Red Faction Interview

 

Interview With: Dave Baranec

Conducted By: Hilario 'NightHawk' Coimbra

Date Posted: Friday, June 01, 2001

Could you please introduce yourself and tell us what games you have worked on.

My name is Dave Baranec and I'm a programmer here at Volition. I've worked on Descent:Freespace, Silent Threat (expansion pack for Descent: Freespace), Freespace 2, Summoner on the PS2, Red Faction on the PS2, and currently Red Faction on the PC.

You worked on Red Faction for the PS2 and you are now working on the PC version. What are the main differences between the two versions?

Well, one of the most major differences between the PS2 and the PC will be the inclusion of internet multiplayer, with all the usual trimmings. We're pretty excited about how geomods will differentiate Red Faction multiplayer from all the other games out there. We're also planning on including support for higher resolutions and color depths, to allow PC users to take maximum advantage of the hardware they've got.

Could you explain the Geo-Mod for those who don't know what it is?

Geo-mod (or just simply, geomods) is a technology which allows the player to arbitrarily and dynamically change the world he's running around in. All the world structures in a given level are treated as "solids", with a given hardness. Using explosives or drilling tools you can simply blow up or tear out chunks of the world however you want. The system is also intimately tied into the physics system so that if you were to, say, blow out the legs of a tower, the whole thing would come crashing down.

Who came up with the idea of the Geo-Mod? Was it what originally inspired the idea for the game?

I think the team collectively came up with the idea of using geometry modifications as one of the major technical challenges for the project. Mike Kulas did the original design work way back, and made sure the concept was central. That is to say, we did indeed want to build a game around the concept of geomods, as opposed to creating a game and wedging geomods in as a random feature.

Although a great and realistic idea, have there been any problems with the Geo-Mod concept? Could players perhaps get stuck in an area of debris or make a certain mission unsolvable?

There have definitely been problems we’ve had to face. Everything we do, including programming, level design, and scripting revolves around the issues with geomods. The level designers are probably the guys most affected, so they've got a whole suite of tools for dealing with issues like detecting "holes" in the world, being able to change the hardness of surfaces to disallow geomods when necessary, and being able to specify "geo-region" areas in a level which have unique geomod properties. A lot of it also comes down to good old-fashioned testing. We let the testers loose on the levels as they're created and they provide valuable feedback and suggestions. Overall, working geomods into the game as a whole has been a very iterative and evolutionary process. We're constantly learning the most effective ways to apply the technology in-game. Its not something that just drops in.

Although the Geo-Mod is obviously the most noticeable concept of Red Faction, are there any other things that have been overshadowed by it?

Any modern 3d game is really a collection of small miracles stitched together with duct tape, bubble gum and a prayer or two :) Geomods are without a doubt the most technically difficult and impressive part of the game, but we've certainly got our share of other cool stuff. We've got an extremely sophisticated character animation system which is derived from the same code that Summoner uses. As I mentioned before, we've also got a very powerful physics system which ties into the geomods themselves. On top of that, we’ve had to pull plenty of tricks graphics-wise to make the game look like we wanted it to on the PS2. I'm personally a really big fan of the split screen multiplayer. It worked out far better than we had hoped. In my opinion, we're pretty much the best there is for console FPS multiplayer at this point. I could play 1 vs 1, no-bots, on the Warlords map forever :)

Red Faction has been praised for its quick frame rates and loading times. Does this quick loading time prove Volition has heard the complaints of Summoner having 45 seconds of loading time between towns?

A lot of it simply came down to company-wide experience on the PS2, and consoles in general. Up until Summoner on the PS2 we were a PC-only company. In terms of the load times, there are a few things you have to do much differently on a console than you would on the PC. We went through the growing pains learning these tricks on Summoner PS2, and we had much more time and opportunity to apply them for RF. As far as the frame rate goes, it came down to overall familiarity with the PS2. Knowing what it can and can't do, and knowing how to make it perform when you need it to. This increase in performance will definitely continue in future projects as well.

Throughout the game players will be able to drive 5 different vehicles. Are these just quick drives or are they a whole other aspect towards the game play and strategy?

As they stand now, the vehicles are pretty much quick drives, and that’s for both game play and story purposes. That is to say, they're not completely persistent throughout the game, and when you use them you do so in areas specifically designed for them. Part of the reason for this is that it didn't make a lot of sense for Parker to somehow have access to a whole fleet of vehicles while constantly on the run throughout the entire Ultor complex :) I think the general feeling on the team is that if we were to do another game, we'd want to focus a lot more on making vehicles a more major game play factor.

This game has been said to be setting a new trend for FPS's with the Geo-Mod. Does Volition have plans for making a Red Faction 2 or is it too early to tell?

Well, we're certainly happy with the success of RF (even given the very short time its been out), and we would like to see both the franchise and the technology grow. However, at this time we haven't made any announcements about Red Faction 2 or any other projects we've got on the burners.

Red Faction has already been released for the PS2. Could you enlighten the readers as to when its release for the PC will be?

We’re shooting for this Fall, 2001.

I would like to personally extend my thanks to Dave Baranec for his time and also his brother for serving as a middle man in the interview process.

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