Q. How do people hook their Mother Models into games ­ do you provide an API for this?

In the very near future, the MMC Load & Display Libs will be available for licensing, this will allow any C++ DirectX 7 coder to load in any MMC model into his/her application. Then with simple function calls they can place the models in their 3d space, render them, start pose animation scripts and so forth, overall the Libs will offer the complete display functionality of the MMC application.

It's important to note that as we are developing the tools exclusively for DirectX functionality, our model formats also include all render capabilities that DirectX offers within it's own file structure, for example if a designer created a model with say 8 texture blends, alpha maps, bump maps and applied dithering, used anisotropic filtering, applied specified material qualities, hardware antialiasing, wbuffering, zbias and alpha blending then this model will adapt to the hardware capabilities it is currently being displayed on. So in the above example it might only be displayed with 2 texture stages, wbuffering cut back to z buffering, anisotropic filtering degraded to linear filtering, no bump maps etc. The point is, that a designer can create the most advance models he desires and they will self grade to the hardware capabilities without the coder knowing anything about it, the models also have the ability to change the renderstates based on their own defined settings, oh and the libs will also load the textures for the current pixel format along with any sounds the model may use and of course free them all on shut down.

Q. Is 'The Mother Model Creator' and eventually the 'Mother Suite' efficient enough to be used to create commercial games?

Absolutely! This is Mothers primary purpose in life! By initiating tools that are specific and exclusive to the cause, we will be shaping the future of commercial game development for the PC platform, not to mention opening up the doors of creation to non coders. Vulcan (as a game development company) has experienced, as others have I'm sure, that the learning curve required to get to a 3d demo stage of a competitive game is an immense and time consuming task, as user expectations increase along with hardware technology we strongly believe that tool development needs to become more advanced and specific to the process.

The Mother Engine is designed to include standard expectations such as real-time physics, full world point and planer collision, shadows, curves and tessellation but is also designed to include the most advanced AI structures that are only so far dreamt about. Because we cater for our own exclusive model format it means that the creation process can include many other variables than just vertices and polygons, they will also include weights, structures, strengths, smells, temperature, tag definitions, used knowledge, purpose and experience (to name a few). All this relates to unimaginable interaction between each and every model created and placed within a Mother World, a small example of future functionality is endowing a character with emotional and psychological states, once placed within a Mother World if he gets hungry he will look for food based on his preference and find, pick up, eat, be sick, whatever the case may be, but know imagine that you never once animated this or programmed this performance, imagine that the characters entire behavior, animation, maneuvering of world, and interaction with every other model was an automatic process! That's what we imagined in January 1998 (when the first line of code was written) and since that time we have not wavered from this expected functionality.

Q. Who is Mother pitched at? (Prototyping or hobbyist tool or professional developers)

This is a tricky one and we are not 100% sure at this stage, originally Mother was designed for our own development products and purposes but as I want to rule the world :) we decided to release the tool modules 'as and when' they are functioning. If we just look at the MMC application (as this is the bit that's just been launched as a beta application) then if you're a texture artist there is no better tool to show a studio your work as the MMC allows you (and them) to see your talent wrapped and lit as it will appear on a final model within a DirectX7 based product. If you're a model builder or animator specializing in real-time game content then your dreams are answered as your models and animations can be seen and heard instantly, again as they will be seen in the final product, if you're a developer then you finally have a stand alone tool to give to your team with the sound knowledge that a few lines of code will bring their creations into your project and carry out sound synched animations of the advanced 3d models.

Q. Have any full games yet been created with the Mother Software?

Not at this stage, a few more Mother Modules need to be finished before a complete game could be created entirely from within the suite. The Mother Suite forms the foundation of some of Vulcan's 3d games currently in production and the MMC is used to construct and animate the 3d model content. Our flagship title Valhalla Online will be used to showcase the tools capabilities throughout it's own game development as this is in parallel development with the Mother tools.

Q. How well has The Mother Model Creator' sold so far? Why?

Presently we only have a handful of users who have registered with the MMC application (outside of Vulcan) as it was only released to the public 'in beta stage' a few weeks ago on our website. As publicity grows on the tools capabilities and more demonstrations of it's functionality become available we fully expect the registration numbers to accelerate. Ultimately we know it's a case of seeing a superior 3d game in action that will give the tools their deserved profile but until that is a reality we are happy to endure a nice slow and gentle penetration within the industry and community.

Q. What are your future pricing and expansion plans for the system?

At this exact moment in time, the Mother Model Creator is available in a beta version (DX5 Based) for a single registration price of £49.99. Currently we have been implementing complete DX7 compatibility with multiple texture blending and bump mapping for the MatroxG400, along with full renderstate configurations (embedded in the file structures) to take advantage of all present hardware capabilities, we expect this upgraded version of the MMC to be available in 2 weeks time. From that point on the MMC will constantly be expanded with extra functions based on current user suggestions and progressing compatibility with the other Mother Modules. Each new version of the MMC is free to registered users.

Once the MMC load and display libs are released to commercial developers, of which we estimate in the region of £25k per product skew, we will go back to the development of the Mother World Builder application which allows the construction of fully lit worlds using Mother models, again this is via a graphic interface. After which we expand the Mother Character Profile Constructor, Mother Game Designer, Mother Application Maker and the Mother Engine to complete the entire Mother Suite.

This Mother Suite has no set price (at this time) as we still envisage a good years + of development, but we imagine it to be around £200k per product skew. The final part of the Mother Suite is what we call the X button, which allows the games target platform to be changed, currently we have not fixed a price to this 64x64 pixeled image.

Q. Can you please give me a brief idea of what Vulcan has done in the past and where you stand now. How many staff do you have, et cetera?

Vulcan Software was founded in January 1994 with the launch of the critically acclaimed Valhalla & the Lord of Infinity the first ever speech adventure for the Amiga platform. Achieving UK retailers best buy awards, and becoming the most controversial release of its time Valhalla established Vulcan as a mainstream commercial software developer and publishing company that went on to create 15 award winning entertainment titles over 5 years for the Amiga computer. At the height of Vulcan's Amiga success they comprised of over 100 individuals in 14 development teams, publishing and distributing their products to retail outlets around the world and direct to the user via mail order. Vulcan's 10 MiniSeries titles and 5 MegaSeries titles all received review scores over 90% and 1998 saw Genetic Species scoop 22 awards from Amiga press around the world and heralded as the fastest 3D title the Amiga platform had ever seen, outselling rival title Amiga Quake.

Change of Direction
Due to economic changes and the constant decline of the commercial Amiga market, in January 1998 Vulcan made the decision to switch development emphasis to the PC platform and began implementing a massive overhaul and refinement of its operating procedures. Abandoning it's previous role as a publishing company, Vulcan retained a select group of talented developers and began concentrating all of its resources and energy into redefining the boundaries of 3D gaming technology for the PC market.

Q. Who owns the company? Who bought the shares you issued the other day? I¹m confused about this!

Vulcan is owned by it's directors and founders, Paul Carrington and Lisa Tunnah, our first game for the Amiga500 was coded in Amos by Paul and designed by Lisa (they where the good ole days with a 12 week development cycle) however we enjoyed the process so much we haven't stopped since. Throughout our 6 years we have remained a private limited company and only recently we increase our share capital to 1 million shares and made a 20% stake in Vulcan available to the public, this not only gives investors a chance to own a slice of us but also generates greatly needed working capital for our continuos development operations.

Q. Are you looking to publish your own games, or are they signed to other publishers? Who?

We will not be publishing our own games as we are now 100% dedicated to development and we fully intend to allow an established Publisher to undertake that role. Currently none of our games are signed to anyone and we don't expect to begin negotiations until close to completion of each individual project. It's very important for us to remain in control of our direction which is dictated by our own development pace. It's important because we want to rock the boat with regards to the conceived development process structure and our future plans are designed to change things as opposed to follow things, call me crazy but domination, standardization, advancement and technological progress is what makes me tick!

Q. How can a small developer produce so many games and a game development kit?

Everyone asks me that! :) Well our history of 15 Amiga games was down to allot of talented people but our future PC games and 3D tools are down to just a handful of extremely talented people. I often wonder when I read of the 40+ teams on one project and simply cringe at the logistical problems that would produce not to mention the cost. No it's a myth that you need big teams to create products, sure it exists and it is also adhered to, but if you've got the right talent, the right tools, the right attitude and the golden brass balls to see it through (no matter how long it takes) then anything is possible and achievable! Don't forget, if we can create Mother to it's original design brief then soon you will see the most advanced 3d games being created by one person!