Hello GUNners!
Welcome to the November 2017 edition of The GUN Insider. Here we take the opportunity to learn more about some of the most accomplished modders within the gaming community.
This month we spoke with Weijisen (Jack) who most people will know from his excellent visual mods on the Nexus.
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GUN: Thank you for taking some time to chat with us. Can you please start by telling us about yourself?Jack: Sure, long time user and fan. I live in sunny Hong Kong, a stone’s throw from the bay. In those rare, fleeting moments when I’m not modding, I’m likely swimming, buying things online or hiking. Enjoying what life has to offer XD
GUN: How old were you when you began modding? I've seen some very old mods of yours on the FO3 nexus that lead me to believe you must have been modding in high school!Jack: Haha, well just about that long. I actually started modding while still in college, just after having played my first Elder Scrolls game. I did a bit of Oblivion modding then jumped straight into other games like Torchlight.
GUN: It’s probably safe to say most people know you for your work from E.V.E., the sixth most endorsed NV mod of all time with 64k endorsements and 2.4 million downloads. Like pretty much everyone else with a modded game, I think it's an essential mod. The name says as much! Can you tell us about what inspired you to take on that huge project for both 3 and NV?Jack: Well when I’d first tried my hand at FO3 modding, it was part of the FOOK mod.
It is a little known fact that I was a FOOK core member on it’s original release. It was while working on FOOK’s weapons that I decided to take some of my FOOK experiments and separate it as a standalone mod. That separation originally covered just lasers, then eventually expanded to much more than just that.
GUN: Your mods always seem to focus on the gamer’s visual experience in a dynamic way. What is it about visual effects that motivates you to do what you do?Jack: Perhaps some of that can be attributed to upbringing. Extensive use of fireworks, late nights of Star Trek, and of course old shooters like Doom 2, Duke Nukem 2, and Halloween Harry. Toss an inner-pyromaniac into the mix and the result is a deep-rooted personal interest in nice looking visuals. (and destruction).
GUN: One thing that helps your visual work stand out is your custom cubemaps. For those who don't know, can you explain what a cubemap is and why they are important for visual immersion?Jack: Cubemaps are essentially the poor man’s reflections. In engines that don’t support real-time reflections, or when said reflections would be intensive, that’s when baked reflections are used. Since they add a shiny effect, they are typically used on glass and metallic surfaces. After all, a piece of metal is hard to sell without some sort of shimmer seen on it.
GUN: You've done quite a lot besides EVE. Mods like IMPACT are amazing and BLIND is fantastic for those who like the features. There was also the Gnome Wrangler and A World of Wacky. Suffice it to say, your mod history is wonderfully decorated. Can you give us a full history of your mods?Jack: Tracking my standalone work is relatively simple, but what’s more difficult would be keeping track of the mods I’ve assisted with.
A few of the various mods I’ve lent a hand with would be:
- Carpets and falling leaves for an Elianora skyrim mod.
- Animated feathers for SSE’s bird mods.
- Jetpack exhaust for FO3.
- Chainsaw smoke for FNV.
- Fragmenting gauss for FNV.
- Poison clouds for a Skyrim bow.
- All manner of weather visuals for an up-and-coming fallout mod.
- I’ve even donated various visuals to Fallout: Project Brazil (New California), as well as TTW, and even to some WIP Fallout4 projects. (Even the gravity-blast visuals for your very own Riddick Gravity Gun!)
By my last count I’d had a hand in the development in over 3 dozen mods on nexus. I’m often more interested in assisting other modders achieve their goals than I am trying to push my own out there.
GUN: Don't forget the great sign you made for the Nick Valentine Companion!!
What has been your favorite mod(s) and why? And on the flip side, what mod(s) was your least favorite to create and why?Jack: I actually really enjoyed making BLIND, mostly because it was something quite different from what I was used to making. BLIND actually started out as a Skyrim mod. For those who don’t know, BLIND adds damage numbers, just like Terraria, Dead Island, Borderlands, and –countless- other RPG type titles have. The skyrim version of BLIND was never released, mostly because I dedicated my time to getting the FNV version out first.
As for my least favorite? That would also have to be BLIND, haha. This is because I ended up regretting the direction I allowed it to go. Some things such as the floating HP bars, while cool, ended up having some issues (mostly would stop working) for most users. I never got around to simply removing that and reverting the mod back to original vision of simply RPG style numbers flying.
GUN: This interview is about the man behind the moniker of Weijiesen so I don't want to go too far off track here, but rumor has it that there's a forthcoming mod for NV called the Frontier?!? Have you heard of this?Jack: Frontier the mod, fits the frontier mentioned in Star Trek. Being it is the ‘final frontier’. I’ve injected the culmination of nearly all my unreleased work, as well as my best work into the mod.
I’ve lost track of all the ground breaking, never-been-done-before stuff it introduces, but needless to say this frontier is definitely my final foray into the realm of FNV’s modding.
(I will be adding DLC and updates post-release however).
GUN: Aside from your modding, you have also done some professional work. Can you share with us about your professional experience in the gaming industry?Jack: To date I’ve worked on 2 published titles on steam. One required 3+ years of involvement where the other required only about half a year. Beginning November of this year I’ll yet again be involved in another indie title, this time on a story driven sci-fi title with very ‘familiar’ game mechanics.
GUN: You may have just answered this, but do you have any mods planned for the future after Frontier wraps up? Anymore fun projects for NV?Jack: Not directly, but I am planning to make a special remake of EVE that is suited for TTW.
GUN: You know the community is dying to know--will there be a FO4 edition of EVE?Jack: At some point, yes. I’ve only gotten as far as making the animated logo.
Which I suppose is a good start.
GUN: Your work has always pushed the boundaries of what Fallout can do. You've even been able to exceed developer ingenuity with your tricks and creativity. What have been your proudest moments in your mod history? I'm sure you can find at least five of them to brag about 
Jack: Some are hard to explain, so you’ll have to wait until you play (or watch a stream of) The Frontier. However there are a few cool tricks I managed to pull off in FNV that go way above and beyond what is possible with the mod tools (one even involved HEX editing a nif to trick GECK into accepting it!).
- Explosions that cast light. Yes it is true, default explosions do –not- cast light.
- Destructible objects with weapon restrictions. I found a way to prevent BB Gun and melee weapons from blowing up cars. Same method can be used to make some objects break apart only when struck by explosives, or ignite only when struck with fire weaps.
- Liquid that obeys gravity. Default water fx and other liquids were statically placed on pipes and places. I found a way to get jets, streams, and squirts of liquid to be on weapons, havok’ objects, or any movable thing and they’ll bend and arc and obey the world’s gravity.
- Projectiles that actually stick in actors. Ever wanted to turn an enemy into a pin-cushion? In Frontier you can fill an enemy with darts, harpoons, bolts, and more to your heart’s content. What you shoot at them will penetrate and persist.
- Enemies that can lose limbs but keep on fighting. Without giving too much away, let me just say you’ll be able to shred certain foes limb from limb but they’ll keep on coming at you, even if that means only attacking with their head haha.
GUN: Thanks again for the interview! I've enjoyed hearing your thoughts and being your friend for many years now. I still remember how excited I was when you agreed to help with Caesar’s New Regime! Do you have any closing thoughts or comments?Jack: It’s my pleasure. I’m happy to see all the development and expansion that has taken place on GUN over the years, as well as all the familiar faces here. If you’ve got any pending mod endeavors of your own you think I can assist with just hollar
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Until next time GUNners!
We hope you enjoyed this interview as much as the staff involved enjoyed it. Thank you to our core GUN Insider team
@William Lionheart @DVAted @keatit71 
And, of course, thank you to
@weijiesen for putting up with my interrogation
by 
Calendar
I am in need of some explosive effects for a custom nail/shrapnel bomb.
