EVE dev video shows work on engine trails, custom ship skins and more
If you're a fan of EVE Online, I apologise in advance for the funny looks you get when you jump out of your seat yelling "HELL YES!" while watching the latest In Development video. In this second part of CCP Games' new video devblog series, CCP Guard takes a live hand grenade into EVE Online's art department to show us just what's going on behind the scenes. We've already seen the impressive nebula effects and new Raven model due for release in the winter expansion, and today CCP showed off some massive shadow improvements, but those upcoming additions pale in comparison to what's planned for after the winter period.
The latest In Development video shows that CCP is currently working on engine trails, custom ship skins, a new cyno effect, a new warp tunnel, and graphical upgrades for every single ship in the game. It's a tall order, one that's unlikely to be fulfilled in the winter expansion despite developers' recent laser focus on delivering new features. The video gives a sneak peek at the models for the Amarr and Caldari tier 3 battlecruisers, which were selected from fan-submitted entries to last year's design contest in a similar manner to the already revealed Minmatar Tornado and Gallente Talos.
Read on to find out why custom ship skins are more work to implement than most of us realise and to watch the new video in HD.
In the second half of the video, Art Manager Benjamin Bohn explains exactly why the oft-requested custom ship skins haven't made it into the game yet. Before skins can be applied to a ship, it must be redesigned to work with a new shader as part of the V3 project. The Scorpion has already received the V3 treatment, and with the winter expansion the Raven's new model will support it too. Benjamin explains that every ship has to be updated before corporation or alliance ship skins can be implemented. This ongoing work will continue after the winter expansion, but it wouldn't be a stretch to imagine limited edition skins being released for ships as and when they are updated to the V3 standard.
