Nonetheless, let's compare the NDisles terrains from the same three versions of the game. I set gamma (not adjustable in AH1) to 1.0 for 2.09 and 2.10. This gives the the most honest comparison possible by avoiding custom settings. The field is A18.
There are two things at work here.
One, is the issue concerning the brightness/contrast of the terrain textures, which I believe no one objects that it's gotta be fixed.
Two, is how each of the various features that makes up a 'terrain' is depicted by the terrain system itself, and in this aspect the changes between each of the three depiction methods are undoubtably for the better, not the worse.
Take a look, for example, some the pics NHawk posted. Old AH1 had a very simplistic method of depicting the terrains by crude, flat, polygons. The 'detail' and 'feel' of the terrains were entirely dependant on what kind of textures were used. The more 'photorealistic' the quality of textures, the better it looked at altitude, especially when you were looking at it from the exact angle which the 'photo' was taken at.
However, the moment you close in, get lower near the ground, all the "beauty" is entirely lost and it becomes nothing but a big mush of pictures viewed from a wrong angle. AH1 terrain is essentially a cardboard box glued with photos printed out from Google-EARTH.
Initial versions of AH2, upto the previous version, was an attempt to depict 3D terrains as the importance of the ground-war aspect of the game grew. AH became more and more of a "WW2-feel virtual war", instead of the simple A2A combat sim with a tad bit of territorial land-grab flavor.
The current terrain format as of this version, IMO is an attempt to maintain the principles laid out by the initial AH2 terrain scheme, while at the same time cleaning up and optimizing many of the issues that plagued it, with an added bonus to improving overall aesthetic quality of it both from the air, and land.
Somehwere along the way they made the same mistake as AH2 Beta, where the terrain texture was way too dark for most of the gamers. Another mistake is how the shadows of the forest/trees are handled, and many of the current terrains in the MA were designed in previous versions, and were simply converted to the new scheme.
However, these problems are relatively easily fixed, and once the fix and tweak is done, in the end the potential lying with this new terrain scheme is lightyears ahead of what we had in AH1. This, is something people viewing your pictures should not be confused about.
In the end, after the current problems are addressed, a player-designed map will ultimately reach much higher levels of aesthetic depiction, which IMO qualifies the 'evolution' of the AH terrains as "something for the better".
