Xbox-Scene Interview with James (UnleashX // www.unleashx.com - UnleashX forums)

Xbox-Scene:: Could you introduce yourself?

James:: I'm James, 30 years old. I'm currently working as a PM/Systems architect for a local software company involved with providing custom solutions, with primary focus on middleware and web applications. Unfortunately, that's all I can give as I live in a country where Microsoft has a stronghold and hacking isn't taken very lightly. Further, the company I work with is very close to the local Microsoft people here ;)

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

James:: It was "love at first sight", or should I say, "first touch" in the early 90's. The first time I touched one, I knew I wanted it. I didn't have a computer till I was 17. Like most, I started with GWBASIC and I was amazed by what I can do with it. I started doing some complex calculations with it till I hit the 64k file limit, so I moved to a more advance one. Now, I'm using VC++, VC# and VB.Net/VB6 -all MS technology, programming against almost all of their server products.

Xbox-Scene:: What did you learn while developing Xbox software?

James:: Programming on the Xbox and DirectX is a whole new world to me. While you could argue that Xbox is essentially a PC, there are differences. Some technique that worked well on the PC just wouldn't work on it. Worker threads aren't as efficient, but I suspect the CPU has to do more with it than anything else. Graphics, on the other hand, is awesome. I wanted to know some more, though, maybe get into the bootloader and BIOS arena, if time permits it.
There are more important things I learned, though, about the scene in general and by talking to different people.

Xbox-Scene:: Besides developing, do you also use your Xbox to play games or use some homebrew programs?

James:: Yes, I do play games on it, and watch a lot of DVD movies too. I have two Xboxes. The first one is for my wife's and son's gaming needs (and testing of new builds), and the other one, obviously, is for me where I do the programming. But it's also the same box that I bring along when I come over to some of my friend's house. I bought the second one real cheap, around $85, because the PS is busted, which I fixed myself. I use DVDX2 a lot even though I have a DVD playback kit simply because of its smooth zooming capability. I use XBMP too for watching those mpeg and DivX encoded movies, network streaming is truly wonderful. I can say I use it more for watching than playing games. I’ve also been giving Xbox-Linux a thought, because the only thing I knew about Linux is the penguin and I don’t even know its name.

Xbox-Scene:: Do you own a dev/debug xbox?

James:: No, I own a retail one using Team Assembly's TATX debug BIOS. I have it flashed on one bank of my X2:Lite then, but JSmith hooked me up with PBL, so I switched to it since I can use different BIOSes without ever flashing my modchip. I just followed a great tutorial posted on the “Development” forum on how to turn one into a debug unit.

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

James:: Well, aside from Super Mario, Contra and Duck Hunt on the SNES (way) before, I always liked the MechWarrior series on the PC, even MechCommander. I guess it's a natural tendency to like MechAssault as well. When it came out for the Xbox, I grab myself a copy and enjoyed it to the fullest (when is the sequel coming out, Bill?), though not as much as I enjoyed customizing the mechs on the PC. It was very short, but still a blast, nonetheless. I still play it every once in a while.

Xbox-Scene:: Do/Did/Will you work on any other Xbox project?

James:: I have been helping a few people, though not actively. I wanted to give some more but real life activities and problems are getting in the way. I don’t have as much free time as I used to. I’m trying, though, in every opportunity that I find. There have been some thoughts about collaboration with other devs but nothing has really progress. I am willing to work with other people but I can’t take the front seat. I think I made it clear that if anyone wanted my help, I’d only be too glad to give it.

Xbox-Scene:: UnleashX is still quite new, so for those who don't know it yet, could u explain what it is/does and its main features.

James:: Well, UnleashX is primarily an Xbox application/game launcher. It indexes the HD for titles and lists them down nicely for you to conveniently launch them. It has some features also like a basic file manager, FTP server, one button game backup, zip/unzip...etc. It can also play your background music, play your WMV/XMV encoded video file and some more. It is best to read the documentation that came with it for full feature list. It was designed with the users in mind, well, primarily, the user is "me", but it allows far greater customization to suite anyone's needs. Of course, you can't please everyone and somebody will always ask for more but I'm trying to add more things as I go along.

Xbox-Scene:: UnleashX was a totally unknown project before the first official release. How long have you been working 'secretly' on it before releasing it to public?

James:: I started working on it early to mid of September 2003, when I still have a lot of free time. I've been working on it for almost every night after work and most of weekends. It was really my intention to keep it secret to avoid the problem that comes with hype. I don't want somebody saying something if I don't meet the intended release date. There's nothing more discouraging than that I think. And even now, I'm still avoiding hype. I don't give dates, nor features which I a'int sure if I can do, or will be able to include in the future. And I say it's been very effective so far.

Xbox-Scene:: Dashboards like Avalaunch, Evox and MXM were already available, what was the reason to start developing a new dashboard for Xbox?

James:: It was more of filling what I wanted and needed. I wanted a dash that look a lot like MS dash, can be configured directly from the dash, with built-in file manager and still boot fast and a few more bells and whistles. For the most part, EvolutionX is fine but isn't really complete. Before this dash, I haven't *really* used Avalaunch or MXM extensively. I launched them a few times just to see if they boot and what they looked like. I primarily used EvolutionX and neXgen on a day to day basis (Evox mostly 90% of the time). neXgen was and still is great but it needs serious fixing, but update seemed to completely stop. When I saw that neXgen's code was released, I got pretty excited and thought of giving it a shot, but I was disappointed since the source wasn't even close to 0.91. It was using lua and it's more of V0.01, than anything closer to 0.91. Lua scripting is great for devs, but nightmare to an average Joe. I still contributed to them (and still am, now XDashOS –my name should give you a hint, guys) but eventually lost my interest. About a month after, I decided to write my own and the rest is history, so to speak. When I was still in design stage, I was having a dilemma whether to make this exactly look like the MS dash or not. If I do, users will be limited to changing the colors, possibly a few images, not to mention the resulting xbe size because of the required models. This is the biggest reason why I didn’t continue working on neXgen. Needless to say I chose the other way, but I kept it very close.

Joining other team came into mind, but back then, if I did ask, I would have gotten a “wtf??? Smoke some more, dude” kind of a reply. Not that it’s how the dev scene is, that’s just how I felt, back then –and I felt wrong.

Xbox-Scene:: Are you working on this alone or are other people working on UnleashX too?

James:: I'm working on the dash alone. Somebody else is working on the site and other tools for it -which I really appreciate. I really got a boost when I saw that skins are made for this dash on the first day of its release. Some people are just amazing. Progress has slowed down considerably, but I’m trying to catch up.

Xbox-Scene:: What are the plans on the short term with UnleashX?

James:: Short term, make it stable and fun to use. I made a very good progress lately which made it closer to that goal.

Xbox-Scene:: What's the future (on the longer term) of the project?

James:: I just want to finish the intended features that were stated in the documentations, and add a few feature requests to go with it. After that, it's going to be free floating -wherever the wind takes it, figuratively speaking. I'll add whatever feature is useful and cool. Although I don't know how much time is there left, since Xbox2 is fast approaching.

Xbox-Scene:: Any new/special features (not seen on any other homebrew program) you are working on?

James:: I’ve been *thinking* of adding a remote controller, just like XP’s Remote desktop and NetOp School. I did something similar before (PC to PC) and I’m thinking of doing it for the Xbox, though I’m not sure if the CPU can keep up with it. Screen broadcast is easy but the biggest challenge is mapping mouse events to keypads. Unlike Windows programming, there is no Handle to query and message to subclass or hijack, so it’s really quite an undertaking, without doing a lot of modifications to the existing code. Or probably I’m making it too difficult. At any rate, this is just an idea I’m tossing around.

I’m working on using my iPaq with it, not just a replacement IR remote control, but something more. It’s still on the drawing board, nothing concrete yet.

It seems everything has been thought off and done already. I guess somebody's bound to come up with a good idea and when they do, I'll try my best to include it. The “wish list” threads are full of great ideas. It may seem, at times, that I’m ignoring it, but I’m not. The last two releases have most of these ideas incorporated, so keep ‘em coming guys.

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

James:: In terms of programming, a lot. There’s the IGR issue, BIOS issue, memory corruption, threading…etc. I’ve dealt with most of these lately but I can’t handle all scenarios. I got the latest build to run wonderfully on all testers’ Xboxes but one and this really got me stumped. I guess this is a problem where most apps run 99% of the time and there’s the other 1% left. At this point, it’s really hard to pin point the problem as we’ve done so many modifications already. It could be one thing, or combination of things. Either way, I’m not going to stop till I got the bases covered.

There are also the problems with a few people on the scene. Nothing major though and I’m cool now. I guess that’s just how it is, but there are also great people on the scene who are really going out of their way to help in every way that they can.

Xbox-Scene:: Can developers or others help the UnleashX project with anything?

James:: I have been getting a lot of help already and I really can’t ask for more, at this time. I can’t believe the number of people wanting to support it, one way or the other. Also, the number of applications that came out for it is simply amazing. The beta tester team has been doing a wonderful job. But of course, one can never have enough help. When I’m going to need one, and I’ll definitely will, I’ll ask someone. And I know, a lot of people are very eager to help.

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