP?
Ryan: Hovercars. I had them in early on, but they were cut as the design evolved. Also the bikes never really made it, mostly due to the difficulty in creating tracks in the engine. If we'd been using the Quake3 engine, it would have probably made it.
Meth: What’s the current game you’re working on?
Ryan: Just finishing up the patch for Call of Duty: United Offensive. Nothing much of note, just fixing things up, and also I'm going to be releasing a new game mode for that, which should be interesting.
Meth: What kind of changes you did to CoD: UO programming wise?
Ryan: My role on CoD: UO was to add vehicles to multiplayer, and add a flamethrower. Being an expansion pack, we didn't have a whole lot of engine stuff to do, which was a bit of a bummer, but I think the vehicles turned out pretty good, so I'm happy with it.
Meth: In your opinion, what’re the most important skills programmers should have?
Ryan: Problem solving. That's the key attribute for a programmer in my opinion. You can know all the languages under the sun, but if you can't solve things for yourself, you probably aren't going to get far. The other important skill I believe is a desire for creation. Programming I believe is one of the most powerful tools for creation and freedom thereof in the world. To me, the though of creating something, that thousands (or millions) or people can see and use, is just astounding, and perplexing. That is what fuels me now, and it is what got me interested to start with.
Meth: Do you have any suggestions on how to get into gaming industry?
Ryan: Try and develop a single skill that not many people have, or find you're niche, which will let you create things that are of standard that will make you stand out from the crowd. Getting into the industry I think is lot like the Playstation 2 TV ad, where everyone is climbing on top of one-another, trying to get to the top. You should find the route that gives you the fastest path to the top, using you're skills and attributes. Most gaming companies tend to either stick to people with experience (already in the industry) or if they're new, then they must be damned good. So get the top as best you can.
This is just my experience though, and it probably doesn't apply to everyone.
Meth: Would you like to add anything else?
Ryan: Thanks to everyone for supporting Kingpin, and lets all keep our fingers crossed for a sequel :)