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CCP Games not abandoning older hardware users in EVE Online
CCP Games definitely had a few EVE Online players up in arms last week, with their announcement that they'll be dropping the Classic graphics client as of the next expansion. While Machariel battleships no longer being that gorgeous black is clearly the only serious issue with that decision (only half-kidding), the fact that they were considering dropping support for older hardware drew a substantial amount of response from the player community. CCP's proposed two part plan was to:1. Drop Classic (and ShaderModel 1) with the Apocrypha expansion launch on March 10, making ShaderModel 2 the minimum system requirement to run the game with "Premium Lite" graphics.2. As of the Winter expansion 2009, drop ShaderModel 2 support, making ShaderModel 3 the minimum spec to run EVE, with full Premium graphics. Well, the players have spoken, and based upon this response CCP is moving ahead with step one -- dropping Classic, ShaderModel 2 will be the minimum needed as of March 10th -- and NOT step two. That is to say, CCP is holding off on phasing out machines that can't handle ShaderModel 3.
Download details for EVE Online's Trinity expansion
It's time to make sure you got room on your hard drive as CCP Gamesis planning on dumping incremental bits to help ease Trinity's digital distribution, which is being estimated to be over 1 gigabyte in size. Trinity is the next expansion in the EVE Online universe that will be free-to-download and features an ultra new shiny graphics engine and numerous updates to the cosmic battlefield in the form of combat advancements; New Tech II ships; hundreds of missions; and metric tons more. CCP developer, 2kay has posted a slew of details on how this distribution will work and the need for a separate client that utilizes the improved graphics engine to its full potential. It is important to note in order to use the new graphical content players will need a graphics card that supports Shader Model 3, a format newer graphic cards already do. To help determine if your card supports this technology CCP put together an application to help players check, available here. Another alternative is to check in the device manager under display adapters or if you already know your video card make and model, do an internet search to make sure it has SM3 capability, it only takes a few minutes so get off your butt and do it before it's too late. If your graphics card does not support this technology you will still be able to play via the classic client and the patcher will not force you to install the higher end client. The new graphics look absolutely breath-taking, sadly I'm running antiquated video technology so I'll be upgrading shortly after Trinity launches. Crazy Kinuk is a screen capping maniac and has over a thousand Eve screenshots available for your viewing pleasure on his blog -- be sure check out his flickr for some comparisons of old and new ship graphics as pictured. I drooled.
