Believe it or not EverQuest II is almost five years old and still going strong, even in this economy. With so many technological advances there are plenty of opportunities for upgrades, and Ryan "Imago-Quem" Favale is point man when it comes to graphics. Turning a minor graphical bug into a massive shader revamp he shares with us exactly what is changing and how it will affect your gameplay.

Ten Ton Hammer: Well then you would be the perfect person to tell us about the changes being made to shading.

I’ve worked in all shader versions throughout my career from version 1.1 all the way through 4.0. Using this knowledge base we’re currently evaluating techniques to upgrade performance in the area of shaders while maintaining backwards compatibility. Shading is a vague term and could technically apply to my entire expertise. There are a lot of possibilities going forward, including extra special effects, and we’re making sure we’re planning the right ones for our players.

There is plenty more insight in our Exclusive EverQuest II Interview with Ryan Favale