Meta/News Mod of the Month interview with Xaltar

[Tchos]

This is the second in a series of interviews with past Mod of the Month winners here on the Nexus, which should come out weekly until we've caught up with all of the past winners. These will be posted in order of their completion.

 

This interview is with Xaltar, for the mod NWN2 Facelift Pack, a high quality head replacer for many of the races in NWN2, both male and female. Xaltar has produced mods for numerous games, including both Neverwinter Nights games, Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines, and Dragon Age: Origins.

 

Be sure to vote for your favourites for Mod of the Month. Each person can vote for one mod each month, by clicking the "Vote for me" button on a mod's page. This applies to any mods in the database, not only mods that were submitted in the current month. Vote for anything you think deserves a spotlight!

 

http://neverwinter.nexusmods.com/mods/images/212-1-1349029739.jpg

 

Q: To begin with, I have a few questions about you yourself. What can you tell the readers about your own background?

 

A: I am a 31 year old male. My wife and I currently live in Bulgaria with our 5 year old daughter. We have lived in several countries over the last 10 years. By trade I am an IT specialist -- more specifically a hardware nut, and as a result an avid gamer. After a while, I became dissatisfied with games as they were. I wanted more from them, so modding became a hobby. The first mods I ever made were maps and textures for Wolfenstein 3d when I was about 16 (obviously never released), however it wasn't until I got my first fixed internet connection in around 2003 that modding became a rewarding hobby. Ever since then I have modded almost every game I have played that has the tools to allow it, from simple texture mods to heads and armors. Most of my work has been for personal use or simply wasn't good enough to release by my own estimate.

 

My favorite genre of game is RPGs, both on PC and pen and paper, and it's a passion my wife and I both share. My wife and I are big fans of character-driven stories. There is simply no substitute for well developed characters. A good story can only take you so far if the characters are not personable and complete. This is perhaps why The Elder Scrolls games have never really appealed to us, as they tend to be focused more on the world and its lore, rather than endearing companions and NPCs. Not to take anything away from the franchise. The games are brilliantly done and offer hours of entertainment. However, they lack the elements needed to hold my interest beyond the first play-through. My favorite games are, in no particular order: the Baldur's Gate series, the Icewind Dale series, the NWN series, the Vampire the Masquerade series, the Knights of the Old republic series and Dragon age: Origins (I hated Dragon Age 2). The Mass Effect series was also fun until the end of 3, too, I guess, but not really in my top ten.

 

Q: What attracted you to these games, and what do you enjoy most about it today?

 

A: As I am sure you know, there are not that many RPGs out there to choose from, and fewer still that offer the elements I enjoy. To be honest, Neverwinter Nights did not really appeal to me all that much. In fact, I don't think I ever even completed a play-through. The game just seemed boring to me. However, it did offer something that I very much admire and approve of: the toolset. Giving me the power to create and explore my own ideas. Sadly, I didn't get very far with the toolset, with its rather steep learning curve, on top of trying to learn 3DS Max at the same time.

 

Neverwinter Nights 2, however, was perhaps the best game I had ever played when it came out. It had companions with personalities I had not seen since Baldur's Gate, romance options, action and consequence, and I have to admit, breathtaking visuals at the time of its release. By the time the tools for 3D Studio Max were created for it, I was in love with character modeling, and more or less decided to focus my interests exclusively in this area, rather than creating modules and toolset mods.

 

I find it particularly rewarding to see my creations being used and enjoyed by the community, whether simply in playthroughs or in new modules and custom content. What I enjoy most is seeing how far I can push the envelope within the limitations of the game's engine and self imposed restrictions. I suppose, basically I am an artist and I create these mods in order to improve and grow creatively.

 

Q: Your latest mod, NWN2 Facelift Pack, was File of the Month on the Neverwinter Nexus, and it is, in this reviewer's opinion, the best head replacer ever made for NWN2. How would you describe this pack, and how it's intended to be used?

 

A: Thanks for the endorsement. It means a lot to get such positive feedback on a project like this. Basically, the mod is primarily designed to breathe some life back into the original game and bring it more up to date graphically. So rather than the typical approach of creating additional player heads, I opted to replace the existing heads in the game, so that all the NPCs would benefit from the upgrade as well.

 

I intended it be used in two ways: firstly to add replay value to the original game when compared graphically to newer games, and secondly, and perhaps most importantly, as resource for the community to both use and expand on.

 

Q: What inspired you to make this mod?

 

A: Being disappointed with the current RPGs on the market today, my wife and I decided to revisit some of our old favorites. Neverwinter Nights 2, being perhaps one of my favorite games, I felt was in much need of a makeover. After having been spoiled by playing the likes of Skyrim which, although a good game, did not meet my particular RPG needs and wants, I simply could not bear to look at the now very dated NWN 2 character art. With this in mind, I set out to create this pack, in hopes that it would both increase my enjoyment of the game again, as well as perhaps attract some more people back to the community of this wonderful game. What started out as just adding a head or two to make my PC look the way I wanted it quickly grew into this pack once I saw the impact my new heads were making on the game.

 

http://neverwinter.nexusmods.com/mods/images/212-1-1351691010.jpg

 

Q: Personally, I wouldn't say that the character art is "dated", per se, because it didn't even look good compared to other games of its time and even earlier (especially the elves). But I understand the meaning, and I'm glad that your mod brings things up to today's high standards.

 

You've made several other mods to improve the character heads and models, both for NWN1 and NWN2. How would you compare your past work to your work today?

 

A: I have obviously learned a lot since my earlier mods for both games. Add to that the advancement of graphics hardware and fewer limitations, and I think it is safe to say there really is no comparison. My current pack would likely slow older systems to a near crawl when I released my earlier mods. Even so, I still try to keep my models and textures within reasonable specification for the game they are intended for.

 

Q: At the time of this writing, you've said that you're still adding more to this mod. About how long were you working on it before you released it initially? What were the high points and low points of the process? Any "eureka" moments, or seemingly insurmountable barriers?

 

A: In total, the first pack I released for this project probably represents about a month's work spread out over the last year. Most of that time was spent on creating and tweaking the head I made for Dragon Age that was used as the basis for the human female pack. I must admit, though, that a lot of that time was nitpicking and reworking things until I was satisfied with it. As I learned more I went back and redid things. I guess the key thing all artists must learn is when to call it done and move on to something else. It is ever so tempting to get caught in a loop of fixing and tweaking. Once the first head was completed and in game it took me about a week to create the other 9 heads based on it.

 

I suppose the most satisfying moment was once I managed to get the first head in game, rigged and working as intended. I was surprised at just how well the game engine handled it and how good it looked next to the other models in the game already. My eureka moment, if the mod can be said to have one, was when I figured out a way to do the UVs in such a way as to minimize visible seams. Unfortunately, I figured this out too late for the first few packs I released. Still, even the first packs look good provided you don't want them bald. Redoing the UVs on all my released heads would likely take me months, seeing as they would have to be done individually and accurately to all match the same UV layout.

 

You see, the process is to make one head with the UVs arranged as I want them and then basically clone and modify that same head multiple times to create variation in the heads. Each head would then inherit its UVs from the original head, and thus not need to be individually unwrapped. The only alternative would be to redo all the work I have already done on the packs that have the old UVs and create new heads for them, seeing as I would need to start from a new base head with the updated UVs and begin the variations all over again. This would mean that I would be replacing the packs with new heads rather than updating the existing ones, and I feel that it would be counter intuitive to the project to go back and redo all that work rather than focus on moving forward. Needless to say, it pains me to have to do this, being somewhat of a perfectionist. I guess it comes back to knowing when to move on again.

 

The other barrier is the sheer scale of the project. I have, at the time of writing this, already released over 50 heads and I believe there are likely at least that many more before I am even close to completing this project. I think what has slowed me down is the NPC heads. Each of them is unique, and I try to keep them as true to my own vision of the originals as I can, and that takes time compared to simply creating variety. The Elanee head I just released took about a week to do compared to the 1 or 2 days it takes me to make an entire pack for the race heads.

 

Q: You mentioned you also mod for Dragon Age. Would you like to say anything about that?

 

There really isn't all that much to say. I released a nude pack on the Bioware community site a few years ago, and since then most of my work has been toward a module my wife and I have been planning to create. Nothing I have created for DA:O will be released until either the module is made and ready for release, or I decide to scrap it altogether, in which case I will release all my assets for the community to use. I can't really say much about the module at this time, aside from that we hope to have a modern day map for it, complete with cars and computers, etc. The mod is still in the pre-production phase, and has been for the last 2 years while I have been creating assets and testing them to see if our ideas are viable in the engine. So far it has proved grueling and tedious to get things going. Hopefully the mod will materialize eventually. We have no set time frame for it at the moment, and I believe it will likely take several years to complete once we get started on it.

 

Q: What other things might you be working on now, or in the near future?

 

A: At the moment my time is pretty much all being swallowed up by this mod. Once it's done, I will probably take a bit of a break, and then get back into trying to kickstart my Dragon Age module. I suspect I will likely be addressing bugs and requests for this mod for several months after its completion, as well, so I guess time will tell.

 

Q: As one who enjoyed Dragon Age: Origins, I expect I'll still have that game installed on my system by the time you're done with your module.

 

To wrap things up, what would you like to see more of from your fellow modders?

 

A: I would love to see more interest in creating new assets for games like Neverwinter Nights 2 and Dragon Age: Origins. Thus far, aside from nude mods and the odd retexture here and there, there really isn't much in the way of new material to work with for either game. Sure, there are some hair packs, and a few minor cosmetic upgrades, but for the most part most modders seem to focus on module work or custom scripts and the like. I think what I would enjoy seeing most, though, would be some modern day assets created for Dragon Age, as it would drastically reduce the amount of work needed for my own module.

 

Xaltar, I'd like to thank you for taking the time for this interview. Everyone else, watch for more interviews coming soon!

 

Again, be sure to vote for your favourites for Mod of the Month. Each person can vote for one mod each month, by clicking the "Vote for me" button on a mod's page, and keep in mind that your choice does not have to be a mod that was released in the recent month. Bring the spotlight on all worthy mods!

[kamalktk]

Go Bulgaria!

 

/Former Mrs. Kamal is Bulgarian.