Furbs, I know you do not like CloD and like RoF, but tell yourself why did not you post high-res images of RoF.
High-res images will show you flat low-res landscape textures with no bump-mapping, flat sprite trees and DX9 lighting/shading. I wish BoS good luck but using an old engine is just a financial decision of 1C beancounters as it is cheaper and quicker in development. This desire to save money may make BoS the last game in hardcore sim genre because younger WT/BF3 audience will never switch from DX10/11 to DX9 game. Never. This is how much this 1C's mistake may cost. (It is not 777's fault as they do not have a budget to rewrite the engine but 1C has.)
Landscape textures and shading
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-t91ahWKFpG...e+-+Prev+1.jpg
Side-by-side compare it to
http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/3627/...0423080144.jpg
Trees lighting
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-q...5-03_00018.jpg
http://www.gameskype.com/uploads/posts/1302191694_9.jpg
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-k...5-19_00032.jpg
Imagine how CloD/BoM engine could look in 2014 with bugs you mentioned polished out.
You can not get same "feeling of flight" and "fear of height" with a 5-year old DX9 engine... Flightsims is all about a "feeling of flight" to me at least. Not trigger-happy feeling you get in an arcade combat (Warbirds, original IL-2, RoF) but a feeling of height you have during final approach IRL for instance. In a PC game we cannot feel it with our body, but only with our eyes and ears.
http://extreme.pcgameshardware.de/at...fs-dover-5.jpg
A sim must give a feeling of flight, not a feeling of being a cartoon hero-pilot. I love RoF 3D models and FM but without proper visual impression can not believe I am flying (used to have a little bit of IRL experience). Hope the dev team does not get stuck in the last decade in spite of all financial difficulties they are facing.