Shadows of the Lich King
With the upcoming expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, Blizzard is making a big step forward improving the aging graphics engine of World of Warcraft. While most modifications to the engine have been subtle, there is nothing subtle about the new shadows included in the next expansion. They noticeably improve the visual quality of the game, and when coupled with the unrivaled visual style of Blizzard the old game suddenly looks much more acceptable when compared to the contemporary competition. Sure, just adding in the expansion won't suddenly turn World of Warcraft into high-tech DX10 shader bonanza - it's still fundamentally based on an engine developed in the DX8-era, and can still run without any pixel shader support whatsoever! Instead of a complete engine overhaul, Blizzard has taken the incremental approach, adding bits and pieces to the existing engine. With the new shadows turned off, you can still keep playing the game with the old hardware that runs the game as it is on the live servers today - no mandatory hardware upgrades needed. Still, those of you with a bit more modern gaming PC (or the will to put some money towards an upgrade) will get some added visual candy, and might actually see World of Warcraft framerate being limited by your video card instead of the CPU!
The new shadows appear visually most distinct in the forested areas of Northrend, but everywhere they bring a lot of extra atmosphere to the game. So, what do you need to run the game with the new additions? Read on - we test things out and give our recommendations. We also take a close look at the new visuals and detail the current shortcomings of the engine modifications - the new shadows are good, but are not quite perfect (at least not yet).
It should be noted that all the testing, screenshots and videos are based on the currently ongoing closed beta of Wrath of the Lich King, and that means none of this is yet final. Unfinished code in use. Wear your hard hat. Watch out for falling polygons.
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