HIGHLANDS 6: There is a long way to go but this image is beginning to capture a look and feel worth pursuing. Concepting right in the game engine has its advantages and it is just plain fun because you can tweak the camera view forever!

HIGHLANDS: In the crowded stinking cities, stories of the highlands' vast open spaces and good living drive people to seek new lives. The stories are true, but highlanders will not give an inch of their land without a fight. This image is an early in-game screenshot.

HIGHLANDS 2: This along with the next two images deal with various issues such as non terrain objects like rocks, houses and animal placement for scale, investigating path making and testing real-time shadows. They also explore ways in which the distant base textures show a mix of grass, bracken and gorse while close up you see the details of grass. The look of these are nowhere near right yet, but it is good to document the process towards acceptable.

HIGHLANDS 3: See highlands 2 for information. These stones are not part of the terrain and test real-time shadows.

HIGHLANDS 4: See highlands 2 for information. This is a path making test. Currently terrain objects such as trees don't yet cast or receive shadows. This will be addressed in time. Though the bracken is part of the terrain, it has a blob shadow polygon with alpha map built into the model which works quite well as a cheap way to fake shadow and ambient occlusion. That basically means they look more grounded than objects without any shadow cheats!

EDINBURGH: Now a ruined city where the remaining citizens are pretty much left to fend for themselves. Only the castle is well maintained by the ruling clan for its strategic significance, but its ownership changes too often to bring any stability to the city. For hundreds of years now domestic houses have been built on platforms to avoid the rising waters and they tend to follow the edinburgh tradition of building upwards.

ISLANDS: The lochs are littered with islands of all sizes. Some are inhabited, others are not, It is up to you to explore them for strategic significance.

HAAR: The haar (mist) is a double edged sword. It can appear from nowhere in the blink of an eye so be prepared, you might get stranded from colleagues at the most inopportune of moments. On the other hand, if you can't see the enemy, the enemy can't see you.

WINTER: Contrary to popular opinion, global warming made Northern Britain colder. Vast amounts of melting ice from the North Pole cooled seas enough to disrupt the gulf stream. Winters are now so severe loch surfaces turn to solid ice and though walking across a frozen loch can have its advantages, thick ice is by no means evenly distributed. Beware.