Doug-IGN Marc and Greg: Is it really hard to make the game on PS2? And will you guys contiue to make games for PS2?
GregZ_BioWare It's not easy to make games on PS2. Then again, it's not particularly easy on any system. Once you've got a handle on the philosophy of the hardware design it gets a lot easier.
MarcAudy_BioWare Also, the system is very new to us and not similar to the PC platform so there is a steep learning curve
GregZ_BioWare We're starting to get a pretty good understanding of the PS2, so it's getting a bit easier. As far as other games on PS2, we're certainly keeping it open, though nothing is announced yet.
Reverend-IGN Some more about VU0 in particular: "How do you divide the work between VU0 and VU1? How flexible are they in their work? I thought developers should use just the VU1 for T&L and the VU0 for other SIMD friendly stuff...can you give me some help on this?"
DavidBioWare There's essentially no difference between VU0 and VU1.
DavidBioWare VU0 is only different in that you can bind it more closely to the CPU if you like, using like an FPU coprocessor. Right now, we're mainly using VU0 in this "macro" mode, rather than having it run a microprogram independently. We have plans to take advantage of VU1 later, once we've got our engine feature complete and we're into optimizations.
Doug-IGN Greg and Marc: Is the famed 'synthesis' whereby you can create landscapes, trees and other objects procedurally solely the preserve of the PS2 or can X-Box and GC reproduce them too?
GregZ_BioWare I'm not too sure how to answer that one.
GregZ_BioWare In theory any system with a powerful processor should be able to procedurally generate content. It's more a function of what you're trying to make and the software routines you're using to generate it.
DavidBioWare Yep, the PS2 doesn't have a special "Generate landscape" coprocessor. :)
GregZ_BioWare Not to be confused with the make game button we install on all of our development machines.
Doug-IGN Greg and Marc: Seeing as how BioWare has developed on the PC and non-PS2 consoles, and with the PS2's hardware being a radically different design, you would imagine that the company would have some new things to get used to. My question is -- Is BioWare fully understanding the design philosophy of the PS2, and is this the really big challenge in programming for it?
GregZ_BioWare I can't say we fully understand the PS2 yet. It's the kind of machine we'll be able to work on for years and we'll still discover new things. It's certainly analogous to the PSOne - the games have really been getting better throughout it's lifespan.
GregZ_BioWare So far, I can say we have a much better understanding of the PS2. And if we were to do a game from scratch for the PS2 we'd have a good idea on how to approach it.
Reverend-IGN More of a design thing: Has Armageddon evolved since you last talked about it, or are you still essentially aiming for a PS2 version of the DC/PC original?
<p GregZ_BioWare The direction is the same - but we've managed to further refine the gameplay.GregZ_BioWare Sony recently had a look at it and they were very pleased on how MDK2 Armageddon was looking. The differences between the other versions are in both the controls and the gameplay. There's something very satisfying in playing MDK2 on the PS2, using the dual shock controller, that wasn't present in any other version.
Doug-IGN Greg and Marc: What was Sony most pleased with? And can you describe some of the ways in which the controls are better?
GregZ_BioWare Sony felt MDK2 Armageddon was the best version of MDK2.
GregZ_BioWare They felt the gameplay improvements we've made (overall better balancing and reworking parts of every level), combined with the difficulty levels and slick controls really make the MDK2 Armageddon for PS2 the definitive version of the game.
GregZ_BioWare It got great reviews on the other platforms, so we're really excited to see what people think about it for PS2.
GregZ_BioWare As far as the controls, there's simply a huge variety of options. Because there are essentially 4 different axial controls (d-pad, 2 analogs and action buttons), and we require use of three of them, we can really mix it up.
GregZ_BioWare For example, I like to play using both analog sticks - one for camera and the other for moving. Todd Morgan, our producer at Interplay, uses the d-pad to move and right analog for camera. There will be a comfortable way to play for everyone.
Reverend-IGN Tech fun again!: In the last chat you said that low video RAM was limiting things like the textures and anti-aliasing. Isn't there some way you can take some Main RAM and assign it to be video RAM? And if not, why?
DavidBioWare Yes, the video memory situation has improved dramatically since last time.
DavidBioWare The problem was that there was too little video memory to fit all our textures, and the machine can't use a texture unless it's specifically in video memory.
DavidBioWare What we've found since then is that the PS2 has enough bus bandwidth to transfer each texture from main memory to video memory as it's needed.
DavidBioWare That's on the order to 100s of Mb per second. We hadn't anticipated that the PS2 had that kind of brute horsepower on its bus. No other machine I've used does, including any PC or the Dreamcast.
DavidBioWare We had to reorient our thinking after that. :) So now we have almost more texture memory than we know what to do with.
Doug-IGN Greg and Marc: Can you talk a little about the game's story? What is the story, and who are the characters, and what makes them unique? Do they play differently?
GregZ_BioWare Sure.
GregZ_BioWare Essentially MDK2 Armageddon takes place immediately after the conclusion of MDK1.
GregZ_BioWare It features three characters - Kurt Hectic - the janitor who puts on the famed coil suit and saves the world in MDK1. Max the 6 legged dog - his faithful sidekick and all-rough tough character. And the irascible Doctor Fluke Hawkins - the nutty inventor, on whose space ship Max and Kurt live. That's the run down of the characters.
During the game the player takes over each of the three characters, independently, on their own levels as they defend the Earth against the evil Streamriding Aliens. The story is told within the game via a number of in-game cut scenes. It's a very story-driven action game with a ton of variety in gameplay. For goodness sake, you even play as a fish named Chuckleberry Finn!
Reverend-IGN Middleware: Did you make use of any middleware tools to facilitate the work? How important to you view middleware in tackling a system as complex as PS2?
DavidBioWare Not sure what you mean by middleware. We certainly used a 3rd party compiler and debugger from SN Systems, called ProDG.
GregZ_BioWare Things like Renderware (third-party graphics API)
DavidBioWare But if you're talking about a middleware API environment on the PS2 itself, no.
GregZ_BioWare In general our philosophy at BioWare is that we prefer systems that we build.
DavidBioWare We're using the hardware directly, and some of the standard developer libraries that Sony supplies.
GregZ_BioWare It's hard to have a totally unique game, if you don't do it from scratch. In some cases middleware is very helpful - e.g. movie players and sound libraries. But as far as a totally packaged "engine in a box" - that's something we tend to avoid.
DavidBioWare Yes, Greg's right. Particularly in games, where speed is one of the most important programming goals, the inefficiency of middleware is something we usually avoid.
GregZ_BioWare See - David and I actually agree!
DavidBioWare No, we don't. ;)
Doug-IGN Greg and Marc: Does MDK really mean Murder Death Kill? Or does it mean something else? And why did you guys choose this name? (From Doug: Or rather, why did SHINY name it this?)
DavidBioWare lol!
GregZ_BioWare We believe it means Many Dangerous Kangaroos.
DerrickBioWareQA or Max, Doc, Kurt
DavidBioWare Mother Doesn't Know. Neither does Shiny. :)
GregZ_BioWare We took all the Kangaroos out, but the game is really all about them.
MarcAudy_BioWare I once heard that it stands for the home towns of the three of the lead developers at Shiny - but i'm sure that was a vicious rumor.
Brad_BioWare Milk, Dumplings and Kubasa
KarlBioWareQA The objective is to find all the non-kangaroos
GregZ_BioWare It must remain one of the unsolved mysteries.
DerrickBioWareQA Karl lives!
GregZ_BioWare Leonard Nimoy went through the office doing an "In Search Of" (the meaning of MDK) episode.
Reverend-IGN More generally tech: "Many say the PS2 doesn't have a well-balanced architecture - what would you say?"
DavidBioWare Well-balanced? Hmm.
MarcAudy_BioWare I would say that I don't really understand what they mean by "well-balanced architecture"
DavidBioWare Let's say this:
GregZ_BioWare Many say that.
Brad_BioWare We say it quietly...
DavidBioWare It's got a really powerful graphics chip, powerful vector math units, fast CPU, two complex sound cores, and a fast bus to link them all together. Making all of these powerful parts work together is the nasty part!
Reverend-IGN And to settle a common one: "How many levels are in MDK2A?"
GregZ_BioWare Strangely enough that's a difficult question.
GregZ_BioWare Part A - there are 9 levels, one for each character.
GregZ_BioWare Part B - there is a 10th level, but there are three different versions of it, one for each character.
DavidBioWare And then there's the secret Kangaroo level...
GregZ_BioWare So there are either 10 or 12 levels in MDK2A - that is the same number as there were in the DC and PC versions.
DerrickBioWareQA That Kangaroo level is a though one to find though...
GregZ_BioWare Though, there have been changes made throughout all of the levels in MDK2A...there is no Kangaroo level.
DerrickBioWareQA Ahh, that would explain why I couldn't find it :)
DavidBioWare Dang!
GregZ_BioWare Much as we would like one, there just isn't.
GregZ_BioWare Remember - no kangaroos.
KarlBioWareQA You mean me and my boys have been searching for it for the last year, and it's not there??
Doug-IGN Come on guys, come clean with the kangaroos...
Brad_BioWare Great...now you blown the secret to keeping QA motivated!
DavidBioWare That's NOT a Kangaroo in my pocket!
Doug-IGN Greg and Marc: What are your inspirations for level design? Also, how good is the PS2 for sound synthesis?
GregZ_BioWare The artist set out to make levels unlike any seen before. Some levels are familiar (e.g. the Jim Dandy - the doctor's ship), while others are totally otherworldly - most of the alien landscapes of Swizzle Firma.
GregZ_BioWare As far as sound - the PS2 has some nice features. But the one that was missing that really surprised us was playing CD audio - it's added some extra work we wouldn't have anticipated.
GregZ_BioWare It's a bit of a challenge getting the entire sound system to work because we're juggling so many different streaming audio sources...
DavidBioWare Charles is the programmer doing the sound system, and he could give you more detail, but he's not here tonight, unfortunately.
GregZ_BioWare He got FFIX and suddenly disappeared!
Reverend-IGN More sound: Do you mean the system doesn't support redbook audio in-game? Also, will you be using 2.0-channel surround sound?
DavidBioWare That's a fuzzy area. The new PS2 sound chips don't support playing back CD audio tracks. Sony recommends that you stream audio data off the CD in a slightly different format, decode it in chunks and send those chunks to the sound chip. It's a lot more cumbersome, but it does allow us to compress our music and voice files a bit.
DavidBioWare We haven't made a final decision on stereo or mono for the music. It mostly depends on how much space we have left on the CD once our other resources are in place. The PS2 CD is smaller than the Dreamcast GD-ROM. There's also the complexity of interleaving the channels while streaming. We'll see how it develops.
Doug-IGN Marc and Greg: Will you guys put a two-player co-op mode in the game? It would be a lot of fun! Maybe even a four-player deathmatch? And if not, why not?
GregZ_BioWare We had always planned to make MDK2 a great single player experience.
MarcAudy_BioWare The game is inherently designed as a single player game.
GregZ_BioWare We never planned add any multiplayer - primarily because we felt it would detract from the single player game. So, we're sticking with that for MDK2 Armageddon.
Reverend-IGN Formats: Why did you choose CD over DVD?
DavidBioWare :) That decision isn't final yet either.
GregZ_BioWare Most likely it's CD, but we've got a lot of data...we've got our fingers crossed.
GregZ_BioWare The main reason to go CD is because we're familiar with it.
Reverend-IGN Secrets: Is there anything you earn for completing the game or other special hidden stuff?
Doug-IGN Such as...kangaroos, platypuses, wombats?
GregZ_BioWare There are a number of secrets throughout the game.
GregZ_BioWare Not many assorted marsupials, but instead things like pictures of the development team with associated Wu Tang Clan names...
MarcAudy_BioWare Some of them can be found on the 'easter egg' sites, some have yet to be discovered, some will be all new
GregZ_BioWare And a number of other silly stuff.
Doug-IGN Greg and Marc: just a few more questions... Are there any women on your development team?
MarcAudy_BioWare No.
DavidBioWare ...not as such...
GregZ_BioWare Not that we're aware of.
Doug-IGN Can you be more specific ? :)
DavidBioWare Except for Charles. We know he's hiding something. ;)
MarcAudy_BioWare Well, we wonder about Charles...
Brad_BioWare Yes Dr. Zeschuk, be more specific...
DerrickBioWareQA Now his secret is out.
DavidBioWare And he's going to kill us all tomorrow morning.
MarcAudy_BioWare Only if he reads the transcript.
GregZ_BioWare Not unless he gets so much FFIX he doesn't care....
DerrickBioWareQA Or should that be 'her' secret? :)
KarlBioWareQA It's his fault for not being here to defend himself. :)
DavidBioWare That's very likely.
Doug-IGN Marc and Greg: Last question -- When is the game really gonna be released? Will it be on the deadline or will be delays?
GregZ_BioWare When it's done!
DavidBioWare We're firm on that! :)
GregZ_BioWare Our goal is always to ship games only when they're ready...
GregZ_BioWare That means flawless gameplay, no bugs and nothing that can be improved. That's about all we can say now.
DerrickBioWareQA When I can no longer break it, it's bug free. :)
We'd like to thank all the guys from BioWare for dropping by, as well as all the IGN readers who came in to ask questions and hear what they had to say - the event went as smoothly as we could have hoped. Meanwhile, don't forget to check out all the new information and media in our MDK2 Armageddon preview.
