BeyondUnreal Interview - Glen Dahlgren, Project Director, Legend Entertainment
World Press Preview Event: November 7, 2002
Chantilly, Virginia, USAQAPete: I noticed! It's night and day compared to Unreal 1, and even UT 2003 in some aspects.Glen Dahlgren: We put a lot of attention into, like, if there's a group of four attacking mercenaries, perhaps two will try to engage you while the other two will go around you and try to accomplish their objective. If they come up against field generators or turrets, they'll be smart about how to deal with those things. If they can bypass them, they will. If they can't, they will try to destroy them, and then they'll move on.QAPete: Who works on the AI at Legend?Glen Dahlgren: Mike Fox with some assistance from Mike BaldwinQAPete: There are a number of new things that stand out in U2:TA, like the particle system and Golem system. You guys have always seems to add something unique to the games you've worked on.Glen Dahlgren: Yeah, it's been like that in a couple of different places. I think way back in Wheel of Time we were doing some things, created some real-life architecture. About when we were making WoT, the state of the art was Quake. It had levels which were basically platforms all over the place; they didn't really correspond to anything real. After we started creating real-life environments in Wheel of Time, the industry woke up and said, 'hey, that's a good idea!'QAPete: U2:TA compared to Wheel of Time is like night and day, though.Glen Dahlgren: That's true. Wheel of Time wasn't your traditional first person shooter, but it appealed to some people. There are still Wheel of Time fanatics out there. It really connected to a select group of first person shooter players out there. It's amazing... there was a WoT LAN party organized in this area so we could get some Legend people there. People came from all over the world, and some of them just kicked my ass! It's like, these guys are just amazing. They love that game so much. It's heartening.QAPete: Do you think WoTers will enjoy U2:TA?Glen Dahlgren: Oh, absolutely, but not for the same reasons. WoT had its strategy, its offense and defence, Unreal II has its own. Some of the things we're using in Unreal II had their start in WoT, like setting up your defenses, defending your territory, modifying your environment before your enemy arrives.QAPete: Your particle system doesn't seem to place a huge hit on U2:TA's framerates. Some, but nothing crazy.Glen Dahlgren: It depends on how they're created. You could create particle systems that would just chug, and depending on the amount that you've got... like if those Izarians' shots were slow, we couldn't have as many in 'Marsh' as we do. They were 'tuned' to be the way they are, and everything is like that. The particle system is a powerful tool, and if used correctly, it can be very speedy.