PCShooter: What is the future of 3D gaming and its evolvement with realism?

Name: Ken Levine

Company: Irrational Games

Co-Founder/ Executive producer/ Freedom Force

<Ken L>Its "evolvement with realism"? Well, I think the big next thing to happen in FPS is physics. Red Faction is taking a stab, and I'm psyched to see what those guys come up with. Physics and destructibility are key to our game Freedom Force, but it's not an FPS so I'll terminate this shameless bit of self-promotion right here.

Name: Kenn Hoekstra

Company: Raven Software

Project Administrator/ Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force

<Kenn H> I think that graphically, games are becoming more and more "alive" in the sense that the worlds and characters in games are looking and feeling more lifelike. Graphics technology continues to skyrocket and that makes it possible to create game worlds that are increasingly similar to their real world counterparts. AI continues to improve and this makes characters act and react more believably. Animation software and technology is improving in leaps and bounds and that helps the characters look and move more realistically. In the future, I expect all of these areas to continue to progress and that, in itself, will make games more realistic. In the end, though, a game will always be a game. They can't replace or ever truly recreate real life. Not in my lifetime, anyway. 

Name: Michael Chang Gummelt 

Company: Raven Software

Programmer/ Writer/ Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force

<Mike G>Well, eventually, I hope, we'll be able to have enough polys, fill rate, etc to have super-realistic looking models, backgrounds, lighting and cinematic effects. Of course, once the technology can handle that we have to figure out how the hell we're going to create all this super-realistic content. Right now, I think our capabilities and imaginations are still ahead of our technology, we're still having to restrain ourselves to limits in order to get decent performance.  But once those quantum computer chips get here... 

Name: Herb Flower

Company: Rewolf Software

President, Lead Designer/ Gunman Chronicles

<Herb F>People like realism. Since the easiest way to make a game look like real-life is to pull out the digital camera and take pictures around town, we'll probably see a huge number of games based in present-day settings that look very convincing.  I'd have to guess that its going to be harder to make futuristic or fantasy games with quite the same level of realism, since you cant go up to a real dragon or alien construct and digitize it.

Name: Warren Spector

Company: Ion Storm

Game Designer/ Deus Ex

<Warren S>What is the future of 3dgaming and its evolvement with realism? Well, we are certainly more capable of making games that look more realistic and respond to player input in more believable ways than we used to be. I find that kind of cool and  refreshing. I like the idea of more realistic games. But I'm just as psyched about games that take a more iconic or off-the-wall approach to things. American McGee's Alice game and Tom Hall's upcoming Anachronox aren't exactly realistic but they're no less intriguing because of that. And you can't say they don't represent one future path for 3D gaming.

Name: Jon Gwyn 

Company: Shiny Entertainment

Character Modeler/ Sacrifice

<Jon G>There is no limit to how real you can strive to make a game, but in the end, people can go outside and experience life on there own.  Things like games are all about escapism, and fantasy.  No matter how real a game touts it self as being, there has to be something to it to hook people and keep them interested. In the future, 3dgaming will just be a more advanced version of what is successful today.  People will choose to make and buy games that allow them to lose themselves in the worlds that are created.  As long as the elements involved can impart a feeling of immersion for the player, no matter how real or bizarre, the public will continue to buy them.

Name: Tim Williams

Company: Planet Moon

Senior Producer / Giants: Citizen Kabuto

<Tim W>More emotion: When we get past the "shoot everything that moves" stage and start effecting our environment in more interesting realistic ways  people will appreciate it more. But we have to model reality responsibly. Just cause we can simulate reality perfectly doesn't mean we have to. If reality were so damn fun we wouldn't be playing games on a PC

Name: Chacko Sonny

Company: Savage Entertainment

CFO/3D Artist / Battlesuit MK1

<Chacko S>There was a great article about this in Game Developer a while back. As technologies improve, many 3D games are relying heavily on digital photo source to create "realistic" textures. Higher texture resolution, more texture memory and better lighting models will go a long way to increasing realism in games. New stuff on the horizon with procedural textures, using fractals to create realistic noise maps, and other technologies will make it even easier for developers to put together scenes that are virtually indistinguishable from real photos.  But all of this comes at a price...A few guys on our team were commenting recently on the explosion in art assets required to make a game. Back in the Mech 2 days, the number of textures required for a mission was incredibly small. Now, the asset list for one small game area is intimidating.  I think there is a point of diminishing returns in terms of the pursuit of realism, both from a design and art standpoint.  It doesn't have to be realistic to be good, it has to be fun. If we can strike the right balance between time spent pursuing realism and time spent making sure the gameplay is fun, then we've done our jobs. 

Name: No One Lives Forever Team

Company: Monolith Productions

No One Live Forever

<NOLF Team>Games based on real-life scenarios will continue to blur the barrier between fantasy and realistic gameplay. While developers will no doubt explore the realistic perspective, there will still be quite a few games that will provide a solid action experience based on fantasy situations. What it comes down to is whether the subject matter makes the game fun or not.