We at Near Death Studios have been working on an exciting new enhancement to Meridian 59. Although we’re not quite ready to release, the results so far have been so impressive that we wanted to share with you all now. We have been working on a completely new client for Meridian 59!

The first step is a completely new world-rendering engine. Over time we hope to continue to work other areas of the client to make it more user friendly and powerful for players, with more features and easier access to existing features. The hope is that these changes will not only make the game more enjoyable for our long time fans, (you all), but it that the new client changes will also attract more players to the game and help keep new players past the first few minutes where currently they suffer from pixel-shock.

We’ve decided to release a first screenshot that has gotten the team very excited about the changes ahead. This first stage of client rework, the world-rendering engine, is getting close to release and the difference is really showing. Please be aware that the image below is from an unready stage and more changes are still being made. There are a few discrepancies about how the new engine displays current levels compared to the existing engine and those are being worked on. We’re also still adding features that might not be visible in the screenshot below. For comparison we’ve included a screenshot of the same scene in the current engine. These screenshots were both taken in “Large Graphics Area”. I think you’ll all agree that the efforts are well worth the rewards and Meridian 59 will start to look like a more modern game.

Final disclaimers… the image below is from a working but not final version of the world-rendering engine. Things may change but hopefully only for the better. The changes over time will likely include more enhancements than just the graphics but we’re not ready to discuss those things at this time. We only like to announce things we’re relatively confident will actually be released in a realistic timeframe. We also don’t want everyone to email us, gmail us, post, ICQ, or show up at our houses asking to test the new client. If we decide to open the client to testing we will invite players.

I’d like to close with a few comments to people on older systems and slower connections. Changing the graphics engine will not effect your connection to the servers. The graphics data is all contained in your client or updated to you as you log in. It is not sent to you while you play so you will not suffer from more latency due to the new client or any new graphics we add to the game. Of course, the more powerful client will require higher system specs. We are not willing to commit to a new minimum spec yet, but most computers and video cards purchased in the last few years should work fine. At this time we also plan to support the existing game client and neither should offer an in-game advantage over the other. They are simply different ways of providing you with the same data. I’m sure I missed something somewhere, so please don’t go crazy on me if I said something stupid or wrong =)

Thanks everyone!

http://www.gilcon.net/meridian/nds-new-engine.asp

Source: Near Death Studios - Info@NearDeathStudios.com