Originally posted by Kweassa
For example;
image deleted, look up:
Take a look at the following pic of IL2 terrain. Notice how the ground has some open 'dirt spots' where grass doesn't grow. This small kind of variety could help a lot to make the terrain feel less dull.
To get this kind of 'organic-ness' you're seeing in this screenshot, the size of the tiling would have to be changed to be MUCH larger, with many more unique tiles (but all still meshing together). The tiles in AH2 are smaller and exhibit the noticeable 'repeated-ness' that others have mentioned (saw-tooth effect on shorelines, etc.). I am not sure but I would imagine that to change the actual size of the tiling in the game and on the maps would require extensive rewriting of core code, as well as render all current maps essentially unusable.
As for the terrain colors, I think that the main difference that we are seeing is that the colors are more 'washed-out' in IL-2 and some other ones (BoB springs to mind). It's VERY difficult to wash out colors without getting strange artifacting, i.e. to make it look natural. That being said, it might be good to look at desaturating parts of the terrain to wash it out a bit, especially as we sometimes have part-sun conditions where the terrain color, paired with a sunset condition would create very dark ground terrain.
