Graphics and engine in WoW Forever

New lighting, fog and water, with a global toggle between HD and SD character models.

Map data: None yet. Fills in from tester uploads once beta starts on 2026-09-17. Help map the beta.

What is confirmed about Graphics and engine

Official Volumetric fog, real-time sun and moon lighting and shadows, and a new water shader.Blizzard Forever panel videos, 2026-09-13
Official Ray-traced global illumination tuned for minimum spec.Blizzard Forever panel videos, 2026-09-13
Official Global HD or SD model toggle.Blizzard Forever panel videos, 2026-09-13
Official Restored classic animations on HD models.Blizzard Forever panel videos, 2026-09-13
Official Built-in controller support.Blizzard Forever panel videos, 2026-09-13
Official A choice of Modern or Classic visual presets.Blizzard What's Next panel recap, 2026-09-13
Official HD and SD models share one skeleton and updated animations; there is no separate classic skeleton.Blizzard live Q&A broadcast, 2026-09-17
Official Cards older than AMD GCN 1, NVIDIA Maxwell or Intel Skylake are not supported because the new lighting needs compute shader support.Blizzard: graphics hardware requirements, 2026-09-17