The inflection point for diminishing returns appears to be the PS3/360 generation

[Norris2k]

ctalkeb said:

Norris2k said:

We are still to see how far the current gen games will improve. Kilzone is 1080p. texture are very clean, effects everywhere, it's colorfull, there is no clipping.

Diminishing return is not a philosophical discussion, it's a fact. This generation mostly add a lot of memory that solve the problem of blurry textures and limitations  in map sizes. What can be done behond that ?

 

Go back and read my earlier comment. While the above image is true enough, it's only a part of the picture, since we're not talking about static, unlit, untextured models with no environment interaction.

We've not even started to hit any roof for deminishing returns.

I read your post and I agree that "the numerous fields where we are nowhere near hitting a wall, such as animation, lighting, physics, object count, object interaction, material simulation and so forth.". But that's what dimishing return is about: require a lot more power for improvements less and less noticeable.

For example tomb raider's hair modeling is nice, but is it worth the calculation and development cost ? How much to make it really realistic ? Does it really makes a difference with what we could already enjoy on 2007 Crysis ?