Well, I keep hearing how many people think the AH graphics engine is old and outdated and not up to todays systems.
As a programmer, I will tell you categorically, it has absolutely zero to do with the graphics engine. You know a graphics engine only pushes polys, and the amount of polys you chose to deal with (i.e. the artwork) is your limitation.
You guys are asking for more polys, plain and simple. I will also tell you Nate and Super could create the most realistic models you could ever see, but then when your frame rate is in the toilet, you would not like it.
There are inherent rules involved with game design you cannot get around today.
1) If you are a box game with limited network play, you have more processing power to work with grahics.
2) If you are a massive multi-player online game, you have to give up quite a bit of processing power from the graphics to achieve smooth game play.
I am not saying there is not room for improvement. HTC has shown the ability to move forward, but you have to consider, the mean average CPU today and answer, "what can that system do today?". Todays mean average CPU is about 550Mhz P3.
I have no doubt HTC could generate a version of AH that would make about 2 percent of the players really happy in terms of eye candy, the other 98 percent would not be able to play it. This would be a bad business call on HTC's part, but they know that already.
And before you ask, "why not create a high end of AH for those that can handle it?". Well, now you are talking about generating twice to three times the amount of work for HTC, which translates into much longer times between updates and patches. Again, another bad business call.
Also, consider the graphics cards. Did you know that until NVidia released the GF3 (non-MX), they only had support for 2 texture stages? What does this mean? Well, for graphics to look realistic, it requires at least 4 texture stages. One for the base texture, one for bump mapping, one for light mapping, and one for specular mapping. Oh, let's not talk about projected shadows, which requires more stages.
Of course, bump mapping alone adds nice subtle touches to grahics. The terrain in AH uses bump mapping, which was added some versions ago.
I admire HTC's ability to balance the graphics. They probably do that better than anyone. What does that mean? Well, if you create a model with a high poly count, and suddenly you have to render 10 of those, along with the other persistent objects, the frame rate would drop like a rock. Balancing the poly count is a true art. The goal for the game designer to to keep frame rates fluid and not fluctuating all over the place. In some cases it is impossible to not have that happen, but you want those cases to be the special case, not the normal case.
If you are a box game with limited network play, you do not have to be so concerned with this as you know you will have a limited number of objects in view at any given time.
I have no doubt that when the mean CPU is above 1Ghz, AH will look appropriately improved in the graphics area.
