One of those screenshots on the Sensor Tower page is particularly informative, as to the model quality that Blizzard is going ot have in this new game. First, note the trees. If anyone played WC3 and did serious mods for it, they're probably familiar with born2_modificate's trees and other high-poly packs. The trees models by Blizzard shown in this screenshot are very reminiscent of those things he made, with all the exceptional realism but probably many fewer polygons, particularly in the leaves. Another thing about the trees is that they're got roots! These roots will naturally sink into the terrain and be unnoticeable for the majority of trees, but you can see an example where Blizzard's developers have placed a tree on a cliff and its roots are exposed. VERY NICE! The other thing to note about this is the ramp. I didn't even realize it was a ramp that the Zealots are charging up at first, but when you look closer you note how Blizzard has fixed a LOT of the problems with healing terrain between ramps and very close by higher terrain. Also, the transition between ramp texture and the rest of the terrain is very good, although it strikes me as probable that Blizzard still has only a limited number of textures applicable to ramps, whereas I'd really like to see ALL terrain textures be fair game for ramp doodads. (They are doodas, of course, so being models all by themselves I realize it would be tricky to permit customized textures in the game editor, but still...) The tall grass is reallt ftw, and if anyone looked closely in the Terran demo in this same tileset there were a lot of small but beautiful grass doodads, with animations. In WC3 they let you paly animations for doodads, so I can't see it being any different in SC2. This means that, with a simple algorithm, we'll be able to make gusts of winds ripple across a field, or give the scary impression that there's something in the tall grass that some poor band of marines cannot see. Mozeltov!
DOODADS i think that there should be useful doodads! like in Red Alert ( this doesnt fit in this topic perfectly, but its close) in red alert you could put units inside buildings that were on the field. They would turn it into a little fortification and shoot from it. Starcraft needs these kinds of doodads. Maybe a little bay on the map that can be taken and used as a bunker or maybe can repair units, or maybe give you a small trickle of money. SC1 doodads are not very useful. Even gates, you cant control them (unless youre playing use map settings.
