Jade Empire Preview
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To meet the game's steep visual requirements for both animations and environments, the BioWare team scrapped the idea of using any previous Xbox graphics engines, including the engine they used for their own Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. The new Jade Empire engine developed by BioWare's technology architecture department allowed the game's designers to make the environments extremely interactive. For example, tall grass brushes aside as characters move through it and the dangling cloth on many characters' costumes flutters authentically in the wind.
The new engine also provided the developers with the ability to include fancy visual effects like rim lighting (which basically provides the same effect as backlighting in photography) and pixel flare (which allows for the realistic blazing effects of sunlight and other energy emissions). These special effects served to give the game a warm, glowing feeling that I found immediately welcoming.
