Matt Wells AKA "Mash" brought us the high resolution patches for FO1, FO2, Tactics and Mapper2.exe.
<blockquote>Who are you?
My name's Matt Wells. I currently reside somewhere on the Queensland coast in Australia but will soon be relocating to Tasmania.
What do you do outside of modding?
This and that. The usual eat, drink and sleep. I'm pretty boring.
How did you get into Fallout modding?
It all started when I upgraded my computer a few years back and found that my favorite game looked terrible on my new wide screen LCD. It occurred to me that what fallout needed was a patch to increase the resolution. After searching the NMA forum modding section it seemed I wasn't the only one with this notion but it also seemed unlikely a real playable patch would ever be created. I'd always been intrigued how those marvelous game modding people do their thing so I decided to give it a go myself.
Where do you find inspiration for this?
It's kind of fun sifting though assembly code figuring out which function does what. It’s kind of like a giant puzzle.
What god did you pray to make Fallout so pretty? is this some kind of magic? How did you do this?
In a word 'Time', lots and lots of time. It's probably been over four year now since I first started work on the fallout 2 hi-res patch. Back then modifying games was just as mysterious to me. My first attempts to change the resolution were pretty lame and involved using a hex editor on the EXE to change references to 640 and 480. I manage to change the window resolution this way but not much else. But this was enough to inspire me to start using a debugger and learn to read assembly. Trolling the internet for info, a lot of trial and error and many hours later here we are. It's been a lot of fun and I've learnt some new skills along the way as well as making something other people can enjoy. You can’t ask for much more from a hobby.
Any advice for newcomers to the modding scene?
Enjoying the process of modding and learning new skills is probably as or more important than achieving your goals as that’s what keeps you going in the long term.
You just appeared out of nowhere and released these awesome patches. Were you lurking NMA for a while?
Yep, I've been visiting NMA for a many years. I'm not much into the whole communication thing. The need to chat, Facebook etc is kind of lost on me, guess I'm weird that way. I only got around to registering on the forums to upload the first version of the hi-res patch.
The High resolution patch for Fallout 2 has had 428942 downloads and the Fallout 1 variant has had 140531. These numbers do not include all the downloaded content it is bundled with or off site third party sites. Did you expect it too be so popular?
To be fair I don't think the counter is reset when I release a new version. But then that also means there are a lot of people who come back again and again to grab the latest version which is also amazing. It really goes to show how popular the fallouts still are after so many years.
What do you think the optimal resolution is for Fallout? Do you feel like I do, that the art loses it's charm when it is bigger than 800 by 600?
My reason for creating the hi-res patch was to play fallout on my 22" 1680x1050 LCD. I personally think it looks great at that size as images on an LCD look their best when using your monitor’s native resolution. However Fallout was designed with a lower resolution in mind and I can see how in some cases having a greater field of view might inhibit suspense somewhat by reveling stuff that would usually not be seen straight away. I still prefer my monitor’s native res but I can see why some would choose a res closer to the original. In the end it comes down to personal taste I suppose.
Do you have any future plans for the project?
Increasing the size of fallouts GUI is probably the last major thing I want to do for the hi-res patch. I have also been looking into ways to improve the mapper as well as a couple of other Fallout related projects I have in mind.
Who is your most influential modder?
Timeslip has to be at the top, he/she has done some truly amazing stuff while at the same time making it seem so effortless.
I'd also like to mention 'jdoe407' who's Fallout 2 Patcher program proved a hi-res patch was indeed possible with a lot of work.
And finally this quote by 'red', taken from a thread on higher resolutions back in 2003 which I took as a challenge:
"No it's not possible and it would entail a heck of a lot of problems even if you did put it in another resolution. The game was made for 640x480, and everything was designed to work that way."
Where do Fallout 1,2,3,NV rank in your all-time favorite titles?
Apart from fallout my other favorite series which also has an enduring community is Wing Commander. It's hard to mix the two to together in a list as they're in a completely different genre so I'll just list the fallouts.
1,2,NV,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,3.
Who is your favorite Fallout character and why?
Butch from Fallout 1. I like his dialog, he's rude and grumpy but pretty impressed when you take out the deathclaw "done and done".
What do you think about FNV?
I haven't finished it yet but I'm quite impressed so far. It’s above and beyond a better game than Fallout 3 which I didn't much like. Does anyone else get motion sickness playing 3D games?
What's your take on modern RPGs?
To be honest apart from the latest fallout additions I haven't played any in the last several years. But that’s probably an answer in itself.
What would you prioritise if you survived a nuclear war? (water, procreation, Saviour of knowledge or finding shelter)
I don't know. I'm a bit of a loner so I'd stay away from populated areas, scrounge around for life’s necessities and try to avoid getting murdered by what’s left of the human race.</blockquote>
<blockquote>Who are you?
My name's Matt Wells. I currently reside somewhere on the Queensland coast in Australia but will soon be relocating to Tasmania.
What do you do outside of modding?
This and that. The usual eat, drink and sleep. I'm pretty boring.
How did you get into Fallout modding?
It all started when I upgraded my computer a few years back and found that my favorite game looked terrible on my new wide screen LCD. It occurred to me that what fallout needed was a patch to increase the resolution. After searching the NMA forum modding section it seemed I wasn't the only one with this notion but it also seemed unlikely a real playable patch would ever be created. I'd always been intrigued how those marvelous game modding people do their thing so I decided to give it a go myself.
Where do you find inspiration for this?
It's kind of fun sifting though assembly code figuring out which function does what. It’s kind of like a giant puzzle.
What god did you pray to make Fallout so pretty? is this some kind of magic? How did you do this?
In a word 'Time', lots and lots of time. It's probably been over four year now since I first started work on the fallout 2 hi-res patch. Back then modifying games was just as mysterious to me. My first attempts to change the resolution were pretty lame and involved using a hex editor on the EXE to change references to 640 and 480. I manage to change the window resolution this way but not much else. But this was enough to inspire me to start using a debugger and learn to read assembly. Trolling the internet for info, a lot of trial and error and many hours later here we are. It's been a lot of fun and I've learnt some new skills along the way as well as making something other people can enjoy. You can’t ask for much more from a hobby.
Any advice for newcomers to the modding scene?
Enjoying the process of modding and learning new skills is probably as or more important than achieving your goals as that’s what keeps you going in the long term.
You just appeared out of nowhere and released these awesome patches. Were you lurking NMA for a while?
Yep, I've been visiting NMA for a many years. I'm not much into the whole communication thing. The need to chat, Facebook etc is kind of lost on me, guess I'm weird that way. I only got around to registering on the forums to upload the first version of the hi-res patch.
The High resolution patch for Fallout 2 has had 428942 downloads and the Fallout 1 variant has had 140531. These numbers do not include all the downloaded content it is bundled with or off site third party sites. Did you expect it too be so popular?
To be fair I don't think the counter is reset when I release a new version. But then that also means there are a lot of people who come back again and again to grab the latest version which is also amazing. It really goes to show how popular the fallouts still are after so many years.
What do you think the optimal resolution is for Fallout? Do you feel like I do, that the art loses it's charm when it is bigger than 800 by 600?
My reason for creating the hi-res patch was to play fallout on my 22" 1680x1050 LCD. I personally think it looks great at that size as images on an LCD look their best when using your monitor’s native resolution. However Fallout was designed with a lower resolution in mind and I can see how in some cases having a greater field of view might inhibit suspense somewhat by reveling stuff that would usually not be seen straight away. I still prefer my monitor’s native res but I can see why some would choose a res closer to the original. In the end it comes down to personal taste I suppose.
Do you have any future plans for the project?
Increasing the size of fallouts GUI is probably the last major thing I want to do for the hi-res patch. I have also been looking into ways to improve the mapper as well as a couple of other Fallout related projects I have in mind.
Who is your most influential modder?
Timeslip has to be at the top, he/she has done some truly amazing stuff while at the same time making it seem so effortless.
I'd also like to mention 'jdoe407' who's Fallout 2 Patcher program proved a hi-res patch was indeed possible with a lot of work.
And finally this quote by 'red', taken from a thread on higher resolutions back in 2003 which I took as a challenge:
"No it's not possible and it would entail a heck of a lot of problems even if you did put it in another resolution. The game was made for 640x480, and everything was designed to work that way."
Where do Fallout 1,2,3,NV rank in your all-time favorite titles?
Apart from fallout my other favorite series which also has an enduring community is Wing Commander. It's hard to mix the two to together in a list as they're in a completely different genre so I'll just list the fallouts.
1,2,NV,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,3.
Who is your favorite Fallout character and why?
Butch from Fallout 1. I like his dialog, he's rude and grumpy but pretty impressed when you take out the deathclaw "done and done".
What do you think about FNV?
I haven't finished it yet but I'm quite impressed so far. It’s above and beyond a better game than Fallout 3 which I didn't much like. Does anyone else get motion sickness playing 3D games?
What's your take on modern RPGs?
To be honest apart from the latest fallout additions I haven't played any in the last several years. But that’s probably an answer in itself.
What would you prioritise if you survived a nuclear war? (water, procreation, Saviour of knowledge or finding shelter)
I don't know. I'm a bit of a loner so I'd stay away from populated areas, scrounge around for life’s necessities and try to avoid getting murdered by what’s left of the human race.</blockquote>
