I'll do some images on PS to make the interview looks more cool, until there, this is the interview:
1) Hello Anders, I would like you to introduce yourself to our readers; where do you come from? What do you do for a living?
Hello to you! My name is Anders Jacobsson, 29yo and I live in Malmo, Sweden.
I'm working with logistics for an electronic retailer store in Sweden. This is just a "meantime" job until I get to work with design engineering. I studied to a design engineer some years ago, but it's difficult on the job market.
Besides this I'm hanging out with family and friends, out partying and drinking beers.
If I'm not doing the above things, I'm playing with my band, doing music, playing video/computer games. But most important, making sounds and visual effects for PR.
2) You are passionate by PR and therefore you have invested in something really strong, we will talk about it later on. So, where does this passion come from? Since when? What made you like Project Reality so much?
Yes that's true. I've always felt a passion for games with tactics and thinking. Along with this, a nice online teamwork feeling.
It started many years ago with Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear with my mates on a LAN, to later on move on with games like Raven Shield. Also played a lot of COOP sessions in Operation Flashpoint and ARMA 2.
As you can see, I've more or less got drawn to military game types.
Then after I've played a lot of BF2, PR mini mod got released and I thought: "this is going into the right direction".
I've followed PR through the years, but never been that active player. Had some long breaks from it and then got back. I actually didn't think you could do that much with the old Refractor 2 engine. I guess I was wrong.
3) You are in a team, can you talk about it? What is your role within this team?
Since I'm alone in my department regarding sounds I've got the freedom to do what I want more or less. But communication is the keyword here especially when you have some new ideas and want to see them get real. There are many veterans in the team and I even get support from retired Devs.
We've got a new guy that creates the visual effects. His name's Bruno Gorostiaga and me and him are working to get the most beautiful and at the same time realistic effects ever created for a BF2 mod.
When I get a new idea I often ask the team for suggestions. Sometimes I've tried things that never seems to work, but I'm stubborn and often need help with the thinking when it's a feature that hasn't been seen in other BF2 modifications.
My role is simply to make sure every sound and visual effects works fine without crashes and also to make sure PR 1.0 will be a seen as a new experience, but still familiar.
I'm working very close to Chuc aswell nad together we discuss how a gun should be animated and sound. It's important for me that animations and sounds goes hand in hand.
4) You have made a monetary investment for the PR community because you have made sounds for different weapons to make the game more realistic. Where did this idea come from since some DEV went on a trip to record vehicles sounds some time ago (with the Big Boss UK Force in particular)?
Yes I did. It started when I was searching for good sound effects online and came across some great sites with links to sound effects re-sellers. I wanted to have the best references for this old engine as I could get. To show the community, that this game can still be enjoyable visually, but also the audio environment.
The majority of the people who play PR are often people who share the same thoughts in how a realistic military game should be. Many are veterans and love this game, mostly because of the communications and tactical play.
So I want to give them the best experience out there on the battlefield.
When I first bought my first sound archive, I felt kinda "mighty" as not many mod teams out there go out and buy things for their own money.
Then it just got more and more as I discovered new things in PR that needed more sounds to it.
I have about 50GB of sound sources to pick from. Didn't like the feeling when I discovered how much cash I've spent on just sounds. But I hope the result will be great in 1.0 so I can think back and say "this was for the best and people really like it".
Regarding the recording sessions the team did with the British vehicles, I've decided not to touch any engines or inside details they have today. Just some minor tweaks were done by me. But the rest of the vehicles in the game had old sounds. Many from vanilla BF2. So those needed some great love along with other things.
5) Your undertaking cost you a lot of money, hence I think that a big thank is deserved for a man who did such effort ! However, why? Give us an explanation not about the money itself but about this motivation that pushed you to do it. Because 1500 Euros nevertheless, it is not for nothing !!
I don't know exactly why I did this. But as I stated above, I feel that I wanted to get serious with this. Showing the community that PR still lives was important for me and that people loved my Sound Mod just increased the motivation for me. I feel that I have some sort of talent when listening to details. This concerns even music. I can listen to a song one time, and then play it on either guitar or piano afterwards. I think it all started with my interest into music and then got over to sound effects.
But ever since I've played games with the realistic details in visuals and sounds, I've been astonished since my interest of computer games started. I mean the GFX and sound effects wasn't that great in the late 90s or beginning of 2000.
So I put alot of details to motions and compare them to the real world. Also how it sounds when you're in a forest for an example. Every small detail that comes through my ears is candy for me.
So with a lot of things going on at the same time, like explosions, bullets hitting near you, choppers passing by, tanks rolling in, I picture it in my mind how it should sound instead etc. Also what other things to add to this. Everything from shooting a 9mm pistol to a 120mm tank cannon.
6) You are now DEV for not only you have invested money but you have worked quite hard to integrate those new sounds. How did you do it? It is not really easy to edit every sound for every weapon, isn't it?
It seems to me that your DEV title is amply justified.
Yes and I'm grateful for how all in the team treats me.
About adding sounds to PR or BF2 is not just by making a sound and put it into some folders. It's a lot more than that. The base is always the code. This is the "commander for the sounds".
You can add sounds to everything that moves or shows up more or less. It just needs a lot of tweaking codewise to work with different objects or effects.
I've added so many new details since v0.973. This can be many more distant shots and explosion sounds, debris sounds of explosions on different materials, from 9mm shell sounds to 20mm shells. There're so many things I've added that the players probably won't even notice. It's just to make sure I've done what I can to make it as realistic as possible.
7) Anders, you are a personality by itself in this community and I would like to ask you how you feel about that. Are you happy to be part of this adventure? Tell us everything.
Yes I feel like home here. It's grateful because the players are mostly like me especially how they think while playing. We're all here for the same purpose. To play a game that doesn't has the same realistic feel like other games out there has failed to have.
Also, I like the community modding section. We Devs all started there more or less. Showing what we could do and got promoted. It's a great feeling to see these talented people that wants the same.
So yes. I'm VERY happy to be part of this so called adventure.
I would like to conclude Mister Anders by this: could you give us some info about the v1.0 regarding sounds? Do you have any hot news? If you don't, we won't hold it against you. Suspense !! I'm not allowed to show you a lot of things ATM. But I can tell you something about what's coming up in 1.0.
Every sound from 0.973 is improved/changed. It will sound nothing like 0.973.
Some of you have downloaded my soundmod, but most of those sounds are changed as well.
There's going to be new visual effects for bullethits, blood, explosions, fire, you name it and they look awesome.
Here's a WIP vid of the sounds and visuals for 1.0:
NOTE: I bet that there is an Easter Egg in this video, he didn't tell if there is or not, but I bet yes, so try to find everything you can that haven't be seen on the Devcasts or the Teaser.
