Vanguard: Saga of Heroes Preview
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Category: News ArchiveHits: 837
The first thing we were shown that is new is a Terrain Hyper Detail system. Basically this toggled setting will greatly enhance the details on terrain. The players view is broken down into layers, the further the view, the less detail you see, which will save on system resources. As you get closer to objects, they alpha blend into a much more detailed texture. Now how many layers there are, I have no idea. However, I know that the closest layer to the player has been recently added, which gives so much detail you truly feel like you are walking on real ground, expecting to hear twigs snap under your feet and the ruffles of leaves. Now how they implemented this without bogging down their systems is beyond me, they've played a real balancing act between performance and system demands.
Then we were shown their shadow system. This is not new technology by any stretch of the imagination, but it sure did look cool. Advancing the time machine in-game we were able to see fast versions of how the shadows work. It is a very fluid motion that basically follows the light that the sun and moon emits. Nothing too spectacular, right? Well, being that these guys like to go beyond expectations I was quite surprised to see the following. Not only does the sunlight have effect on the player in terms of Shadowing, but it also plays with textures. You really see this change during night time, the bump mapping will reflect the moonlight and give it more of a nightly feel.
