How much longer until graphics stop getting noticeably better

[shaboinkin]

if i recall correctly, with the ray tracing thing, you'll need an ungodly amount of power to use it. I think it uses a bunch of cpus together. So what conventional motherboard will be able to support more then, lets say, 2 cpus, without increasing the size of the motherboard/case? Looks great,, but needing all those cpus vs a powerful graphics card...you choose. But then again, things seem to get smaller everyday, so i dont know.

 

[PedroSteckecilo]

You can't get any better than photorealism. [...Well, at least I don't think you can. Who knows, maybe in 20 years, we'll be playing video games in 4D.] Eventually, they'll just have people act stuff out in front of the green screen, instead of just using those body suits.

Graphics are never going to stop getting better until technology stops getting better, which will probably only happen if/when humanity is wiped out.

Um... I don't think humans can fathom 4 dimensions...

Personally though I'm an advocate of Artistic Design over Techical Proficiency, I figure that this constant push to make graphics better means too many designers overlook good Art Design and we end up with technically good but artistically boring games like Everquest 2 or Oblivion.

 

[Jupsto]

I hardware will continue to get tons better for another long while. My understanding is that it won't be long until intel makes proccessors which handle the graphics, so end of grpahics cards.

BUT how much will actual in game visuals (or graphics) improve? I think games like crysis are near the limit of how nice games can actually look visually.

but with the increase in technology it means running crysis on max FPS and settings will become easier and cheaper. And as server technology increases in means online gaming will get tons better, as atm crysis MP is 16 vs 16 max. imagine 100 vs 100 games in maps 20 times the size.

and concepts currently laughable such as darkfall (MMOFPS/RPG with 15k players on one server) will become possible.

but I doubt screenshots from PS4/3rd xbox will look very different to those of x360, PS3. I didn't think the visual difference between xbox 1 and 360 was that different, but the x360 is MUCH more powerful in terms of hardware.

clarification: what I mean is developers creating/designing the images will become the limiting factor not hardware.

edit: very nice post dexter, maybe I don't know what i'm talking about. videos looked very normal to me. nice shadows but nothing crysis doesn;t do. however the screenshots you posted look very nice, very exciting stuff. intel is going to overthrow nvidia as graphics king in the next couple of years, methinks

 

[Zombie_King]

Once they make virtual reality, having amazing immersion where it doesn't just feel like you're in the game, but you really are. If that happened, they could increase the graphics to be so unbelievably good that under a microscope you could actually see a person's skin cells multiplying. It will happen one day. The best graphics are real life itself, so only when they achieve absolute realism will they stop getting any better.

We're actually mostly there already. You can already see every possible detail in any on-screen item unless you are absolutely right up close to them.

Until they get to the quality of movies. Why movies? Their enhanced with all that special FX lighting and whatnot, it's better than regular vision. I look around in my dimly lit apartment, and if I was fighting terrorists, I bet I couldn't even see one.

 

[Jupsto]

Graphics are never going to stop getting better until technology stops getting better, which will probably only happen if/when humanity is wiped out.

So in other words graphics will end in a few years-few decades (oil prices)

Humans have spent 99.9% of their existance without depending on oil. When we run out, we might enter a darker age but it will not whipe humans out. We just have to wait until someone invents a near limitless clean supply of energy, e=mc2 after all.

 

[Jumplion]

Graphics will not stop getting better as time goes on. Whenever my dad sees me playing my games he thinks "Wow, it looks amazing and real" but i just think "Meh" mainly because i see the faults in the graphics and it just looks like gray, brown, and more gray. The best graphics for a game i've seen so far is MGS4. CoD4 is basically a bunch of buildings when if you shoot them they might be some flat buildings with holes, and GTA4 is sometimes brown sometimes gray and sometimes lighter brown.

 

[number2301]

A possible 4th dimension is in games for a very long time already... and that since they invented actually "saving" a game and going forward/backward in time before a thing (like your untimely demise) or quests that you already did etc. didn't happen or to a point in the future where you might eventually end up.

The 4th dimension IS time. And a game would be very very strange without the passage of time.

For those who think graphics can't get much better, seriously? Have a look around the room you're sat in now, then play a game and compare them. If you can't see the difference I recommend an eye test!

 

[HomeAliveIn45]

My optimistic side: Xbox 1080/ PS5

My pessimistic side: Oil prices will kill consoles/PC before we get there

What? I'm pretty sure there's about a hundred things that can kill video games before oil prices do.

 

[cleverlymadeup]

if i recall correctly, with the ray tracing thing, you'll need an ungodly amount of power to use it.

the main thing is most graphics companies and such have said "no" to ray tracing, one notable person being John "i am a coding god" Carmac has said a big no to ray tracing

however with moore's law still in effect and going strong it won't be long before we can have ray tracing at home

touche

technically he still did cause he included it in the quote

 

[DEC_42]

With Moore's law...

2027

Great VR: 2057

 

[Omnidum]

If a computer can run Crysis properly, we might be reaching a breakthrough in graphical technology.

 

[Zekko5]

Hm Ray Tracing looks very promosing. I like for 2 reasons: it's an actualy more efficient way to render, instead of just being more powerful and thus require more power, and it means the polygon count can FINALLY go up again. Twiddling with cool lighting is cool and all, but if those awesome light shows are being projected on cardboard boxes, the awesomeness factor is pretty much lost.

 

[Easykill]

Virtual reality is gonna make everything difficult. Graphics are nowhere near the level needed to make it convincing.

 

[bluemarsman]

It will stop once games look like real life.

 

[Erana]

Once we are able to quantumly compute things, we would, in theory, be able to calculate individual atoms and molecules, thus creating virtual space. When that happens, we will be able to render curves as realistically as reality itself.

 

[shaboinkin]

but with the increase in technology it means running crysis on max FPS and settings will become easier and cheaper. And as server technology increases in means online gaming will get tons better, as atm crysis MP is 16 vs 16 max. imagine 100 vs 100 games in maps 20 times the size.

heard of Planetside? mmofps. Maps huge with more then 100 vs 100. More like one army vs another army. Now if you are talking about the graphical stand point, i would love to see something like that with the cryengine2 with a affordable computer

 

[nightfish]

My optimistic side: Xbox 1080/ PS5

My pessimistic side: Oil prices will kill consoles/PC before we get there

What? I'm pretty sure there's about a hundred things that can kill video games before oil prices do.

maybe, but apparently UK electricity prices are going to increase by around 40% soon and thats just this year. With oil touching $140 a barrel, maybe 200 dollars by the end of the year prices are just going to go up and up. If graphics increase then the hardware needs to keep hence more electricity, no one can afford to run PC's blah blah blah.

Get the picture?

 

[Meshakhad_v1legacy]

When we hit photorealism.