AO patching to 18.8 & includes option to use new engine

[Dharzee]

AO is patching up to 18.8 tomorrow and they are adding the option to play on Live with the new graphics engine. To play with the new engine requires a new client install, some details here.

[Kriegshammer]

Nice

[Shigy]

Sadly don't think I'm gonna have time to patch it for new graphics before my show because I'm working tomorrow. But cool that it's happening.

[Vallikat]

Wow. I'll try to patch it up and check it out later.

[Gridfan]

Holy shit. They actually finished it?

Although I assume it's not "finished" yet, but they'll do the rest in 18.x patches.

But still. I'm a tad eager to see how it all looks.

[Dharzee]

Just patching up to 18.8 in the standard client doesn't take long. Downloading the new client for the engine beta is a bugger. Took me most of a day to do it for Test... so I currently have three installs of AO on my computer (Live, Test and Test w/ Engine Beta.) I'm still pondering if I want to try the new engine on Live or not.

[Failia]

I figured I would install it just to take a peek at it to see what it looks like.

By the way, hi!

*EDIT*
First impressions? Honestly, I was expecting more out of it. The water does look nice and realistic shadows and the light looks good but some of the textures look more like cell shading.

[Dharzee]

Well, it is still in beta so hopefully as more people use it and report things they'll continue to make it look better.

[Shigy]

It's very much engine update and not much else. Which is cool but not going to mean a lot to a lot of people.

[Failia]

True enough, it's just a start. I'm sure they'll start with the updating of textures and such as it progresses.