Lord of the Rings goes DirectX 10

Mike Bantick
Tuesday, 15 January 2008 13:27

Your IT - Entertainment

Codemasters Online have announced DirectX 10 support for their MMO Lord of the Rings Online.

The Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) genre of gaming has not historically been known for cutting edge graphical presentation.

Codemasters Online and Turbine inc have decided to spruce up the presentation of Middle Earth with Lord of the Rings Online:Shadows of Angmar receiving some graphical tweaks.

Using the DirectX 10 API in Windows Vista, developer Turbine are promising to upgrade the games graphics with improved shaders for water, particle effects and lighting for distant terrain. Players will also be treated to new levels of immersion with the new DX10 exclusive dynamic shadowing to render realistic real-time shadows in the vast outdoor environments of The Lord of the Rings Online.

“Turbine has a history of pushing the graphics envelope so we can deliver state-of-the art immersive virtual worlds,” said Fernando Paiz, Director of Game Technology at Turbine, Inc.  “We began working with NVIDIA very early in the development cycle so that we could fully leverage DX10 technology to achieve our goal of creating the most complete and authentic recreation of Middle-earth.  The results speak for themselves as The Lord of the Rings Online has set the bar for what persistent online worlds can be.”

“The FPS genre has long dominated the race to better graphics but with this major update from Turbine, LOTRO players can enjoy graphics as good as or even better than many FPS games.  This is an outstanding achievement and the whole Turbine team should be rightly proud of what they have produced,” said Roy Taylor, Vice President of Content Relations at NVIDIA – one of the manufactures of DX10 graphics cards.  “This deserves the attention of the entire video games industry and all MMO players everywhere.  It points to a future where we will see increasing blending of genres and deeper, more immersive PC gaming experiences.  We are delighted to have been able to support this work.”

No release details for this improvement are available at the moment.