Feldon We continue to follow progress on the Shaders 3.0 update. Imago-Quem (Ryan) has continued to work tirelessly on this project and we have an update of sorts.
Originally intended as a graphical bump to improve the appearance of the game in existing and new zones, Shaders 3.0 was expanded and re-prioritized into a sweeping optimization of the EQ2 graphical pipeline engine first, and a graphical improvement second. Part of this process was Imago-Quem providing tools to the EQ2 zone and character art developers so that all new content they create for this and future expansions is fully compatible with and takes advantage of Shaders 3.0. These tools are now in the hands of developers.
Shaders 3.0 is currently enabled on the Test server, and in response to player feedback and testing results, Ryan has been been submitting numerous fixes, optimizations, and updated textures. We had hoped these changes would all make it onto Test today, as then we’d be able to better assess how the finished Shaders 3.0 are going to work out when they are pushed live (possibly as soon as May’s Game Update 56).
However we have learned that Shaders 3.0 will not be updated on Test until the 4th week of April, possibly April 23rd. We intend, once this next wave of fixes are implemented on Test, to do some before-and-after comparison videos.
As always, we will keep you informed on these and other developments.