FXT1 texture compression provides equal to or better compression ratios than any available hardware compression scheme and is supported on all future 3dfx products. With up to four compression schemes used in the encoding of each texture, FXT1 provides the most accurate texture compression available, providing little or no loss in image quality. Decoding FXT1 textures can be done transparently in the 3D hardware at run-time, or decoded in software and converted to another hardware-supported texture format.
Messiah will not support environmental bumpmapping. We did some tests, and while it looked promising, the time to implement it in the game far outweighed the benefits. After all, bumpmapping is usually used to 'fake' additional polygonal detail - and with the characters in such high detail to begin with, we really didn't see a huge benefit.
That said, it'll be a feature in the next project that Team Ego makes (which will probably be one of 3 things: add-on pack, sequel, or entirely new game) since more hardware will support it at that time.
Link of the Day: Mister Rogers' Neighborhood Home Page. I think if I were a parent I'd be worried that this page didn't trigger my cyber-sitter software. Thanks Chris Rhoton and his roommate Matt Sheffer.