Couldn't have said it better myself. I actually wrote a damn post and then forced myself to delete it. 

dont NDAs get removed after the game release?

anyway, me wants q4 expansion, with water or not - doesnt matter
*wink* 

With all the water shaders for d3, isn't there a problem that they don't seem to work properly on lower end hardware? Maybe they were removed for simple performance reasons.. 

no, we have a standing NDA on all matters that haven't been made public yet. you're only thinking of coverage of features themselves - yes we're obviously allowed to talk about what's in quake4 once it's out, because it's out. the stuff that's not in the game is kept internal. 

http://ian-albert.com/misc/gamemaps.php

Maps (like roadmaps, no levels) from different games like Doom, Ultima, Zelda and others. Quite interesting. 

http://www.speedtree.com/html/downloads_images.htm

(we need a tree icon metl) 

we use that at work. One thing that seems to be lacking is the ability to create a root system. So if you're making a swampy level where the trees are all standing in water, you can't have all those cool exposed roots. 

Maybe they're working on it! But yeah some gnarled, swampy rooted trees would be wicked.

I posted the link in Inspiration because I really do find the majority of those shots to be as inspiring at looking at similar, "real" wooded areas. We're finally getting to the point where we can have a fair trade between polys and performance vis a vis trees. 

looks like the dream of cliffyb is getting true. i remember he was telling back in the unreal days that he dreams to create the forest that his mother would cry looking at it :) 

Maybe already posted, but here are some png textures that should look great ingame... but it has to be converted.. sorry...

BTW, the "company" seems to provide interesting texture tools..

http://www.nodalideas.com/textures/ 

for guys who like hard retro-contemporary military-political stuff.
http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories/colderwar.htm
Somewhat mixed with reality in parts. :)
http://www.oakridge.doe.gov/media_releases/2003/r-03-029.htm 

http://community.webshots.com/album/516054988zzfmUP

Webshots is a good general source of inspiration anyway, but I saw this on the frontpage today 

http://wooz69.com/photo/ 

http://auscillate.com/israel05/20050303 

http://www.pa-chouvy.org/Photos/Jordanie/JordaniePetra.htm
http://www.pbase.com/aztec36/jordan
http://www.isidore-of-seville.com/petra/
http://www.raingod.com/angus/Gallery/Photos/MiddleEast/Jordan/Petra/
http://www.bamjam.net/Jordan/Petra.html

via metafilter. 

... would be a very good basis for map... sure ! And BTW, the photos on the websites are very good .. 

please let those of us who actually have jobs know in advance when you've linked a girl with a fucking ball gag in her mouth in a thread about architectural reference thanks 

Madison is a progressive town. I'm sure you have people in ball gags walking around the office. Even if they don't look like Maggie Gyllenhaal. 

These are not necessarily the best photos of it, but there's not bad for a start. Do some searches for "ostia" and you'll probably find more cool galleries.

http://www.cgl.uwaterloo.ca/~smann/Rome05/ostia.html 

I think thats Bettie Page 

Lots of pictures of lots of places...

http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/

Stumbled on to this looking for something else -- hooray for happy accidents! 

http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/index/index.html

This is actually a much more comprehensive list of everything on that site. 

http://visionafar.spaceart.org/ 

http://www.weiweihua.com/

and actually usefull for mapper-(wanna)bees. 

http://www.danseagrave.com

interesting images of strange environments and scenes. i particularly like the temple series (from which i also have two posters).
the only setback is that the site uses flash and opens in popups, which makes viewing the large versions of the images a pain.

e.g. http://www.acclaimposters.com/_gallery/large/10033052.jpg