I know the Pathfinder picture craze has died down some, but I still think this is relevant. I mean no offense to any party involved, I'd just like to share my thoughts.

Digging straight into it: Pathfinder (or anything pre Atlas Rises) isn't as perfect as you remember. that doesn't mean it wasn't good, per se; you could definitely find beautiful areas, beautiful moments, and take beautiful pictures. I have many great pictures from that era. The texture aesthetic was (for the most part) great. However, it did have it's shortcomings. terrain generation was kinda eugh, in my opinion. you simply couldn't have good beaches; they would either be steep slopes or crazy spiky. you could tell that the terrain was based on just a few presets (i not-so-fondly remember all those hills that were surrounded by rings of upcropping terrain that were a pain to walk over and an absolute NIGHTMARE to exocraft over) and some of them didn't feel like actual terrain. the animals looked and moved and looked more cartoonish than now, and assets like flora and rocks felt more like assets than part of the terrain.

Granted, some of these still plague the game to this day. while I am partial to NEXT-Visions worlds (mostly because they feel more natural, like something a planet would be), it definitely has faults. It's still clear that mainland generation relies on presets, some of which don't feel very natural either (looking at you, weird cone spike mountains with level tops). Animals are still too smooth, and it seems that the cow model will forever me an absolute monstrosity. My biggest gripe would be that, aside from lush and exotic planets, the other types haven't changed much. many of their assets are still small and scattered around, and there doesn't seem to be much asset or color variation from planet to planet (toxic planets seem to suffer the most from this, as all of them just look like yellow-brown planets covered in green dildos the size of tents).

Of course, I really feel that NEXT-Visions also does a lot of things right, or at least in the right direction. animals have high quality textures, and have a bit more behavioral variety. The terrain feels more natural now (for instance, we have actual beaches, and mesas). Clouds obviously need a bit more work (still waiting for the clouds from the NEXT trailer), but what we have is much better than what came before. caves can be kinda massive now, and the oceans feel a bit deeper than before. exotic planets look cool, and mega exotic planets (the ones with giant assets on them) are wonderful. I love the changes made to lush worlds; for the most part it actually feels like i'm running through a forest, with actually large trees, and there are enough fields to break it up and not feel monogamous.

I'm not trying to say NEXT era is better than Pathfinder era, or that NEXT has the best worlds this game can have (it doesn't). I've just noticed that some people say that they wish that we can go back to pathfinder in the comments of pictures from the era (which are 100% okay to post, I have now qualm with them), and I don't feel like that idea won't get us anywhere. I want to see wetlands on a frozen world extending far into the distance, the cold plains broken up by small shrubs and rivers. I want to be between the ocean and the dunes, pink sand stretching as far as the eye can see, and the ocean truly deep and filled with squids that prey upon whales. I want to be on massive volcanic peaks, deep ravines splitting up mountain ranges, overlooking the lava fields below me. I'd bet some to most of you want that as well. we can't have that if we go back to pathfinder. we need to let Hello Games move forward (as if we could stop them anyways). there are definitely parts of worlds now that need to change, but that can only be found going forward

sorry for the long write up

tldr: neither Pathfinder era or NEXT era worlds were perfect (Atlas Rises worlds are better left undiscussed), we won't get the best worlds by going back to pathfinder, we can only get that through moving forward. if you want to debate me on this (which you are more than welcome to), please read the whole thing to get a better understanding of my argument