Game graphics are always improving and fundamentally changing. The jump from 2D to 3D was huge, the jump to HD was huge, the jump to PBR was huge, and the current jump to ray tracing/global illumination is a huge shakeup.
But what comes next?
Depending on how long the current gen lasts, I think the next evolution will be the death of polygons and the rise of AI rendering.
This video is made entirely from a neural network. There is rasterization or ray tracing involved. Instead 185 raw pictures from the real world are "converted" into a neural net that directly produces these results. It runs at like 0.2 frames per second and can only work with a static scene in a limited space, but Nvidia has a lower quality real time version you can try yourself. Getting Started with NVIDIA Instant NeRFs | NVIDIA Technical Blog
Of course this tech is still pretty young and we could easily see a different AI approach find far more success.
But what comes next?
Depending on how long the current gen lasts, I think the next evolution will be the death of polygons and the rise of AI rendering.
This video is made entirely from a neural network. There is rasterization or ray tracing involved. Instead 185 raw pictures from the real world are "converted" into a neural net that directly produces these results. It runs at like 0.2 frames per second and can only work with a static scene in a limited space, but Nvidia has a lower quality real time version you can try yourself. Getting Started with NVIDIA Instant NeRFs | NVIDIA Technical Blog
Of course this tech is still pretty young and we could easily see a different AI approach find far more success.