Graphics

Related topics: User Interface, Graphical Errors, Frequently Asked Questions

Articles

• Microsoft.com - Asheron's Call Technical Information (Day and Night Cycle)

Graphics Engine Updates

• Darkness Ascendant
  • Colored lighting effects introduced. Many lights, including the sun and moon, will now cast colored light in both hardware and software modes.
• Throne of Destiny expansion
  • AC: TD features an updated graphics engine that supports DirectX 9. Notable updates include:
    • Updated from DirectX 7 to DirectX 9 and from 16-bit to 32-bit texture buffers.
    • A complete texture update (6,500 textures).
    • Some low-poly models (such as Gromnies and Monougas) updated.
    • True Z-Buffering support.
    • Native window mode (no more need to patch the client.)
    • Anisotropic Filtering and V-Sync support.
    • Basic lighting effects on your character.
    • New pop-up windows for help system and trade skill interactions.
    • 3D models of people and creatures are now shown in the ID panel instead of an icon.
    • Software mode will no longer be supported.
    • Weather Effects including landscape fog left out of new code base due to performance issues.
• Toward Ancient Shores
  • Lightning effects disabled due to complaints (you can still see the effect without the sound, however, at the Battlefield of Ayn Tayan).
• Shifting Gears
  • Landscape distance fog reintroduced.

Model & Texture Updates

Click each event link to see some before & after images

• Darkness Ascendant
  • Drudges
  • Golems
• Hollow Victory
  • Tuskers
• Chains of Command
  • Underwear is now ivory/off-white instead of brown.
• The Widening Gyre
  • Olthoi
• A Reign of Stone
  • Lugians
• The Gathering Storm
  • Mosswarts
  • Cows (Image of Marae Lassel added to other side of Cows. Before it was just Dereth on one side)
• Flesh and Blood event
  • Empyrean Stone Heads
• Festivus
  • Banderlings
• The Madness of Men
  • Gelidite Acolyte
  • Gelidite Initiate
  • Gelidite Lord
• Across the Vast Divide
  • Small Creepy Statues
• A New Threat
  • Ferns
  • Mites
• From the Darkness Born
  • Phyntos Wasps
• Throne of Destiny expansion
  • Lifestone
  • Gromnie
  • Monouga
  • Reedshark
  • Skeleton
• Friend and Foe
  • Tumeroks
• Reprisals
  • Higher Resolution Textures activated for ToD clients. (From the Texture detail dropdown box, select Very High setting)
• Shifting Gears
  • Landscape textures: grass, ice, desert etc
• Winter's Knight
  • Pine Tree
• Shifting Shadows
  • Hairstyles