How long do you think till we have photorealistic open world RPGs?

[Locut0s]

I'm talking Skyrim type of open sandbox RPG. I think we are close now. Battlefield 3 looks to be getting there graphics wise but it's a shooter. With shooters they can be much more linear, no sandbox world, and reduce things like draw distance. By setting it in the middle east they managed to not have to worry about lush complex vegetation and the like that are a bitch to render at that realism. By photorealistic I don't mean quite indistinguishable from a photo mind you, a little leeway is okay but it's got to be really close.

To make it really clear for the purposes of this thread I mean a few levels beyond Battle Field 3 quality only in a completely open sand box world with uber long draw distances.

 

[Veliko]

A long way off. We don't even have photo-realistic linear games yet.

 

[Locut0s]

A long way off. We don't even have photo-realistic linear games yet.

Battle Field 3 is getting close, except for the character models. Another level or two beyond Battle Field 3 is all I'm looking for in this thread. Not raytraced realism.

 

[Rifter]

id say 20-30 years. At least 3-4 more console release cycles i would think. Remember PC games now days only get a good as the consoles can play for the most part.

Although i think there might be high res texture packs out by third parties before then that get pretty close. Qarls for oblivion was at least 5 times better looking than the stock textures.

 

[Sulaco]

Everyone always says we're "right around the corner", but then as the technology progresses and is more perfected for its cycle, we realize just how much farther we have to go.

Like someone before said, it will depend largely on how the consoles progress, since it seems like little (if anything) is developed outside their capabilities.

So in those terms, I'd say at LEAST "Playstation 5", if not "6".

 

[Locut0s]

id say 20-30 years. At least 3-4 more console release cycles i would think. Remember PC games now days only get a good as the consoles can play for the most part.

Although i think there might be high res texture packs out by third parties before then that get pretty close. Qarls for oblivion was at least 5 times better looking than the stock textures.

That's a VERY good point. I wasn't thinking about that at all. You are probably right. If it were not for the consoles I'd say we are only 5-10 years off or so. But yeah with consoles holding us back each with 5 year life spans of their own

 

[toyota]

Battle Field 3 is getting close, except for the character models. Another level or two beyond Battle Field 3 is all I'm looking for in this thread. Not raytraced realism.

maybe you played a different version of BF 3 than I did. the trees are a joke, textures are bland and in many places just repeat and do not make me post a pic of the laughable looking 2d sandbags. there are aspects of games from 2-3 years ago that look way more realistic looking than BF 3. BF 3 is about as close to photo realism as I am to winning the Tour de France.

 

[Borealis7]

not as long as consoles have hardware from 4-5 years ago.

but they question is, do we really WANT photorealistic games? most popular game in history has old cartoony graphics (WoW)

 

[Olikan]

but they question is, do we really WANT photorealistic games? most popular game in history has old cartoony graphics (WoW)

that ^

 

[Stringjam]

Battlefield 3 doesn't really look like a closer step to realism to me.

I've seen more "realism" from modders at CryDev using CryEngine2, which came out some 5 years ago.

That said, photorealism wouldn't be that exciting to me (check out some YouTube videos of various game engines vs reality)...I would rather have great art direction regardless of the level of graphic realism (not that the two can't coexist....but my preference goes to the latter.)

 

[toyota]

yeah photo realism could actually be quite boring. I do like cool effects, realistic lighting and nice crisp textures though. that Samaritan Demo still looks bad ass.


http://www.geforce.com/News/articles/epics-samaritan-demo-shows-the-future-of-graphics-today

 

[Locut0s]

Battlefield 3 doesn't really look like a closer step to realism to me.

I've seen more "realism" from modders at CryDev using CryEngine2, which came out some 5 years ago.

That said, photorealism wouldn't be that exciting to me (check out some YouTube videos of various game engines vs reality)...I would rather have great art direction regardless of the level of graphic realism (not that the two can't coexist....but my preference goes to the latter.)

Oh definitely. I love old school 8 bit games myself. Graphics don't mean anything to me if the game is good. But they do enhance an already good game. And I do really like open world sandbox games like Oblivion et al. and for those types of games graphics do come into play. But certainly art direction and gameplay are FAR FAR FAR more important!

 

[Locut0s]

maybe you played a different version of BF 3 than I did. the trees are a joke, textures are bland and in many places just repeat and do not make me post a pic of the laughable looking 2d sandbags. there are aspects of games from 2-3 years ago that look way more realistic looking than BF 3. BF 3 is about as close to photo realism as I am to winning the Tour de France.

LOL I haven't even played it. I'm just choosing a recent game that I think looks good from screen shots I've seen.

 

[toyota]

LOL I haven't even played it. I'm just choosing a recent game that I think looks good from screen shots I've seen.

lol, well here is a screenshot that will change your mind. and yes that is on Ultra settings.

 

[Locut0s]

lol, well here is a screenshot that will change your mind. And yes that is on ultra settings.

DAYM D:

caps

 

[smackababy]

What does a photorealistic orc or dragon look like?


I also love the "omg BF3 BETA looks like crap"

 

[Zenoth]

I remember seeing a video showing (it was just a tech demo) a small replica of Oblivion's Imperial City (just the infrastructure, no NPCs) modeled using CryEngine 2.

When I saw that video my imagination just ran wild thinking of so many possibilities and surely I thought "omg Bethesda LOOK at THIS! Go call Crytek and ask them to use their engine for your next Elder Scrolls game! NOW!". But of course, it never happened. Well the thing is when I saw that video I really believed that we were finally very close to good-looking sandbox games (and that was back when the fuss surrounding Crysis 1's graphics being "so good" was still hot).

I don't know how long it will take, but give me just a re-make of Morrowind using CryEngine 2 at the level of quality that some of the community managed to squeeze out of it for Crysis 1 and I'll be playing the damn thing for a decade.

 

[TakeNoPrisoners]

I think by the end of the next console cycle we will see some impressive RPG's.

 

[rivan]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley

For gaming, we're still at the "humanoid robot" end of the valley. I expect we'll spend a console generation or two in the weird, freaky part of the valley.

 

[Monster_Munch]

Obligatory screenshot from GTA4 with the ice enhancer mod.

 

[imaheadcase]

Photo-realistic games could be made now, the problem is not that, the problem is hardware and reason to do it. Like that GTA4 mod, its a afterthought because not many people can run it, and its very time consuming.

Its very hard for anyone to sit down and design a game and say "Ok i want a game with hardly any gameplay value, but i want the graphics to require the best video card, 50+gigs of textures, and the game should only last 2 hours long.

You have to have a balance in the games. I think Eve online as a sandbox game is very graphically awesome game. But they can do that because its space and not a lot overhead.

Just look at the size of games now. Remember when you could get a game on a floppydisk and have room to spare? Remember when you could get a game on cd-rom, then you got mad when you had to start inserting a 2nd cd to install? Remember when DVD have one game, now you have 2+? Its all about textures.

But any smart dev knows if you can't do it in textures, do it in cutscenes

 

[Locut0s]

Photo-realistic games could be made now, the problem is not that, the problem is hardware and reason to do it. Like that GTA4 mod, its a afterthought because not many people can run it, and its very time consuming.

Its very hard for anyone to sit down and design a game and say "Ok i want a game with hardly any gameplay value, but i want the graphics to require the best video card, 50+gigs of textures, and the game should only last 2 hours long.

You have to have a balance in the games. I think Eve online as a sandbox game is very graphically awesome game. But they can do that because its space and not a lot overhead.

Just look at the size of games now. Remember when you could get a game on a floppydisk and have room to spare? Remember when you could get a game on cd-rom, then you got mad when you had to start inserting a 2nd cd to install? Remember when DVD have one game, now you have 2+? Its all about textures.

But any smart dev knows if you can't do it in textures, do it in cutscenes

Yes well sure. My question was when do you think we will be at the point where gaming hardware will make it so that developers can realistically put these types of graphics into release games.

 

[ViviTheMage]

BF3 has lush, green forestyry in it ... have you played, or saw any videos?

It's not a rainforest, but there's definitely trees/bushes, etc in the meto map.

 

[paperfist]

Yes well sure. My question was when do you think we will be at the point where gaming hardware will make it so that developers can realistically put these types of graphics into release games.

It's already there, the problem is no one is going to develop them on the PC when the install base of such hardware is minimal to the point that they'll generate 20,000 sales. So when consoles become cost efficient to allow them to stuff all this awesome hardware in there and consumers are willing to pay $90 a game we'll have what your looking for.

 

[Gunbuster]

I imagine some things could be procedurally generated like trees and such but once you get to a "photo realistic" desk chair you need someone to create that asset. How many times do you want to see the same art asset puked up all over the world?

Someone will need to open a virtual prop rental...