Yes ARR is looking to be a beautiful game with a lush environment, full of things to see and explore but the graphics are definitely a lot less realistic looking. Sure there are a lot more natural elements (such as sunlight) that come into play in ARR that aren't in 1.0 but the current ARR is not something that you could confuse with a picture of real life.

I'm sure they were sacrificed to make the game run at a smoother pace, but its still a downgrade.