Ever wondered what makes some game developers tick? Well GCC members do, and we got a shot at getting some of those questions answered recently by Jani Penttinen whom happens to be the Lead 3D Engineer for the recently released Command & Conquer: Renegade.

GCC - Let's start with the introduction. So tell us who you are, with little background info and what is your current job at Westwood?

Jani - My name is Jani Penttinen and I work as a lead 3D engineer at Westwood Studios. Before joining Westwood I worked as a lead programmer at Housemarque Games. My two games with them were The Reap and Supreme Snowboarding (aka Boarder Zone).

GCC - In Renegade can you utilize flying vehicles in online play?

Jani - Yes, we'll release some extra levels downloadable from our web site which will feature flying vehicles.

GCC - Are there plans to include being able to fly things?

Jani - In multiplayer you can fly things in the new levels that we'll release shortly. It'll also be possible to include the flying vehicles in new levels created with the level editor.

GCC - What programming languages have you used in the development?

Jani - Pretty much all of the programming was using C++. There are also few specific bits of x86 and SIMD assembly.

GCC - How easy will it be to make mods?

Jani - It will be quite easy. The mod makers will have virtually all the tools in use that we had. We're also working constantly to imporove the tools.

GCC - Will there be less lag in the ultimate version?

Jani - Absolutely. Most of the lag in the demo was caused by incompatibilities between Renegade and GameSpy, and as the full version works through our very own Westwood Online the experience is much smoother. The demo also worked as a great stress test for a system and helped us improve the engine even further (we already released a patch for the final version which improves the gameplay experience).

GCC - How many hours of gameplay are going to be in it?

Jani - As for the multiplay, tons of it! Playing through the single play takes probably something like 20 hours depending on the skill level and the difficulty settings, and whether or not the player wants to explore the all levels. Many levels have various different paths you can take so obviously there is some replayability value there.

GCC - What graphics engine are you using?

Jani - We're using an inhouse developed engine. The engine handles the 3D graphics, physics, AI and the network code.

GCC - How exactly is multi-player going to work? Are there going to be servers, and if so then where abouts (geographically) are they going to be? If there aren't going to be any dedicated westwood servers, then why not?

Jani - Anyone can host a game with the full version of the game or by using a freely distributed dedicated server. It's usually a good idea to try to find a server in the same geographical area where you are, and from what we're seeing there are plenty of servers all over the world. We're constantly monitoring the situation and as we have a T3 line and some spare systems we can run servers when ever there seems to be need for it. In the long run though we're hoping the community to host enough servers for everybody as the number of players playing the game are so high that we couldn't possibly satisfy the needs of all servers. That's why we have a free dedicated server, so anyone can host. As for Westwood Online, we've already increased the capacity because there have been more people playing than we were expecting, and we'll be increasing it even further if needed.

GCC - Did any of the units or buildings present a particulary difficult problem with the translation from a RTS to a FPS?

Jani - Not really. The controlling of units is naturally very different and we have different controlling modes for different types of units, but all in all it all turned out to be quite smooth. One of the difficulties with buildings was that they're was too big and complex for the multiplayer mode. As a solution the buildings are very simplified in the multiplayer levels and you'll only see the real complex multi-story buildings in the single player mission.

GCC - Did you have any difficulties with the 3D Engine during the design?

Jani - There were challenges in handling levels that are so huge in size which was one of the reasons for creating the engine in-house. Then there are of course the usual compatibility and driver issues with the PC game developement. We're using such a wide variety of DX8 features that you really need the latest drivers in order to play the game.

GCC - How much do one actually optimize the code today? Or is it more important to write it cleanly, compared to most effectively way?

Jani - It is very important to write clean code but it's also very important to optimize the code too. If the function is complex it's a preferred approach to write it clean and fully working and only after that see if it needs to be optimized. Towards the end of the projects I spent some quality time profiling the game and optimizing bits and pieces that were taking more time than they should.

GCC - Is there a speed difference between DirectX and OpenGL? For example, we all know that Carmack is the biggest supporter of OpenGL, any special reasons to that or is that just his own decision (your opinion)? And regarding to that, why did you chose the DirectX?

Jani - DirectX used to be worse than OpenGL but DX8 is really good indeed. There isn't any speed difference between the two, and the only difference you'd be getting is that some drivers might be faster or more reliable than others. OpenGL gives you more access to hardware-specific features through the extensions and some features of the latest 3D cards are not accessible through DirectX at all. We decided to go with DX as it is somewhat more standardized (really!) and traditionally has had better driver support. Especially the Win9x OpenGL drivers have often been very Quake-specific so you wouldn't really want to program your own engine using them. Renegade needed a wide range of compatibility even on older hardware so we didn't really even consider OpenGL. These days when NVidia dominates the field and ATI being the only other competitor it's actually all the same which one you use (their drivers are good for both DX and OpenGL).

GCC - How complex scenery can you make to the maps, so that they are still playable? Do you have any pictures to show us for an example? I know that you have tested it out sometime ;)

Jani - You can have hundreds of thousands of polygons in a map, if that's what you mean? In Renegade we had very large level areas and very low min spec so we aren't using a lot of polygons in any specific areas but if you make a smaller level (or are willing to spend more memory) and raise the system specs you can easily run levels that have hundred thousand visible polygons at any time. It's often not practical though and if you want to support people without T&L hardware you don't want to go there... but you wanted to know what is possible. Oh and of course, you can have any kind of complex geometry and play on top of that as our physics is not terrain based but works with arbitary geometry instead.

GCC - The last thing. Can you give us some nice tip of things to come ;)

Jani - We're constantly working on more things to C&C fans out there but it really isn't my job to leak stuff out... sorry! But I can promise there are more things to come as we're committed to supporting the Renegade community. :)

GCC - The Obelisk was one of the most unique units in the original C&C. Tell us a little about this building in Renegade. Will the player have the ablility to infiltrate the building and use the laser against the NOD units?

Jani - Nope, you can't use the Obelisk that way. It is automatic and very powerful in what it's doing and what you need to do is take it out.

GCC - A big thank you, Jani, for answering these questions! GameClubCentral wishes all the best for Renegade in the future and the same goes to yourself too. You can check out the review of Renegade in the near future at the pages of GCC.

Jani - My pleasure! I hope you'll have good time playing Renegade!

Interview conducted by GCC member MSuomi