In the wake of a series of comments by Blizzard reps hinting at an eventual overhaul of World of Warcraft's graphics engine, Worldofwar.net contacted Lead Producer J. Allen Brack for clarification. Brack responded by describing specific changes to the engine that will be in the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, and then by making a pretty major revelation about the nature of the overhaul.

According to Brack, Blizzard will be making the changes bit-by-bit rather than all at once. "We're taking an iterative, organic approach to graphics upgrades," he said, "going feature by feature as opposed to thinking in terms of an overall new graphics engine."

As for the WotLK changes: those will include a new shadow engine, some new shaders for "even better looking terrain, as well as cool ice effects," and an increased view distance to make those expansive Northrend wastelands look, well ... expansive. He also noted that new water effects will be coming in "a future content update or expansion."

[Via WoW Insider]

Shadows loom in the darkened forest, swallowing the intrepid explorer Twarsong and creating today's eerie One Shots image. While we can assure you that this is indeed Lord of the Rings Online, the Trollshaws isn't an area we see here too terribly often. It certainly isn't as bright and cheery as many others we do get, but we think this just adds to the beauty of a game. There's nothing quite like seeing creepy overshadowed areas where layers interplay with light, to make you appreciate how much the designers were paying attention to details.

Do you know of any great creepy, spooky or foreboding areas in your favorite game? Run into any big nasty monsters lately? If so we'd love to see them! Just send them into us at oneshots AT massively DOT com. Screens of all games and situations are welcome!

Week four of Turbine's screenshot contest for The Lord of the Rings Online has come and gone, and the fourth pair of winners has been selected.

This time the winners are players Morreion and Brisbanoch. Their entries have been posted on the official LotRO forums. Morreion's screenshot is pictured here. It shows off the dynamic tree shadow effects you can enable if you're playing with a DirectX 10-ready video card in Windows Vista.

Turbine's been hosting this contest to celebrate LotRO's place as the first MMO to fully support DX10 features. It's not too late to send in an entry yourself if you've got the high-end hardware needed to support DX10 -- and if you run Windows Vista. That's a big if at this point.