The toggle is very welcome. I suspect for many Retail players WoW Forever is a much more appealing prospect with this feature enabled.
However I’ve seen quite a bit of confusion and uncertainty around what the HD toggle means in terms of worldwide graphics and models. Does flipping the HD toggle essentially give players Retail graphics across the board or is it just confined to the player character models?
Would be wonderful to have a more detailed explanation of what’s included when you flip the HD switch.
Many thanks!
Edit: Sorry should have clarified - when I say ‘worldwide graphics’ I mean things like trees, buildings etc, not the amazing new graphic effects. One of the reasons it’s not entirely clear is that in some screenshots the new zones appear to use the old assets - Shen’Dralas for example, the buildings have those very low res ‘streaky’ textures but if you look at Zephras Isle, it appears to be very HD.
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I could be wrong but I think it is just character models. In the features video it says SD/HD character toggle. I think the whole world environment will be all the new graphics work they have done and there wont be a toggle for this.
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I really hope they include the creature and npc models too. The world looks so beautiful, I think having the low res, angular creature models would be a shame.
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As i understood they made HD on gives retail graphics,Off is classic. They had enough time to make it that way.
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I’d have to double-check the BlizzCon videos, but off the top of my head, I’m pretty sure I remember him saying that when you enable the HD version, your character, other players around you, and NPCs will use the HD models.
I’m not 100% sure about the world graphics, though. I know they’ve improved things like fog, water, and lighting, but I don’t know whether those are tied to the HD setting. I’d have to rewatch the BlizzCon videos, or ideally, someone could provide the exact quote so we can confirm what was actually said.
EDIT:
If you go here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEX-i55We5c and go to the 33 minute mark the guy comes out and speak about the HD and SD changes to things etc.
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I’ve just had a quick look at the Forever announcement and you are correct, when Clay Stone reveals the HD/SD toggle, he says, "…gamewide your character, NPCs, other player characters’. Doesn’t mention creature models though.
[Edited so as not to quibble about the timestamp. 
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