Multiplayer Oblivion - mod developer interview

Atomic speaks with Oblivion community mod-maker the_FERRET about his multiplayer hack for Oblivion.

Atomic: Firstly, can you give me your name and a brief description of yourself, including such things as education and occupation?

the_FERRET: I’m a gamer. That’s brief right? My name is Martin Loxton, but most people know me as the_FERRET. I lived for the most part in Mount Gambier (SA) until I travelled across the country to Bathurst (NSW) in pursuit of education at Charles Sturt University. They lured me there through a course known as ‘Games Technology’, a specialised IT course that focuses on game development and technology. As for occupation, technically I’m a student although I’ve never worked a day in my life.

When did you come up for the idea of a multiplayer Oblivion mod and what was the catalyst?

The thought first crossed my mind at a friends LAN. He was playing Oblivion and I suggested how cool it could be with multiplayer, and that we should give it a try. He didn’t think it was even possible, but I was inspired so his pessimism just added fuel to the fire! I didn’t even know if it had been worked on or accomplished, I just started out of personal curiosity. I was always impressed by the achievements of the Multi Theft Auto (MTA) team, and really, REALLY wanted to know how they did it. Unfortunately that isn’t public knowledge, so I learnt what they knew by hacking GTA myself and then applying my new-found knowledge to Oblivion.

Do you currently play a lot of Oblivion?

Sadly, no. I played a fair bit when it came out, but then exams at uni came up, as well as the development of the mod. In fact, I don’t think I’ve played it since I started work on MultiTES4 except for testing purposes. It’s frustrating, as I really enjoy playing the game! I’m on holidays now, so in between development on the mod I’ll unwind with a little Oblivion hackin’ and slashin’.

Have you ever undertaken a similar project, or thought about doing something similar?

This project has been a first for me. I’ve dabbled in modding here and there, but nothing quite as extensive as adding multiplayer to a singleplayer game. I had always dreamed of a multiplayer Jagged Alliance 2, but I just didn’t have the technical know-how to make it happen. When Oblivion came along, I was a lot more knowledgeable and decided I could at least give it a go, and it just so happened to work! The source code of Jagged Alliance has been released now, so maybe I’ll give it a go. Having the source code of a game makes modding a million times easier than without.

Have you played previous Elder Scrolls games and, if so, did you try to
manipulate or change the game(s) to add multiplayer (or other features)?

I played Morrowind for the first time only about two years ago. I guess you could say I became a fan of the series right then, even though I haven’t seen or played anything before Morrowind in the Elder Scroll’s series. I never considered modding Morrowind because I was really new to the game, and the community was already substantial. I doubt I could have thought of anything that wasn’t already done. Even multiplayer for Morrowind was created, although it never made it past the “alpha” stage so to speak, and had a lot of problems.

Have you talked to or discussed your project with anyone from Bethesda?
Have you received any emails all calls from company representatives
regarding MultiTES4?

So far, I’ve heard nothing yet from Bethesda. This may be a good thing as at least I haven’t done anything immediately wrong or illegal! I may contact them eventually just to make sure MultiTES4 doesn’t stray any legal boundaries, or perhaps to ask them questions in regards to modifying their game to better support a multiplayer component. They may contact me eventually, but I’m not worried if they don’t. As long as they keep working on the next game in the series, I’ll be happy.

How complicated is the multiplayer process? By the looks of things there's
a client and server program, but what else has to happen (code injection for
example) and how does it work?

Well, multiplayer isn’t too complicated in general. It’s just a matter of getting the information about someone in the gameworld, and then using a client and server to let everyone else know what the information is. However, if you don’t have that information readily available (i.e. the source code of the game) than you have to search around in memory until you find the data you’re looking for. Once you identify that place in memory, you can inject or extract the information as necessary. For example, say I want to move an NPC externally to Oblivion; firstly you get access to the memory space of the game, then you find where the position of the NPC is stored, and then you use your third party program to modify that value. Simple, right?

Are you making use of dormant engine code or are you doing most of the
work yourself?

The external applications had to be built from scratch, there just isn’t anything like it available to use. Oblivion itself is a purely singleplayer game, and probably doesn’t contain a single iota of multiplayer code. Instead, to get the functionality I needed, I made use of Oblivion’s internal scripting language used to control the game (this is the stuff you use when making your own mods for Oblivion). For the beta release, we’re advancing this even further and directly injecting our code into Oblivion’s game loop, and also hijacking its render device for our own in-game interfaces. It’s all pretty cool.

What are the major hurdles in implementing features and support for
MultiTES4? What are some examples of easy and difficult interactions to
implement?

Easy interactions…they’re the ones I like. These consist of simple synchronisations between players with data such as position, health, and orientation; it’s the basics of any networked game. The difficult interactions require a lot more thought, and may never make it into a release. These include things such as synchronising environments, enemy units, and general game-states. Who knows though, with a little help from Bethesda, any of these could become possible.

Are you still developing MultiTES4 by yourself, or have you recruited some
assistance?

The alpha release of MultiTES4 was entirely developed by myself. At that point, I could easily handle it on my lonesome. However, the beta release is another story altogether. The complexity has increased ten-fold, not to mention the management of a growing community. I’ve called upon the help from some fellow students and friends to ensure its development doesn’t grind to a halt. It was a natural evolution of the development process, there was simply just too much for one person to do on their own within a reasonable time frame.

Realistically, how big a task is it to do what you're doing? Is it
something you could complete yourself in a reasonable time frame or will you
need to recruit help?

Err… see the previous question?