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Steel rebellion's 3D engine is spectacular. The initial view resembles that of Bungee's Myth and depicts fully modeled terrain complete with hills, valleys and mountains. The textures are very crisp, with the terrain's features having a pseudo bump-mapping effect to them. Players will be able to zoom in and out, rotate and pan left and right while in the Myth style, or strategic, view. This view has no clipping plane, so players will be able to see very far. That doesn't mean that all the units are instantly visible however. Through the use of the 3D terrain engine, field of vision will be handicapped by tree lines, valleys, ridges, crests and other naturally occurring formations. During confrontations, players will be able to either retain this view or switch to a first person tactical perspective of the highlighted vehicle for a more personal touch.
Visuals aside, Steel Rebellion will also use sound to enhance awareness of the environment. The game will have not only positional audio but Funcom's proprietary Doppler effects code. In games, when sound from two separate sources are emitted, they are simply played over two separate audio channels, whereas in reality, the two sound sources would alter each other's wavelengths and produce a slightly different sound (in some cases, if the wavelengths are equal, they'll cancel each other out). Steel Rebellion's sound engine will feature these true Doppler effects.
But Funcom isn't banking on the terrain and environment to carry the game alone. Within Steel Rebellion players will have a choice of up to 60 fully modeled 3D vehicles, each with their own weight, turning radius, speed, acceleration and mobility. Funcom goes even further by assigning each unit with never before used characteristics like the amount of noise emitted, ease of detection, and interestingly enough, the amount of terror each strikes into the enemies' heart. Morale will play a key role in the effectiveness of your troops, and the more frightened they are by the opposition, the lower their morale will be.
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