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Forums - Gaming - When did graphics start having diminishing returns for you?

Kagerow on 07 September 2016

Once it started hurting contents and stability.

So I guess it would be around current gen.



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crissindahouse on 07 September 2016

I think we will still see a lot of improvements in the future if it comes to graphics but since some years I don't really care much about it anymore except for a few genres (especially racing games)

When I got my Dreamcast or Xbox I couldn't play some of my N64 games anymore because they felt so bad to me graphically. But nowadays I see games like Uncharted 4 or Star Citizen and I'm like "looks nice but if it would be only half as nice I would like it exactly the same while playing"

Most games I play nowadays look pretty bad for nowadays standards but I have exactly the same fun with them so yeah, graphics right now don't do much to me atm. 



Veknoid_Outcast on 07 September 2016

I'd say around the beginning of the seventh generation. At that point more and more money was funneled into graphics, physics, lighting, particle effects, etc. with little to show for it in terms of content. The eighth gen has been even worse.

Honestly, I'd be happy if developers stuck with sixth gen technology and below moving forward. The technical limitations might force them to focus on what really matters.



COKTOE on 07 September 2016

It started with the PS3/Xbox 360. It continues to cycle down with the PS4 and XBO. But it's not too severe of an effect at this point. Still lots of room for easily noticeable improvement.



- "If you have the heart of a true winner, you can always get more pissed off than some other asshole."

Burning Typhoon on 07 September 2016

I've not yet been satisfied. Doom has really pushed it, though. It's going to be a while before the deminishing returns really starts to kick in.



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Pemalite on 08 September 2016
shikamaru317 said:

Definitely didn't notice it until this gen. The fact that the gap between 7th gen and 8th gen was one of the largest ever (8 years), and yet still the graphics improvement wasn't huge, definitely shows the existence of diminishing returns. It didn't help that both MS and Sony cheaped out and decided to build practically off the shelf consoles to save money this gen, instead of the more expensive, more powerful, custom designs of the past. 

Compare the launch Xbox 360 games against a launch Xbox One game, the difference is dramatic.

If you go and compare a late Xbox 360 game against an early Xbox One game the difference is pretty neglible...
But that held true when you compared a late Original Xbox game against an early Xbox 360 game, the difference was neglible.

Although thanks to the PS4 Pro/Neo/4k and Scorpio, we are probably never going to see how clever developers get with the current hardware.




www.youtube.com/@Pemalite

Lawlight on 08 September 2016
contestgamer said:

The framing of this question screams bias. It hasnt had dimishing returns for me, until graphics are photorealistic I wont be satisfied. 

I think you're getting confused on the meaning of diminishing returns. He's talking about the jump in graphics.

For me, it's this gen. It's not all that different from the previous one.