as others said before
still pictures dont make the new effects look as they do while playing, the grain becomes almost not noticeable. on "sunny" light maps you cant see it at all, on darker maps you can see it a bit more.
for me it affected gameplay a little, you can hardly see a guy under a tree in a shadow when he is not moving or firing.
so actual hiding & camouflage (or more like blending in with he terrain) is now much more effective.
besides that the maps just sooooo much better. when we first tested some africa maps with this, many players didnt even notice the difference towards teh old versions because they haddnt played the maps in a long time.
some side by side pictures made brix be shat.
so dont prejudge the new effects before you have seen them ingame. specially since some of the pictures are quite old and the settings of the new effects are in constant change, depending on feedback to make them the best possible.
as for the snow effects, you will feel your willy shrinking and ballz freezing from the winter cold atmosphere.
edit:
the last pic of jan_kurator is a good example, the grain effect is way less obvious in the current build. that picture makes it look very bad.
