Quote Originally Posted by Gramul View Post
Well, actually, Maya has a nice grass generator in the hair modifier.
It's be a while since I've used Maya, but if memory serves, the hair/fur generators work using relatively high-poly surfaces not billboarded textures; great for pre-rendered movies or cutscenes, but not really practical for the current discussion.

As for the discussion at hand, I think it's pretty much up to each person to decide if this is an upgrade or downgrade. In terms of just the grass and it's raw graphical prowess, probably a downgrade. But personally, those real-time shadows make up for it for me. Those are some of the best looking (not realistic, but eye pleasing) shadows I've seen in any game. My only complaint would be the lack of self-cast shadows, but those are notoriously hard on processors, so I'll let that slide.