League of Legends most popular map is getting quite a substantial visual overhaul.
Summoner’s Rift pretty much is League of Legends – the map is so integral to the game that attempts to make a new one (anyone remember Twisted Treeline?) are not often well received by the community. So, League of Legends players have been slogging it out on the same-old Summoner’s Rift since the beginning, and as LoL‘s player models have gradually moved away from the ugly jagged polygons of launch, Summoner’s Rift has remained frozen in time. Until now. Riot has shown off some rather impressive footage of an upcoming visual overhaul of the map, which will bring much higher resolution textures, models, and effects.
As well as looking a hell of a lot prettier than its previous incarnation, the new Summoner’s Rift features all-new models and animations for its minions and jungle creeps. Seeing the dragon slink around the rocks before jumping into its spawn location, or the updated Blue Golem and Red Lizard that actually incorporate their respective buffs into their models, is quite cool.
While this is mostly a cosmetic change, Riot did say that the new Summoner’s Rift will bring a few gameplay changes with it. Baron Nashor and the Dragon have had a few changes to make their fights feel more “epic”. The Dragon has been given a couple of new unique AOE attacks, and Baron has a whole host of new abilities to make him feel more like a “boss battle.” A few other inconsistencies in the map have also been fixed to make for a more symmetrical experience between both sides.
If you’re wondering if your old computer, which could run the old Summoner’s Rift with ease, can handle this new high-fidelity version, worry not! “Throughout our development, our goal has been to make this map perform at least as well as current SR and preferably even better,” says Riot. “We haven’t hit our target performance yet but we are committed to getting performance as good as current SR by the time we release it.”
As someone who’s been playing LoL for many years, this is a quite nice, refreshing update to the game. Riot says that the updated Summoner’s Rift should hit the PBE very shortly, and come to live severs some time after that.
Source: Riot Games
