Robert Djordjevich: Mercenaries uses an all-new graphics engine, although all the Pandemic games share some ancestors.GameSpy: How hard was it to keep the game running at a buttery 60 FPS (30 on PS2), even when there's a on of action onscreen?
Robert Djordjevich: It was quite a balancing act, with lots of back and forth between engineering, art, and design. There was a lot of refinement, especially at the end. We had to make sure every unit, building, and vehicle counted.GameSpy: The game appears to utilize a bloom lighting effect of sorts. Why did you decide to use this?
Robert Djordjevich: The bloom lighting is part of an atmosphere system that does an excellent job of conveying mood. It allowed us to do dynamic changes to the look and feel of the game. Safer areas have a mild bloom effect. Snowy areas use the bloom to create the effect of snow blinding you. The bloom is used to make active war zones feel grittier and more dangerous. Wait until you see how it's used to convey radiation!
GameSpy: I don't know if I've ever seen more impressive particle effects in a console game. The way the smoke moves when a chopped is coming down is simply phenomenal. How did you manage to implement this without slowing down the framerate?
Robert Djordjevich: The genius of our technical director, Ronald Pieket. A lot of the effects were hand crafted. And, no I don't mean with hammers and chisels. They were created at a very low level in the code in an effort to maximize the particle power of the consoles.GameSpy: How closely did the design team work with the development team to get everything they wanted into the game?
Robert Djordjevich: There's a lot of back and forth between the engineering, art, and design teams. Can we save a few cycles here by removing a single soldier? Can we make the soldiers use cover more so we can have fewer of them and still keep an effective threat?
