My upgrade plan for my PC life included a move from 1440p to 4k for my display a few years ago, but when it came time to do that, I realized that I didn’t even really want it. I already had a 4k monitor at work where the UI was scaled because no scaling made it unreadable. Why add more pixels only to scale them away?
Which left gaming and media. For gaming, I realized I never had a problem with the amount of pixels on the screen. While 4k probably does look better (assuming it’s actually rendered at 4k and not just upscaled 1440p or something), I’ve never felt like adding more resolution would improve the experience. Similar for media, looks great when it is 4k but I don’t really miss it when it isn’t (and it’s usually not even available). Plus I do have a 4k TV I can use if I really want to.
So I just stopped the search for a display with decent specs other than 4k and instead got an ultrawide 1440p.
Anyways, I’ve applied the same logic to 8k TVs.
I’m not sure I’d call video game graphics “solved”, as there can always be more fidelity and accuracy for things other than resolution, but it’s just the tech geek in me that’s interested in that. And that might occasionally come out during a game, but it’s not an important aspect, more of a “oh this isn’t quite right, I wonder how it could be implemented to be correct” that I don’t even notice most of the time while playing.
I think we’ve hit a point of diminishing returns for graphics, I expect physics to be the next big leap. In game physics have come a long way but there’s still noticeable jank a lot of the time, stuff that gives away that you’re inside a video game.
Once that gets improved, we’re then on a good path to having VR make a proper return to public consciousness as well. One of the biggest problems with VR right now besides barrier of entry is just how janky the environmental interactions are.
I think the biggest thing holding VR back is that it still happens within our physical world. Physics can’t really be done properly while that’s still the case because in game inertia can’t affect things outside of the game. So you can swing a 5kg sword as easily as a controller and your arm doesn’t stop when your swing is parried, and you’ll pass right through in game objects while still bumping into real world objects.
I agree that physics could still be improved a lot but just don’t think it’s going to have that big of an effect on the popularity of VR, at least in the current “goggles strapped to your face” incarnation. Though any improved versions would still benefit from improved physics and I do agree that such improvements would be essential to that working well.
My upgrade plan for my PC life included a move from 1440p to 4k for my display a few years ago, but when it came time to do that, I realized that I didn’t even really want it. I already had a 4k monitor at work where the UI was scaled because no scaling made it unreadable. Why add more pixels only to scale them away?
Which left gaming and media. For gaming, I realized I never had a problem with the amount of pixels on the screen. While 4k probably does look better (assuming it’s actually rendered at 4k and not just upscaled 1440p or something), I’ve never felt like adding more resolution would improve the experience. Similar for media, looks great when it is 4k but I don’t really miss it when it isn’t (and it’s usually not even available). Plus I do have a 4k TV I can use if I really want to.
So I just stopped the search for a display with decent specs other than 4k and instead got an ultrawide 1440p.
Anyways, I’ve applied the same logic to 8k TVs.
I’m not sure I’d call video game graphics “solved”, as there can always be more fidelity and accuracy for things other than resolution, but it’s just the tech geek in me that’s interested in that. And that might occasionally come out during a game, but it’s not an important aspect, more of a “oh this isn’t quite right, I wonder how it could be implemented to be correct” that I don’t even notice most of the time while playing.
I think we’ve hit a point of diminishing returns for graphics, I expect physics to be the next big leap. In game physics have come a long way but there’s still noticeable jank a lot of the time, stuff that gives away that you’re inside a video game.
Once that gets improved, we’re then on a good path to having VR make a proper return to public consciousness as well. One of the biggest problems with VR right now besides barrier of entry is just how janky the environmental interactions are.
I think the biggest thing holding VR back is that it still happens within our physical world. Physics can’t really be done properly while that’s still the case because in game inertia can’t affect things outside of the game. So you can swing a 5kg sword as easily as a controller and your arm doesn’t stop when your swing is parried, and you’ll pass right through in game objects while still bumping into real world objects.
I agree that physics could still be improved a lot but just don’t think it’s going to have that big of an effect on the popularity of VR, at least in the current “goggles strapped to your face” incarnation. Though any improved versions would still benefit from improved physics and I do agree that such improvements would be essential to that working well.