Yesterday saw Star Wars: The Old Republic developer Broadsword release the first part of its modernisation plan, boosting the fidelity of several planets and tweaking player character models with new textures and ocular specularity (eyeball highlights), as well as lighting and shader improvements. The effect was meant to be subtle, so as to not dramatically change the appearance of characters which some players have been rolling with for over a decade. The reaction has been… mixed.
In a lot of cases, the impact is—as was promised—minimal. If you take a look at my Smuggler, you'll be hard-pressed to tell the difference. His face is maybe 1% more weathered—ever so slightly more like a real person. If I didn't have the side-by-side comparison to look at, I probably wouldn't have noticed.
