Can the gaming industry technologically equal the movie industry?

[Sprafa]

If you just look at the potencial of the Unreal 3.0 engine, I would say we're finnaly catching up with a few years ago, namely FF: the Spirits Within.

So, does anyone thinks that with time we will eventually reach the same level as the movie industry ? Afterall, in the last few years we haven't seen that much of an evolution in terms of computer graphics propelled by the movie industry (maybe it's just me, but I really don't see that much).

Of course the movie industry will always have the edge, simply because they focus on having the best possible and they can invest a lot more in a single scene than the casual gamer spends in his life.

 

[DarkStar]

The movie industry will always be one step ahead technologically. The simple fact is they don't have to render things in real-time. They can take weeks and weeks to render a single frame of film. Movies will always look more realistic.

 

[Mr-Fusion]

Not in the forseeable future.

If you ever watch documentaries on star wars dvds, and lotr dvds and see these guys speaking about working for 4 months on a 5 second scene you understand the amount of effort required.

I don't see that level of detail being achieved in real-time soon. And UE3, whilst looking good it is still glaringly CG and fake. I remember people were saying the same thing about the Doom 3 engine in 2001 "It's like a movie" . Yes ok, but now that i've played it, it doesn't even come close to the level of detail in a film like FOTR.

We're still a long long way off.

 

[SidewinderX]

The movie industry will always be one step ahead technologically. The simple fact is they don't have to render things in real-time. They can take weeks and weeks to render a single frame of film. Movies will always look more realistic.

exactly.

 

[IchI]

Hmmm.... Imo, I think most 3d work will be done in real time in the future. So in a way I think games will catch up with films. But there will always be a line between virtual realitity and the world around you. If we ever saw photo image world realistic graphics I could proberly see them been banned.

 

[Asuka]

Yes.

Sooner or later everything will equal out. We think its so imposible right now but in 5-6 years movies/games/computers/ everything will be insanly high tech. Just look at the pass tech is evolving in.

 

[Seppo]

John Carmack has stated that in ten years computer games can achieve the same level of graphics seen in Lord of the Rings

 

[The Mullinator]

Eventually we will reach a point where we simply can't make something look any more detailed than reality, thats when games will be able to catch up completely.

 

[Dedalus]

more than likely.

like The Mullinator said, you can't get more real than reality, so if the movie industry reaches a true real life graphics state, they really can't go any further.

 

[blahblahblah]

I think it will be based more on time and money than capability. To create a movie-like game, it requires an insane amount of time and money. I don't think John Carmack and Co. wants to spend 12 years making a movie quality first person shooter.

So yes, I believe PC games will catch up to movies, but we won't see a game that looks like a movie because of the costs involved to make a game that complicated.

 

[The Mullinator]

I think it will be based more on time and money than capability. To create a movie-like game, it requires an insane amount of time and money. I don't think John Carmack and Co. wants to spend 12 years making a movie quality first person shooter.

So yes, I believe PC games will catch up to movies, but we won't see a game that looks like a movie because of the costs involved to make a game that complicated.

Tools will change I suspect, the tools we are using now are in essence the exact same ones that we have been using for over 10 years now. Eventually a new way of creating computer graphics will start to be used that will make the job easier for the artists. Otherwise in terms of hype graphics will become secondary to things like game length.

 

[Seppo]

And the video gaming industry is starting to make more money per year than movies. I think video games will slowly take the place of movies on the top of the world of entertainment

 

[IchI]

I don't know you now. After using Zbrush and been able to model with bagillions of polgons at one time all in real time. It makes you think.

Long live the Pixor

 

[Sulkdodds]

Yes. Eventually.

Okay, so it'll take a while. Like, decades.

 

[Ames]

Remember the "scrubbing" in Minority Report?

Well, I can imagine games being built that way. Much faster then now, there's probably going to be holographic modeling programs that use your hands.

/me waves hands around trying to make a dinosaur.

 

[dart321]

And the video gaming industry is starting to make more money per year than movies. I think video games will slowly take the place of movies on the top of the world of entertainment

Already happened buddy. 3 times more to be exact.

 

[joule]

Can the gaming industry technologically equal the movie industry?

Yes. I think it is believably possibly. After seeing the Unreal 3 screenshots and the technology in the future, it will probably happen within the next 10 years...possibly stretching to 15 years. Right now, the gaming industry is still in its baby years in terms of graphic capability. In the near future, games will look so unbelievably realistic, we could hardly tell the difference between a videogame and a movie.

 

[StardogChampion]

Yes. I think it is believably possibly. After seeing the Unreal 3 screenshots and the technology in the future, it will probably happen within the next 10 years...possibly stretching to 15 years. Right now, the gaming industry is still in its baby years in terms of graphic capability. In the near future, games will look so unbelievably realistic, we could hardly tell the difference between a videogame and a movie.

I'd say longer than ten. I heard someone in the industry say it will be 15 years or more before we get near photorealistic in games.

 

[<RJMC>]

I thinks is possibly but the developers will need more time to make the games

 

[Prince of China]

At one point in the future, gaming and movie technology will be so advanced, they will be at their highest peaks and have nothing more to enhance. Everything will be photo-realistic and it'll all come down to which makes more money.
Then we'll work on holograms and colonization of Pluto and it's moon, Charon.

 

[Farrowlesparrow]

I think it was already said, but perhaps one day it will just be easier to make it happen in a game engine...or "movie" engine, rather than rendering all this stuff over weeks. It doesn't have to look perfect. For instance, things like Toy Story and even FF The Spirits Within.

 

[Rochet]

What I think games need to do to capture movie like affect is, well first of all, in a action movie say like day after tomorrow all of things are happining around the person and not just to the person. Call of duty is a very good example of getting closer to movie quality, games don't have to look incredible to capture movie like affect. Call of duty has things happening all over the place, even places you don't see, and has things happing in the horizon, explosions in the sky and etc. See doom I think didn't capture too much of a movie feel, because there weren't much action happening around the area, but only had action happening to you. Now I think if doom had bunch of soldiers in a room that you entered and you just see hell breaking look as the soldiers fight for there life, and explosions happening and you see soldiers asking for help and see them helping each other out, and showing emotion, I think that gets closser to films. I think games like halo 2 and half-life2 are really going to capture the hollywood feel because mainly, example of halo 2, remeber in the e3 demo where he walk out on the patio and sees a huge weapon get fired in the horizion, and soldiers fighting and not paying attention to you, i think that is a prime example of hollywood feal, also half life your in the train station and you hear the guy want his baggage and the women in the background ask if you the only one that got of the train, also when your in the other building you see that lady say what is going to happen to us, and that guy peeking out the window as you see the tanks move in. I think that is what is required to get close to movies quality games, things happing around you.

 

[Dedalus]

well...are we talking about making games more like films 'visually' or in terms of how they're 'represented to the audience'? because personally, i don't think games should try to emulate the film medium in any way apart from the graphics side. you can do so much more in a game than you can in a film, so it doesn't seem to make sense when someone wants to make their game more like a film.

if anything, we should gravitate away from films/hollywood/passive entertainment. because gaming is interactive. games like Max Payne 2, yeah it was good, but it had a lot of cut-scenes and lots of exposition. i mean, if i wanted to watch a film i'd go out, but i bought a game and it's pretending it's a film making me sit through all these pretentious cutscenes.

but that's what films are: passive entertainment. you sit there like a plum having things fed into your mouth for you. now i dunno about you, but that doesn't sound like too much fun.

gaming is interactive entertainment. you do something, it has an affect on the game world. you can create your own experience to a certain extent. but there's no way i'd intentionally go out of my way to make it more of a passive experience, because that's just boring. especially when hollywood gets mentioned...that's always a bad thing. hollywood is owned by corporations who know little about making films, and lots about making money. sending the gaming industry down that route is inevitable at some point, but we shouldn't strive for it.

 

[Rochet]

Well im not saying make it hollywood, but I think the way to make a game better is yes interactivity but also making it more intensive. Im not talking about cutscenes nowhere did I mention anything about cutscenes, but Im talking about the enviroment around you, her is a example of two things, one normal, two movie like playing.

Your in a city and WW3 has started, and it so happens that your city is ground zero where it all happened.

Example one normal games today: You walking in a alley and you reach a intersection with the road you look down the road, and you have 10 soldiers come at you.

Example two instensive the world around you: You walking in a alley and you reach a intersection with the road, you look down the road and you see citizens getting blasted from the soldiers, and you see tanks blowing up the building and the destruction from the city sends a clowd of dust hurrling towards you as a brick flys by your head, and in the distants you see the 10 soldiers starting to come at you.

When I say hollywood, or movie like I mean, making a game feel like you are actually in a real thing, and draws emotion to you, and with todays graphics I think we can make it feel like that, not no cutescenes but spice up the enviroment around you in realtime gameplay. Part of the reason for interactivity is for realism, you touch a soda can it moves, but I think once they have mastered that, I think that next thing is two make the world more intensive.

 

[Dedalus]

yeah that's going down the generic action game route.

i get what you're saying though. i just think there's more to games than military shooting dying thingys.

 

[Cybernoid]

If you just look at the potencial of the Unreal 3.0 engine, I would say we're finnaly catching up with a few years ago, namely FF: the Spirits Within.

Haha. Unreal 3.0 isn't even close to what CGI can do. Not even halfway there. In fact, Unreal 3.0 looks like Wolfenstein 3D compared to movies.

 

[Sprafa]

Haha. Unreal 3.0 isn't even close to what CGI can do. Not even halfway there. In fact, Unreal 3.0 looks like Wolfenstein 3D compared to movies.

Check the image

 

[Cybernoid]

Check the image

Sorry, not impressed or convinced.

 

[Sprafa]

Of course the movie industry will always have the edge, simply because they focus on having the best possible and they can invest a lot more in a single scene than the casual gamer spends in his life.

After reading this thread I had to get this to the attention of most of you that apparently don't really read well

 

[Alig]

Sorry, not impressed or convinced.

If thats what we can do now, what could we do in 5 years...10 years....15 years. Your being incredibly naive. CGI is at its best just about and if you can't see a resemblance between UE3 and CGI then you should go check your eyes out. http://www.4gamer.net/news/image/2004.09/20040926054110_33big.jpg

It makes HL2's faces look like :x and there's only 2 years difference between the two engines. So imagine if that gap widen's to 10 years...i think in 10 years they could make it look considerably better.