Wabe,

i'm not sure, if that would be caused by the OpenGL engine (1.0, 2.0, 2.1 ..).
Since i've tested a single object - always the same one either in OBJ or in 3DS - and the polygon count in Vue 5, 6 and 8 (Vue 8 uses the new OpenGL 2.1 ...) and displays more details in the view windows working on a scene with terrain, plants and objects.
But not really a big visual change with that single, untextured object i've used and as you can see in my earlier post - the polygon count is always the same, at least using the 3DS object.

Which lets me asume, that with each higher Vue version the details for terrains and plants where got raised, because of new introduced and calculated technics - which maybe would be more or less visible after rendering the scene with the different versions ...

But - still, that's just my guess ...