Graphics theory about video games...

[Reasonable]

WereKitten said:

Reasonable said:
I think they're plenty of room for graphics growth (although diminishing returns all seems likely).

The bigger challenge I think with the trend is how to keep cost under control - i.e. higher and higher res textures, more diverse textures, more detailed character models, etc. All this tends to cost more, raising the development cost and impacting developer ability.

Looking at this gen so far I think we're going to see (particularly given the praise given to 360 SDK and complaints about PS3's first SDK) a big focus on having very efficient SDK and tools to lower costs and development time.

Right now I'm very curious about the new ID tech, Crytek's move to consoles and what the next iteration of Unreal engine will look like (plus of course where Guerrilla and Naughty Dog take their tech next).

A good SDK will make developers' (re)training and code testing/optimization easier, quicker and cheaper. But I don't think it's going to cut much costs where it really counts today, that is assets production.

Carmack in one of his interviews expressed the same worries, and suggested that moving into procedurally created content could become a necessity soon.

Good point - I meant to mention procedural content as part of a direction I expect to see more games taking.  I was intending to mention it when talking about textures, etc. but forgot to expand on that paragraph.

I mean when I look at some big titles now, either released or in development, I just boggle at the amount of content and variety of that content vs say 10 years ago.  And then I think, that must have cost a fortune.