Reforged graphics are still unrecognizable, feels like a totally different game and cannot be used in competitive play. I could list a hundred examples of why they don’t work but they’ve already been discussed and ignored for 4 years.
Classic HD graphics mouse cursor icons, multiple particle FX, and some units like the wisp are actually just the reforged art (which is still unrecognizable)
Classic HD graphics on unit models look like they were ran through an AI image sharpener and added some contrast. This isn’t a feature and it’s embarassing they would release it as such. EDIT-- After looking further into this I can see the updated models are just the reforged engine renderer and lights making the models look 10% sharper and increasing the contrast of the shadows, the textures on the models were not changed at all. **
Environment textures are a good step in the right direction, but leaves a lot to be desired. The contrast of them is too much and has too much fidelity to accurately read whats happening in the game, especially with the foliage and colors.
The reality is that none of the reforged updated models can be used, it causes visual meltdown with animations and spells and a ton of other fidelity issues. They need to be built from scratch with similiar low poly counts, using the same rigs, and hand painted textures like WoW or league of legends.
If you are wondering why the performance is so bad its because of the polycounts of the reforged models are way too high, using higher texture sizes, and multiple textures on every model where they only used to have a color texture. With the addition of normal and roughness maps you have effectively increased the number of draw calls the engine has to process by 3x-4x at the very minimum probably even much more. Combine this with hundreds of models and animations on screen going off all at once and you have a performance disaster.