Saulkar said:
Irridium said:
And... how do they plan on keeping game budgets from skyrocketing out of control?
I think we should solve that problem before we tackle making games look even more graphically advanced.
This is how. The vast majority of a time a high poly, cinematic quality model is made
first (some vehicles and buildings usually the exceptions) which is then baked onto a low poly mesh (which takes time to build in its own right) to create the normal map. With more advanced game engines and hardware you completely cut out the low poly mesh and constraints and in turn save time there. Additionally higher resolution textures are much more easier to make due to a lack of any constraints (speaking from experience here)
and game engines are more than capable of scaling their resolution. Just because it is higher resolution does not mean that the detail is anymore difficult to add. There are deffinitely exceptions to this but not that many.
Overall with more powerful hardware you are limited by fewer constraints and in turn can work more easily. Once again there are easily found exceptions but overall it would make many aspects of game design quicker. The most notable exception being level design.
Oh look, someone with a clue saying something
Every time someone says something stupid like "do we need a new generation
SO SOON" in threads like these
AFTER 8-9 YEARS I want to faceplant my head against a wall.
Level design is also getting easier with middleware progressing and being licensed together with big engines like Unreal or CryEngine etc.
Things like SpeedTree make plant development easier, Enlighten makes light source placement and rendering a lot easier etc.
There's middleware and APIs for UI development, animation, lip-synching, AI routines etc. etc. etc. being developed making a lot of the otherwise arduous tasks a lot easier to do and being developed upon.
