As a tech artist, I create tools to help the artists get their work into the game, and I work with the programmers to make the game run more efficiently. One of my favorite things to do is write shaders. Shaders are small programs that run on the graphics chip that describe the appearance of surfaces. For example, shaders define if an object looks shiny or dull, reflective or matte, and they also help us define the visual style of the game in terms of how lighting works.
After we shipped the game last year, I started looking for ways to update the shaders to improve swtor credits cheap the appearance of the game without impacting performance. Several of these updates have already gone in, but one of my favorites is going live with Game Update 1.5–translucency on foliage.