Community Blog Interview No1: Kegetys
People who changed the world (well our little corner of it)
The history of BIS/Flashpoint/ArmA has been shaped by a number of special and dedicated people, some from BIS, some from the various companies that produced, packaged, published and promoted BIS and our games. To that end what I plan to do in these community blog posts is interview various people from within BIS, within the companies who were part of Flashpoint/ArmA being brought to you guys as well as various people from different walks of life in the community.
When choosing the first person I wanted to interview it wasn’t a difficult choice, of all those people past and present who have released addons/mods there is one person who helped shape the past and present of the community, that person is Kegetys, to anyone who has been around since day one of the original Flashpoint demo you cannot fail to know the name and the contribution he has made, to those of you who perhaps didn’t become too involved in the Flashpoint addon scene, or are "Johnny come latelies" to BIS' games then here is an interview with Kegetys which I hope will be interesting and educational to all.
Click the image to view the original trailer released by Kegetys that caused such a buzz within the community (and BIS headquarters!)
Personal Information/Background
A small visual montage to the essence that is Kegetys, sort of!
Please tell us a little about yourself, age, where you were born and now live, your family status, education background etc etc?
Nothing that interesting to tell really, I was born in
Have you, or are you currently doing any courses/degrees studying any kind of game development?
No. There aren’t that many around here and the few that are I think don’t seem to be that advanced. Also, I have the feeling many such courses/degrees aren’t really that useful if you want to get a game development job, though I could be wrong as I haven’t ever done such work myself. But I would imagine that if I would really want to work on games I would already have enough to demonstrate that I know something about it ;)
Are you employed at present? If not what would be your ideal job? If game development what kind of games would you like to work on or companies you’d like to work with?
Currently I'm doing some media things like posters, video editing, and so on. I would probably enjoy doing something where I could be creative and not have to do the same thing every day... Game development might be interesting, but then I’d possibly need to find some other hobbies as doing game development for a living and spending my free time modding games would maybe be a bit too much. But if I would, I’d prefer working on simulation games on some company that is not so restricted by what a publisher tells them to do, and where I could work on different areas of the game without that many restrictions. I’d rather not leave
What games do you play yourself? How much time a week are you able to play games?
Difficult to say how many hours I play a week, but nowdays I play games much less than what I used to. It might be that I sometimes spend more time doing modding and tinkering with game things than actually playing them. That is partly because I find the majority of new games quite boring, they just feel like the same games I have played so many times before just with new graphics and very little gameplay innovations. Mostly I like playing simulation games such as ArmA, IL-2, Live for Speed, Dangerous Waters, etc... I also often play older C64, Amiga and PC games with emulators. I like multiplayer coop gaming a lot, though occasionally I do also play some simple shooters like Call of Duty online, but that is only when I’m very bored.
Are you still a 100% PC gamer or have you gone over to the dark side and bought a console in the last few years? How do you see the future for PC gamers with the way that consoles are growing so much in the market share whereas PC game sales are declining so much?
I have always preferred computers over consoles and still do. I have never owned any console myself, though I find the Nintendo Wii somewhat interesting thanks to the special controller. But I would still prefer to have the ability and freedom to do my own things with it which is why I will most likely stick to PCs.
For the future I still think the 'bleeding edge' of games in terms of graphics and other technology stay on the PC simply because new technology can be utilised on PC so much faster. I haven't personally seen any numbers about PC market share if it is actually declining a lot or just not growing with the increased development costs... But I would imagine there's still a market for PC games, and it is the only area where “hardcore” simulators really make sense in my opinion. Maybe for smaller market PC games the community involvement will (or should) increase even more, I think with the recently announced DCS: Black Shark simulator the community has already donated models for the final game which probably cuts the development costs a bit.
Flashpoint Modding History
The addons/mods you released for Flashpoint seemed to follow a theme of having little in common with each other, one release would be winter islands, another an RPG or soldiers, another a drill or nail gun, another DXDLL, what inspired you to create the addons you did? Many people stick to all soldiers, or all vehicles or whatever but did you feel the urge to think outside the box so to speak?
I enjoy doing things I haven’t done before, and more importantly, experimenting with things nobody else has done before. That is sometimes also a bit of a problem since when I have found out that some new idea works it can be difficult to find the interest to finish it up as the finishing touches required often can be rather dull and boring work compared to the exploring and “research” work. For many of the things I do the idea comes from the need to have something, whatever it might be, and then thinking of ways to do it. But I also sometimes get the urge to do something more “traditional” like modelling or making missions.
DXDLL and Fwatch were to my mind two of the addons which shook-up the Flashpoint community the most, DXDLL for it’s simple wonderfulness and Fwatch for it’s complex wonderfulness, they both added so much in such different ways, how did they both come about? Obviously DXDLL was a collaboration with Feersum.endjinn, what part of it was him and what part of it was you?
DXDLL was a very small experimental project that sort of got out of hand. We were annoyed by the fact that the airfield textures looked rather ugly with bilinear filtering so we thought of ways to enable trilinear filtering which was all it was originally supposed to do. At that time the concept of such a “proxy” D3D DLL was, I think, quite new and there was no information about doing something like it anywhere as if nobody had done it before... I knew it should definitely be possible to do it but lacked the in depth knowledge about how the COM interfaces etc. work, so Feersum helped a lot with the base to get the idea working. Access to Direct3D that way opened a lot of ideas of what would be possible to do, and it turned out to work surprisingly well despite it all being very experimental and “hacky”.
Just a few of the many varied addons/mods that Kegetys created.
The idea for Fwatch I think came from the BIS forums, some people were talking about making accesses to special files trigger events in external programs. That gave me the idea that the script files could be used to exchange data between the game and my own code, with the filename carrying data from the game and the script file returning data back. That turned out to work pretty well, but it never seemed to catch on to be used widely, maybe because it wasn't that easy to use and didn't work at all on the Linux server.
and yet more...
What did you prefer with regards modding for Flashpoint, working alone, as part of a team (eg FDF mod) or as one of a small group (eg you and Feersum on DXDLL)?
All have their good sides, but usually I have a rather strong opinion about how I’d like things to be which some people might not like ;) Even when doing “teamwork” like for FDFmod I usually tend to work alone and then just show what I have done to the others. What's a big plus in doing teamwork is that the team gets larger things done which makes the smaller things made by me make more sense. Like with FDFmod the individual things like the Finnish UAV are much more useful when there are other Finnish units to go with it.
The community benefited an immense amount by you being part of it and contributing your addons/mods and tools, do you feel that you gained something back? How do you deal with some of the negative pressures that addon/mod makers face? It seems to me that no matter how much someone gives there is always demand for more, the community wants more and they want it sooner, is that hard to deal with when you’re doing something essentially as a hobby in your free time?
Well, the modding is a hobby for me so I gain a lot in having something really fun to do and I get to learn new, interesting things in a pleasant way. The “demands” of the community really never have bothered me, I tend to stick to making things I enjoy doing and not care too much about what others would like. This keeps me motivated, and I sometimes get nice things done. And if I think that what I have created is good enough to be released then there's a good chance that there are others out there who will enjoy it too. But how much someone likes what I do is not that important to me, at least for motivation on continuing my work...
What’s your favourite flashpoint mod (excluding ones that were sole projects of yours)?
I didn’t actually use that many mods myself, I only used what we had on our squad server. That was just FDFmod when it was out, before that we used various addons but that was so long ago that I don’t remember any specific ones... But I think what we managed to do with FDFmod worked out pretty well, so I guess that would be my favourite. Partly of course because it has Finnish units and because it includes work made by myself.
Just a few glimpses of the many splendoured things released by the FDF Mod
ArmA Related
Do you play ArmA? If so what areas do you spend most time on?
I play coop multiplayer almost exclusively, on our LDD Kyllikki squad server. We have crosshairs, 3rd person view, etc. disabled which is the way I like it. How much I play varies a lot, sometimes I might not play for weeks and then spend 6 hours straight on some new coop missions. I like ArmA generally, though sometimes it feels a bit dull compared to OFP with FDFmod as then we had so many different environments, units, vehicles, weapons and advanced features that now feel like they are missing from ArmA. But that should improve in the future hopefully.
You’ve released a number of very useful apps/scripts for ArmA, is that the direction you find yourself taking with regards modding?
Possibly. While I did some modelling for OFP, I didn’t feel that I was that good at it. Especially creating textures never was my thing really. All that is much more demanding in ArmA, requiring both more time and skill to create something that fits well into the game and looks good. Photo textures were the “easy way out” for OFP but that doesn’t seem to work that well for ArmA as you need separate diffuse, normal and specular maps.
Was the delay in releasing the modding tools for ArmA the reason you haven’t released any ArmA addons/mods yet? Are you working on any ArmA addons/mods?
Almost all of my ArmA work goes to FDFmod, which I feel is both more useful and rewarding. For that I have many projects underway, though how well they will work remains to be seen. I do have a lot of all kinds of ideas but implementing them would require more time.
If you had the time and energy to make anything for ArmA what would it be?
It would probably be a mod with more detailed and realistic weapon systems & avionics for tanks, planes, ships… Basically a combination of Dangerous Waters, Steel Beasts and Longbow 2 style features for ArmA. That would be close to a “dream” war simulator, though the work required to do it even at a moderate level of detail would be massive and some things might not even be possible to implement well enough. Some kind of multiplayer “real life” role playing mod might be interesting too where you study, work and buy property in a dynamic world.
Do you feel that BIS are doing enough to help out the addon/modding scene with regards tool releases, documentation, wiki and such? Is there one particular tool that the community is missing that you think would make a big difference to the addons/mods we’re seeing so far?
I think they’re doing a pretty good job. More documentation would be nice though, as would more examples & sample work to learn from such as some more different MLOD models and commented config sources. More MLOD models would be useful also to make it possible to modify the existing models instead of having to remodel them just to add some details or to make some minor changes. I would like the shader sources to be released too as that would open new possibilities regarding how the game looks.
Are there any ArmA addons/mods that you’ve been particularly impressed with?
I haven’t really tested that many ArmA mods myself, though I did like the tank fire control system mod by NonWonderDog, partially because I have been working on something similar myself and he had some nice things in it that I didn’t think about.
How do you feel the first year of ArmA’s release has compared to the first year of Flashpoint’s release in terms of the community’s attitude, community relations towards and between BIS etc. etc.?
I find it has been rather different. With ArmA the modding and community involvement has been on the table long before the game was even released, while with OFP it all sort of grew slowly from nothing. Especially the modding part in OFP started with very simple things and slowly became more and more advanced. That made it easy to keep up with learning everything, unlike with ArmA where all the new possibilities came quite fast which means there is a lot to learn for everyone in a short time frame. It seems also that much more is expected from BIS by the community, and because the mods for OFP had reached a rather advanced level people would seem to expect ArmA mods to be of at least equal quality already.
General Modding
What was it that got you into modding games? Which was the first game you did any kind of hacking/modifying with?
I guess it goes all the way back to my childhood, I have always wanted to know how things work, I used to tear apart most toys I had and that also went on to computers, and games. The first memories I have of some level of modding is from Amiga games, when I figured out I could load some of the game graphics with Deluxe Paint and modify them. That was just pretty much useless tinkering though, it wasn't until OFP that I really got into it although I also did some levels for Doom and Duke3D and some other minor things before OFP.
What are the biggest challenges/ difficulties you encounter as a modder?
Time is of course a bit of a problem, but also providing support and updates for finished mods can be quite difficult too. There’s always people who wont even read the install instructions, then ask for help when something doesn’t work and get mad at me if I don’t help them… Or a game update can make some finished mods not work anymore, and finding the interest to fix some old project can be very difficult. But I tend not to bother myself with such issues that much as I feel I don’t owe anyone anything, so while I do feel some responsibility for supporting and updating my mods I do also expect other people to understand that I often just don’t have the time or have more important or interesting things to do. Luckily most people do seem to know and respect this. But in general as the modding is just a hobby for me I tend not to bother myself with things that feel difficult or uninteresting, I keep it fun for myself to do and everything else is just extra.
Can you give us a list of the different games you’ve done any kind of modding for?
I can remember doing something meaningful for at least: Doom, Quake, Operation Flashpoint, Armed Assault, Dangerous Waters, IL-2 Sturmovik, Live for Speed, Richard Burns Rally, Flatout and TES - Oblivion. For games I like I do often snoop around a bit and see if I find anything interesting in the game files for example that could maybe fix some things I find annoying or improve something from the game. It is not often that I get something done that I think works well enough to release it for other people to use, I tend to have all kinds of little tweaks and hacks for my personal use for many games I play.
Some of the many addons made by Kegetys for a number of different games
Modding groups often complain how hard it is to finish a modding project because so many people quit or stop midway through the project. What kind of advice can you give to modding groups and leaders?
I think one important thing is to avoid setting excessive goals or deadlines, as things rarely progress the way and pace you might want. It is maybe better to start with rather simple things, just work together on interesting things and see if something comes out of it. If it works out then the mod can grow larger over time. The personal goal for modding should be to have fun and maybe learn new things at the same time, not having thing X done in time Y. For that kind of goals to work out you’d need to get paid for your work.
Are there any websites you would recommend where modders, artists and programmers can meet to exchange ideas and so on?
Can't really think of anything other than google :) Modding tends to be highly game specific so individual game forums are probably the best place.
I'd like to express my sincere gratitude to Kegetys for really coming through with some fantastic, in depth answers, I think that for anyone who reads all of the interview there can be no doubt we now know a little more about one of the community's leading addon makers.Please stay tuned for scenes from our next episode
