M76
[H]F Junkie
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2012
- Messages
- 14,044
Rambling mode on:
I feel that the technology in games has been stagnating for a while now. Games that come out just use the same old things over and over again, and everyone is focused on graphics and nothing else. When the underlying elements of the games are basically unchanged since the early 2000s.
Because let's face it, the difference between GTA3 and GTA5 is only graphical. There is literally no other improvement, the mechanics are exactly the same, the AI is no different, the gamelplay is no different, the physics is no different, the cars handle the same. So what's actually new?
And most AAA game producers refuse to adapt technologies that have been around for years. Like soft body phyisics in racing games is still almost non-existent, despite it giving 100 times better realism than anything else.
It was first properly implemented (afaik) in a tech demo by a student in 1997 (terep2) and still it hardly crops up in any big production game. Of course phyiscs is not immediately apparent, it's not something you can sell in a trailer, it's something that needs a hands on experience to be appreciated. Maybe that's why big budget games are not concerned with this?
But there are many other areas where I feel there is a huge lag, and need for improvement in games.
It's like games took the first step and then stopped. They implemented ragdoll, and basic havok physics as far as 15 years ago, and since then, there is no will to improve,
I feel by now we should have full cloth simulations, and proper collision detection. Because that's the part that needs the most improvement. I hate poke trough and objects passing trough each other, or getting stuck together.
But I think the next big leap in games also could be character simulation. When the characters aren't static polygonal objects but fully simulated flesh and bone. It would give the next step necessary in realism. If you could actually see muscles moving and actual separate simulation of the skin, instead of the current implementation where everything is static. And the limbs on characters look weird and distorted when bent, because they are static polygonal objects that are unable to change shapes. Their "simulation" currently only goes so far as the stretching of the polygons at the joints to hide the seams.
But I fear this could be still many years away (if they even care about it), as I only started to notice this kind of attention to detail even in movie VFX effects very recently.
I don't know what you think, but I feel pushing graphics further is pointless until we get the basics right, graphics is only the presentation, and it's worthless without substance.
I feel that the technology in games has been stagnating for a while now. Games that come out just use the same old things over and over again, and everyone is focused on graphics and nothing else. When the underlying elements of the games are basically unchanged since the early 2000s.
Because let's face it, the difference between GTA3 and GTA5 is only graphical. There is literally no other improvement, the mechanics are exactly the same, the AI is no different, the gamelplay is no different, the physics is no different, the cars handle the same. So what's actually new?
And most AAA game producers refuse to adapt technologies that have been around for years. Like soft body phyisics in racing games is still almost non-existent, despite it giving 100 times better realism than anything else.
It was first properly implemented (afaik) in a tech demo by a student in 1997 (terep2) and still it hardly crops up in any big production game. Of course phyiscs is not immediately apparent, it's not something you can sell in a trailer, it's something that needs a hands on experience to be appreciated. Maybe that's why big budget games are not concerned with this?
But there are many other areas where I feel there is a huge lag, and need for improvement in games.
It's like games took the first step and then stopped. They implemented ragdoll, and basic havok physics as far as 15 years ago, and since then, there is no will to improve,
I feel by now we should have full cloth simulations, and proper collision detection. Because that's the part that needs the most improvement. I hate poke trough and objects passing trough each other, or getting stuck together.
But I think the next big leap in games also could be character simulation. When the characters aren't static polygonal objects but fully simulated flesh and bone. It would give the next step necessary in realism. If you could actually see muscles moving and actual separate simulation of the skin, instead of the current implementation where everything is static. And the limbs on characters look weird and distorted when bent, because they are static polygonal objects that are unable to change shapes. Their "simulation" currently only goes so far as the stretching of the polygons at the joints to hide the seams.
But I fear this could be still many years away (if they even care about it), as I only started to notice this kind of attention to detail even in movie VFX effects very recently.
I don't know what you think, but I feel pushing graphics further is pointless until we get the basics right, graphics is only the presentation, and it's worthless without substance.