The future of PC upgrading

[AJ!]

So with the huge focus now days on console gaming i have noticed a real slow down in the production of demanding games for the pc.

The fact that crysis is still the most demanding and graphically superior game on the pc shows how much things have slowed concidering it was released in 2007 :o (although it was ahead of its time)

Every few months there would be a new game with a massive graphics upgrade and every company went out of their way to make the most realistic game out there. i think the battle was at its peak during the release of HL2 and doom 3.

Of course pc gamers had to pay the price for this constant graphics evolution. I remember nvidia updating their graphics card range almost monthly to keep up.

Does anyone else think this graphics war will pick up again or are pc games going to have to wait for the consoles to catch up?

(Also concidering there were much more powerful PCs out when the 360 was released in 2005 it really does show how much the consoles are holding the pc back in 2010)

[Arclight]

I think technological limitations play a part as well; there's only so much you can manage with DX9. DX10 was never truly adopted, with the majority of the users avoiding Vista. Now that Win7 is being better received, we'll probably see a push for new limits once DX11 hardware is more widespread.

But yeah, with a larger focus on consoles and every company moaning about ridiculously exaggerated piracy numbers, it slowed down a little.

[Dowly]

IMHO, we are at a point where there isn't many big leaps to take graphically. :hmmm:

[Arclight]

Well, real-time raytracing is still on the horizon. :D

And with DX11, there's finally support for Tesselation. Major jump in quality right there. Better multi-threading should allow for some performance optimizations too, along with Shader Model 5.

[Dowly]

Ya, but I mean't big leaps like the ones in doom 3 & HL2 era. Something ground breaking. Raytracing's one, maybe dynamic ultra high resolution particle systems for smoke/fire/dust/etc that interacts with the surroundings. :hmmm:

[Arclight]

Free-flowing particles? Oh, that would be awesome, never even thought of that. :hmmm:

See the clouds stream around the canopy, a vehicle plowing through a cloud of smoke making it swirl around... that would be bloody brilliant. :yep:

Wouldn't hold my breath though. Think most of the progress in the future will focus more on physics, particularly procedural damage to vehicles and structures. Shooting a wall and being able to peek inside through the bullethole, or using explosives to blow a hole in a wall, that sort off stuff.

[Castout]

ArmA 2 is probably more demanding than Crysis.

It's especially demanding on the Processors though.

[krashkart]

About the time I'm able to afford a new high-end PC the software technology will spike again and my expensive new rig will be instantly obsolete. Happened before, it will happen again. :damn:

I'm all for realism, don't get me wrong. But I think a more stable approach to advancements would be much kinder to those who either cannot or will not shell out $2500+ on better hardware every two years. It's ridiculous. When I bought my last rig in '03 it was already obsolete, and even more so a year later.

It's not just the hardware companies that have to keep up.