Inaccurate Long Distance Sprites

My Guild Wars installation has been the same for years and I've been recently going back through some Prophecies content.

When you get closer to long range background, the 'pixelated sprite' changes to the 3D image.

However, the two images are different. They aren't vastly different (and I have some screenshots if anyone wants clarification), but different enough that you notice they're different (it's hard to explain what I mean; a tree might disappear completely, but it's not like the background is changing from a forest to a city or something THAT drastic).

Is this normal or should I delete my database and download an entirely new one?

It's normal, it's damn annoying and it's more noticeable at higher resolutions.

This "effect" made me think that my install was faulty for ages - but it was just the switch up from 1280x1024 to 1920x1080.

Yeah i know exactly what you mean , a good example is the red banners outside D'Alessio seaboard , when your far away they are static and 2D but get closer and they sort of pop into 3D and start flapping in the breeze,strangely i see this effect more in Prophecies than i do in Factions or NF or GWEN.

Most likely a method to reduce lag...logically follows that they were more concered with it back in the prophesies days and less so in the making of GW:EN.

they use this in later campaigns, though they are not as obvious. this is a pretty common technique used in every game out there.

Yeah, I know it's normal.. just wasn't sure if the sprites were supposed to align with the 3D image or not.

Moving around in the Maguuma Jungle and trees are just disappearing left and right