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The Gooseman Interview |
contributed by timm |
Hey there folks - I've done
a little interview with Gooseman, the main man behind most of the
models you see in Action Quake2,
the awesome multiplayer P.C. for quake2 that adds a new twist
to Quake2. Featuring weapons taken from real life, and other
nifty changes, this makes one of the very best patches ever to
be release for Quake2. Anyway, let's get on with the interview,
should we? (By the way, that's Mr. Clark, under the name "timm", interviewing..)
Why don't you tell us who you are, how old you are, where
you live, and what you do for a living.
My real name is Minh Le. I'm 21 years old and I live in Surrey,
Canada (it's very close to Vancouver, Canada). Currently, I'm
a 3rd year computing science student at Simon Fraser University.
How did you get
into modeling?
I first started it a year ago. I played with a few mods for Quake1
(Railgun comes to mind..) and I thought it would be possible
to do real life guns in Quake. I always had a thing for military
style weapons and I read a lot of books on the subject.
What program do
you use?
Originally, I used Quark Army Knife to create the meshes and
QME to animate the mesh (as well as skin the models) but the
newer models (the ones I did for Action Quake) were done using
only QME 3.1.
Why qME?
Cause it was very easy to learn and it was dirt cheap. I'm a
student and I have lots of other interests, I needed something
that wouldn't take up all my time and learning QME was just the
thing.
Why don't you tell
us how you got into the Quake Scene.
Back when Quake1 was hip, there was a site called the QuakeC
archives, they'd review mods and I played a couple of the mods
on the QuakeC archives and it got me really interested in making
mods. Originally, I was a pure deathmatcher. Deathmatching is
fun but way too addictive for me. I sometimes find it hard to
pull myself away from a DM game...
Why the army\navy
theme?
I'm a big military buff. I always wanted to join but it was never
in the cards...
Why did you decided
to leave the Navy Seals 2 team and begin modeling for AQ2 instead?
I wasn't jiving with the team. I wanted to be more involved in
the coding aspect of the MOD but people weren't liking that so,
I had to concentrate on modelling.. I don't like it when I have
no say in coding. To me, it's very important that I code the
models into Quake2 because it lets me bring it to life the way
I wanted it to be. I hate spending weeks modelling something
and letting someone else code it.. it bugs me since I can code
it within hours. I don't hold any grudges against the Navy SEALS
team and I just wanted to say my thanks to them for treating
me good after I left the team.
When did you decide
to start working on Action Quake2?
I didn't really decide to be a part of the team initially. When
I first played Action Quake I liked it and it was the MOD most
closest to the current MOD I was working on (a single player
MOD called Rolling Thunder that never really panned out...).
I contacted Cail and asked him if he would like to have my models.
At the time, I was very busy with social life and full time work
so I thought I'd just let someone have my models and put them
to good use since I never had the time to fully complete my MOD.
I gave Cail all my models at the time (Colt M4A1, Mk-23, MP-5N,
Benelli Super 90, Sig Sauer SSG 3000) and the code for them (which
involved reloading and ejecting shells). The only models I made
exclusively for Action Quake were the Akimbo Pistols and the
new plug in player model. Everything else was done before joining
the A-team.
What was your goal
back then?
To see my models in action (no pun intended). I liked Action
Quake at the time.. it was fun the first time I played it.
What is your goal
now?
I'm heading back to school in a couple of weeks, things could
very well come to a complete halt for me in the modelling department.
I did the same thing for Navy SEALS a year ago... oh well, I
have about a year left of school, after that's done, then real
life begins and who knows, I may never get a chance to model
again.. My short term goal with regards to Action Quake is to
finish the VWEP support (handcannon, akimbo pistols and grenades
need to be done).
How do you all work
so well together?
I don't know .. I work by myself, I just send Cail the finished
models. I was surprised when I saw v.95 because a lot of the
features in v.95 I wasn't aware of. It's great though, very cool.
With 0.95 soon out
the door, what do you guys have planned for 0.96?
VWEP support, acceleration changes (maybe), some other stuff
I think.
Any chance we'll
see the viewable weapons in there?
uhhhh.. yeah.
What new models
can we expect to see from you?
hmmm, well, I'm learning 3d Studio MAX right now and figured
out how to use Mesh deformation.. so now I got this hand model
that's MUCH BETTER than the previous one because the hand is
one mesh and it animates much "smoother". I'm working
on a new mk-23 pistol model :-) I can't say that I'll finish
it before school starts but I just want to see how it will look
like with mesh deformation, should be way better than the current
mk-23.
Will you guys be
doing something like this with Half Life or Sin?(or any upcoming
FPS for that matter)
I like the Sin engine, it has nice muzzle flashes (something
I wanted the Quake2 engine to have so badly) but Sin is still
restricted by that stupid 10 hz client side update, I don't want
to go into detail why that's such a bad thing but it's a bad
thing...if you're trying to implement a realistic firearm.
What do you think
is the single most coolest thing in AQ as of right now?
there isn't ONE thing that really sticks out, I mean it's the
whole shebang that makes it cool. Sometimes, it makes me wonder
why we got so lucky with Action themes.. I mean if you take a
look at some other Quake2 mods out there, they have TONS of features
(more than ours even) yet they still aren't as popular as Action
Quake.. I think we hit a common theme that appeals to more gamers
out there when we decided to go for the Action theme.
If you could do
ANYTHING with AQ, what would that be?
hmm.. tough one. I personally would like to see better visual
f/x when it comes to firing the guns in Action Quake. I just
think it's lame that we don't see any muzzle flashes and smoke
puffs that in real life would TOTALLY DOMINATE your view. I once
saw the local police officers fire off an mp-5 in a closed room..
damn loud and VERY smoky. In an open area though mp-5's are quit
silent. Looking at Blood2 makes me wanna get my hands on that
engine.. smoke puffs everywhere, muzzle flashes, shells flying
all over the place! wow. As real as it gets baby!
Anything else you'd
like to add before we end this interview?
I'd like to thank the A-team for letting me be a part of this
great success that is Action Quake and I'd also like to thank
a special pal named Intro. I first met him when I started Navy
SEALS and without him I wouldn't be doing this stuff... he was
at the time my number one fan and gave me a lot of words of encouragement
that allowed me to get to the stage I am right now. If it weren't
for him , I'd have quit this modelling stuff a long time ago.
Thanks dude!
Thanks timm! It's nice to be recognized for the work I've done
for the Quake2 community. And it's especially nice to be interviewed
only twice in my life and it was always with the same person
;-)
So, that's it folks!
Hopefully you all know a little bit more about this member of
the A-team than you did before. Goose, man (or should that be
gooseman?), you da man! |
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