Where do graphics go from here?

[the-pi-guy]

Inspired by Jason Schreier's article

Today we're trying to figure out why the PS5 Pro feels so unnecessary, but first...

Diminishing returns

The most striking thing about this week's PlayStation 5 Pro reveal wasn't the internal power or sticker price (although that one was pretty shocking). It was the games.

In a nine-minute presentation revealing the new iteration of the PS5 and touting its impressive hardware specs, lead architect Mark Cerny showed footage of games including The Last of Us Part II, Ghost of Tsushima, Hogwarts Legacy, Horizon Forbidden West and Gran Turismo 7. One common factor? They were all also released on PlayStation 4 -- and look perfectly fine on the 2013 console.

Another common factor? They all have incredible graphics -- despite most of the games being years old.

I thought it was a little bit funny how one of the biggest showcases of the PS5 Pro was a late PS4 game, a console that came out in 2013.  

[kitler53]

yeah, not sure what a next generation of hardware could bring that i would care about.   when i think about my wish list of things i want on ps it's mostly software related stuff.   i suppose the next gen could dedicate a lot more hardware to the OS so those things could be done more easily.    even though i do appreciate the extra graphics of the ps5 compared to ps4 it's the lack of load times that i love.   i guess maybe AI?   ...whatever that means.

[Legend]

Resolution is reaching its end point. I'm amazed that my 8 year old phone had such a higher pixel density than every modern phone. There are still improvements to be made but will 4K be the last jump with near 100% adoption?


Pre AI I would have said there is still plenty of room left in improving the pixels themselves, but nowadays true photorealism is easy. It might take a while for various techniques to become production ready but there will be a point in the not so distant future where games look indistinguishable from real life. Crazy thing is that it shouldn't take that much more work from developers. Everyone will have perfectly real looking games, unlike current CGI where 90% of it still looks very cheap.


There will be simulation and scale related stuff. Blowing things up on an even grander scale, flying from planet to planet on a grander scale, water spilling out of cups, etc. I think there will still be many ways to wow people even once still frames are a "solved" science. Like TLOU2 wowd people in many ways irrelevant to still frames. It looked great but the animations and gore were also unlike anything people were used to.

TLDR: Pixels, framerates, and the "rendering equation" will be solved sooner than later, just like how polygons have stopped being at the forefront of graphics.. Improvements will still come for many many years but they will mostly be from building new tech, not throwing more processing power at existing tech.

[Legend]