Are games becoming too realistic?
- Thread starter Baw$e
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I think they are and I don't like it, sure I like them to look nice how it was on PS2 and PS3/PS4 days, but I still want them to look like video games and not run up cost of development or time it takes to make games.
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I think games can be uncanny when they are realistic, especially with facial expressions, lip reading, or even updating an older, more stylized design. The effort put there does show when you have a larger studio. However, function should be put over looks.
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I think they're really starting to become a bit too realistic but it doesn't bother me much. I find it amusing when people submit images of games to news stations and they believe they're real images lol. Though it's also kind of scary at the same time. :V
I think it all started with the success of GTA, as it's quite realistic along with other crime like games, but there's still a wide variety of games with arcade style like graphics. They're just not at the fore front anymore.
3d graphics getting more and more realistic is just the natural progression or evolution of computer graphics programming as a whole, it has nothing to do with the success of GTA. even if there's no GTA computer graphics in games and movies will continue to evolve like during the era before GTA even started to exist. Rockstar wouldn't be able to create realistic graphics if Direct3D and OpenGL and other Graphics API didn't have the necessary library to make one like when 3D Shaders started to become common in 3d graphics programming. Rockstar never made or invented them 3d Graphics API for realistic 3d graphics, It's all because the continuing evolution of the 3d Graphics API made by other companies and their 3d graphics programmers.
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Of course Rockstar didn’t invent 3D graphics APIs. They didn’t create Direct3D, OpenGL, or build the foundation of modern rendering tech. That’s not up for debate, those advancements came from engine devs, graphics programmers, and hardware companies doing the heavy lifting behind the scenes.
However, the success of GTA played a major role in how that tech started getting used.
Tech can evolve all day long, but if no one applies it in a way that captures people, it doesn’t go anywhere. Before GTA III hit, open-world games were still kinda niche. Once Rockstar dropped that and it blew up? It changed everything on a massive scale. Everyone suddenly wanted realism, crime like, sandbox elements, living cities, and they started throwing money and dev time at achieving it.
No, Rockstar didn’t invent shaders, but they were among the first to take what was possible at the time and create something that felt immersive, gritty, alive. That’s the golden part, It’s not just about who made the tech, it’s about who used it in a way that changed the industry. GTA did that.
Games influence trends and trends shift other developers’ focus. Then, Dev focus pushes tech in new directions, and that feedback loop keeps everything moving. GTA didn’t make the tools, but they sure as heck made people care about what those tools could do.
If, it wasn’t GTA that pushed the realism wave into the mainstream, what game do you honestly think had that level of impact at the time?
I wasn't talking about open world tech/codes I was talking about realistic graphics started being used in games, Baw$se asked about realistic graphics not open world games. Those are 2 different things even from the programming standpoint too, the open world codes are separate and not one with the graphics codes. Even if there's no Rockstar, other Game companies will use and popularize the realistic graphics tech too. Rockstar wasn't the first gamedev that created something that felt immersive, gritty, alive. The original elder Scrolls game did that, the original fallout game did that, the original Half Life did that, the original Deus Ex did that, the original Thief games did that, Squaresoft early rpgs like FF and Dragon quest did that, original Baldur's Gate games did that,etc, and many other games that started using new graphics tech made that level of impact in terms of realistic 3d graphics being used in games. Back during the Ps1 era Japanese game dev used new 3d graphics tech in their games like Resident evil and FF7 used a combination of 3D character models and pre-rendered 2D backgrounds to create its visual style. The 3D character models were a significant step up while the pre-rendered backgrounds offered a higher level of detail than real-time 3D environments could achieve at the time. Long before that the Wing Commander Series pushed the 3d graphics tech and realism in games. Before GTA Shenmue was a pioneer in the "living world" concept for open-world games. All of those games are also famous and changed the gaming industry. Rockstar made famous the realistic open world genre in games not the realistic 3d graphics tech being used in games. you are giving Rockstar too much credit.
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