How much do you care about the graphical leap between consoles at this point?

[00Xander00]

I think it's up to the artists nowadays to create those hi-res AAA shiny-ness. If games from the 7th gen could look convincing enough Resi 5, Uncharted, Last of Us, Gears, MGS5, Super Mario Galaxy, then 4K and VR are the only new venues graphics have to conquer in the 9th gen... and potentially making larger open worlds without limiting the graphical detail or using techniques to save memory. But I think the 8th gen may have conquered detail in open worlds that look convincing enough with games like Red Dead Redemption 2 & Witcher 3.

Voxel sculpting/modelling could become a new thing. It takes a lot of power/memory as objects are made of molecules rather than flat polygons with textures. This would create more precision to destructible environments in games. Or digging holes in the ground. It could create new entire genres or even create more range of art styles/direction too from a 3D modelling perspective.

Graphics only matter for me because of VR. The player can see the game environment up close and in more detail than when playing on a flat screen. An in-game pencil on a table has to look like a real pencil up-close too, not a texture on a table or a triangular cylinder - Same with that 2D polygon grass-effect games typically use. Textures need to be higher res too. (and that grainy effect that PSVR has has to go, plus the general resolution of PSVR needs to be higher to prevent any blurriness. Also the black boarders around the eyes (making it feel like your looking out of a visor/helmet) has to go too) but those are hardware issues outside of the console's GPU, but they still attribute to overall graphics of VR games.

But generally (as for non-VR games), I don't think graphics are much of a revolutionary thing anymore. Particularly Nintendo because their art direction is convincing enough for them to create anything they want with the current graphics power. It's just up to the artists to have an artistic vision from now on.

Last edited by 00Xander00 - on 10 May 2020