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

[theRepublic]

Zappykins said:

theRepublic said:

Zappykins said:
Well, look back at gens 3-4-5. Sure it changed, but not all that much. The last gen was a HUGE change. Consoles made huge graphic leaps last gen. Now it's slowed down again.

Also look at the start of last gen, verses how things look now. Crackdown and Oblivion are nice, but check out Halo 4 or Skyrim. Nice gains there too. Hopefully this gen will really look even better in a year or two.

What?  I would argue the exact opposite.  There were massive differences between those gens, easily visable to even the most casual observer.  From 4 to 5 we went from 2D to 3D.  That is a much bigger change than what we saw last gen.  I posted pictures earlier in the thread.  The differences are becoming smaller and smaller as we go.

With a 2D platform, going from one gen to the next isn't that dramatic.  Sure things get more colourful, more detail (they go from blocks, to awkward things, to actually looking like something, but it doesn't shock and awe so much yet.  That came later.

I agree going from 2D to 3D was a big change.  But with 5th gen, 3D started taking baby steps.  It was neat, but still more of a 'what could be someday' cartoony look, rather than a more realistic look to games. We didn't really see that till 6th.  They looked better, but still not that 'real.'

Now with 7th gen we had two things.  A big leap in photo realism (aka Skyrim) AND a big leap in TV size and resolution.  So last gen we were really spoiled with 'two gens of graphics leaps' in one.  I remember seeing a guy (probably 20-30ish) at a store who mom was ushering him on and he wanted to watch the football game.  It wasn’t until later I realize that their were two kids on the other side of the display playing the game.  They had achieved enough realism that the guy thought it was a real game.

This gen is starting off as a nice refinement of the last as far as graphics.  Things look better, run smoother, have much more detail and texture.  But it’s not the shocking leap we saw last time – but a great refinement.  Tessellation is visually delicious.  It allows you to get closer to something and the detail just increases.  It the best step so far (I think) this gen that prevents one from getting ‘kick out’ of that moment where you remember oh, that detail is bad, I’m playing a game..  But even so, I’m already spoiled and my last gen games just aren’t looking as good as they were.

I like how this new gen looks. 

 

Whether or not it shocks or awes you in particular, going from blocky, barely recognizable objects to clear sprites and backgrounds is a massive difference.  Much bigger than just the ever increasing detail which we have gotten from the transitions of gens 5 through 8.

Sure the 5th gen was the first steps into 3D.  That does not mean it was not a huge leap from the previous gen.  All we have seen since is smaller and smaller increases in graphical detail.  I agree that 6 to 7 was a bigger leap than many expected out of the generation.  But look at 5 to 6 right before it.  We go from extremely blocky, angular geometry to much more detailed, smooth models.  We vastly increase draw distances.  We add a bunch of better looking effects.  Did all that also increase from 6 to 7 and 7 to 8?  Absolutely it did.  It is just that the closer you get to realism, the easier it is to plateau.

I'll just post a link to my pictures instead of the pictures again: http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=6110371