The research and development process for Dawn World has been set out here on a month by month basis during the 2.5 years development cycle so far. Each stage is detailed together with any further thoughts.

Distribution and update of game files implemented.

HUD design finalised and polished. I like the old scroll look in keeping with the era of the game. Some modernisation introduced and the colour scheme modernised.

HUD elements finlaised and implemented. This ranges from character customisation and inventory to trading, maps and game settings.

Crafting system implemented and extended to include training where you can sell training to other players.

Crafting system implelmented including weapons, recepies and refining.

LOD for trees, general foliage, props and shadow elements.

Foliage methods introduced using Batched hardware rendering offering excellent performance for thousands of instances of grass and bushes to be renedered around the player.

Moving water implemented. A number of water techniques tried for fresnel and specular effects. Currently undecided as it's a case of quality verses framerates.

Research on water techniques for seas and lakes.
Drawing multiple instances of various models and characters.
Shadows implemented.

Smooth keyframe animation implemented, best tools decided on.
Snapping models to terrain perfected.
HUD design prototyped.
Started research on shadowing techniques.

Much time was spent researching the many implementations available for animating characters. Server code improved with adaptable latency adjustment.

Static human models introduced with basic texturing.showing ambient and directional lighting working as desired.
Static clouds introduced into skydome.
Improved terrain texturing.