I dont see why is Eric so unpopular. About graphics side, Eric cant do more details than what the game engine allows him. Damn, LFS hasnt even support for bump maps.
!!!WARNING: GEEKY STUFF!!!
From little I know about C++, that relplacing DX8 for newer version, or even OpenGL3* might not be that difficult if the code is well written. Replacing old routines may be done without harm because graphic side of DX is just a sort of thin layer.
I did once a rewrite of one of my libraries(game settings customisation) and except the module, no files were affected, because it was still doing totaly same things, but in more modern way under 3 operating systems... just in case you want to tell, that im just whiny kid who had seen programming once in TV.
So, blame Scawen(sorry for that:schwitz
In general, the rendering system update will bring faster rendering and huge variety of effects. I think that this will be next step after implementing new tire physics, engine temparature and maybe new visual damage system.
Then we can blame Eric for not making ultra detail stuff
P.S. No offence to Scawen, i know what tremendous amount of work is involved in programming of mathematical formulas that have to be performed so many times per second(2000 Hz i think, to prevent vehicle spasming)
* in case of replacing DX with OpenGL, there would have to be added aditional libraries, like OpenAL for sound and SDL for user interface.