Interview with Sébastien Viannay - Post your questions

[ChaosFish]

Followed by turtle's interviews, I decided I'm gonna interview (through email) Sébastien Viannay, the LBA1 story coder and LBA2 main programmer, and of course the creator of LbaWin!

Please give as many questions as you like, I'll filter them and probably change them a little and add some of my own.

These can be LBA-creation related questions, LbaWin, personal questions, questions about the future, and everything else that interest you. Also, I know there's some programmers here, so you probably has something to ask Seb (main LBA2 programmer)

Shoot.

[Battler]

Questions for Seb:

1. When should the next version of LBAWin be?

2. What do you think about the project, that yaz0r (a member of the MBN) has started - TwinEngine?

3. Is it any possibility, that you would document some LBA 2 file formats for you?

4. What do you think about LBA 1 and LBA 2?

5. Which game of the two do you prefer the most?

6. What do you think - will LBA 3 ever be or not?

7. What do you think about the MBN?

8. What do you think - will Fred and Didier ever make peace again?

9. Why have some files a different format in LBA 2, than they have in LBA 1?

10. Why did you decide to introduce a new compression algorith in LBA 2?

11. If it's not too much, can we get the models (BODY.HQR entries), etc. from the beta version of LBA 2, like the yellow Franco guard, or the LBA 1-style ferry?

12. If it's still not too much, can we get the files for the beta version Citadel Island, where the woodbridge was still whole?

13. Can you explain, what is different in some LBA 2 scenes (those in SCENE.HQR), than in other? Because in my program, LBA Scene Manager, I have LBA 2 scene support, and scenes (consider them SCENE.HQR entry numbers, starting from 0), 24, 53, 54, 102, 119, 123, 168, 169, and 182 give errors, when I load them, while all other scenes load OK. Can you tell, what is different in those scenes?

14. Can you tell, what the entries in ANIM.HQR after the second one actually are?

15. In the LBA 2 saved games, there are some entries, which we don't know:

+1F6:	Signed, 16-bit.	Clover leaves (this one is known)
+1F8:	Signed, 16-bit.	Unknown. What is it?
+1FA:	Signed, 16-bit.	Rain flag, but can have anything else. What is it?
+1FC:	Signed, 16-bit.	If set, fills the inventory with lots of holomap. What is it?
+1FE:	Unsigned, 8-bit.   Unknown. What is it?
+1FF:	Unsigned, 8-bit.   If set 0x01, you can talk, otherwise not. What is it?

16. Can you explain, where was the "diving suit" intended to be used in LBA 2? As there's a behavior menu entry in TEXT.HQR, which says "diving suit", but we don't see any diving suit in the game.

17. There are 2 weird scenes in LBA 2. These are: drowning somewhere in the sea, and drowning somewhere in the lava. Can you explain, what they were inteded to be?

18. Is there a Japanese version of LBA 2? And if it is, how did you make the text support there? Are the texts in that version bitmaps, like the Japanese version of Wolf3-D uses, or is it done in a different way?

19. In one of the screenshots of the beta version of LBA 2, one can clearly see, that it's day, and Twinsen has his initial clothing. And the LBA 1-styled ferry is in the background. I have two questions about this. a) Can you explain, when was that scene inteded to appear? b) Why did you decide to change Twinsen's initial clothing in the final version?

20. What do you think will be the future of you, ex Adeline members?

Well, that's all. ChaosFish, feel free to filter the questions you find inappropriate.

[Battler]

Originally Posted by OBrasilo

11. If it's not too much, can we get the models (BODY.HQR entries), etc. from the beta version of LBA 2, like the yellow Franco guard, or the LBA 1-style ferry?

11. If it's not too much, can we get the models (BODY.HQR entries), etc. from the beta version of LBA 2, like the yellow Franco guard, or the LBA 1-style ferry, along with the anims? And, if the answer to the above question is YES, then, can we also get some info, on how to put the information for thos bodies, and anims into the File3D table (RESS.HQR, entry 45)?

[ChaosFish]

Some of these are really good questions, thanks!

[Rex_Hollywood]

Story coder?

[ChaosFish]

Originally Posted by FireBall2K

Story coder?

We should ask him "wtf is story coder" indeed

Unless someone here can tell what is it?

[Bot13]

Maybe he coded the thing's that once you've done plan A, you get object B, wich allow's you to get into building C

Like that he programmed the game to understand in wich part of the story you are. (limited acces to buildings etc.)

[hobmoblin]

Ok I got some questions:

1) Will you marry me?
2) Did you enjoy coding the LBA games?
3) How did you get into programming?
4) (not sure if we already know this) How did you meet up with fred and the gang?
5) What OS were you using during making the LBA games?
6) I'm guessing you used C++, did you start programming in C++ or was it with something else?
7) What other languages can you program in and what is your fave?

Thanks.

[Battler]

Originally Posted by hobmoblin

5) What OS were you using during making the LBA games?

You don't need to ask Seb this question to get an answer. I'll answer this one for you: MS-DOS, of course. All complex games were made in and mostly for MS-DOS in those days. And the software they used for it was Watcom C/C++ 16/32-bit.

[Gustav Sweden]

I have a few questions:
What ingridient in LBA are you personally most proud of?
Do the LBA creators like soccer? What teams do you guys support?
Any other sport you are interested in?
What music do you listen to?

And a tip:
Please avoid yes/no questions.

[morshem]

Where do you see yourself/Adeline in about 10 years from now?

[ChaosFish]

So many good questions... I think I'm gonna split it into a few interviews

[Axx]

No just call him, if he agrees to that. When you call someone, do it off the internet, have your computer record the coversation, also when you call you can ask many many questions, and get far more detailed answers. I used to have problems recording interviews because of dial up modem, make sure your using broad band, and are not in a internet cafe, where speeds are greatly reduced, regardless of broadband or not.

Ill post some questions latter, i think it should be far less about all this lba stuff, more about him personally!

[Vultures]

1) What are you doing at this moment ? Do you work on a new project ? Which is the company that have the luck to have you in its team ?
2) Will you make an LBAWin for LBA2 if we need it ?!?!

[ChaosFish]

Axx: My non-hebew accent is terrible. I think I'll just ask him the questions by mail, it's not such a big deal

And yes, I think I'll make the first email personal questions. After that perhaps I'll send him another one.

And maybe I'll make the first interview more than one email, if I will have questions about his answers.

[LBAWinOwns]

This seem cool, sadly i only got stupid questions

[xesf]

Originally Posted by ChaosFish

We should ask him "wtf is story coder" indeed

Unless someone here can tell what is it?

Probably what we have inside the scenes.hqr (life and track script).

[Gustav Sweden]

I dont think that his accent is very great either (he's French) so he probably doesnt care

Cant you talk to him through some IM thing (MSN?)? That way you could follow up the questions and such.

[ChaosFish]

Hmm.. I don't know. I think email is good enough.

[Gustav Sweden]

It is much better to do an interview in direct conversation than through mail.

[ChaosFish]

I'll consider that...

[Axx]

Originally Posted by Gustav Sweden

I dont think that his accent is very great either (he's French) so he probably doesnt care

Cant you talk to him through some IM thing (MSN?)? That way you could follow up the questions and such.

His accent is french, but his english seemed rather good when we talked.
But if you really have problems, e-mail is good, but limited. Obrasilo has way too many questions, dont go all technical crazy with the questions.

Personally id speek straight from my desire. I want something fullfilling, something that will help, be it my giving me satisfaction, or informing me about something that makes a change to the way i look at lba, the situation, the company.

Ive always loved to know what it was like working with Adeline-F4-toys, but i dont see any question as being capable of answering that, i believe that requires me to experience it for myself, and that is hard.
Ive asked many LBA3 questions, and have seen many ask the same, i dont see it as a appropriate question anymore, there simply isnt much to say about it. But there are things that lead to lba, that may or may not be in the rworking, searching for them, analysing then asking about them is the most usefull for now.

Considering this is a sebestian interview, these questions may too seem inappropriate.

Here are some things id like to know
Where do you work currently, and what do you work on?

The reason for the question is to find Sebastians place in the whole equation. If he works with some company that is not related to either didier, or fred, then he's really been marginalized, but youll also need to find the extent of that. A question about how he fits into everything, and what level his relationship with fred is on should be appropriate. Is he just a friend? Or does he still meet with fred about various projects and future plans?

Heres an example, but i believe you need much more time to actually think of a better wording for it
On what level is your relationship with fred on? Are you just friends, or do you still maintain a work related relationship aswell?

It gets tricky from this point on, as your cannot predict his answers so that you can respond with appropriate questions.

However, you can ask other questions. One thing i am interisted in is dider, although i wouldnt want the questions to be about the life of others, that may make sebestian less willing to bother with many questions.
So you could phrase it like this

Are you in contact with Didier, if so what about, and what is it he work on and with at the current moment?

Ok, so we'd have established a variety of important points by now, presuming he answers all the questions. These are very work related questions.
These are the questions i deem most important, and would more than love to see answered, as theyll solve al lot of mysteries.

Tell me what you think.

[ChaosFish]

Thanks for your help Axx.

For my first email-interview with him, I think I'll talk more about less... eh, "severe" stuff. We have never interviewed this guy, and starting with such questions right away will be less pleasant for him, and it would feel less good for us. If we start with more "light" questions (not too light though), we will get to know his personality a little, and feel more close to him.
So I will probably use your questions, but not right now.

[Axx]

Hmm, i was taking into account you knew him.

[ChaosFish]

Not enought

I only made the site for him (with iReeb), and had many "conversations" (note the "") with him at the bug tracker, but that's it. You can hardly say I know him.