HomeLAN - Can you be more specific on how the graphics will be improved for Universal Combat: Edge to Edge?

Derek Smart - Yeah, I could be specific but it would just bore the average gamer. Basically, if it is drawing a pixel, it is being re-written. Nick was tasked with coming up with his thoughts on the goals presented to him and he did an excellent job of categorizing what we needed to do for the graphics engine and how.

For example, the reason the planets seen from space are so blocky, is because they are to scale. Which means that they're, well, massive. In UC, a 1024x512 texture is used to map that sphere. Well, it will look coarse due to the number of screen pixels (e.g. 6000) that one texel can cover. To this end, in UCE2E we're either going to fractally generate it using a recursive noise function or use a technique called "texture splattering". We're also considering using the same texture splattering for generating the actual terrain itself as this will also produce much better results than what we have now. Remember that we don't have to create realistic sized planet surface areas in UCE2E, so a LOT more options are open to us now in terms of terrain data generation and rendering.

Other examples include use of BRDF materials, shadow volumes, reflections, dot3 bump mapping (used sparingly where necessary), a brand new particle system for things like explosions, fire, smoke, contrails, weapon effects etc. Even effects such as planetfall burnup, cloaking, hyperspace, hyperjump etc are all being re-written using advanced shaders. We're also going to be making good use of damage maps as these will show visible damage on structures, ships etc. As I mentioned in the press release, UCE2E is graphics and multiplayer tempest we're embarking on. We already have all the AI, all the gameplay, all the features and all the assets we need. All the assets being used in UC and which will appear in UCE2E (e.g. vehicles, fighters etc) are also going to be tweaked and re-exported to the new target engine specs. All the character models and animations are brand new in order to take advantage of the new skeletal animation engine extension.

Its major. Truly major. In fact, its the first ever game I'm going to be doing in which graphics improvements are the #1 focus.