World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Footage Shows Shattered World

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm footage fresh from BlizzCon reveals how many of the MMORPG's zones will be changed with its expansion's titular upheaval, as well as touring the starting areas for Cataclysm's

Alice O'Connor

August 21, 2009 4:08 PM

Alice O'Connor

Filed Under

From The Chatty

Refresh Go To Thread

TigerRei

 reply
August 21, 2009 4:16 PM

Did this game get an engine upgrade? I dont remember the water looking that good.
- pyide
  
   reply
  August 21, 2009 4:20 PM
  
  looks like the water definitely did get upgraded. some terrain reflections going on now.
- Shadowdane
  
   reply
  August 21, 2009 4:21 PM
  
  yah about 8 months ago i think...
  - IndigoAK
    
     reply
    August 21, 2009 4:26 PM
    
    No, the water is new to this expansion.
    
    The big engine upgrade introduced with Wrath of the Lich King was dynamic shadows.
    - pyide
      
       reply
      August 21, 2009 4:34 PM
      
      and zone phasing.
      - rahba
        
         reply
        August 21, 2009 10:45 PM
        
        That existed before wrath technically. The daily quest hub island added with Sunwell was their first experiment in phasing.
- joooze
  
   reply
  August 21, 2009 6:00 PM
  
  mmo-champion.com has a full list of changes.
  
  It has reflective water (4 years after Farcry and Half Life 2 but nevermind). What I find off putting is the geometry in the game still - it's crooked and low resolution. The textures are no high resolution which is nicer, and the shader effects have always been the best out there. Just the textures for buildings, arches and so on look so Quake II.
  - varsindarkin
    
     reply
    August 22, 2009 1:34 AM
    
    my guess is to continue making the game run excellent on a huge variety of PCs.
  - spdon
    
     reply
    August 22, 2009 4:01 AM
    
    I think WoW actually looks fantastic even with the low res and low poly environs.