EVE (Essential Visual Enhancements) for New Vegas was voted up to file of the month for July. So, with our usual monthly interviews of the winners we find ourselves talking with the whacky weijiesen as well as a few contributions on answers from jonnyeah and Cabal as well. So let’s start the fun.

Nexus: So weijiesen, please tell us a bit of your background in modding, and anything else you may want to tell us about yourself.

weijiesen: Background in modding... well it all started in Morrowind. Over the past couple years of Fallout, a few fans out there have recognized me and my work on Morrowind hehehe. Aside from Bethesda games though I've dabbled in Farcry, Torchlight, and Half-Life2.
And for the ladies out there, I'm also half Chinese, 180cm tall, and enjoy long walks on the beach.

Nexus: With your past EVE being the inspiration for the New Vegas version, why don't you tell us what inspired you to make EVE to begin with?

weijiesen: Pineapple beer.

Oh and the fact that after years of Star Trek and other various shows with 'energy weapons', seeing them in FO3 really disappointed me when compared to what I had envisioned.

Nexus: What has been the best part of creating the mod for you?

weijiesen: Seeing screenshots of my mod from fans. I'm thrilled to see everyone can enjoy the same visual goodness that I do in my game.

Nexus: Have you encountered any unique or unusual problems while making the mod?

weijiesen & jonnyeah: Dealing with Gamebryo's crippling failure at properly rendering layered alpha has been a big issue.
We've (Jonnyeah and I) had to rethink a lot of things so they'd render properly.

Nexus: What has been your favorite part of the tools provided by Bethesda?

weijiesen: 'Effect Shaders' in GECK. Very powerful once you wrap your head around the value's meaning, especially the awesome 'Addon Models' feature. And to help with that I've even written a "Effect Shaders Definitive Guide" on the Nexus Wiki

Nexus: What other applications did you use to make this mod? I personally like to ask this one to find out if their are any hidden gems out there. =)

weijiesen: Cabal: cinema4d, Photo Shop, Skype, xNormal
jonnyeah: Blender, Gimp, Nifskope, Notepad, Skype, xNormal, excessive amounts of Campari.
weijiesen: Audacity, Blender, CrazyBump, Nifskope, Paint.Net, Pineapple Beer, Photoshop (CS3), ATI Cubemapper, Waveasaur, GECK, Notepad++, Skype, and a single Binford 3/4 socket wrench.

Nexus: How much time have you put into the mod so far?

weijiesen: Hard to say. Paying attention to time and working on EVE don't go very well together, one good idea can easily set you back a couple of hours.(especially the times when I've made an awesome 'crit kill', then go in game to see what it looks like and before you know it you've felled half of the Mohave. Crit kills are addicting!

Nexus: Were you able to port any of the assets from the FO3 version of your mod to FO3:NV?

weijiesen: Able to? Most definitely. Did I? Nope.
I never look back, only forward. EVE FNV is 100% brand-spanking-new sexiness.

Nexus: Any exciting plans for the mod you want to share with us?

weijiesen: Spreading fires (ala Farcry 2).
Alternate 'Nightmare' .esp that offers extreme gore FX.
An .esp that adds various nature like dragonflies, rabbits, and other various desert wildlife (for immersion and visual enhancement).
An .esp that adds EVE'ified classic Fallout weps, as well as 'cut content' found on fallout wikia.
After Plasma FX are done you'll begin to find amazing, hilarious Easter Eggs via WildWasteland perk option too.
And much much more!

Nexus: Are you working on any other mods for New Vegas or other games?

weijiesen: I've had a hand in a few other mods such as ''Murdelizer'' and ''Custom Combat Ranger'', but for the most part I've only got time for EVE.
I'd like to make a mod that introduces ''MK II'' and ''LX'' versions of most robots as the player levels up (so that certain enemies have visual differences, rather than just 'more HP and harder hitting' when the player is higher levels) and things like this but frankly no time to work on such a thing.

Nexus: What are some of your other favorite games if New Vegas isn't the only game you play?
Any other game genres besides the RPG style games that Bethesda publishes?

weijiesen: I don't have time to get into so many computer games, so when I do have the time for games I'll often play something on nitrome.com or mochigames.com. Usually in a year I only have the chance to play/complete about 4 PC game titles, such as New Vegas, Crysis series, Portal 2, or Witcher 2.

Nexus: Another question we like to ask the popular mod authors; do you have any advice for aspiring modders?

weijiesen: Never be afraid to take time to follow a tutorial. Sometimes even better than a tutorial is to ask a fellow modder for help. While I can personally handle a lot of modding things myself, I don't have the time these days. That's where good friends and fellow talented modders like CaBaL, Jonnyeah, and even Tapioks have all lended a hand on the new EVE.

Nexus: Lastly, this is your chance to be the absolutely random weijiesen.

weijiesen: One night while at goodsprings saloon I'd slammed one too many Sarsaparilla-Bombs with some Great Kahns (they know how to party) and stumbled out to take a piss on a passed out powder ganger when I noticed Alpha Deathclaw and Mother Deathclaw making baby deathclaws behind a derailed train car and when I shown my pipboy light at them they chased me
through fields of brahmin dung and I tripped over a Bark scorpion and landed in an open grave. When I woke up I knew it was all just a dream and I had keyboard face because i was modding after midnight... as usual.

The Nexus team would like to thank weijiesen and the rest of the EVE team again for doing the interview. Keep up the great work on EVE.

Also a thank you goes out to the file endorsers out there. Keep on voting for those mods and we will see you all next month with another FOTM interview.