Guys!
I’m sure you all remember how immersive the old world used to feel—especially in the classic era and the first few expansions. Back then, you could truly feel the depth of the world and your place within it.
But now, when traveling through the newer continents—like Khaz Algar, the Dragon Isles, and others—that sense of depth seems to be missing. Objects often feel randomly placed on the map, lacking the natural connection they once had. Take Northrend, for example: the mossy ground seamlessly blended with the bases of trees, creating a cohesive and immersive environment.
In contrast, the new zones feel less organic. The objects appear to be just placed rather than integrated into the landscape. And I think I’ve figured out why: the ground textures have lost their precision and detail. Instead of richly textured terrain, we now have large, simplified patches of color—green, greener, brown, and even more brown. The textures are softer, more diluted, and lack the clarity they once had.
It’s all starting to feel overly cartoony—almost like plasticine. Some of the painted ground textures, like leaves and grass, are absurdly oversized—bigger than my character’s hand! 
And to me, the worst part is that because these textures are so blurry and oversized, characters with detailed models no longer fit naturally into the world. When you play with the camera closer to the ground, it becomes even harder to immerse yourself in roleplay since the world lacks the detail needed to support it.
What do you guys think? This is just my perspective, and I’d love to hear different opinions—especially if you disagree!
Thanks!
16 Likes
I completely disagree, I find the art amazing as usual and don’t recognise any of what your saying in my experience. Sorry 
7 Likes
Wow gfx and art in general look amazing 
Its a preference, any other mmo Ive played never felt the same. Ive played every mmo in past and recent years except the new world
2 Likes
I respectfully disagree
The old things were a 2 pixel mess barely even scrapping the bottom of the art and graphic of that era
With Pandaria things started to look decent even beautiful
2 Likes
The art style in regards to colors and background hasn’t shifted much. But it has definitely traded pointy and threatening-looking design, for more round and cute appearances.
Music has also become more prominent and less ambient.
I think you need to check your settings, WoW has never looked better.
3 Likes
Well here is classic, retail has gained quite many polygons since
3 Likes
I spoke about world my friend. But thank you for your reply
1 Like
It is beautiful picture of old times in wow 
Let the good times roll
It definitively has in regards to color. A lot even. The overall color palette is a lot more neutral and de-saturated, especially in the last two expansions.
In addition to more dull colors they also added filters, predominantly a blue filter which I believe they did for two reasons. One is to hide the severely low texture and object draw distance. The second is to make light sources, effects and certain focused areas pop more when they remain unfiltered. Which they do but it leaves everything else look a dull, grayish-blue. Especially shadows which are blue, not black.
They started adding the filters and in pretty low strength during Legion, by BfA they’re are in full effect pretty much everywhere. In DF and tWW they went completely overboard with it.
It’s extremely noticeable with a HDR monitor and if you play in older zones with a mix of older and newer environment such as Orgrimmar, it’s like flipping a switch anytime you cross the filter border.
It’s really sad that they’ve done this and that you can’t turn it off. WoW really looks the best with super saturated and rich colors imo.
The difference between the retail client and the classic one is even greater. I’m gonna have to dig up my old HDD and check my old screenshots from vanilla since they have even changed the classic client quite a lot.
5 Likes
OP is completely right .
Just do a simple experiment .
Log in a mage
Set the ground clutter to max
Go to Nagrand in TBC (Outland) >>> land in any grassy part when you leave from shatrath trough the alodr tunnel >>> There is a ton of grass . It even has physics , which react to you when you pass trough it .
Now use your mage to teleport to Dornogal >> Isle of Dorn , Also supposedly grassy plain . What you see are small flowers everywhere and that is it . No grass at all .
Than go to Exodar and go out to Azuremyst isle . Same as Nagrand grass everywhere .
Than go to Valdraken and look near the fountain . Literally nothing , but painted green brown stuff on the ground . Go outside the city in Taldrascuz . Same stuff .
Yes the polygons and shapes in the TBC models are poor , but hell there is a lot of grass and ground clutter . When you walk trough it you feel like you are walking trough wilderness .
When you walk in the modern zones , it feels like someone was cutting the grass 2 hours ago and you are walking in a park at best . At worst it feels like you are walking on a pastel painting .
6 Likes
Exactly, the grass painted on the ground in the newest expansion is a joke! But its not only grass, its also dirt and some roads, just big blocks and lack of small detail in texture.
Its almost becoming Sims 4 style art. xDD
1 Like
Vanil looked amazing when it were fresh and now classic looks homey through nostalgia but I dont know if it would be the mmo that new player would pick. Any case I find good in both.
Had these from my classic if you want compare to vanil
2 Likes
Nitpicking, but I think this only applies if you have enabled the relevant Physics options in the game. I have it disabled to ease up calculations for my old CPU 
I think that the WoW art and general feel of the zones is great, but we don’t spend enough time on the ground to drink it in anymore.
I don’t think many will agree, but I’d like us to have to spend time on the ground at the beginning of an expansion again before we can just blast through everything for the next year and a half.
1 Like
Why waste money on good devs when you can just design a mount and the wow drones will buy it anyway? Expansions make less money than a store mount.
This is the sad reality you live in.
2 Likes
Same, I love the wow art still.
I’m fully immersed in the game when I play.
1 Like
In the “old days” all the interior and exterior level design was done by Blizzard themselves. These days a lot of the art is outsourced to third-party studios in Asia (who do work for lots of major gaming companies). That’s why you perhaps sometimes feel like the art in two different games by two different companies has some similarities that are hard to put a finger on. Elements of the art or animation is made by the same third-party studio.
And Blizzard is one of the biggest contractors of third-party studios for art and animation. It’s simply cheap labor.
Designed in California. Made in Asia.
2 Likes
I’m more interested in the possible graphic update of old, classic regions up to cataclysms. I don’t think Pandaria and beyond needs any rework since they are pretty detailed and unique to eachother.