Basically, I added a pretty simple effect in to the environments.

I'm placing images that appear to be closer to the player than does the the center field [where the protagonist and all the physical stuff is]. So, basically the rooms pop out toward you with stuff in the foreground. Not a big addition, right? Well, as it turns out, this has a wonderful effect on the look of the rooms. They aren't too noticeable in screen shots, but as you move within the room, you get a definite a sense of 3 dimensionality. The foreground imagery [the vines and trees and rocks on the side, as well as the gold light rays] is blurred slightly and differently lit, as you can see in these screens.

I'm also adding more glowy shit.

Because we all know I like glowy shit.

a better example