Xbox-Scene Interview with Caustik (CXBX - CXBE - OpenXDK - XBE FF // www.caustik.com)

Xbox-Scene:: Could you introduce yourself? (your age/country, coding/engeneering experience, projects you are working on, what do you do in 'real life', ...)

Caustik:: My name is Aaron, I'm 22 years old and I live in San Diego, California (in the USA). I've worked for a few companies, including Synchrony, Microsoft, and DivX. Right now I'm working at DivX, and I have a few side projects, one of which is Cxbx.
I also do some fun stuff outside of work/computers, luckily there is a ton of stuff to do in San Diego and Los Angeles

Xbox-Scene:: What made you get into computers?

Caustik:: When I was about 11 years old, my parents had some generic IBM PC that had a copy of GWBASIC on it. This was one of the very few programs on the computer, so I had to investigate. I soon realized that while games are fun, you have much more control with programming and you can create almost anything your mind is capable of dreaming up. I got hooked on writing little GWBASIC screensavers.

Xbox-Scene:: Did you work on other emulators in the past on PC or on other consoles?

Caustik:: I have done alot with the NES, but I have never released anything. I've dabbled around with interpretive/dynarec, and static recompiling cpu cores, and wrote a little window manager and rendering cores at one point.

Xbox-Scene:: Did you learn alot during the development on Xbox?

Caustik:: I learn alot during every project I participate in. Programming is a constant evolution; I'm always trying to refine my skills.

Xbox-Scene:: Do you use your Xbox to play games, run linux or launch other homebrew applications ?

Caustik:: Actually it just sits there because I dont have a TV. Once in a while I plug it into my video capture card and play for a little bit. I used to develop OpenXDK with it plugged into a TV, but that has been about a year now. Sadly OpenXDK is really far back on my list of priorities.

Xbox-Scene:: Your favorite game (all time - all consoles/PC)?

Caustik:: Hmm.....so many great classics. I supposed Goldeneye 007 (N64) takes the cake though. For PC, I have had a ton of fun with Unreal Tournament.

Xbox-Scene:: What have been the toughest challenges so far?

Caustik:: Thread Local Storage. I swear I had the worst luck getting that figured out in Cxbx. I kept running into problem after problem. It pretty much works now though

Xbox-Scene:: People mostly know you from CXBX (Xbox Emulator), what other Xbox-related projects are/did/will you work(ing) on (+ short description) ?

Caustik:: I wrote some tiny personal tools for analyzing Xbe files, then I wrote up a document explaining how the Xbe file format works. After that, I wrote Cxbe, which relinks an Exe into an Xbe. This gave way to OpenXDK, which now sits gathering dust on a sourceforge site, wasting all it's potential :[

Xbox-Scene:: Tell us a bit about the history of CXBX: How and when did the project originate, and who started it? What major achievements did you reach?

Caustik:: I started Cxbx after I spent time reverse engineering how the Xbe file format works. I noticed that the APIs were very similar between Xbox and Win2k, so I started up the first pieces of code that would eventually become Cxbx.

Xbox-Scene:: How did you start development? Emulate a system probably requires a lot of knowlegde about the system itself first ... what did you use/do to analyse the Xbox?

Caustik:: There was alot of experimentation. I actually wish I would have kept some sort of journal, as I dont even remember alot of it. A friend of mine who is also a member of the Xbox scene had alot of ideas, so he was tons of help especially in the initial brainstorming stages.

Xbox-Scene:: So, what's the current status of CXBX? From the last public release we saw already some intro movies playing, and even some homebrew games booting up ... what's the status of the latest internal release you have?

Caustik:: Cxbx was put on the backburner for quite some time, but recently I have sparked it back up and I try to work on it 3-4 times a week for at least an hour. The 4627 XDK is progressing very steadily, and things are looking good. You can now navigate the menu in Turok, and watch the pre-game movie after clicking Begin Game. This means two full movies are working in Turok, and we're very close to retail 3d rendering.

Xbox-Scene:: Are other people working on CXBX? If so, how is work divided?

Caustik:: Recently (as in just a few days ago), we've gained a 3rd developer. The current CVS tree is probably 90-95% written by myself, with contributions emailed to me from various people. Kingofc has done alot of really great work that has grown so far as to become extremely difficult to integrate into CVS. Once retail games start to run, his changes will do wonders for getting the games to actually *look* correct. When his code is finally merged, you'll know it

Xbox-Scene:: The CXBX code is released under GNU Public License, any specific reason for this choice?

Caustik:: I wanted to encourage help from others. GPL is a very popular license, and it seems to promote contributions.

Xbox-Scene:: What can we expect in the future from CXBX? What are the goals on short term and what's the roadmap of the project on long term?

Caustik:: Short term is to get 4627 games running without crashing. After that, we'll try to stabilize the graphics a bit until it's playable. Then we'll start to expand into other XDK versions. Once a complete XDK is done, it will definately ease the work with other XDKs. It's very good news that Microsoft has announced their last release of the XDK.

Xbox-Scene:: I know you have also been working on the OpenXDK project ... is this project still alive or can we expect any activity in the future?

Caustik:: I have not touched OpenXDK in about a year. The only thing it needs to be revitalized is a USB stack for controller input. Nobody has been able to help with this, so things are at a stand-still.

Xbox-Scene:: Did you Microsoft ever try to reach you?

Caustik:: Nope

Xbox-Scene:: Can other developers get involved in the project?

Caustik:: Yes, definately. Send me an email

Xbox-Scene:: How can non-developers help/support the project?

Caustik:: Donate to kingofc, he doesnt even have any games

Xbox-Scene:: Anything else you'd like to add?

Caustik:: Thanks to Cxbx's supporters who haven't lost hope during the periods of very slow development. I hope people understand that projects like these are very difficult to find time for when you have a busy schedule already.

Xbox-Scene:: Thanks for your time.