which also can be broken down into triangles, facilitating tessellation. In early 2000, the computer industry released the first video graphics cards capable of processing transform, clipping, and lighting (T&L) instructions. With the appropriate software, these new cards took over the burden of T&L processing from the computer's processor, allowing more detailed graphics and smoother animation. Shiny capitalized on the breakthrough, spending a few weeks to rewrite a portion of Sacrifices software. Brownlow and his team refined and improved the game's graphics, increasing the number of polygons per model and setting the software to scan through scenes a few more times to determine what objects to render and how to display them. Sacrifice was acknowledged as the first game on the market to make full use of the new graphic cards (the GeForce 2 and Radeon series). Because of the adopted technology, animation in the game was smooth, without the jerkiness associated with overstressed graphical engines. For the character models, Otero and his team eschewed conventional designs inspired by The Lord of the Rings and other fantasies. Otero's ideal was that of "form follows function", by which a creature's capabilities or purposes are readily apparent from its appearance. In his opinion, a creature designed to kill enemies by exploding itself would simply be a "cartoon-ish bomb with feet". Otero's simple designs were expanded and fleshed out in detail by Gwyn, who was also responsible for creating Eldred's model. The artists' incorporation of humor in their work did not escape the video game industry's notice; many pointed out the quirky allusion of James, God of Earth, to Earthworm Jim, star of Shiny's previous games. Release By June, the major features of the game had been implemented, and Shiny proceeded to the next stage of development. It selected a thousand members of the public to participate in a beta test of Sacrifices multiplayer modes, receiving feedback on software bugs, performance issues, and possible improvements. The game's publisher, Interplay Entertainment, assigned its quality assurance department to test the single-player mode. Perry promoted the game by visiting professional game reviewers, such as FiringSquad, and giving copies of the beta version to them. On November 17, 2000, Interplay released the game for the Windows platform. Shiny packaged a level editor, Scapex, with the finished product, allowing gamers to create their own levels. The tool displays the user's changes as they are added to the level.