Tool Show Banshee and Open Source
This spin-off to the Chat Show looks at the tool programmer. To bring a better understanding of the work that goes on behind the modding.
Tool programmer Banshee shared his views on developing programs for modders:
GM: Please introduce yourself and tell us about your tools.
Banshee: Hello, my name is Carlos Muniz. I'm 25 years old male, I live in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), and I'm a computer science graduation student from UFF, which in english stands for Fluminense Federal University. In the Command & Conquer online community, I'm known as Banshee and I run Project Perfect Mod since 2002, a strong C&C mod development community. One of its chronical problems on early ages was lack of graphical artists and the difficulties and bureaucracy faced by them during the creation of graphics. That inspired me to create graphical tools to make the process easier and attract other artists to PPM.
The first big tool I've worked on was the OS SHP Builder, which is a 2D image editor for C&C games prior to Generals. You can also use it to create graphics for anything else, since it exports your graphics as the most used graphic formats (bmp, jpg, tga, gif, png etc), but it is not recommended, since it works with limited palettes. In late 2005, I've also started to contribute with the Voxel Section Editor III, which is a voxel based 3D graphics creation tool for Tiberian Sun and Red Alert 2. When the C&C 3 demo was released, I've created the OS BIG Editor, which is a program created to view and edit .BIG packages that are used on the SAGE engine (Generals or newer C&C) games. The last release only views them, but the beta versions that you might find in a couple of sites already edits them as well and do much more (and they are compatible with games from Petroglyph as well).
There are other interesting tools that I've created or had some participation. The OS: HVA Builder allows the users to animate voxel models, OS: Voxel Viewer allows you to preview them with terrain, sky and much more. Interesting to take screenshots to create sidebar icons. OS Palette Editor edits the palettes used on C&C games prior to Generals. There were a couple of other minor tools such as TFD Patcher that made old C&C programs compatible with The First Decade, JASC to C&C Palette Conversion tool which became useless with OS Palette Editor, etc.
GM: Can you explain Voxel Section Editor III to someone who hasn't used it?
Banshee: Voxel Section Editor III is a voxel model creation tool. It works like Paint, but it is in 3D and, because of that, it has more details. First of all, plan the movable parts of your voxels. Each movable part should be painted as one section and you'll have to animate them later. But first, paint them.
You have 3 editing views (Back, Top and Front) and two previews (the 3D preview in the lower right corner of the screen and the 3D preview window). You have to paint the pixels in the bigger editing window just like you would do in MS Paint. However, you can use the sliders in the left to move through your model in 3D and you also have the option to change your main view if you click in the name of Back, Top, etc smaller view.
However, 3D pixels also have an orientation, which in the program is known as ‘normals’ (from physics, the normal vector). You have the option to paint them as well, although we recommend you to use the AutoNormals tool (Tools -> Normals -> AutoNormals).
Each section has some properties that may require your attention, such as the position of its bounding box (where it would ocupy in game). Once it's set, save the model and open it with OS: HVA Builder to animate it.
GM: Do you work with other tool makers or do you pick up the Open Source baton from where they left off?
Banshee: I do both. Stucuk started OS SHP Builder in december 2003 and I joined him few days later and we worked together on it. OS BIG Editor received the contribution of many people while I was working on it. And I've continued Voxel Section Editor III from where Stucuk stopped. And anyone can contribute with these tools or continue them. Just inform me, so we can get these things organized in a proper way.
GM: How long have you been developing these tools?
Banshee: I've been developping tools since december 2003 with the JASC to C&C Palette Conversion tool, following OS SHP Builder in the same month. I've started working on Voxel Section Editor III and OS Palette Editor in november 2005. OS BIG Editor was started on february 2007 and the other tools I do not remember anymore.
GM: Do you feel game publishers should spend more time making SDKs and modding tools?
Banshee: Definitely yes. It should speed up their own production speed if they do that. Most of the tools I've seen in latest mod SDKs for C&C games are very spartan, except for the w3x exporter plugin. The World Builder is still bugged (although the one from Kane's Wrath was much worse than the Red Alert 3 one) and if they worked harder on it, I'm sure that EA itself would develop missions and multiplayer maps much quicker than they do currently. Of course that fans would only gain if they had more polished tools released and modding would be easier as well.
GM: How did you get into modding?
Banshee: A friend of mine introduced me the UGE ( a DOS tool to edit the first C&C game) when we were looking for cheats online back in 2000. In a later time, I found out that I could add new units for TS. That really got me hooked into modding. I've lost my interest for cheats a couple of months later.
GM: What’s your favorite part of the Command & Conquer modding community?
Banshee: I don't know the answer for that question. There are several areas that keep me hooked, from the tool development itself, to those who hack and derive the executables to add new features to original and skilled mod teams.
GM: Can you explain the process of creation? What type of knowledge did you need?
Banshee: You need to know how to use the tool that is used to create the program. In my case, I use Delphi. Other than that, some basic image processing knowledge and google are your friends. I usually plan the next features and gather feedback (mainly posted on the official forums of the tool) and start coding. When I have something that seems to work, I commit it to the SVN repository. Once my objectives are reached, I release the final version to public.
GM: What changes are you planning to make to the tools in the future?
Banshee: OS BIG Editor should receive an announcement about an interesting feature in the next weeks. Voxel Section Editor III 1.4 (or perharps 2.0, I'm not sure) has a set of objectives already announced to public, which includes import and export 3D models, HVA editing inside the program, a completely new renderer and improvements to the auto-normals.
Stucuk has recently allowed OS: Voxel Viewer to preview multiples units and users will be able to play with it soon.
GM: What type of support are you providing your users?
Banshee: We have support forums for all tools. While VXLSE III and OS SHP Builder have their own forums there, the other tools use the CnC Editing Tools forums.
GM: Do you feel like a forgotten hero of the modding community?
Banshee: I feel that Olaf van der Spek, the creator of XCC Utilities, is becoming one. But I'm still active, PPM is still popular and most of the OS tools are being used by thousands of people. So, I'm not sure if I'm already being forgotten :P .
GM: What is the most surprising thing you discovered while making the tools?
Banshee: I'm surprised at how useful voxels are, even after being abandoned by most PC games (except for Voxelstein 3D). We'll always reuse it in some way or another, from mobile games even in a later future when we start using holograms. And that they are actually interesting to add details to a model.
GM: What are the biggest hurdles for you when developing the tools?
Banshee: There are several. Time management is one. I also have the pressure from university, work, real life. So, it is hard to manage time. Also, another boring hurdle is when you have to deal with a file type that uses a weird compression, which dismotivates me a lot, specially when I have to track a bug from a weird code that I have barely any clue on how it works.
GM: What do you believe is the biggest misconception others have about modding tool makers?
Banshee: I guess most people think that modding tool developpers have no real life. I do have a very active real life. I have girlfriend, several friends, I go out in the night, watch shows, movies, etc. I go to the beach. I do travel once in a while. But most people think that I'm a nerd that got stuck inside a computer.
GM: Have you thought about a career in game development?
Banshee: I got into the computer science course to get into a game development career. Thanks to my tool creation experience, I’ve started to enjoy image processing as well. But dispite the huge size of my city, there is no game development company, except if I wanna develop games for mobiles. So, I had to look for other kind of jobs. But I'm still interested on working on games, once I finish my graduation in the middle of the year, if I get a good proposal. I have a lot of fun creating tools and games as well. I've participated from the last edition of Global Game Jam, where we had 45 hours (not 48, due to timezone issues) to design and code a game with other 2 people on very spartan conditions. And it was a very fun experience where I actually managed to finish a game called It Came From The Cave. Of course it is not polished, it has a lot of bugs, but a lot of people had fun with it. By the way, I've been recoding it during the last month.
GM: Anything else you’d like tell us?
Banshee: First of all, thanks for the interview. I hope everyone enjoyed the read. Take a look and visit PPM for more news on the OS Tools and expect these tools to be expanded to games outside the Command & Conquer scope as well. OS BIG Editor already covers games from Petroglyph as well, Voxel Section Editor III should export to .3ds, .obj and other more complex 3D file formats soon as well, becoming a new alternative for 3D model creation for any game.
GM: Thanks to Banshee for his answers and time.
Website: Project Perfect Mod
