Larian Studios

it was in gamespy i think that one of the Relic devs was interviewed on the post-homeworld2 event & that he did mentioned the mistakes the team made & the good decisions & plans that helped in game development.

Interview with Relic's Dan Irish

one of the factors, i think that helps in great zooming range in homeworld series is that the models are mostly of basic shapes(variants of spheres, oval, polygons) & there is no (detailed) articulation or movement for each part of the ships. plus, effective skinning of the models make the illusion of more polygons that u imagine even more believeable.

if the model is that of a humanoid, the engine will have to be modified heavily to cater the movement, nuance, & uneven shapes that a humanoid possess.

this is mentioned in an interview on the new Lord Of The Rings upcoming RTS, which is currently developed by EA Pacific. it's called Battle for Middle Earth they plan to use a modified engine of C&C Generals(which originally is clumsy when handling humanoid models).

LOTR: Battle for Middle Earth with screenies