Originally posted by pk:

I'm not sure if it's an artistic decision or meant to reduce the resource requirements of the game (or both?), but I actually like the low detail textures and low polygon count models. The only time it becomes quite evident and a bit unsightly is when you're mining ground and chunks become super jagged and stretched out.

I'm pretty sure it's both. And yes, yes rendering could use some kind of mode-switch when it gets up close and personal with rocks. Without storing any actual detail for the rock, the game could just make stuff up out of the kind of detail we don't remember, like the twinkly-dealies from the mineral content, which could be rendered pointilisticly to keep the style.

:)