Square Enix verwacht enorme grafische vooruitgang next-gen

Square Enix’s Worldwide Technology Director Julien Merceron denkt dat de volgende generatie consoles cinematische ervaringen naar de consoles brengt. Daarmee bedoelt hij dat de stap tussen de current-gen consoles en de next-gen consoles een enorm grote stap wordt. “I think that we’re still going to see a big leap in graphics. In terms of technology I think we’ll see developers taking advantage of physically-based rendering, physically-based lighting”, zegt Merceron. “I think people will take advantage of global illumination, or at least some form approximation of global illumination, so that could have a significant impact on graphics quality.” Verder zegt Merceron dat games nog lang niet het plafond van grafische mogelijkheden bereikt hebben en dat er steeds meer fotorealistische spellen op de markt zullen komen. “If you take most of the Pixar movies from the last five to six years… do you see a big difference between one that was released five years ago, and one that was released last year? I’m actually not sure we see a huge difference. But if you take a film like Avatar, there’s a huge leap in the graphics techniques that are being used and the level of realism. The conclusion I would draw from that is we might end up seeing the difference way more in realistic-looking games, rather than those trying to achieve a cartoony look. At some point, with all these games [that are] going for a cartoony look, consumers might get the feeling that it’s plateauing. But for games striving for a very realistic look, it’s going to be easy to see all the improvements, all the time.”