GamaSutra’s Chris Remo has another interview with Brad Wardell, this time focusing on the modding engine in the upcoming game, Elemental: War of Magic.
“Elemental makes use of a level of detail system paired to its zoom feature that swaps out different models and textures as the player moves from examining individual workers at ground level up to viewing whole continents, at which point the perspective blends into a flat 2D "cloth map."
That will be available to modders, who can import their own custom 3D models from 3ds Max or Maya to make their own strategy games, creating all the intermediary versions of the models and allowing for a game scalable across a broad variety of system specs -- or bypassing the system entirely if they don't have the development bandwidth to make all those extra assets.”
Read the full interview at GamaSutra.