Maybe it’s just me.  But I’m completely paranoid about MMORPG Tycoon 2 ending up looking something like this;  an endless expanse of identical trees, sprouting from all sorts of improbable places, in the middle of a simple height map that manages to look matte and unlit, despite the presence of a directional light.

I’m not sure precisely what I need to do to avoid this, since the sort of asset re-use that was key in making this awful vista is also going to be required in MMORPG Tycoon 2.  Maybe if there were any sort of shadows being cast it’d help.  Or maybe if the trees weren’t quite so awful.  Or if the rocks weren’t simply amorphous blobs wedged into a monochromatic height map.  I don’t know.  I saw this vista in a modern MMO the other day, and was immediately seized by the terror of “how do I avoid creating this, myself?”

Anybody have thoughts?