0 A.D. Receives New Shader-Based Renderer Mode

For those not doing any work this weekend, Wildfire Games has released 0 A.D. Alpha 5 Edetania. This fifth alpha to the game that's long been in development and then only open-sourced in 2009 has quite a lot of improvements, including a new shader-based graphics renderer.

The new shader-based renderer mode in 0 A.D. Alpha 5 is designed to support new effects while improving the graphics rendering performance. There's also improved lighting for warmer and more vivid colors, new particles, terrain decals, hidden units, and various graphics performance improvements.

In terms of game-play updates with this newest release, there's a new "Iberians" civilization, improved enemy AI, random map scripting, unit promotions, improved formations, and a new map.

Also falling into this update for Windows / Linux / Mac OS X gamers is improved user-interface functions, artwork, and new audio (sound effects and music).

The latest build of Wildfire Games 0 A.D. is available for free download from the project web-site.