Talking GTA #2: JernejL/Delfi
Enviado: quarta mar 21, 2007 10:03 pm
GTAPT: What was your first mod? I remember using one of your vehicles, the Big Bug.
JernejL: hmmmmm... for gta-vc? I made a bunch of mods for gta1...
GTAPT: Yeah, that's the oldest I remember from you.
JernejL: I made some cars for gta1, I think they are still on gtazz website, and a gta1 TC map, which is also on my website. For gta-vc, first thing I made (with zmodeler) was a huge stunt jeep, with huge wheels and all, I still have it somewhere...
That jeep was also the reason I made txd workshop, due to some weird circumstances all my txd textures were converted by game to 16 bit (since I ran it on ridiclous hardware setup: 366mhz celeron with 128mb ram and with 16mb riva TNT2), since no other tool could edit 16 bit pictures in txds I made txd workshop, later when I upgraded my hardware I added more image formats
support to txd workshop and released it to public.
GTAPT: Then you decided you wanted to stick with making tools? Or just keep doing both.
JernejL: I wasn't any good at modelling, I was more like making funny models (like the tractor) to impress friends in school, but I liked to program, and since txd workshop ended up actually a very good tool with a lot of users, I supported it up to san andreas pc game.
I still occasionally made some mods, such as two lots in myriad islands project (one with help of JasonB), and I'm fiddling with a gta2 multiplayer map... and I made some cars for myriad islands as well.
GTAPT: In the tool area you have a big list of finished products. Various tools to GTA1 and GTA2( windows xp patch ), but certainly the most known are TXD Workshop, Developer Console and more recently GGMM.
Are you happy with what you have accomplish so far?
JernejL: I'm not happy at all, I'd make more, but I'm no good at modelling, so I stuck to programming, I'm happy with some tools I made.
GTAPT: What's the ideia behind GGMM? Since a lot of people are now used to Img Tool.
JernejL: GGMM was in first stage just a model viewer, but it ended up being a very good one, and since gtagarage was launching soon, I "upleveled" the program to mod viewer and installer. Tank made the nice interface, and I did the coding, it was supposed to have a mod browser as well, but that never got finished. It ended up pretty good program with a lot of users.
So we launched the GGMM exculsively on gtagarage.
GTAPT: Is it getting the feedback you were expecting?
JernejL: Yes, quite, and a lot of new features added later came from the feedback I recieved.
GTAPT: I imagine that a lot of people wonder how did you did all of those tools from scratch. Where do you begin?
JernejL: I begin with a empty project, I do all my tools with a programming ide called delphi (by borland / inpsise / newdevco / codegear or whatever they cal themselves today), it starts with an idea and a empty project, then comes the research, a little planning and then realization.
GTAPT: What's does motivate you to spends hours researching and then making a new tool?
JernejL: Usually the will to do something new / original, or just to test some crazy new idea I had.
GTAPT: It's the feedback from the public and knowing that your tools are being used a lot around the world enough? Since the community don't receive much appreciation from the Rockstar.
JernejL: Usually it's o.k., sometimes I release programs I know I will get very little feedback. and I like to pretend that Rockstar is not anywhere close, their public relations are deaf for modding community, I tried to contact them several times, they just pretend they are deaf.
GTAPT: What do you think of the position they take about the community, not just the modders. They "know" we are here and they talk about modifying San Andreas world for example, but they don't really give us any SDK's.
JernejL: we make our own "SDKs" very fast anyway, we have many skilled reverse engineers. But they could give us some hints or describe how some things work, they know we will figure it out, but they could tell us how it works _properly_. perhaps it is better that we do it ourselves since otherwise we would never learn anything, but they could throw in some offical info sometimes, such as with san andreas binary paths and ipl files. plus, if they would properly cooperate with us, the hot
coffee fiasco would never happen.
GTAPT: In some of files that we can find just in the folders from the various GTAs got notes in what to modify for example, can this mean that the dev's don't mind we do it, but it's more a Rockstar top decision?
JernejL: I don't know for sure, but it sure helped us figure out major important config files such as default.ide, handling, object.dat and others, they probably didn't bother stripping them, but many game companies don't do that. should I mention, that gta3 handling config file looks surprisingly similar in structure to another older game that Rockstar north made when it was still DMA Design - Wild Metal, this game is free on Rockstar classics website. some config files look very familiar in gta3/vc/sa.
GTAPT: With all that Hot Coffee trouble this seems worse then ever, do you think our chances of getting some support
are gone now?
JernejL: Not sure, but they did wrap themselves with the soundproof foam, probably due to instructions "from above"...
GTAPT: What are you thoughts on a eventual GTA4 for the pc? In terms of modding, same thing so far or probably locked
as the second version of San Andreas?
JernejL: If it ends up locked like sa 2.0, people will get around it (sa 2.0 was figured out btw and you can add any mod without any hacking to the executable.. ), but I kinda lost interest in gta4 after san andreas was such a disapointment in terms of modding, it was a disappointment in everything in my opinion, they crammed features into it, made up a storyline which sucked. If gta4 trailer feels wrong or in any way "rushed" there will be little interest from me to do anything for
gta4, i'll rather go full time work on my other projects.
GTAPT: Yes, but it's a point to take because if's it's locked, eventually someone will break it and we can start modding GTA4, but, since Rockstar want it locked, do you think it'll kill GTA modding as we know it today?
JernejL: They can't kill it further than they did with sa engine and their 2.0 fiasco, sa engine was downhill for modding, they introduced a lot of new formats to replace old ones for no reason, if you tried to get your own custom car into the game you'd know the pain some modders go thru getting it all to work, in gta3 or VC it was way easier to get something working properly.
But if they do something completely stupid or efficiently lock us out, then they shouldn't expect any support from us, i'm boycotting them.
GTAPT: In terms of a better moddable engine, what you would like to see fixed in RAGE?
JernejL: There isn't much to fix, since it is their brand new sparking game engine, but they could do a lot of things better or properly, such as a proper physics engine, and increased interactivity (sa climbing wasn't so bad), say pick up and toss a glass bottle, what I would really like to see in the engine is a grappling hook, then I could play spiderman
I could say a lot of things they could add that I would wish to see in a game, but it's just wishful thinking, to code such features it would take them a lot of time.
GTAPT: Thanks a lot for the interview JernejL/Delfi, there's anything you'll like to add?
JernejL: Not really, i just hope you find my tools useful ;)
Visit http://www.gtatools.com for more information and downloads.
JernejL: hmmmmm... for gta-vc? I made a bunch of mods for gta1...
GTAPT: Yeah, that's the oldest I remember from you.
JernejL: I made some cars for gta1, I think they are still on gtazz website, and a gta1 TC map, which is also on my website. For gta-vc, first thing I made (with zmodeler) was a huge stunt jeep, with huge wheels and all, I still have it somewhere...
That jeep was also the reason I made txd workshop, due to some weird circumstances all my txd textures were converted by game to 16 bit (since I ran it on ridiclous hardware setup: 366mhz celeron with 128mb ram and with 16mb riva TNT2), since no other tool could edit 16 bit pictures in txds I made txd workshop, later when I upgraded my hardware I added more image formats
support to txd workshop and released it to public.
GTAPT: Then you decided you wanted to stick with making tools? Or just keep doing both.
JernejL: I wasn't any good at modelling, I was more like making funny models (like the tractor) to impress friends in school, but I liked to program, and since txd workshop ended up actually a very good tool with a lot of users, I supported it up to san andreas pc game.
I still occasionally made some mods, such as two lots in myriad islands project (one with help of JasonB), and I'm fiddling with a gta2 multiplayer map... and I made some cars for myriad islands as well.
GTAPT: In the tool area you have a big list of finished products. Various tools to GTA1 and GTA2( windows xp patch ), but certainly the most known are TXD Workshop, Developer Console and more recently GGMM.
Are you happy with what you have accomplish so far?
JernejL: I'm not happy at all, I'd make more, but I'm no good at modelling, so I stuck to programming, I'm happy with some tools I made.
GTAPT: What's the ideia behind GGMM? Since a lot of people are now used to Img Tool.
JernejL: GGMM was in first stage just a model viewer, but it ended up being a very good one, and since gtagarage was launching soon, I "upleveled" the program to mod viewer and installer. Tank made the nice interface, and I did the coding, it was supposed to have a mod browser as well, but that never got finished. It ended up pretty good program with a lot of users.
So we launched the GGMM exculsively on gtagarage.
GTAPT: Is it getting the feedback you were expecting?
JernejL: Yes, quite, and a lot of new features added later came from the feedback I recieved.
GTAPT: I imagine that a lot of people wonder how did you did all of those tools from scratch. Where do you begin?
JernejL: I begin with a empty project, I do all my tools with a programming ide called delphi (by borland / inpsise / newdevco / codegear or whatever they cal themselves today), it starts with an idea and a empty project, then comes the research, a little planning and then realization.
GTAPT: What's does motivate you to spends hours researching and then making a new tool?
JernejL: Usually the will to do something new / original, or just to test some crazy new idea I had.
GTAPT: It's the feedback from the public and knowing that your tools are being used a lot around the world enough? Since the community don't receive much appreciation from the Rockstar.
JernejL: Usually it's o.k., sometimes I release programs I know I will get very little feedback. and I like to pretend that Rockstar is not anywhere close, their public relations are deaf for modding community, I tried to contact them several times, they just pretend they are deaf.
GTAPT: What do you think of the position they take about the community, not just the modders. They "know" we are here and they talk about modifying San Andreas world for example, but they don't really give us any SDK's.
JernejL: we make our own "SDKs" very fast anyway, we have many skilled reverse engineers. But they could give us some hints or describe how some things work, they know we will figure it out, but they could tell us how it works _properly_. perhaps it is better that we do it ourselves since otherwise we would never learn anything, but they could throw in some offical info sometimes, such as with san andreas binary paths and ipl files. plus, if they would properly cooperate with us, the hot
coffee fiasco would never happen.
GTAPT: In some of files that we can find just in the folders from the various GTAs got notes in what to modify for example, can this mean that the dev's don't mind we do it, but it's more a Rockstar top decision?
JernejL: I don't know for sure, but it sure helped us figure out major important config files such as default.ide, handling, object.dat and others, they probably didn't bother stripping them, but many game companies don't do that. should I mention, that gta3 handling config file looks surprisingly similar in structure to another older game that Rockstar north made when it was still DMA Design - Wild Metal, this game is free on Rockstar classics website. some config files look very familiar in gta3/vc/sa.
GTAPT: With all that Hot Coffee trouble this seems worse then ever, do you think our chances of getting some support
are gone now?
JernejL: Not sure, but they did wrap themselves with the soundproof foam, probably due to instructions "from above"...
GTAPT: What are you thoughts on a eventual GTA4 for the pc? In terms of modding, same thing so far or probably locked
as the second version of San Andreas?
JernejL: If it ends up locked like sa 2.0, people will get around it (sa 2.0 was figured out btw and you can add any mod without any hacking to the executable.. ), but I kinda lost interest in gta4 after san andreas was such a disapointment in terms of modding, it was a disappointment in everything in my opinion, they crammed features into it, made up a storyline which sucked. If gta4 trailer feels wrong or in any way "rushed" there will be little interest from me to do anything for
gta4, i'll rather go full time work on my other projects.
GTAPT: Yes, but it's a point to take because if's it's locked, eventually someone will break it and we can start modding GTA4, but, since Rockstar want it locked, do you think it'll kill GTA modding as we know it today?
JernejL: They can't kill it further than they did with sa engine and their 2.0 fiasco, sa engine was downhill for modding, they introduced a lot of new formats to replace old ones for no reason, if you tried to get your own custom car into the game you'd know the pain some modders go thru getting it all to work, in gta3 or VC it was way easier to get something working properly.
But if they do something completely stupid or efficiently lock us out, then they shouldn't expect any support from us, i'm boycotting them.
GTAPT: In terms of a better moddable engine, what you would like to see fixed in RAGE?
JernejL: There isn't much to fix, since it is their brand new sparking game engine, but they could do a lot of things better or properly, such as a proper physics engine, and increased interactivity (sa climbing wasn't so bad), say pick up and toss a glass bottle, what I would really like to see in the engine is a grappling hook, then I could play spiderman
I could say a lot of things they could add that I would wish to see in a game, but it's just wishful thinking, to code such features it would take them a lot of time.GTAPT: Thanks a lot for the interview JernejL/Delfi, there's anything you'll like to add?
JernejL: Not really, i just hope you find my tools useful ;)
Visit http://www.gtatools.com for more information and downloads.