Copied from my post in UHall:
Right, because memories aren't perfect, just for horses and beetles, I did some screenies in Legacy, SA and KR for comparisons. I tried to scale all apprx to the same size by using the tiles as markers.
You can see from the screenshots that they did improve on the horse's bent forelegs and rider positions on both horse and beetle. Beetle has also been scaled down. And look at how beautifully the beetle is rendered!
Now, to point out what problems still remains with these 2 mounts in SA (to be fair, the devs have lots of mobs to render, not just these 2. However, the problem is horses and beetles are very common pets...):
Horse:
1) Manes don't remain nicely brushed all the time, I understand that, but the empty patch makes it look like it has an ugly bald patch. Note : The horses with short manes don't have this problem.
2) Chest narrows towards the shoulder, making it too skinny when you compare it to the hip
3) Back arch/rump is gone, it now looks as if the horse has a perfectly straight or even haunched back
4) Hooves protrude overly much making them seem too large, so large that they look like feet (hooves are actually the toes/toenails of horses).
5) Eyelids look swollen and droopping, horse looks like it's sleepy
6) Biggest problem, although the rider's legs don't touch the ground anymore, they still extend too far down. If you consider saddled horses, the stirrups where riders place their feet do not extend past the underbelly. Rider's legs are too straight, they should be spread outwards more when straddling a wide-bodied horse. Rider's sitting position also doesn't seem to be on top of the horse's back.
Beetle:
1) You see the head, an almost non-existant thorax, and the abdomen (where the wing cases are). Meaning you are left only 1 place to sit - on the head of the beetle if they don't want to block the wing case. I am guessing they don't want to block the wing case coz they made a really cool idle animation for the beetle opening it's wing cases a little and buzzing its wings
2) Again, it's a wide bodied mount, rider's legs are too straight. Notice how much more the legs are bent in the legacy client
I know it's a bit of nitpicking, but I'm trying just to explain what people instinctively know is wrong, but just can't pinpoint it, resulting in generic "the graphics is terrible" comments.