3D accelerated graphics. So, what else is new?

Black & White is going to be an entirely 3D game, with everything in the game modeled and animated in 3D. Every villager, animal, structure, Titan, tree, even the seas and rivers, are polygonal 3D objects. At the time of LAST year's (1998) E3, the master list of graphics to be created had grown to over sixteen thousand images. Knowing the attention to detail and fun Peter Molyneux is famous for putting into his games, that list has likely grown significantly.

Black & White isn't scheduled for release until sometime in the second half of 1999 (and we won't be getting any firm release dates until the game is very close to being done, if not until it IS done), so a lot of things, particularly concerning details of the 3D graphics, are as yet undecided. No information about what 3D APIs, what level of hardware, or whether or not software rendering will be supported is currently available (and if it was, it would be likely to change before release). What I can tell you about the graphics is that you can expect them to be VERY good. The screenshots speak for themselves, and you can expect it to get BETTER by the time the game is released.

As I said above, a great deal is unknown about the game, including expected system requirements. Speculations are a high end Pentium MMX to low end Pentium II/Celeron with a 3D Accelerator.

Another big portion of Black and White is its multiplayer game. Lionhead has claimed that Black & White will be "massively multiplayer." What precisely this means has changed over development, and it is one of the many details of the game that is currently very uncertain. Comments and reports have ranged from having hundreds of players with their Titans online in one multiplayer universe over the internet, battling it out, to having as few as 16 players in one online, multiplayer game-world.

What IS known about multiplayer Black & White is that players can grow and train their Titans offline, in single player mode, then import them into the multiplayer game and fight it out over internet or LAN. The potential is there for players to spend countless hours perfecting the training and strength of their Titan before taking it online to fight other players. Titans will continue to be affected by their online escapades, so a Titan taken online and given a severe beating may end up traumatized and fearful, whereas a Titan on a winning streak will be more confident.