erazor intervieuw

bedankt Falcon40.com

I have tried a couple times to get 1.07### working, but admit that I haven't devoted alot of time to it.

I read the first interview and enjoyed it alot. It looks very promising.

My question, though, involves the system specs. I have a low end system, and probably always will (433 celeron, 128M, 4M vid card). As 1.07### continues, does eRazor see the low end systems getting squeezed out?

The problem lies in the available resources for testing. Real companies have their own testing department and can afford to buy a lot of hardware for that purpose. Since we have zero budget and only a limited amount of time (all team member either go to school or have a job) the low end systems fell short. Sorry.

PIII 500, 196 MB RAM (the more the better), GeForce, Radeon or V5 powered graphics card

what are the system specs on the PC that he plays F4 on most (assuming he still plays ;);

I wish I could be this project has turned into a second full time job :) But here's the specs of my development machines:

Primary Dev. Workstation: Athlon 800, 768 MB Ram, GeForce SDR, Dual Channel U2W SCSI Raid Array

Test Box 1: Dual PII 400, 384 MB RAM, TNT1

Test Box 2: P200, 128 MB RAM, ATI Rage Pro

and what would be the ideal system specs for 1.07### with existing technology.

P3 or Athlon 800 or faster, 256 MB Ram, GeForce DDR or ATI Radeon

I just want to know when eRAZOR plans to make weather in the game. will it be in the release after his upcoming one or in the way way future?? thanks a lot

This feature will require the new DirectX 8 based 3D engine so I would hold my breath. The development of the new engine will take a least 3 months.

Serious question to ERazor:

- Would it be possible to have multiple monitor support for Falcon 4?
I can remember that someone from MPS tested monochrome display for radar, and said it was not hard to get it working. If this was possible, one could for example put MFD 1 and MFD 2 to one display, and mirror them to separate them.

It is possible but currently at the very bottom on our to do list. I could imagine to start working on those features when all the high priority things have been fixed.

Anyways, I am quite excited about what these guys are doing. It is nice to be kept in the picture. Keep up the good work. I will be watching for this question in future interviews with Erazor.

Is there any thought about reworking the Padlock? It's not the greatest at picking up incoming SAMS SARM etc..

My Questions concerns the Multiplayer aspect of Falcon 4 because it is one of the most important aspects of this game.
The only reason which forces me to use 108 i2 instead of eRazors Patch is the bad multiplayer performance of the eRazor Patch due to the old 107 Source Code.
Unfortunately the Mutliplayer Aspect of the 108 US is also full of bugs ranging from not updated Campaigns screens to the online bubble sharing problem which is maybe the most important thing which restricts multiplayer. Will the upcomming Multiplayer Modification by Erazors Team enable us to fly with 16 players force on force campaigns or will the eRazor exe never be as good as the 108 (multiplayer).

I wish I could give you a straight answer on that one. But the reality is that I'm still in the learning phase. I want to fully understand what's going on before touching the code otherwise I would risk making things worse. I have learned this the hard way during my career :)

	eRAZOR intervieuw 1
Ook hier nog een engelse uitvoering van het intervieuw. Ik heb dit zo laten staan daar dit de originele tekst is. eRAZOR geeft veel aan wat er in de toekomst gaat gebeuren met de veranderingen die de erazor patches teweeg zullen brengen. Ze zijn zeer de moeite waard, en ik kan niet wachten tot de volgende patch. To continue bringing the Falcon 4.0 Community the information that shapes it's future, Falcon40.Com will be doing weekly interviews with eRazor. Each week I will present eRazor with a series of questions so we get the information right from the source. You are welcome to submit questions and they will be included in the interview. Submit your questions here.
bedankt Falcon40.com
September 23rd, 2000 - This weeks interview is more of a question and answer period from last weeks interview. The questions were all sent to me and are here in a totally unedited format, including eRazors responses. There will not be an eRazor interview next week. eRazor will be on a much deserved vacation.

	Tom	I have tried a couple times to get 1.07### working, but admit that I haven't devoted alot of time to it. I read the first interview and enjoyed it alot. It looks very promising. My question, though, involves the system specs. I have a low end system, and probably always will (433 celeron, 128M, 4M vid card). As 1.07### continues, does eRazor see the low end systems getting squeezed out?
	eRAZOR	The problem lies in the available resources for testing. Real companies have their own testing department and can afford to buy a lot of hardware for that purpose. Since we have zero budget and only a limited amount of time (all team member either go to school or have a job) the low end systems fell short. Sorry.
	Tom	Also, I'm just curious about eRazor's opinion about three items: what system would be the minimum that would run the 1.07### with a satisfying level of eye-candy (I know that's subjective, I'm just curious about his opinion);
	eRAZOR	PIII 500, 196 MB RAM (the more the better), GeForce, Radeon or V5 powered graphics card
	Tom	what are the system specs on the PC that he plays F4 on most (assuming he still plays ;);
	eRAZOR	I wish I could be this project has turned into a second full time job :) But here's the specs of my development machines: Primary Dev. Workstation: Athlon 800, 768 MB Ram, GeForce SDR, Dual Channel U2W SCSI Raid Array Test Box 1: Dual PII 400, 384 MB RAM, TNT1 Test Box 2: P200, 128 MB RAM, ATI Rage Pro
	Tom	and what would be the ideal system specs for 1.07### with existing technology.
	eRAZOR	P3 or Athlon 800 or faster, 256 MB Ram, GeForce DDR or ATI Radeon
	Jaron	I just want to know when eRAZOR plans to make weather in the game. will it be in the release after his upcoming one or in the way way future?? thanks a lot
	eRAZOR	This feature will require the new DirectX 8 based 3D engine so I would hold my breath. The development of the new engine will take a least 3 months.
	Sakari	Serious question to ERazor: - Would it be possible to have multiple monitor support for Falcon 4? I can remember that someone from MPS tested monochrome display for radar, and said it was not hard to get it working. If this was possible, one could for example put MFD 1 and MFD 2 to one display, and mirror them to separate them.
	eRAZOR	It is possible but currently at the very bottom on our to do list. I could imagine to start working on those features when all the high priority things have been fixed.
	Geronimo	I think the interview Idea with Erazor is a great idea, keep up the good work in keeping us informed of what his team is doing. My question to him relates to the 3d cockpit and how the textures can be increased from the default 256x256 resolution that we are locked into now. Maybe moving to 512x512 or a complete overhaul of the way the 3D cockpit is displayed might be possible with DX8. Is this being looked into. His team does not need to do the art work since there are plenty of Cockpit artists, such as SkyPat, Xis who have already shown a great aptitude in this area. Just provide the framework / editor and the rest of the Falcon 4.0 user community will pitch in. The same goes for the weather and cloud graphics. If they could somehow become open-sourced, people will tweak them just like they already done with the explosion graphics.
	eRAZOR	Same as above.
	Geronimo	Anyways, I am quite excited about what these guys are doing. It is nice to be kept in the picture. Keep up the good work. I will be watching for this question in future interviews with Erazor.
	Sean	Is there any thought about reworking the Padlock? It's not the greatest at picking up incoming SAMS SARM etc..
	eRAZOR	Same as above.
	Snake	My Questions concerns the Multiplayer aspect of Falcon 4 because it is one of the most important aspects of this game. The only reason which forces me to use 108 i2 instead of eRazors Patch is the bad multiplayer performance of the eRazor Patch due to the old 107 Source Code. Unfortunately the Mutliplayer Aspect of the 108 US is also full of bugs ranging from not updated Campaigns screens to the online bubble sharing problem which is maybe the most important thing which restricts multiplayer. Will the upcomming Multiplayer Modification by Erazors Team enable us to fly with 16 players force on force campaigns or will the eRazor exe never be as good as the 108 (multiplayer).
	eRAZOR	I wish I could give you a straight answer on that one. But the reality is that I'm still in the learning phase. I want to fully understand what's going on before touching the code otherwise I would risk making things worse. I have learned this the hard way during my career :)

September 14th, 2000 - It needs to be pointed out that this first conversation started out as just that - a conversation. Partially through the conversation I asked permission from eRazor to use it as an interview.

	eRAZOR	Hey
	Dominator	Hey eRazor... How's everything going?
	eRAZOR	We are just working on the installation routine and the docs.. Everything else is ready.. I have decided that we release 1.0799 without the multi-player fixes.
	Dominator	What requirements do you foresee for the JetNet server?
	eRAZOR	Check my last post http://www.combatsim.com/ubb/Forum21/HTML/006845.html. Oh and you might want to take look at this page as well: http://www.gamespy.com/stats/index.shtm.
	Dominator	Ok...
	eRAZOR	Comparing Falcon4's popularity with Half Life is like comparing apples and oranges.. The described scenario is totally unrealistic but non-the-less its worst case .. I have no idea how many Falcon4 multi-player gamers are out there.
	eRAZOR	Personally I would expect something in the range of 100 hosts and 600 players.. I could be wrong though.
	Dominator	I'd say quite a few though I do not know for sure... Be pretty difficult finding out but I could do a poll on falcon40.com....
	Dominator	Well, I can do a server but I need to know what the hardware requirements will be.. My only concern is Hasbro coming after Falcon40.Com....
	eRAZOR	Hasbro coming after falcon40.com? No way.. The JetNet server is 100% MY intellectual property.
	eRAZOR	The hardware requirements for the server machine would be pretty low end.. PIII 500 and 128 MB (for NT) would be fine.
	Dominator	Ok... It will take me awhile, but let me see what I can do hardware wise... Right now Falcon40.Com is running on a Win2k Adv Server PII350 w/128MB.... I am looking to bump that up though in the next few months.... Probably go with Dual PIII 600's and 256MB..
	eRAZOR	Well even that would suffice for now (cpu utilization of the server is VERY low).
	Dominator	Oh, ok!! That's cool!
	eRAZOR	But of course you won't want to slow down the web server. :)
	Dominator	Well, on average the cpu in the web server is sitting at about 7% utilization right now at peak times....
	eRAZOR	I did load tests with my second machine emulating 600 clients hammering the server at the same time (again worst case scenario) .. CPU utilization of the Athlon 800 was 75%
	Dominator	Cool...
	eRAZOR	How long do think would it take to setup a server (running win2k professional - server is not required)?
	Dominator	Well, it takes me about 45-50 minutes to do a typical Win2kP install.... The rest will depend on how easy your server program installs...
	eRAZOR	Server installation is a matter of seconds.. It runs as a standard NT service.. And uses the event log.
	Dominator	Cool!! Then it won't be a problem at all.. Is the JetNet server finalized? How does it interface to the outside world? If via http, is that code written as well?
	eRAZOR	Mirv has written an asp script that allows to check the current load stats.
	eRAZOR	He is also planning to extend it with administration capabilities.
	eRAZOR	BTW, thanks a lot for your offer.
	Dominator	No problem... I'm trying to do as much as I can for the community as a whole...
	eRAZOR	What kind of connection has Falcon40.Com ?
	Dominator	It is hooked up with about 150MB worth of internet bandwidth....
	eRAZOR	150 MB / sec?
	Dominator	Yep!! :-)
	eRAZOR	Wow
	Dominator	Gotta love working at the head quarters of a national ISP!!!
	eRAZOR	Yeah that's cool.
	eRAZOR	Ok, the server listens on two ports (one UDP port for heartbeat packets and one TCP for incoming clients).
	Dominator	So will the services offered by JetNet be the same as Gamespy?
	eRAZOR	Yes exactly the same.. They are even 100% compatible.
	Dominator	This is something that will greatly benefit online flyers a lot. One of the biggest problems has been finding other people to fly with.
	Dominator	And coordinating the time.
	eRAZOR	What I did was writing my own implementation of the client and server software.
	eRAZOR	And like Gamespy it can support any type of game.
	eRAZOR	Its not specifically tailored to Falcon.
	Dominator	Will JetNet support non-eRazor exe's as well?
	eRAZOR	Well its possible but the necessary hex edits for 1.08x would be tremendous.
	eRAZOR	Because every time someone hosts a game and he is connected to the internet the host must send the server beacon (heartbeat) to the master server.
	eRAZOR	1.0799 does that of course .. 1.08x does not because I doesn't know anything about JetNet .. It also lacks the UI.
	Dominator	So then that would be left up to some of the other hex editors to do with guidance from you?
	eRAZOR	Honestly I'd say it is VERY hard to do.. The UI code alone is 4000 lines.
	Dominator	So chances are we won't see a JetNet patch for 1.08?
	eRAZOR	The hexers will probably run out of space to inject that much code.
	eRAZOR	I don't know it might be possible but I doubt it.
	Dominator	Has there been any thought into making a dedicated campaign server exe?? Would it be feasible???
	Dominator	One that has no flying capabilities and just runs the campaign engine... Perhaps dogfights too?
	eRAZOR	Well it would be possible but unfortunately only for windows machine and the idea behind dedicated servers is usually to run them on cheap Linux boxes.
	Dominator	I would love to be able to put up a F4 server that didn't require so much babysitting...
	eRAZOR	I will see what I can do but I cant promise :)
	Dominator	Ok...
	Dominator	So, are the rumors about Glide support coming back to your exe true??
	eRAZOR	Nope they are not .. There is no necessity 1.079x can easily outperform 1.08x in Glide .. It's all a question of the setup (I'm not bullshitting you).
	Dominator	Ok. the main reason I asked about Glide is because I have a V5 5500 and have experienced some graphics problem running your exe with it, though they are usually resolved by turning off FSAA... But I'd rather run with FSAA on... Any plans to attack this problem?
	eRAZOR	They have been already solved (according to the testers).
	Dominator	Do you mind if I use some of this conversation as an interview on Falcon40.Com?
	eRAZOR	No problem :)
	Dominator	I will of course get your approval on the final draft before putting it out..
	eRAZOR	That's cool with me.
	Dominator	Ok.
	Dominator	I have to ask... I was there at Combatsim when you were getting a lot of nay-sayers and people were calling you a fraud.. What drives you to put so much effort into this?
	eRAZOR	I love this sim and I love programming. One year ago I was an active falcon player myself but the CTD's drove me nuts and I was about to quit when that opportunity showed up.
	eRAZOR	Let's say I couldn't let it end this way :)
	Dominator	Beyond the exe version you are currently working on, what do you have in store for the future?
	eRAZOR	Unlike popular belief, I'm not doing this on my own. My responsibilities are Graphics, UI and Network code. I'm also working as some kind of Lead Programmer / Producer. My plans are to rewrite the graphics core once again
	eRAZOR	But this time not to make it more compatible with mainstream hardware but to implement the foundation for new graphics feature that are well known from current games.
	Dominator	So we should see more robust graphics and better performance?
	eRAZOR	Yes the focus is performance and much better graphics. The next generation engine will be entirely DX8 based and it will hopefully exploit all of the cool new features of DX8.
	eRAZOR	JF18 would be probably a good match. I'm also planning to implement dynamic weather conditions and volumetric clouds.
	Dominator	Those are two of the things people have been asking for as long as I have been involved with Falcon.
	eRAZOR	It will also allow for in-game Voice Comms.
	Dominator	Are there any plans of adding voice capabilities directly to the sim..
	eRAZOR	:)
	Dominator	You beat me to that one!! :)
	Dominator	Multi-channel?
	eRAZOR	I haven't looked into the details but if DX8 supports it then it will be in, yep.
	eRAZOR	DX8's voice comm capabilities are BattleCom based.
	eRAZOR	Does BattleCom (MS bought them) support multi channel?
	Dominator	Yes, bc has multi-channel..
	Dominator	Recently, there was a thread at www.delphi.com/falcon4 about voice comms... Multi-channel was one of the main points people are looking for.
	Dominator	Also the ability to select individuals or groups...
	Dominator	Well, I hate to cut this short, but I have to go catch a train home. I'd like to continue this on maybe a weekly or bi-weekly basis...
	eRAZOR	yeah sure no problem and thanks for your time .. please keep me updated on the server story :)
	Dominator	Ok, I will. thanks for your time..