These EVE Evolved changes sound subtle, but really pack a punch.
One Giant Leap for EVE Evolved
Some sweeping improvements first teased at this year's EVE Fanfest have finally started to materialise in New Eden, sparking widespread excitement as the EVE Evolved campaign supercharges the game's performance and "visceral supremacy". It's still EVE, but not as we know it.
The overhaul kicks off with some audio changes. Which doesn't sound all that exciting at first. But EVE Evolved has implemented a brand new sound prioritisation system, which is a fairly self-explanatory concept: rather than playing all sounds at once, players will hear the most relevant and important sounds, particularly when embroiled in a chaotic tussle.
In a nutshell, this will herald a significant improvement in CPU usage, which, aside from the maximised immersion, is probably the most important take-home.
Next up, CCP is finally throwing a bone to AMD FreeSync™ and NVIDIA® G-SYNC® monitors and GPU owners as EVE Online can now support this tech with no loss to overall performance. An entire dev blog was written about the change delving into the tech-heavy details.
And finally, EVE Evolved is further modernising Photon UI, which is now in an opt-out Beta stage. Changes include a makeover to The Neocom, further increasing legibility and matching the sleek modern look of Photon. Notifications will now be denoted by a subtle highlight rather than a red dot, and an enhanced compact mode gives even more control over inventory.
Photon UI now being opt-out means that it will occupy the screens of more players than ever. This will help CCP collect data faster, supercharging the future progression of Photon UI.
But if there's one thing we know about EVE, it's that it's always been evolving way before and beyond the EVE Evolved changes listed here. This is why CCP also laid out more features set to grace the cosmos, including even more audio and visual enhancements and quality of life improvements that will be arriving over the coming months.
It's safe to say that, thanks in no small part to graphical enhancements, the future is looking particularly bright for EVE.