The answer is simply that in Classic, as was the case with many games released around that era (take the old GTA games as an example) added a kind of “blur” effect so that the higher definition wouldn’t be able to betray the actual low quality of the graphics as much, plus it functioned as a sort of illusion which made some things in-game look slicker, cleaner and ironically more realistic and detailed.
Plus all of the assets were made at around the same time so their quality was more or less the same.
When retail started upping the HD factor, the old assets aged like milk since their low quality now appeared stark naked, especially when right next to the old assets there were now new HD(ish) assets, the difference between which was night and day.
You’ll realize this after playing Classic for a while. That yes, although the overall graphics are worse than retail, the feeling is more immersive due to there not being too many ques that betray the integrity of the low-poly models.
Unless I’ve completely missed the point you are trying to make, I find Classic looks dreadful and Retail looks much better. But you don’t play Classic for the graphics.
He was saying classic looks better in classic cos it’s all the same low poly stuff, rather than in retail where you have disparaging quality everywhere. I see the point but disagree - it still looks naff because we know there is better quality stuff.
It’s all subjective, honestly.
You could prefer that ‘blur’, but I definitely prefer HD and more crisp visuals - even if that makes the old stuff looks worse.
It’s a bit like how old tv quality masked a lot of things in movies and series. Nowadays make-up effects for instance have to be much better with high definition details and such. An old series in HD really gives away a lot of the ‘fakeness’.
I tried classic for a while, and stuck with it for as long as I did despite the fact that it looked awful. I didn’t find it more immersive over time because it still looked awful.
There was a short period in gaming when sharp modern graphics were less immersive than old, well designed low-res models where every pixel was placed with careful planning. But that’s long gone, especially in WoW.
The point is that higher fidelity is an actual paradox. By increasing the fidelity you are also increasing the fidelity of the flaws.
Clipping is more pronounced, texture cuts are more pronounced etc. In classic on the other hand everything was nicely blended in low-ress-iness.
So basically… how we player models and skyboxes and everything got the HD update… But trees and nature of our old world remained in the old 2d crap graphics then?..
The answer to that is because Blizzard sucks and they should have overhauled it all ages ago.
It’s not about preference, it’s meant to be more of a technical analysis.
Of course HD looks better overall, though I would like it if they remade and replaced all in-game assets so that there wouldn’t be any moments in which the difference between models stands out like a sore thumb.
