Loading
A level is no longer loaded for the main menu or for character creation (black background instead). This improves load times.
New terrain shader
- Support for up to 16 terrain textures (previously maximum of 7 textures)
- Much better performance
- Better visual quality
- Can eventually support snow and rain.
Dynamic occlusion
Integrated a GPU dynamic occlusion system.
![](https://www.eprison.de/pics/games/https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/35965080/c35cc4d2abe65cb71f7985ddce67fce1520fa15b.png)
- Much better performance especially with dense scenes
- Point light shadows are much less expensive so they are now all enabled instead of most turned off
- Less visible popping between LOD levels
- Lower memory and CPU usage
New ocean shader
![](https://www.eprison.de/pics/games/https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/35965080/2563aeaf72703a289a26e90076063c30b05ae890.png)
![](https://www.eprison.de/pics/games/https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/35965080/38390119156fe67fde11004b152d42fa9b257f0d.png)
- Much better performance
- Better visuals
- No more visual artifacts when sun reflects off of the water
- Much better underwater rendering visual quality
New biomes
Load A_Start_Island2.lvl to see the new biomes and the start of a new island
![](https://www.eprison.de/pics/games/https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/35965080/159f821beb517b8ae2238cd21d1e051d94f1affc.png)
- More traditional looking
- Much better performance
- Much higher quality wind effects
- The meadow, mountain, and beech forest folders under nature in environmental objects have the new assets
- New biomes in the biome database under the mountain and meadow folders
In progress
![](https://www.eprison.de/pics/games/https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/35965080/e1ddb67dbee0bfac929cb7abd19f64ef2953ce49.png)
- New character creation
- New character system using UMA
- New animations using Mecanim
- Expanding the Perk system
- New campaign with new starting island