anti-aliasing
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Blizzard debuts Engineer's Workshop
It's always interesting to get more behind the scenes about how World of Warcraft is created, and Blizzard is doing exactly that with the all-new Engineer's Workshop series of posts. This week's column is about anti-aliasing and the new technology Blizzard is using to help evolve the game engine and update it going forward. Keep in mind, World of Warcraft is a ten year old game, and graphic updates like these are necessarily planned out to keep the game's look from sliding into obsolescence. I admit I'm no expert on the technology being discussed, but if you are, here's a nice summary to get you started on explaining the whole thing to me in the comments. Use small words.
ArcheAge shows graphical frills thanks to Nvidia
It's not exactly a secret that ArcheAge is a good-looking game, but did you know just how good-looking it can get? Thanks to the magical, wonderful power of Nvidia graphics cards, now we can. XLGAMES and Nvidia teamed up for a video to show off the premium graphical effects that ArcheAge is capable of putting forth. The video continually turns effects on and off for comparison purposes, showing how much more defined the world can be with all of the effects turned on. These include anti-aliasing, depth of field, and some pretty nifty water motions. Seeing is believing, and believing is after the jump!
Darkfall polishes content until it shines
Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, it's off to work Darkfall's development team goes (and now that tune is stuck in your head. You're welcome.)! And as the game's 2.0 edition slowly takes shape, we're given yet another dev blog about the massive undertaking of this project. Improved visuals are one of the priorities for the team, and players will be pleased to hear that SMAA -- uber-anti-aliasing -- should make the game's graphics shine. Weapons are being modified to have distinctive looks based on which rank they are, and the team reports that there are six weapons styles with nine ranks apiece, each requiring a unique design. Also on the table for examination is the improved crafting process. Aventurine is introducing two new professions dedicated to converting one material into a more refined product. Tanning will take on skinning's former duty of taking hides and turning them into leather, and weaving will be the primary avenue to create cloth from cotton. On top of these new professions is the expansion of the crafting system to allow professions to "infuse" rare materials into common ones, resulting in special crafting mats for high-quality gear.
EVE Online: Incursion boosts into stage one
"Engines?" "Go Flight!" "Life support?" "Go Flight!" "Brutal politics and savage mining in the dark, hard vacuum of space?" "Go Flight!" And thus, with a proud tear in the corner of our eye, we salute the liftoff of the first stage of EVE Online's latest expansion, Incursion. Although the expansion has been fractured into three parts to ensure quality -- with the second coming in mid-December and the third in January -- Incursion 1.0.0 is worth checking out for a brand-new salvage ship, the Noctis, and many game improvements and fixes. This patch is also notable for the increased amount of graphics options, including windowed mode, the ability to split the game between two monitors, and the introduction of anti-aliasing. You can read the patch notes at EVE Online, visit the Incursion website, and prepare yourself for the game-changer that is this expansion with the help of our very own Brendan Drain!
Microsoft lifts Xbox 360 minimum 720p, anti-aliasing mandate for devs
In a column published today on Develop, Black Rock Studio (Pure, Split/Second) technical director David Jeffrries revealed that Microsoft has removed an item from its TCRs (Technical Certification Requirements) that stated all Xbox 360 games must run at a minimum of 1280x720 (720p) resolution if the system is in HD mode. According to Jeffries, this was done earlier this year so that developers could be "free to make the trade-off between resolution and image quality as we see fit."TCRs are technical "rules" that all games developed for a given platform must adhere to in order to be certified for release. Of course, some games that have skirted this specific TCR have still been allowed on the system; the most notable being Microsoft's own Halo 3, which runs at 1152x640 (progressive). Joystiq has confirmed with a trusted source familiar with Microsoft's TCRs that Jeffries' claim is legit. Not only that, but, as of March 2009, Xbox 360 developers are no longer required to utilize full-screen anti-aliasing in their games. The elimination of both requirements is especially noteworthy since the console maker had touted that all 360 games would run at a minimum of 720p with at least 2x FSAA since before the hardware launched.As Jeffries points out in his column, 1280x720 isn't necessarily the "starting point" for HD on many displays and that it's not nearly as crucial as anti-aliasing. It's not clear if the back-tracking on Microsoft's part was due to pressure from the development community or not, but we can probably all agree that, as long as a game looks great, it doesn't really matter how its creators got there. Does it?
Emulator runs Wii games in 720p while we wonder what might have been
Using PCs to do what Nintendon't, YouTube user renebarahona is running Wii games in HD resolutions through the Dolphin emulator. One peek at Super Smash Bros. Brawl in 720p is enough to make any of us wonder what a world where Nintendo didn't hate HD (even yanking 480p capability from the Gamecube, we're still not over that) would be like. These games aren't merely upscaled like DVDs, they're being rendered in a high resolution natively with extra anti-aliasing Xbox 360 BC-style, producing surprisingly crisp visuals. Check out the embedded videos after the break (remember to hit the HD button) for an example, including how to set this up on your own computer.[Via Joystiq & 1Up]
The Little Things: anti-aliased fonts help Mac OS X shine
Continuing our new The Little Things series that highlights the often-overlooked polish and underrated features that make Mac OS X such a joy to use, I thought I'd highlight one of those 'guy behind the guy' features that makes Apple's OS so gorgeous: font anti-aliasing. Nerdy, I know, but check out the screenshot: Windows, even XP, doesn't support this feature system-wide like Mac OS X does, and it shows. Type looks like garbage in everything from desktop icons to most applications and their menus on Windows. Mac OS X, on the other hand, supports anti-aliased fonts from the ground up (to my knowledge), so everything from System Preferences to desktop icons, text editors to iLife and more are incredibly legible and lickable.Some call it a minor detail, but given the undeniably pleasant usability this brings to the OS, I would argue it's one of those trademark additions that Apple's engineers don't receive enough credit for.Update: As many people pointed out Windows does, in fact, have a similar feature called 'ClearType,' which some consider superior to OS X's (though it is a matter of taste). The key difference is that ClearType is disabled by default, which in effect means that most Windows users have no idea that it is even an option. Another case of Apple paying attention to the little details, though Vista will have this feature enabled by default.
