Now you've done it... opening old wounds... LOL We started making photo real models back in the end of '97 and they were looking very cool... we stayed with it for a while and then the spec killed it and we had to go down to 256 for a whole model... then after 2 more producers left... Cermak shows up and bottlenecks the bloody thing... although I have a feeling EA was puppeteering him somewhat... the bright colors came in and it went to hell in a handbasket. Blame Cermak for some of it... thinking he's some kind of art director... heh.
To answer the TD question... we never intended to use the TD look for most stuff... it was decided back in early '98.