Epic Games creator (no pun intended) and general boffin Tim Sweeney thinks we’re close to a point where our video game graphics literally can’t get any better.
This won’t be due to hardware limitations, but the limitations of our own feeble human brains, which can’t perceive resolutions about 8000×4000, or a 30 megapixel photo. We also don’t notice frames per second above 72, so stop bragging about your 200 fps in Battlefield 3.
At the Dice Summit 2012, Sweeney announced, “The limit really is within sight.”
“Within our lifetimes,” he added, “we will be able to push out enough computational power to simulate reality.”
This doesn’t mean your top of the line rig is getting close to VR status though, according to Sweeney we’ll need 2000 times the power of today’s best to get there. And that’s just the visual stuff; but Sweeney believes we’ll get there in the next few decades.
Sweeney is also all hot under the collar about more interactive technologies such as Kinect and iPhone’s Siri, as well as other innovations such as cloud computing and streaming gaming.
“We’ve barely scratched the surface of the consumer implications,” said Sweeney, talking from a gaming point of view. “What we can do with an iPad or iPhone today is limited by our experience of our computers and history.
“When a whole new generation of kids is raised with these devices pervasively around us, it’s going to lead to entirely new worlds.”
“I see a bright future for technology and its implications on games. The ability of game developers to exploit another thousand-fold increase in computing power on future generations of platforms. Some of it will be consoles, some of it PC and some of it tablets. The form factor we can’t predict, but the opportunity is there.
Sweeney closes, “Our industry’s brightest days are yet to come.”
I can’t wait to play Extreme Beach Volleyball – VR Edition.
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The only problem in games is gameplay. Graphics are improving faster than the fun factor that makes games, games.