Original Idea and Script by Decoy, fine-tuning and spell checking by
Forceflow. And double-checked be Darksaber hehe.
Okay, this month's edition of our interview, will be with Matt!. We'll hopefully learn more about how he started out, his work on the
Assault gunboat and Missile Boat is simply astonishing, and we're also all waiting for his SSD. (Rumored to have 1 000 000 faces or so ;)
| XWAUP: | Well, let’s get started with the interview, shall we? |
| Matt: | Sure, ask away.
|
| XWAUP: | Once again let’s first start off with how you started working for XWA. Did you just want to edit as many games as you could, or did Star Wars inspire you to work on XWA? |
| Matt: | Well like most of the community, I’ve been a Star Wars fan for years, and as I mentioned in the profile, was glad when X-wing
came out. Star Wars is great for editing, since the universe has so much info to work with, you can do all sorts of stuff with it
before even getting to TCs and things like the XWAU. As for editing, I didn’t really get into the editing bit until TIE Fighter came out, and then it was just missions. I first started editing seriously with XvT, particularly after the OPT format was first examined. I was actually a lurker for a while, so while I may not have been posting on the forums, I was busy. ;-) XWA was just a natural extension of XvT. It was a new game, with better graphics and more features. I naturally shifted over, and I’ve been working with it since. I find it a lot more fun to work with than the previous games, since there’s so much to play with.
|
| XWAUP: | Have you ever thought of editing another game with a larger fan base than XWA, like Unreal Tournament, Half-Life and the like? |
| Matt: | I haven’t really given much thought to them. I play those games occasionally, but as for editing, I’ll leave it up to the
other guys. I did do a little work with Jedi Knight a few years back, but nothing ever came out of it, and I quit a long time
ago.
|
| XWAUP: | Do you think that the custom made editing tools for OPT editing can compete with any of the editors that come out of the box for other games? |
| Matt: | Certainly. Most out-of-the-box editors are usually very limited in terms of what they can do (like XWA’s skirmish editor). I
guess those companies want to keep all the good stuff hidden so they can “impress” us with it. Fan editors are the result of a lot
of research done by those who really enjoy the game, and it shows in the final product. They’re very user-friendly, and are powerful
editing tools despite not being made by the companies that produced the game.
|
| XWAUP: | What is your opinion about today's XWA community. Since it is a small community compared to for example the UT community you should have a good overview of what is happening in it. What kind of future does the community have, with the apparent lack of support from LucasArts? |
| Matt: | I think it’s a good community all-around. It’s got people who’ve been playing these games for years, and still at it; all
the way down to new guys just starting up, who really want to contribute. There’s also the usual “bad apples,” but they aren’t
the norm of the community, just an exception. As a small community, more people are genuinely dedicated to the game; who not only
learn how to play, but move into editing. I wouldn’t be surprised if this community has more people who know how to edit the game
than any other. Also being a smaller community, people get to know each other a lot better than in others, so it’s an all-around
friendly atmosphere. I think the community has a good future ahead of it, even if LucasArts doesn’t support X-wing like games any longer. Besides the XWAU, there’s several campaigns and TCs being worked on now to keep people busy. Even if XWA eventually dies out, I’m sure a number of people will still stick around to talk about the “old days” or just general nonsense (pretty much what goes on now, eh :-D)
|
| XWAUP: | It is said that the Super Star Destroyer will be the most detailed OPT to ever grace XWA. How true is this? If so, about how many faces has it got? |
| Matt: | It will likely be the highest-faced of the ships in the XWAU, and all previous ships released up to this time. It will also have
some nicely done textures to go along with it. But I don’t think the model is as detailed as it could be. All those buildings and
terraces you see are actually very large and major parts of the ship, not tiny details like gun-barrels. I made them with the least
number of faces possible, so they could be more detailed. But would you want to texture all that? At the time of this interview, with one section of the ship still to be modeled, it had 3600-3700 faces. I’m estimating around 4000 for the finished ship.
|
| XWAUP: | That’s interesting. Could you please tell us how do you start a new project; does it take a lot of research? |
| Matt: | For a movie ship, the first thing I do is hunt down all the reference photos I can find. The ones I consider the best are photos
of the studio models themselves. Not only are they useful for the model itself, but provide excellent references for textures. I don’t
use movie stills that much, except for coloring and lighting (engines, lights) in case the ship appears different in the movie (like
the SSD). I research these much more than any other ship I work on; I think people expect an OPT based on a movie ship to be more accurate, so I make sure it is. I’ve got a combined 50MB of Star Destroyer photos, which I’ve looked at a lot since starting the project. I’d say there’s a lot of research involved here. For non-movie ships I use a similar method, although there’s a lot less in the way of reference, and there’s often conflicting designs. If the ship exists only in diagrams, I usually try to combine aspects from all of them unless something is obviously wrong. If it appears in a comic book, I usually use that design, since it is usually well drawn and detailed. In the case of LEC/TG-designed ships and upgrading them, I use those designs as a base regardless of if it appears elsewhere. For ships of my own design, I first start off by determining a role for the ship I want to create (like fighter, bomber, escort cruiser) and then figure how it will go about doing that. I then get a sheet of paper and let my imagination figure out what it looks like and how everything is set up. It then goes to the modeling stage.
|
| XWAUP: | Right now you are doing all of modeling, texturing, and OPTing for the project. How do you feel about that? |
| Matt: | I don’t mind it at all, though I have nothing against working on a team either. The Star Destroyers are actually a team
project, Saxman did the original model, and so I can’t take full credit for it. I suppose there are some advantages to doing
everything “in house.” Maybe better organization, and no scheduling conflicts. The downside is there’s a lot of work involved.
But you definitely get a lot of practice at everything, which makes you better off in the long run. I’ve become a lot better at
modeling, texturing, and OPTing than I was before the project.
|
| XWAUP: | What kind of program do you use to make your models and why do you use it? |
| Matt: | I actually use a combination of two programs. The first is, like most members, Rhino, and the other is JED. Yes, the level editor
for JK. It’s an odd choice, but an inexpensive one, and it works just as well as Rhino for making OPTs (I wouldn’t recommend it
for actual 3D modeling though ;-)). The Strike Cruiser was made entirely in JED, from scratch, so that’s an example of what it can
do. It has its limitations, so that’s why I also still use Rhino for a lot of my needs as well.
|
| XWAUP: | Did you ever try any other modeling program and if so why did you ditch it? |
| Matt: | Not really. Old habits die hard, I guess.
|
| XWAUP: | Are you pleased with the XWA game engine and the OPT format and if you could put one thing in the engine and one more function into the OPT format what would those be? |
| Matt: | I think the engine is fine for what it does. It may just be an enhanced version of the original X-wing engine, but it can still
compete with a lot of today’s games (thanks to the XWAUP), and that has to mean something. I agree that it needs a new one. Mainly
in the area of graphics, so it runs more efficiently on today’s systems and simply looks better. I rather like the flight model, and
wouldn’t change it too much. I’d make the engine more editable if I could. There’s just too much stuff not known yet, which seems simple enough, like S-foils. And there are other settings, which cancel each other out, but would work nicely together if we were able to use them at the same time (like rotating turrets and laser ranges). The number of ships we can add is also limited. Throw stats and missions into easy to edit files, and you got one happy gamer.
|
| XWAUP: | We’ve traditionally used ACE DXF but now there is also OPTTech. What do you think of the program? |
| Matt: | I haven’t really used OPTTech all that much yet. I’ve been making my ships in ACE for so long it’s hard to move off of it.
It’s an excellent program, both in terms of looks and functionality. It combines all the earlier programs into one, which saves time
in the editing process. As soon as most of the bugs are worked out and remaining features put in, I’ll begin making the switch. But
for now, I’ll still be using ACE.
|
| XWAUP: | How do you see the future for Star Wars space sims and do you expect LEC to come with any thing new soon or will we still be playing XWA the next 5 years? |
| Matt: | I don’t see anything big in the near future. LEC is busy with the prequels these days, and TG has moved to Star Trek, but there’s
probably something good being thought up. As long as there are fans still showing an interest, we might get a new space sim (so be
playing XWA five years from now ;-)).
|
| XWAUP: | Could you tell us a bit about your future plans can we expect anything from you beside XWAU work? |
| Matt: | Well before I starting putting more time into the XWAUP, I was working on a campaign featuring several new ships. It’s on hold
right now, but I might re-start it again. If not, you’ll be seeing the ships that were going to be in the campaign. There might be a
couple of other things I might work on, but that’s a good ways in the future.
|
| XWAUP: | Last but not least we have some short questions we would like you to answer shortly and firmly. |
| 1. Why are you working on the XWAU project? For fun, mostly. That and it was about time the TG ships got a face-lift. 2. Do you enjoy working in a team, or would you prefer to be able to concentrate more on your own projects alone? Depends on the project. I certainly don’t hate working on a team; it’s just that some projects seem to come off better if I go at it solo. 3. What's the best thing going around in the XWA community right now? The XWAUP, of course. :-) The Wing Commander TC looks particularly promising, if I have to say something other than the XWAUP. 4. Who is the biggest upcoming talent in OPT editing? There’s quite a few, but I’d have to say Admiral Andy, he did an outstanding job on the Lulsla, both the textures and the model. 5. What is the most important part of a good OPT, just one please? The textures. They can make or break an OPT. That’s why they’re the most time-consuming and difficult part of the work. 6. People say that you have a sick mind. Is that true, or what? No, it was a misunderstanding over a picture I took and thought was in focus! Who said that?! But now that you mention it, I do have a slight cold. ;-) 7. Will PC-games be abandoned by LEC? I doubt it. LEC has primarily been a PC company for as long as I can remember, but they obviously have no trouble shifting to consoles. Consoles are more profitable than PC-games at the moment. LEC would be stupid not to take advantage of this. What I think they’re doing is using consoles to make enough money to have to spend on PC-games later on. :-) 8. What's the best OPT (made by some one else) you have seen so far? JM’s revised MC-75. Those textures are simply amazing. 9. Will the XWAU ever be finished? Doesn’t seem likely, but I imagine quite a few ships will be completed. 10. How did you like the interview? Doesn’t have a high enough face count, you need to model Deck 12, Section 32. |
|
Okay, thanks a lot for you time! We all hope to see some more of your great work very soon! (And with the IFP hot on it's way it sure
wont take
much time!)