More DX10 video goodness appears as gnarled finger beckons

THE AGE OF CONAN looks set to be a fairly decent online game, based, as it is, on the Arnie movie starring the titular character.

Conan, like Arnie himself, is now doing his bit to rescue California's economics by rendering his graphics in DirectX 10, a fact sure to make the chaps in Satan Clara that little bit richer. What a virtuous circle.

We've heard the green team waxing lyrical about the bounteous beauty of Age of Conan for many months now, but there is finally a video out to illustrate some of the DX10 niceties. It is here. Whilst some of the textures look a little bit iffy, the key is in the lighting, which has some subtle effects. Conan looks like it has potential, but we're not blown away just yet.

Meanwhile, the chaps at Hard Spell have been publicising a new R600 tech demo which shows off 'global illumination' by using DX10 lighting to, well, illuminate a map of the world. It looks... sort of boring. But we are assured that "extremely realistic lighting effects" are created by "the performance of dynamic objects in the source of the light irradiation", so that's OK.

Tech demos, videos, hacks, but no games yet. So far, DX10 is a bit of a damp squib. µ