I’ve mentioned EEP fleetingly before. EEP, or the Environmental Enhancement Project, is available in Linden Lab’s Viewer, but is currently only available as a public beta in Firestorm, and is a replacement for the currently Windlight system. I’ve played around with it a little, but I’m waiting for an official version in Firestorm before I get serious with it (for example, defining a per-parcel day/night cycle).
However, while running it, I was at a friend’s place, and I was struck by how much better normals and lighting reflections look with EEP. Also, light falloff appears to be much more realistic. So I took a couple of photos. You can compare the two below. The only difference between these two photos was using the beta viewer with EEP, verses using the stable production viewer with Windlight. All camera settings, graphics card settings, resolution, and so on, remained the same. Oh, and I “froze” the fire so as not to be distracting 🙂
Take note of the reflections from the fire and the lamps on the floor and the wood to the left, and the more realistic falloff, particularly in the corners of the room. I’m looking forward to playing with this more when it’s officially merged into Firestorm.
Windlight
EEP