Lot of nonsense about the EUIII graphics in this thread, that these are better than what we've seen so far for HOI3. And also, even more nonsense that the borders will be "smoothed out" etc. over the next year, as this is an alpha and the look of the borders will be "improved".
I've never played EUIII so looked up some screen shots. See:
EUIII: In Nomine Screen Shot
Look at the shape of the land borders of Bithynia, and you can see that the shape matches the same as we can see for HOI3. The main difference with the EUIII and HOI3 screen shots is that the EUIII ones have units, towns, ships etc. and EUIII is being viewed from a lower perspective.
Looking at the HOI3 one with only a single infantry sprite in Paris, for instance, you see it is an almost vertical view of the map:
HOI3 Alpha Screen Shot
Since there are so few objects sitting on top of the HOI3 map, the effect is to make the "straight lines" of the borders more obvious than EUIII. But there is no doubt that they are identical, and this is the way it will be in the final release of HOI3.
The reason we know it is the same now, and will be in the final release, is that the developers have stated clearly that HOI3 will use the EUIII graphics engine.
It is absolutely clear that the engine renders the borders on the fly from a database of the provinces, with a list of 5 or 6 points designating the vertices of the provinces. The graphics engine links these points with straight(ish) lines. The lines are drawn slightly zig-zag, instead of dead straight, but the effect is still to make the provinces roughly pentagonal or hexagonal. So what!
This engine should allow the map to be zoomed in and out fluidly, for instance (I very much hope) with a mouse scroll wheel, and for the perspective to be changed. And also for the screen to be easily adapted for what-ever screen resolution/size you are using. With the overhead on the machine kept reasonable.
It also presumably allows all of the province borders to be modded. If the borders were smooth irregular curves, this would not be the case, except with a massive amount of work.
The graphics engine can render six straight(ish) lines joining six points in a fraction of the time that it would take to render a reasonably smooth likeness of an actual province boundary.
To make that boundary of Bithynia smooth in the way I believe some people imagine (and still scrollable/moddable) might mean giving it say 24 points, joined by a combination of straight lines and bezier curves. To describe the bezier curves alone (look up the maths in Wikipedia if you are interested) would mean the province database would be enormous. Moddable, in theory, but I doubt ANYONE would have the time, tools and knowledge to do it.
I, for one, am more than happy with the look of the HOI3 provinces. Let the developers develop, please, not endlessly tweak borders, because someone in these forums who lives in Province X thinks the border should be 10km further to the north than Paradox have drawn it. Jesus!
Do we want Paradox to pay a developer who spends the next year creating an AI that can make a reasonable effort at defending in depth, and understand encirclements, and doesn't sit dumbly by while you wipe out whole armies. Or a developer who makes the borders look pretty?
No-one will notice the shape of the borders of Reims when Guderian's Panzer Korps is crossing the Meuse.
