Developer Interview - Alex Scott, Senior Technical Artist

Interview by Jay Watamaniuk
July, 2004

The lush graphics of Jade Empire are a true pleasure to view and interact with. Certainly, this component of the game is what has set it apart from the competition and garnered such wide-spread media attention and focus. This week, Jay chats with Alex Scott, Senior Technical Artist on the Jade Empire development team, and asks him about the amazing technology behind Jade's stunning visuals.

1. Can you explain what a technical artist does?

Alex: A Technical Artist means different things to different people, but in BioWare terms, it is an artist who can jump back and forth between programming concepts and art concepts. Technical artists have a broad understanding of how the game engine works, what things cause problems, and what can be done to fix them. We spend a lot of time helping other people pin-point trouble areas with the game, suggest solutions, and help carry them out.

2. What other projects have you worked on as a technical artist?

Alex: I have worked on both Neverwinter Nights and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.

3. How does Jade Empire compare with Knights of the Old Republic in terms of special effects? Can we expect a difference in how Jade Empire looks?

Alex: We have a constantly evolving effects engine. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic looked better than Neverwinter Nights, and Jade Empire will look better than Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. The difference that people might notice is the increase in complexity of effects that appear on the player. The systems that we have implemented on Jade Empire are so flexible it's possible to do almost anything. As far as looks go, it's hard to be objective when you're working so close to something. But even to my jaded (no pun intended) eyes, Jade Empire is a thing of beauty.

4. From your perspective, is there a difference working for a PC game and working on an Xbox game?

Alex: Yes, there are big differences. With the PC you get the advantages of RAM: complex roleplaying games need a lot of memory for graphics and game mechanics. But the disadvantage is consistency of experience. As an artist, I see my work under the best set of conditions, so it pains me to know that some people are not getting the full experience.

The Xbox, on the other hand, offers consistency for everyone; the effects I create and view on my devkit (a special version of the Xbox used by game developers) are exactly the same as the ones you will view at home. Plus, I actually save time and memory by not having to create multiple versions of the same effect to compensate for all the different PC detail levels.

5. What is the effect that you are most pleased with in Jade right now?

Alex: Well, though it's not really an effect but a texture, I just created a cloud/smoke texture that, when used correctly, creates the best looking volumetric smoke I have ever seen! Now, I'm fairly critical of my own work, but this is so good I should go demand a raise just for thinking of it. :)

6. When we think of a texture we think of, say, a static dungeon wall or the skin of a monster. Is this the sort of texture you mean and how does that become a smoke effect?

Alex: Yes, it's exactly the same as the types you mentioned. The main difference is, it can have multiple frames (small images) of a smoke like puff of various other shapes. Those images are applied by the game engine to square polygons and spat out through what we call an emitter. The emitter parameters (speed, direction, life, gravity, etc.) are all assigned through a custom BioWare tool from within 3D Studio Max. For it to look like smoke, it first needs to move like you would expect smoke to move. This is one of the difficulties all games face. You would need a super-computer to calculate all the physics involved in making proper airflow simulations. So, instead, we employ some cunning fakery, a combination of pseudo physics, hand animation, and good texture blending. (And chicken bones! You can never have enough chicken bones on top of your computer. Lucky dryer lint also works, if you can get it.)

7. Does the creation of effects in a computer game rely more on programming, 3D modeling, or 2D art?

Alex: All of the above. Though, it's the graphic engine programmers that are the unsung heroes of the game world. People enjoy the flashy graphics and praise the art team, but the fact is, without the Jade Empire graphics team the game would not look half as good as it does.

8. What is the most difficult part of creating an effect?

Alex: Coming up with a good idea. It has to be as original as possible, look good, and fit the design description. Now multiply that by 300+ effects and the well starts to get dry fast! So how do I stay fresh? Starbucks Coffee. One crunch time I had a 12 shot espresso latte. I spent the whole night afraid to move around for fear my heart would explode out of my chest. But, the other side-effect was the ability to see into time, and I used that opportunity to steal my own ideas from the future to use now.

So, to recap, lethal amounts of coffee and self plagiarism are the most difficult parts of effect creation.

9. What would you recommend for people interested in learning about creating computer game effects? What skills do you end up using the most every day in your work?

Alex: That's a tough one. There are not that many inexpensive or freeware programs out there that you could practice on. particleIllusion by Wondertouch is a good one and the demo does not expire. It contains more blending parameters than a game effects engine could handle, but the principle is exactly the same. All you need then is some imagination and an eye for what looks kool. Most effects call for texture creation (painting drawing skills), some poly modeling (3D visualization), and particle effects (lots of numbers).