Back to news pages...Below you can find the log of the IRC conference with the Lambda team that took place on the Amiga Nutta IRC channel, #amigames on Sunday night.
The turnout was very good with over 80 people on channel at one point, thanks to all of those that came along. Hopefully I will have more interviews lined up soon.
| Illuvatar | well ok if you insist, we'll start now |
| Macross | well, let's start the interview! :) |
| Illuvatar | Ok I'll start the intros |
| Illuvatar | First and foremost there is Kalsu: the coder and the father of Lambda ;) |
| Kalsu | yep, that's me |
| Illuvatar | We also have Macross our GFX Designer |
| Macross | thats me :) |
| Illuvatar | and our newest Member is thx who takes the post of Musician |
| thx | hulloh |
| Illuvatar | oh and there's me who does a little here and there ;) |
| Jono | Can I just start off by asking you why you consider developing for our Amiga still worth while? |
| Kalsu | jono: it isn't worthwhile, but since i can't currently afford anything better.... ;) |
| thx | jono: well, as everyone we hope and expect the amiga platform to rise again |
| Illuvatar | Jono: worthwhile in what sense? certainly not financially, Lambda is more of a crusade for us ;) |
| Macross | Jono: I'm doing it ços I like the platform ;) |
| Funny_ | You all these who keep our Amigas as viable platform.Don't drop the support please...What about PC version of Lambda ? It's will exist in future ? No or Yes,then why ? |
| Illuvatar | We have no plans for a PC version, we simply want to try and get the amiga version finished |
| Illuvatar | as I said, its more a crusade now... |
| Rustybrn | Will Lambda support 24 bit graphics modes? What do you guys think of Warp 3D, and is there any chance Lambda or future projects from you will support it? |
| Illuvatar | we aren't going to be supporting 24-bit truecolor, they 68k amigas just won't handle it |
| Illuvatar | as for Warp3D... |
| Ganja_NVX | Righty, I read somewhere quite some time ago that you're planning to use real actors and scenes like in WC3 in the game? Is this still going to happen and how are you planning to do it? And any publisher signed yet? GA |
| Illuvatar | kalsu has considered it carefully, but it would require large modification to the current engine, and many of the graphical tricks involved would no longer be possible |
| Illuvatar | also... |
| Illuvatar | to really take full advantage of 3D hardware the engine has to specifically written for that purpose - we have to concentrate on getting the current version done;) |
| Illuvatar | right just scrolling back to the last question |
| Illuvatar | ok the cutscenes... |
| Illuvatar | we are planning to incorparate real actors into cg backdrops but there are many factors dictating whether this will be possible... |
| Illuvatar | ...I have a background in Broadcasting so I have access to the equipment necessary to record the live scenes |
| Illuvatar | ... |
| thx | we plan to finish alpha versions of the game before contacting a distributor in order not to be limited by deadlines |
| Illuvatar | current problems are how to digitise the actors on the computer, hopefully that will be ammended shortly |
| Barnes | ETA for a finished alpha version? |
| WildCart | when do you thing the game will be finished ??? ga |
| Kalsu | ah, The Question... |
| Illuvatar | We are a long way off completing anything... |
| Macross | WildCart: as thx said before, we don't want to be limited by deadlines |
| Illuvatar | we are currently working on producing a final demo release, but even this could take a long time |
| Illuvatar | one thing we won't do is rush and produce an inferior product GA |
| Volmer | Can you give us an idea on how fast/slow it runs on 060/50 using Z3 graphicsboard when getting close to i.e. a capital ship? The latest screenshots look very impressive, but obviously they don't give you much info on the speed and feeling. Any plans to release an updated preview? GA |
| Illuvatar | the latest update of my site has new fps counts in the info/data section |
| Illuvatar | but to summerise |
| thx | volmer: the game will rock on a 060/50... ofcourse we consider that the hardware requirements have to be limited by the current 060 development status |
| Illuvatar | even on an 060/50 you won't be seeing lighting speeds however |
| Kalsu | if you haven't read the new stuff at http://www.hut.fi/~mkalline/lambda.html i'd suggest to do so as soon as possible. it should answer a lot of the most usual questions |
| Kalsu | a new engine preview won't be released... |
| Illuvatar | currently we're looking at around 25fps on a zIII/aga 060 amiga - but these rise or fall depending on the screen activity |
| Kalsu | the next preview - if it's ever going to be released - will be a full-blown playable demo |
| Illuvatar | a prequel to the game |
| Kalsu | actually we're talking about 15-20 fps on 060/50 + aga |
| Illuvatar | yes as an average with any real action going on |
| Illuvatar | of course ZIIs are even slower |
| Kalsu | with all the nice touches turned off it does get near to speeds of e.g. Colony Wars on the PSX, ie. very smooth |
| Illuvatar | GA |
| frag | How likely is a PPC version? Could do a poll for potential buyers of such a version on the web? GA |
| Kalsu | as stated on my page, a ppc version is theoretically possible, but i won't concentrate on it at this stage |
| Kalsu | i don't have a ppc board, which makes hunting down incompatibility bugs extremely difficult |
| Kalsu | better to do the porting after the 68k is finished |
| Illuvatar | then we can consider the possibility |
| Illuvatar | ;) |
| Kalsu | yeah, "better to TRY porting after the 68k" ;) |
| Nuttah | Kalsu: you think porting would be difficult? |
| Illuvatar | we'll also hopefully have a publisher once the 68k version is done, they can arrange for PPC hardware to be leant to Kalsu for dev purposes |
| Illuvatar | until then, there is no chance of a PPC version |
| Kalsu | nuttah: i've done it before, so it shouldn't be. somehow the current version just doesn't work on the ppc... |
| Illuvatar | the only way we can test it is to email it back and forth between Kalsu and the PPC owners of the team - which is impracticle GA |
| _Funny | Kalsu,Will you support CV64/3D gfx board ? Sure,it's not VooDoo,but even this Virgee chip can speed up (see Descent) very much the Lambda. Even faster (040 with Zorro III) then 060/AGA.It's will very nice feature for these (like me) who still don't have 060,but CV64/3D with 040 ! GA |
| Kalsu | as stated on my Lambda web page any 3D hardware won't be supported... |
| Kalsu | adapting the engine to support e.g. Warp3D would mean huge changes in the engine code, and the result would be just a faster version of lambda, nothing more... |
| Kalsu | if a 3d accelerated version were to be done, i'd certainly like to take more out of the hardware than the current engine would... |
| Kalsu | but, doing that would mean crippling the software engine in terms of both performance and visual appearance, which would be unacceptable |
| Illuvatar | so its LambdaII for that kind of support I'm afraid ;) |
| Illuvatar | not that there will be a sequel |
| Kalsu | GA |
| liluh | do you plan to support multiplayer through TCP/IP? Maybe not everyone here know but the sucsses of Xwing vs. TieFighter was made by this option, battles between players. If you do, do you plan to start a special server that people could play on? |
| Kalsu | multiplayer support was ruled out at very early stages of development... |
| thx | the reason why these games were successful with their mp support was that the single-player support was very pathetic... |
| Kalsu | i don't think having a strong storyline in a multiplayer game is feasible |
| Kalsu | so basically multiplayer support would mean just another stupid deathmatch game |
| Illuvatar | although thats what people seem to want ;) |
| Kalsu | a deathmatch mode _could_ have been provided as an option, but i don't think it woudl be worth it at all |
| Illuvatar | however, WE want Lambda to be a cinematic experience, not just a blast fest |
| Illuvatar | GA |
| tarbos | kalsu: don't you think that lores is a complete waste for the great look of lambda (ships were _very_ nice in latest public demo 640x480 or even 512x384)?! Go for ppc - it's just around 500DM now (->Blizzppc603e-160) GA. |
| Illuvatar | this is a student your talking to - you can't say "only" 500 DM for anything |
| Kalsu | when making the decision of having either high resolution or playable speed, i chose the latter... |
| Illuvatar | what you won't find is 2x2 pixel modes, so its not too bad |
| Kalsu | i myself won't be spending any money on the current ppc boards, so aiming for ppc only is not realistic for me |
| Illuvatar | GA, sorry ;) |
| Scorgie | How much do you think you will compete with explorer 2260 and other spcae games? GA |
| thx | consider that greater resolutions than 320x256 are pretty useless when playing an action game at 25fps since you simply don't notice the detail level. remember most game consoles can't extend the standard PAL modes |
| Illuvatar | Well, we haven't seen much of Explorer 2260 and Phoenix etc to comment on that - they're even more vapour that Lambda atm |
| Kalsu | especially explorer 2260 will be very different from lambda so i don't think they'll be a "threat" to each other |
| Illuvatar | they reason Lambda was started was because until recently there was only Wingcommander 1 on the amiga |
| Illuvatar | Kalsu wanted to address that oversight |
| Illuvatar | so there isn't really any competition |
| Illuvatar | and we don't really care either - good luck to them ;) |
| Illuvatar | if we were in it for financial gain, we would have dropped development a long time ago |
| Illuvatar | GA |
| tekmage | About when will Lambda script be available to the public and how will the team feel about TC's? GA |
| Illuvatar | Kalsu is redialling, he's more qualified for this question but... |
| Illuvatar | Lambdascript can not be used for TCs, we decided this was something we did not want at all |
| Kalsu | disregard illuvatar's answer, TC's are exactly the thing i keep in mind when designing LambdaScript :) |
| Illuvatar | yes, the language will hopefully be very flexible, but its main purpose is to event script missions |
| Illuvatar | heh - oh well ;) |
| Illuvatar | told you he was better qualified for that answer |
| Kalsu | if we manage to release Lambda then the LambdaScript documentation and necessary utilities will be released at some later point in time also |
| Kalsu | GA |
| Illuvatar | unfortunately customising things like ships will require extensive knowledge of Lightwave |
| tontu | When the A500 version will be finished? My A500 got very depressed when she saw the machine specs on your site so say something nice to cheer her, please. GA |
| Illuvatar | /kick tontu ;) |
| Illuvatar | there's always one |
| Kalsu | despite some wild rumours a version for A500 will never be released |
| Illuvatar | nor the ascii version |
| Barnes | ttylambda? :) |
| Kalsu | definitely not :) |
| Data949 | Is the game non-linear. Er...what about a publisher, a game like Lambda could rake in the cash even on the Amiga. And will you be developing a sequel or version for the NG if it appears (probably not :[ ). And wtf dont you want TC's, I only buy PC games now If I can change em ;) Phew! GA! |
| Illuvatar | one of the benefits of Lambdascript is that fluid plots can be created with ease |
| Illuvatar | of course there are limitations |
| Illuvatar | there is only so much data you can fit on one cd |
| Illuvatar | (or two?) |
| thx | with cd-audio track, YES :) |
| Illuvatar | of course =) |
| Illuvatar | so the outcome of one mission will effect the next in theory |
| Kalsu | this is an issue i'll have to investigate as soon as possible |
| Illuvatar | there is a risk of making things too flexible, we will impose certain restrictions to stop things getting boring |
| Illuvatar | there are still many aspects of Lambda which are untested and purely in the theory stage (if that) - this is one reason why you can't expect a release soon |
| Kalsu | theoretically the cdrom drive should be able to play audio tracks on its own without interfering with other activities, but things might not be that simple in practice... |
| Illuvatar | obviously some cd-roms won't support CDDA |
| Illuvatar | so alternatives are also being looked into |
| Kalsu | illu: AFAIK all drives support audio track playing |
| Kalsu | illu: we won't be streaming the audio data through the IDE/SCSI bus after all... |
| Illuvatar | not necessarily controllable by the computer |
| Illuvatar | anyway, moving swiftly on... ;) |
| Illuvatar | publishing: |
| Illuvatar | there have been plenty of offers from publishers over the course of development... |
| Kalsu | we don't have a publisher yet, and won't have one until Lambda is finished |
| Illuvatar | we don't want to be restricted to deadlines that publishers will inevitably impose |
| Illuvatar | NG Sequel: |
| Illuvatar | hey, we want to get THIS version finished first ;) |
| Illuvatar | it already causes us enough agro without having to worry about the sequel ;) |
| Illuvatar | of course, if it IS a success against all odds - we will consider it (and we get given some dev machines free) |
| p-OS | Which language or compiler do you use for development ? |
| Kalsu | i'm coding Lambda mainly in C with the time critical parts being eventually written in assembly |
| Nuttah | Kalsu: Can we expect the game to be speeded up in a noticeable way due to these assembler modifications? |
| Kalsu | currently i'm using the sas/c 6.58 compiler, but i'm planning to switch to egcs |
| Kalsu | nuttah: no. currently the most often used critical routines are already in assembly. mainly only the slower gouraud shaded and perspective corrected texturemappers remain in C |
| Kalsu | they will also be written in assembly eventually, but they will certainly not be any faster than the simpler flat-shaded affine texturemappers |
| Kalsu | (which aren't exactly fast either...) |
| Jono | A few Q's (from one developer to another) ;o) Do you consider yourself long-term Amiga Software develepers? Where do you see your group when the new Amiga platform gains a large gethering? Do you believe that 2/3 years down the line the Amiga will be back at the forefront of computing? ..plus...How are you going into |
| Jono | developement?..'making up as you go' or with an almost full design?....also....which one existng game, on any platform, comes closest to what you hope Lamda will be (please Briefly explain overall differences)? ...I have a 030/50Mhz, so no chance here, but I wouldn't consider buying 060/PPC just a 040/PPC, what are yo |
| Jono | u're views on the fact that lower priced PPC boards (040) may be the choice of purchase for many amiga users? (in that 040 isn't going to give the 060 speed you'd like) ...I am a reviewer on Amiga Central, can we have a copy when it's ready (and perhaps some more stuff for a big preview ;o) ? :)) GA |
| Jono | :) |
| Illuvatar | >Do you consider yourself long-term Amiga Software develepers? |
| Illuvatar | lets break this up a bit |
| Kalsu | i'd say no. coding is just a hobby for me |
| Kalsu | the fact that i code on the amiga is because the amiga was once great |
| Illuvatar | maybe the amiga will be great again, who knows... |
| Illuvatar | ...but we really are just concentrating on this one game atm |
| Kalsu | i don't expect the amiga to "be back" anymore, but of course it would be nice if it succeeded in the big comeback |
| Illuvatar | >How are you going into |
| Illuvatar | developement?..'making up as you go' or with an almost full design?....also....which one existng game, on any platform, comes closest to what you hope Lamda will be |
| Kalsu | up until now i've been coding without a strict design for the development, which is what has lead the project to this deadend |
| Kalsu | before further development can take place we need to define exactly what is needed and how it should be done |
| Illuvatar | of course the plot is another matter - we will have to script that very carefully - and the cutscenes are being storyboarded |
| Illuvatar | or will be storyboarded ;) |
| Illuvatar | the rendering I will have to approach as if I was creating a mini-film - you can't afford to do otherwise otherwise it'll end up looking like a soap on cable tv |
| Illuvatar | oops grammar ;) |
| Illuvatar | As to what the game is modelled on... |
| Kalsu | definitely Wing Commander: Prophecy :) |
| Illuvatar | yes |
| Illuvatar | although we have looked very carefully at the cross-platform competition |
| Kalsu | if you'd put WCP and Lambda side by side you'd notice quite a lot of similarities... |
| Illuvatar | we can't really compete with them, but we'll give it a damn good try |
| Kalsu | not that we really need to compete with them on the Amiga... |
| Illuvatar | no |
| Illuvatar | yep |
| Illuvatar | GA |
| McDrill | How "big" universes can the game handle? Is there a limit ? , Also, Will the game be totally OS friendly? GA |
| Kalsu | since i'm using floating point arithmetics now the universe could be a lot bigger than i originally planned, but i think the player will be operating only on a small area in each mission |
| Kalsu | Lambda is completely OS friendly |
| Illuvatar | Ok Kalsu and half of Finland has to go - Babylon 5 is starting |
| Illuvatar | we can answer most questions however (as long as they aren't too coding oriented) |
| Macross | I can answer all 3D-objects oriented questions :) |
| thx | go ahead... |
| Illuvatar | the size of the universe is a little irrelevant, space is really big - ship can't really fly from one end to another |
| Illuvatar | thats why we have hyperspace - to circumnavigate that problem |
| Illuvatar | anyway |
| Illuvatar | GA ;) |
| Funny | Some questions,please,reply. 1.Which your current development config (which Amiga do you have) ? 2.What about beta testers ? We don't like see buggy game (I ready,if you need one,btw ;) ). 3.Some time ago I discover the game called Orion Wars which looks similar to Lambda.Also it's game come from Finland.I wonder if you can explain situation with Orion Wars. Thanks... |
| Macross | Funny: 1- My A1200 is 060/PPC240 32mb RAM. |
| thx | our hardware specs are on the lambda main page, too |
| Illuvatar | I have a couple of amigas, but principally an Amiga2000/060 with PIV and 96MB of fast |
| Illuvatar | I also have a PPC 603e/160 040/25 A1200 but I don't use that much ;) |
| thx | i have no amiga at all *sigh* (well.. that's not 1200% true, i've got an old 020) |
| Illuvatar | its not enough really for the amount of rendering I have to do - most likely I'll have to make use of a render farm |
| Illuvatar | betatesters: |
| Illuvatar | heh - If I had a pound for everyone who asked that ;) |
| Illuvatar | the game is not yet to that stage |
| Illuvatar | but when its nearly finished, and perhaps we have a publisher - I'll be happy to interview any beta testers ;) |
| Illuvatar | its only 200 UKP to become one |
| Illuvatar | =) |
| Macross | Funny : Orion Wars was a project from Asa (Kalsu's friend) but I think Orion Wars is halted. |
| Macross | GA |
| Illuvatar | BigKev: only if he says its great every day |
| Illuvatar | oh and Orion Wars |
| Nuttah | How many different ships will there be in the game? Will you be able to fly any of them? |
| Illuvatar | yes, it was being made by a friend of Kalsus |
| Illuvatar | but last I heard a crash wiped the sources - a real shame |
| Illuvatar | Nuttah: as many ships as we can build without having a cardiaac arrest |
| Macross | Nuttah: I've modelled 3 fighters, a Destroyer, and some other minor ship...the player will be able to fly the fighters, 3 classes (light, medium and heavy) |
| Macross | GA |
| Illuvatar | its quite a slow process |
| Rustybrn | Have you considered hidden features such as an arcade/coin-up with a level from Giana Sisters (or Doom, or Rainbow Islands, or any other classic) in the space dock or something like that? I got the idea from the Defender arcade in Gloom, which was quite cool. Such stuff generates a lot of talk about your game in the A |
| Rustybrn | miga community, and it's funny/enjoyable and shouldn't take too long to implement. :) Also, what if Amiga users got together and bought you a PPC board to develop on? I'm pretty sure a lot of people would be happy to pay £5-10 or something. Nuttah could put a money-o-counter on his web site (with a goal of, say £200 o |
| Rustybrn | r £300), open an account for collecting money etc. Might sound like a strange idea, but I think it would be possible. And I guess you'd accept the money? :) GA |
| Illuvatar | hidden features - well we wouldn't exactly tell you if there was any would we ;) |
| Macross | hidden features mean they are 'hidden' ;) |
| thx | illu: damn, no we can't do our planned hidden stages anymore since rustybrn will then say we've stolen his idea :) |
| Macross | thx: heheh :) |
| Illuvatar | yeah lets cancel them |
| thx | without those things, lambda will never gain any fame. so what :) |
| Illuvatar | as for PPC: and we have answered this already |
| Illuvatar | but... |
| Macross | PPC after current version if possible. GA |
| Illuvatar | no matter what happens - even if someone were to offer us free PPC cards - we won't consider PPC until 68k is finished |
| Illuvatar | GA |
| Volmer | Saying that you want Lambda to be a cinematic experience if possible. Could you tell us a little about the possible cut-scenes' (Cinematic) possible resolution? So far most Amiga-games featured CDXL (Just takes up too much space.. Hope you will use a better codec instead.) cut-scenes in 160x120 resolution or less (Not an experience :)). GA |
| Illuvatar | cdxl does indeed take up too much space for our purposes |
| Illuvatar | kalsu has developement a custom mov encoder that allows about 1:4 compression |
| Illuvatar | and asyncronous audio streaming |
| Illuvatar | the resolution will be 320x180 16:9 ratio ;) |
| Illuvatar | the audio will probably by an adpcm variant |
| Illuvatar | by=be |
| BigKev | what sorta speed cpu can decode it? |
| Illuvatar | well frame skipping is possible so it should grow with the system (or shrink rather) |
| Illuvatar | and 040 will handle it fine |
| Illuvatar | we calculate this will allow about 50 minutes of movie per CD (or 30 mins once you include CD tracks) |
| BigKev | hmmm.. so minus lambda data we can expect maybe 15 20 mins of cinematic sequences total? :) |
| Illuvatar | almost an our if we have 2 cds |
| BigKev | 15 - 20 |
| Illuvatar | an hour |
| Illuvatar | GA |
| Scorgie | 1) With e2260 pictures of the game engine are not available at this moment in time, Work is concentrating on game intelligence atm, pics are out in the new year. 2) Are you talking to any publishers at this time? GA |
| Illuvatar | 1) cool =) |
| Illuvatar | well as mentioned earlier we've had queries from almost every publisher in the book, but we are not ready yet to have one |
| Macross | Scorgie: 2) publishers send several proposals, but we can't be limited by the dealines they'll impose. GA |
| Illuvatar | as much for their benefit as ours - they rely on sales, and we wouldn't be able to meet their deadlines |
| Illuvatar | GA |
| MrF | Is it going to be possible for the game to run on UAE? Making the game Picasso compatible or something since UAE doesnt support AGA, something like that? How about negociating an AIAB upgrade :) Oh, and anime is the nutts ^__^ GA |
| Illuvatar | we'll come back to him |
| Illuvatar | Lambda is fully RTG compatible already |
| Illuvatar | as long as you have cgx or p96 that is |
| Illuvatar | as for UAE I don't know I'm afraid |
| thx | mrf: come on, buy an 1200 :) i did that for lambda too :) |
| Macross | MrF: UAE is aprox. a 68030 Amiga in a fast PC...the fps will be _very_ low. GA |
| Illuvatar | the demos have been run on UAE I've been told |
| Illuvatar | so I suppose its feasible |
| Illuvatar | GA |
| XS2 | About the management part of all this. What would u say is needed on resources (financial/manpower) to compete globally in the (Amiga) games industry ? (a selfemployed Dev.) GA |
| Illuvatar | AmiCentrl: maybe in a later update |
| Illuvatar | mmm an interesting question |
| Illuvatar | its certainly not easy at the moment |
| Illuvatar | one thing the amiga has lost over the years are large software houses - its easier to create games on a wage |
| Illuvatar | right now I can only do this in my spare time - I have to work elsewhere for money |
| Illuvatar | and I'm sure any more I would make off lambda will be completely wiped out by my internet bill ;) |
| Illuvatar | more=money |
| Illuvatar | there is little or no support available for the average games developer - I'm sure many will agree its a labour of love more than anything |
| Illuvatar | GA |
| Funny | Why Kalsu don't see the future for the Amiga ? :( What about you ? What YOU think about current/future Amiga situation ? Does you planed to support in Lambda AGA HAM modes ? |
| Illuvatar | some might call Kalsu's view realistic |
| Illuvatar | its easy to be frustrated when developing by the lack of power available to you in comparison with your average PC |
| thx | i think a bit more optimistic about the amiga's future, i'm afraid the biggest mistake of the amiga developers is developing new hardware to reach the standards of other systems (no, i'm NOT speaking about pc :) without caring for the software support |
| Illuvatar | sure we might have potential Permedia or Voodoo enhancements available - but these are throttled by ten year old hardware |
| thx | but as soon as they manage that, it's likely that this platform will rise (at least a bit :) |
| Macross | thx: exactly. We have a good Amiha hardware sometimes but nothing to play in it (e. g. my ppc amiga) |
| Illuvatar | actually I did a point of view column about this very subject for the amigadata online mag recently |
| Illuvatar | http//fly.to/amigadata |
| Illuvatar | if you'll forgive the plug ;) |
| Illuvatar | My PPC sits in a corner collecting dust because of the lack of decent software for it |
| Illuvatar | GA |
| Geomol | Do you use the s-buffer technique in Lambda (a technique like z-buffer). (s-buffer is described in Orbis' programming page.) GA |
| Macross | Illuvatar: well, I got mame ppc and it's cool :) |
| Illuvatar | Geomol: this is a coding question - but... |
| Illuvatar | the processing drain for anything like z-buffering is too high for a 68k |
| Nuttah | right. |
| Illuvatar | lambda would be worse than 68k quake |
| Nuttah | seems like that is pretty much it. |
| Nuttah | thanks to the Lambda team for answering questions. |
| Illuvatar | phew ;) |
| Timpsa | How many wives does Klasu have? |
| Illuvatar | thanks for everyone attending |
Thanks to CaE for doing a great job as moderator and the ugn for helping in formatting the logs.