It seems like older versions had more foliage.

I started playing back in 2018. And I recently downloaded from steam betas the version that came out a few days after I got the game on November 4th 2018.
I remember being with my dad and getting a pigeon and crashing right near the gas station on the east coast USA map.

As I drive around I can't help but notice the foliage seems "fuller" like there are more trees. There is lots of shady areas and large trees which I don't really see anymore. Maybe that is just because I cannot run high settings on my PC anymore. But I think I run close to high so I would see a decent amount of trees I would assume.
Below are some photos of what I mean. I could go get before and after photos. But I assume like me most of you know the maps well enough to know what I mean. None of the trees I show are really there anymore. Or if they are they do not have a presence like these if you get what I mean. I feel like the game now as good as it looks kind of makes the game harder to run obviously and kind of to some extent takes some of that original charm away. Not complaining though.

 

Never played the game back then. But I play on ultra and the two maps that seem to stress my gpu the most are east coast, deep in the trees and jungle rock, so maybe it’s an optimization thing.

 

I said this many times but no one believes me lol
Nice to see someone with the same opinion
--- Post updated ---
We can also mention the fact that Small Island also had more vegetation, now it just a desert with a few dead trees.
And also the fact that ambient sounds were more diversified, nowadays it feels like all maps have the same ambient sounds.

 

Yeah the ambient sounds were like the first thing I noticed. The game now has hardly any if at all or it is just very quiet. I do to some extent miss the old days. I feel like the old mods were also way more diverse whereas now they are mostly nothing burgers. It is cool the repo still works on the old versions, it just sucks that the mods are not limited to just those that are compatible so it is very hard to find period correct ones easily.