Next Gen Graphics

[johnnysix]

Hey Y'all. I just caught Beowulf last night and I thought it was great. I got me thinking about how far video game graphics are away from feature film CGI.

I think the quality of graphics in next gen games currently ranges from "Hi-Res PS2" to "wow, my 360/PS3 did that??!!". Firstly let me state that I believe that Gears of War still holds the mantle for most jaw dropping next gen game (Crysis aside, I'm mainly focusing on consoles here). I think Epic deserve a ton of credit for creating a game early in the 360's life cycle that is basically still reference quality today.

Looking at Gears of War, Ratchet and Clank, Mass Effect and Call of Duty 4, I don't think games are too far away from the full CGI feature films we see at the theaters today. I know that technically there are way more polygons and much higher res textures, and all sorts of focus and lighting effects that are used in films that consoles simply don't have the power to process now, but I think we're at the top end of a curve. All this stuff increases the quality in more subtle ways. Whilst there were some moments in Beowulf that looked astoundingly realistic, some of it looked not too far away from what we're seeing in our games (not a slight on Beowulf by the way).

Surely the focus now really needs to move into animation, both in film and games. I know hand-drawn or captured animation will never be completely mistaken for real-life, but to me, this is where the real improvements can be made. What do you guys think?

[leem]

I thought that Beowulf was graphically amazing; and I wish I could have seen it in 3D to get the full experience for the price of admission.

Technology is moving so fast as is, that it is completely plausible that we'll have Beowulf-like video games in the near future. When the Xbox 360 and the PS3 become "old" there will probably be a new console to take their place. With everything becoming bigger and better, I'd have to assume that future game consoles will be completely amazing.

Back to the actual topic at hand though, I think that non-CG forms of games, movies, and TV have gone really far as it is and seem to be at their limit. For example, some of the shows that appear to be drawn are CG, like South Park (made to look like construction paper) and other shows that I can't think of at the moment. What I'm trying to say is that a lot of things are already getting loaded full of CG, so that is obviously the direction that everything is moving in and will be improved the most.

[nlatimer]

I'll preface this by saying that I've yet to see Beowulf, and probably won't bother to see it in theaters.

From what I've seen of the CG of it, it does look like the most lifelike I've seen so far, but I'm not convinced that is a good thing.

For movies that have lifelike animation I don't think that the characters and the world has to be, I think its valid for it to be more stylized. One movie's visual style I enjoyed was 'A Scanner Darkly', it was interesting, odd, and in a way almost another character and vital plot element.

I feel the same way about games, one only has to look at Team Fortress 2, and while I've yet to play it, Ratchet and Clank. Granted I love the gorgeous sprawling vistas of Halo 3 and consider it the high water mark at the moment for gaming.

But when you think of what makes a movie: plot, visuals, audio; games can have all of those, but it has one more that is more important, gameplay, I'm willing to sacrifice alot, including graphics for amazing gameplay (hell I play Kingdom of Loathing). Sure a pretty picture is nice, but I feel increasingly unnecessary. Thats why my next console, instead of the pretty looking PS3 will be the fun looking Wii.