It is really all the same as with the transition from MSTS to KRS&RW. Not just the moaning about the initial lack of content and the climbing prices per route mile. You also observe that it is straightforward to bring old content (or newly created, old-style content) to the new platform, but it is not at all easy to make it look much better than before without wrecking performance.
That said, the old Kuju Developer Docs said "engines are the star of the game" (or something along these lines). There is an obvious bias in resource spending, with shiny new rolling stock that obviously got all the resources to look as good as any current game, and scenery that looks like the state of art in RW for the past half decade or so. (save SpeedTree which is a just a licensed plug-in)
On a side note, the most praised routes seem to be "Ruhr-Sieg Nord: Hagen - Finnentrop" and "Northern Trans-Pennine: Manchester-Leeds", just going by the opinions expressed on forums.
Speaking of scenery, if anyone can tell me what happens with these buildings
here. The poster reskinned these buildings, and the anomaly regarding shadows under the roof is still there. The left-hand side of the nearest house looks right. The right-hand side has the same bright margin under the roof that we got used to in RW. Any idea of what goes wrong here so we can avoid it in the future? Clearly the texture is mirrored, but which normals need flipping to make the game engine render the same shadows on the right that it shows on the left?