Hello Norrathians!
We would like to take a moment to bring you an update from our Character Art Team. This is the team that makes all of the wonderful NPC models you see when you are traveling thru Norrath.
Hey Folks,
The Character Art Team is pretty excited about the NPCs for the Omens of War expansion. We're working hard on making the NPC assets and they are unlike anything seen before in EQ. The new graphics engine allows us to use many of the DirectX 9 PixelShader 2.0 features. With normal maps, we can bump out each scale on the Darkdweller Dragon Man's face and body. The sets of eyes on the 3-headed Chimera produce an eerie glow. The Darkmantle uses a gloss map to give it a wet-looking shine (it's kinda gross, really).
Along with new NPC's, we are working on the new Epic weapons. We can use the normal and gloss maps to give these a great amount of detail. Also, we are now able to use environment maps to give the weapons a more reflective/realistic look.
New special effects will be a big part of this expansion. We will be able to add particle effects to specific animations on new weapons and new NPCs. Omens NPCs, for instance, will kick up a little dust as they charge doggedly into battle. The Epic 2.0 effects will all be unique and, hopefully, impressive (and, yes, you can turn them off if you want).
I should mention that many (but not all) of our new fancy-schamncy engine features do require a DirectX 9 capable video card to get full effects. Nevertheless, all of this is very exciting to us.
-Thanks
Cory Rohlfs
Lead Character Artist
EverQuest
Thanks Cory,
You will see more team updates in the weeks ahead including the Design team and the Environment Art Team which creates all of the zones!