Players spend a lot of time staring at the hulls of their EVE Online ships, so it makes sense to make those ships as attractive as possible. This was the motivation behind the first complete overhaul of the game’s lighting and reflections model, and now the team is doing it all again. Another art rework and update is in place to make sure that lights reflect properly on a variety of surfaces, that texture details don’t get washed out, and that the ships flying through deep space look as good as possible.

Among the changes being made is the addition of new material maps that allow for overlays of dirt or rust or other less-reflective surfaces on ship. There are also systems to allow for dynamic addition or removal of dirt from hulls based on events, making the ships appear more dynamic. See all of the details for yourself in the newest development blog.