GridStream Productions

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.

Nice

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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