Crystal2 — 0.8.0 · The world comes alive

Crystal2 0.8.0 is our biggest graphics update so far, built on our own engine work. Light, shadow, water and nature all got a new look, and every new effect has its own switch in the Options.

Light and shadow

• Real-time shadows from characters, monsters, buildings and trees. They are soft, sharp where they touch the ground and softer further away, and clouds drift their shade over the land by day.
• Ambient occlusion: soft contact shading where walls, trees and characters meet the ground.
• Light shafts: rays of sun through trees and roofs (golden under the Halloween eclipse).
• Night lights: skill and effect lights now light the ground around them, and a soft glow around your own character keeps the dark readable.

Water

• Modern water: ripples, the sky mirrored on the surface, sun glints, foam along the shores, and darker water at night.
• Reflections: the world itself mirrored in the water: trees, buildings and the night sky.
• Rings spread around your fishing float, with a splash when a fish bites.

Nature

• Fuller grass in natural clumps, rolling in the wind, off the roads, parting around you and every character that walks through it.
• Butterflies over the meadows by day, and falling leaves drifting down from the trees.
• Dust behind running feet and footprints in earth, sand and snow.
• Jumping fish in lakes and rivers.

Rain and snow

• Showers now and then, the same for everyone: rain on the green maps, snow on the snowy ones.
• The wind picks up while they last: the grass bends harder and the leaves blow further.

Options

• The Options window is sorted into pages: Graphics (the picture), World (shadows, water, light, distance), Nature (grass, butterflies, leaves, dust, footprints, fish, rain and snow) and Engine.
• The full new look, grass and water reflections included, is switched on for you once at your first start. After that your own choices stay.
• Running slowly? If your PC struggles in the first minute, the game offers lighter graphics with one click, and Options > World turns everything back on.

Fixes

• The Livestream button can no longer hide under the bottom taskbar after the window size changes.
• Shadows start right at your feet, also at night.
• A crash when changing maps on some graphics cards.

Clients 2.60 and 2.61 arrive automatically through the launcher.