You'd be forgiven for forgetting about Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures, which was released released four months ago. Recent commotion being stirred up by the upcoming release of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, and the announcement of a release date for World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King it's easy to see why Hyborian Adventurers have been quiet.

Whilst those who've embarked on their own adventures in Hyboria have been displeased about the state of the game, developers Funcom have repeatedly stated that they are working hard on improving the quality of the game in order to satisfy their subscribers. Today, we've gotten our hands on a developer diary featuring Erling Ellingsen, Product Manager of Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures, in which he speaks about the numerous changes which are set to send a wave of rejoicing through the fan base.

High level content is the main matter discussed in the video, along with promises to address memory leaks, along with improving a number of gameplay dynamics such as the trading system, loot distribution, and the PVP system.

Download Age of Conan: Hyborian Insider Video #4

Along with new quests and high level content, Ellingsen outlines new DirectX10 graphical features which are to be incorporated into the engine. Some of these will also work under DirectX9 rendering, though there was no mention of which would be DirectX10 specific. The most dramatic of these new features are the use of screen-based ambient occlusion, the use of caustics for underwater scenes, and the use of improved parallax mapping to enhance texture quality.


Ambient Occlusion and HDR Comparison DX9 and DX10


The use of Caustics under DX10 dramatically improve underwater scenes
While some would argue that Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures was released unfinished, you can't argue with the fact that Funcom are actively attempting to address the issues present in the title.