World of Warcraft: Cataclysm is arguably the largest expansion of WoW ever. It revamps the old world and the new, adding five new beautiful zones, and drastically changing many of the older zones. Since the Fall of the Lich King on Patch 3.3.3 or whatever, World of Warcraft has begun to continue it's story, instead of simply retell the Warcraft Trilogy. Cataclysm does not "ruin lore" as many on the forums would claim. It is creating a more immersive environment for newer players, as well as forward the lore for the old. One of the most important parts of immersion is the asthetic of the scenery around you. At BlizzCon 2009 it was announced that you will be able to have a view distance 3X as large as the farthest you could view when Vanilla first shipped. This is all great and gravy, but I think the most impressive graphical update that comes with Cataclysm is the water. If you've seen it you'll agree, and if you haven't, you soon will.
Here is the old water:
And here is the new:
As you can see, the water washes onto and off of shore, the waves and wakes look more realistic and painterly, and objects beneath the water's surface are distorted. It even reflects the sun and moon.
Well, the water looks great, now what else? Well, well, settle down, my little forum troll. What's that? You want the sky to look cooler? Well check out these cloud effects.
These are pictures taken from The Vortex Pinnacle, a 5-Man dungeon in Uldum. I have a feeling those cloud effects will be used everywhere.
But what if they're not? Forum troll, just shut up and enjoy the new sunbeams.
And those are the sunbeams.
Now, the textures will all be getting a facelift as well, but that's not very interesting, so I decided not to post anything about that.
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