GPU's like low surface high polycounts. Which is part of the reason that BSP is used less for rendering and more for structure in the underpinnings. Old TGE terrains in their default settings split things into 8 poly trifans and strips.
And if you load a DTS into showtool you can view the triangle strips it creates, usualy you will have dozens and these will be sent to the GPU as seperate batches which are better suited to voodoo 3 era videocards.
At the end of the day I have to admit though, there isn't a lot of choice for indies if they want to buy off the shelf products. In my opinion you only really have Blitz or Garage Games products untill some of the others mature a bit and ship some games.
Anyway, I assume they optimized that somewhat since the new terrains look pretty decent and a lot more detailed than previously.
And if you load a DTS into showtool you can view the triangle strips it creates, usualy you will have dozens and these will be sent to the GPU as seperate batches which are better suited to voodoo 3 era videocards.
At the end of the day I have to admit though, there isn't a lot of choice for indies if they want to buy off the shelf products. In my opinion you only really have Blitz or Garage Games products untill some of the others mature a bit and ship some games.
Anyway, I assume they optimized that somewhat since the new terrains look pretty decent and a lot more detailed than previously.