Zenith The Last City Evolves to Unity HDRP with Its Nexus Update
The virtual reality universe takes a significant technical leap 🚀. Zenith The Last City, the popular MMORPG, deploys its major Nexus 2.0 update, whose core consists of migrating the entire project to Unity's high-definition rendering pipeline HDRP. This transition is not just cosmetic; it allows the Ramen VR team to rebuild fundamental systems to establish a more solid foundation and better performance for the future.
A Visual Leap Powered by the Engine
By adopting Unity HDRP, the game can now process lighting, calculate shadows, and apply post-processing effects with much higher quality. To make the most of these new capabilities, the team has also completely renewed the textures, increasing their resolution and adapting them to the PBR workflow that the engine supports natively. Additionally, they have implemented a specific system for rendering foliage in natural environments, which optimizes performance without compromising the visual density that players expect 🌳.
Main technical advantages of the migration:- More realistic and dynamic lighting and shadows thanks to the HDRP pipeline.
- Higher resolution and physically correct textures (PBR).
- Optimized vegetation rendering to maintain high FPS in extensive worlds.
The Nexus update represents a deep internal technical evolution that players mainly perceive through a visually richer and more stable world.
Consistency in the Creative Workflow
A crucial aspect of this change is that, although the game's core now runs on Unity HDRP, the external asset creation process remains intact. Artists continue modeling in Blender and painting textures in Substance Painter. This coherence allows them to integrate new and renewed content into the updated engine without having to alter their already established art methodologies, streamlining continuous development 🎨.
Key tools in the art pipeline:- Blender for 3D modeling of all game assets.
- Substance Painter for texturing and bringing models to life.
- Seamless integration of these assets into the new Unity HDRP environment.
Technical Evolution with Intact Personality
This deep engine overhaul lays the groundwork for a brighter and smoother future in Zenith. However, the most veteran players humorously point out that some essences of the world persist, like an avatar's ability to get stuck on a familiar rock, suggesting that certain physical laws of this universe are immutable, even with a completely new rendering engine 😄. The Nexus update demonstrates that base technology can be modernized while preserving the game's unique identity and character.