EVE Online Interview (con't)

FiringSquad: The game will be getting graphical improvements as well. Since the game already looks impresive, what can be done to further improve the current game?

Nathan Richardsson: Well, our engine is already 3 years old and back then, people were quite impressed with the look and feel of EVE. Now we felt it was time to take it up a notch again, start utilizing some of the advances and added hardware acceleration features on graphics card. We’re remodelling all of our ships in millions of triangles, which we use to create normal mapped versions, then utilizing soft self-shadowing, per-pixel lighting and HDR.

FiringSquad: CCP also announced plans for a DirectX10 version of EVE Online. What can you tell us about this version in terms of graphical features and whether or not it will have the same content as the current version of the game?

Nathan Richardsson: We call it EVE Vista since it’s mainly for that operating system at the moment. The content and gameplay will be exactly the same as with the current client, playing on the same servers in the same EVE universe. The only difference is that it will be utilizing the new features and optimizations of DirectX10 and then leveraging the programmable shader pipeline. For short, it’ll be more spiffy when showing the new uber ships! :)


FiringSquad: Looking into the future does CCP Games plan to work solely on EVE Online or are there any plans for other games outside of the EVE universe?

Nathan Richardsson: We are a game developer and we certainly plan on remaining a game developer :)

However, we are so busy with EVE and there is still a lot we need to do there until we’re satisfied, that we’re only on the concept stage with anything else. You know, the “we’d love to do something like this” kind of thing. As long as there are players playing EVE, we’ll be there evolving it, but we also have plans for world domination, like all respectable game developers have (right?) so there will be other titles.

Whether they’ll be using the EVE universe as setting remains to be seen, but rest assured, there is nothing like “EVE II” coming out. There is only one true, constantly evolving, EVE. Ok, don’t quote me on that in 40 years though …


FiringSquad: Finally is there anything else you wish to say about EVE Online and CCP's plans for the future?

Nathan Richardsson: I did mention world domination, right? Right. Other than that, if you decide to try out EVE, joining a player run corporation is the best way to get into the EVE universe, they help you starting out and get you over the pretty steep learning curve.