Game graphics ‘will mimic reality’ in ten years

Graphics in games will be indistinguishable from reality in ten years time, claims Industrial Light and Magic’s Kim Libreri.

Speaking to CVG, the Star Wars 1313 visual effects supervisor said that given how technology had progressed in the industry, games were increasingly getting closer to matching the quality of animated and live-action TV shows.

He said that whilst games were only currently matching the quality of animated films from eight years ago, it wouldn’t be long before the industry made a big jump in graphical quality more akin to film.

“It’s an interesting time because with modern computer graphics hardware, the way its going, it’s going to be pretty hard to tell the difference between something that is interactive and rendered in real-time, and something that was done for an animated TV show, or even live action,” said Libreri.

“Ten years from now, I’m pretty sure if you extrapolate where we’ve gone with the console generations and the changes in video and ATI hardware, we’re getting to the point right now where we’re matching the quality of an animated movie from seven or eight years ago.

“Another ten years from now, it’s going to be indistinguishable from reality.”

Revealed at E3, the impressive Star Wars 1313 was regarded by many as the highlight of the show thanks to its stunning graphics and facial animation, as well as offering a new and more cinematic direction for the long-standing franchise.