Graphical leaps to slow down?

[Titanium]

The psone leap to PS2 was amazing and the PS2 leap to PS3 was also amazing. But with the new generation of consoles creating such great graphics, will graphical leaps get much better? Or will we have complete real life looking graphics by the PS4 or 5?

[irjudd]

I think it will end up being down to leaps in other areas, like AI and physics. Because once you get photorealism, how much further can "graphics" go?

[Cochrane]

HD is nowhere near it's end yet. Stuff printed on paper has a resolution of 300 DPI at least, current computer screens about 100 DPI, and TVs (even HDTV ones) far less. I expect that to go significantly up in the future.

True photo-realism is also still way off, even with so-called "next-gen" devices.

It is also possible that future generation games might switch to ray-tracing, a technology that is used for 3D movies, which would give them better shadows and reflections than games at the moment can have.

However, there are limits to graphical leaps. Imagine a console that can display every single leaf of every single tree in Oblivion or similar perfectly. Sounds great, but who is going to create all those leafs? Making better and better content is just extremely expensive, so that will be limiting when it comes to future games.

[Eddie Haskell]

HD is nowhere near it's end yet. Stuff printed on paper has a resolution of 300 DPI at least, current computer screens about 100 DPI, and TVs (even HDTV ones) far less. I expect that to go significantly up in the future.

True photo-realism is also still way off, even with so-called "next-gen" devices.

It is also possible that future generation games might switch to ray-tracing, a technology that is used for 3D movies, which would give them better shadows and reflections than games at the moment can have.

However, there are limits to graphical leaps. Imagine a console that can display every single leaf of every single tree in Oblivion or similar perfectly. Sounds great, but who is going to create all those leafs? Making better and better content is just extremely expensive, so that will be limiting when it comes to future games.

All of this excessive "realism" is truly unnecessary. Oblivion is a great example of superb graphics that really don't need to be improved very much. I know that they eventually will be left in the dust in the future, but what is the compelling reason for doing so?

I am one who constantly upgrades my pc (sometimes monthly) and have the money to do so. Most everyone else does not. All of these graphical advances cost in more ways than one; the creation of the engine initially and the graphical processors to run them. Then the end user needs to get the new technology to be able to run the new stuff.

Your point on using resources to create better content over graphical advances is valid. I used to play a game a long time ago on my Apple IIc called Dreadnoughts ( a naval warfare game). It was nothing more than dots on a monochrome screen, yet I have wonderful memories of playing it. It is the game play, story and characters that we cherish and remember. Beautiful graphics are nice, but it should never be the overwhelming push when designing new games.

[nicola1986]

I hope it slows down so I can catch up lol There's no way I can afford anything modern :o

We need Virtual Reality next :D Imagine being in Oblivion then :D

[kryptonite23]

It only happens in AOD in myself.:(

[irjudd]

It only happens in AOD in myself.:(

What happens in AOD in yourself?

[PirateRose]

I hope it slows down so they actually focus on game play. The graphics are great, but the game sucks because they didn't finish it. You hear that too much nowadays and they really need to pay attention to that. People are getting tired of these bad games and pretty soon it'll be like a repeat of what happened when video games were first being developed. They made them for the sake of makeing money and they nearly killed the industry because the games they made sucked.

[Assassino]

I was thinking just the same actually...if we're playing a photo-like game...then what's the point...really...same goes for all this 'realism' lark, what's so special about real or normal...really...

[jamieoliver22]

I do think that graphics will expand over time, not not nearly as much as it has done. I think they will now concentrate on things such as AI and physics.

[irjudd]

I have a feeling we're going to be entering the uncanny valley (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley) pretty soon.

[walk_man]

Graphics can only go so far. PS3 to PS4 will be the last graphic leap IMO. After that its about the how much you can do in a game. How many moves and that.

[Samsdad]

My guess is that the next areas of "leap" will be less in the graphics and more in the interaction with the gaming environment (i.e. what you can do and where you can go) and secondly, how you interface with the game (controls and two-way feedback).