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, "Why don't we just stick
a keyboard and mouse in the box?"
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.
How
do you like programming on the PS2? Is it easier/better/faster
than the PC? Than linux?
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.
Let's
talk power. How much more powerful is the PS2 than the original
PS?
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.
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
´net functionality into the code in preparation for Internet
play?
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.
I understand
you were part of the Orange Smoothie team. What do you think of
their work on Netgames USA?
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 "lets go for it."
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.
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.
That's
very cool. Did you help with the agreement to put support for
ngWorldStats support into UT?
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.
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.
I think
it's a great feature, except that it shows some of us how poorly
we play UT :)
Anyways,
just one more question: What's next for you after the PS2 and
UT?
Shrug.
I don't plan ahead. Takes too much time and its against my nature.
Thanks
Brandon!
-Russell
"RadPipe" Lauzon is currently exhausting all his free
time researching Beer Goggles.
