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New starry backgrounds in EVE Online spotted
CCP Games has been rolling out some major graphical improvements to EVE Online since the Trinity expansion launched, bringing with it a new graphics engine and an updated look to the game's setting through the premium client. The first iteration of graphics enhancements added a shiny new veneer to EVE's ships, but those changes weren't skin deep. The models themselves were recreated through months of effort by the game's art team, and the look of the ships is now much improved. Later space stations (both inside and out) and stargates were given a facelift with much greater detail and shadows. The Apocrypha expansion brought new effects for electronic warfare modules and weapons, but it also introduced something else to the aesthetics of EVE -- those gorgeous backdrops found in the uncharted expanses of wormhole space.By comparison, some players feel that the nebula-laced appearance of mapped solar systems is starting to look dated. While EVE's nebulas aren't likely to change anytime soon, players on the Singularity test server are posting screenshots of starry backgrounds which have made an appearance this week. You can check out the shots taken by various players at Scrapheap Challenge and in these threads on the official EVE forums. Whether these new starry backdrops will make their way into the Dominion expansion release in December isn't certain, but combining this look with the swirling clouds on New Eden's planets would certainly kick EVE's aesthetics up another notch or two.
E-ON offers 100 million ISK reward for your best EVE Online screenshots
E-ON, the official magazine of EVE Online, is running a contest where your best screenshots could net you 100 million ISK for each shot they publish in the April issue. E-ON editor Zapatero, who we interviewed in November, said what he's looking for on the E-ON blog, 'Postings from the Edge': "What we're after are your screenshots. They can be of ships mining, travelling or fighting. They can be pilots tending to starbases, searching for wormholes or epic battles against Sleeper ships. In fact they can be of anything from inside New Eden, they just have to be good-looking images. The very best that we receive will be published in the edition of EON that's out next month."
Major graphics overhaul of EVE's asteroid belts in Apocrypha expansion
When EVE Online's Trinity expansion was deployed in 2007, it brought with it a drastic difference in graphical quality, but the Premium Graphics engine initially only rendered ships and space stations. Premium Graphics as of next month's expansion will complete CCP's across-the-board overhaul of the game's look. Among those numerous graphical enhancements coming to EVE Online in the forthcoming Apocrypha expansion is something that will come as good news to players who enjoy mining: new asteroid belts. EVE developer CCP VanishingPoint writes in his "Miners Rejoice!" dev blog, "The asteroids are getting a facelift. Better than that actually, the asteroids are now going to communicate their value through brilliant graphical treatments." His blog explains how Team Hot Rocks created the new asteroid and ice belts for Apocrypha. The days of seeing round, floating rocks in identical belt after belt are nearly over. The new asteroids will have unique looks for each type of ore they're comprised of. In addition, they'll be in the form of shards with many different meshes, and will typically appear to be shattered fragments of larger objects. If you're an industry-type and spend a fair amount of your EVE time mining, you'll definitely want to see CCP VanishingPoint's dev blog "Miners Rejoice!" and its explanation of what you'll get on March 10th in the Apocrypha expansion.
CCP Games to present at Game Developers Conference 2009
CCP Games, the developer of EVE Online, has announced that they'll have a presence at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) next month. The company's CMO, Ryan Scott Dancey (aka CCP RyanD), is slated to speak about how CCP uses social network engineering to reach out to more subscribers. Specifically, he'll describe how the company puts Tipping Point theory (about how information spreads) into action. That session is titled: "Network Marketing: Leveraging Social Networks to Grow an MMO".On the technology front, CCP's CTO Halldor Fannar will speak at GDC 2009 in a session geared more towards programmers and technical artists, "From Evolution to Revolution: Upgrading the Graphics Engine of EVE Online". Fannar will lay out the issues CCP has faced with upgrading EVE's graphics engine, and explain how their ideas went from being on paper to a shipping game. His presentation will show the tools in action that allowed them to "take the required generational leap in art production." Game Developers Conference 2009 runs from March 23-27 at the Moscone Center, San Francisco, and as we've mentioned previously, will have a lot to offer MMO fans of all genres.
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.
EVE to drop Classic graphics support, possibly some subscribers in the process
The beauty of EVE Online is often cited as a major draw to the game. EVE's graphics presently come in two flavors: Classic graphics, which is essentially EVE as it's always looked, and Premium graphics, which came out in 2007 and is quite an improvement over Classic. Despite how good Premium graphics look now, according to EVE dev CCP Zulupark, they could look even better. In fact, CCP Games would like to push ahead with EVE's graphics, but supporting the game in Classic in tandem with improving the Premium graphics has been holding them back. Essentially, CCP has been supporting two different clients and thus a dual pipeline, where they must create two versions of each art asset introduced into the game. Zulupark says, "It complicates build and patching processes considerably and, for the most part, it simply doesn't allow us to make EVE look as beautiful as we want." The solution to this problem, he states, is for CCP to drop the Classic client altogether and focus their attention on Premium graphics as the game moves forward.
EVE Online kicks off Mac open beta for high-res graphics engine
The next EVE Online expansion, called Apocrypha, will launch on March 10 and promises to bring a long-missing feature to the Mac client: high res graphics. The Trinity graphics engine (aka Premium graphics) has been available to players using the Windows client since December of 2007. As of today, all active accounts using the Mac client can opt to download a second enhanced client to try out EVE's Premium graphic content on the Singularity test server.EVE's Community Manager CCP Wrangler says, "This is the culmination of over a year of effort on the part of development teams at both CCP Games and Transgaming and we are extremely happy to see EVE running in all its splendor on the Mac OS." That splendor, however, may not be coming for some EVE players running older Mac hardware.
Next EVE Online expansion named Apocrypha, launches March 10
The other day we picked up on a video interview with the CEO of CCP Games, who announced a firm March 10th release date for the next EVE Online expansion -- but until today, that expansion wasn't given a name. CCP Games announced the "Apocrypha" expansion this morning, and a bit of what it'll bring to EVE.The Apocrypha feature page isn't up yet -- so more details are likely to emerge -- but thus far they've confirmed two new game mechanics will be coming to EVE in March. Wormhole exploration is an upcoming feature that will allow EVE's explorers to discover new technology, used to create the next iteration of ships in New Eden -- Tech III. These modular ship designs will potentially allow for thousands of different configurations of ships to suit different purposes, and are a far cry from the Tech I and Tech II ship hulls currently flown in New Eden. In addition, Apocrypha will bring Epic Mission Arcs. The release states: "These branching, far-reaching mission strings are full of meaningful stories and more intelligent and deadly adversaries."
EVE Fanfest presentation discusses graphics enhancements
EVE Online's Fanfest 2008 is now underway, and reports are already coming through on what's happening in Reykjavik. CCP Games held a press conference that discussed EVE's technical side, namely its server technology, but also touched upon EVE's impending graphic enhancements in 2009. EVE Online's Premium 'Trinity' graphics engine was a significant leap forward in the game. While some players felt that the graphics as they were prior to Trinity were still ahead of the curve in terms of what's expected of an MMO, the look of the game changed dramatically with Trinity. However, the Trinity deployment wasn't a complete revamp of EVE's look. Ships and stations benefited from Premium graphics, but other celestial objects did not, jump gates notwithstanding."EVE is in a state where, if you run the Premium graphics edition, half of it is done, you could say," said Chief Technologist Halldor Fannar of CCP Games, at Reykjavik's Fanfest 2008, as reported by Oli Welsh of Eurogamer. Future graphics updates will bring celestial objects in line with what's currently seen in Trinity, and may well arrive with the forthcoming Walking in Stations expansion which is slated to launch after the Quantum Rise expansion, just around the corner.
