“Over the forty-year history of interactive computer graphics, there have been continuous advances but at some stage this progression must terminate with images being sufficiently realistic for all practical purposes. How much detail do we really need? Polygon counts over a few million imply that on average each polygon paints less than a single pixel, making use of polygon shading hardware wasteful. We consider the problem of determining how much realism is required for a variety of applications. We discuss how current trends in computer graphics hardware, and in particular of graphics cards targeted at the computer games industry, will help or hinder achievement of these requirements. With images now being so convincingly realistic in many cases, critical faculties are often suspended and the images are accepted as correct and truthful although they may well be incorrect and sometimes misleading or untruthful. Display resolution has remained largely constant in spatial terms for the last twenty years and in terms of the number of pixels has increased by less than an order of magnitude. If the long-promised breakthroughs in display technology are finally realized, how should we use the increased resolution?” http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/61756.html?wlc=1254226581
I found this statement at the top of the list of one of my searches and even though this it is over six years old, as I read it I cannot help but think how ridiculous this article is now, in light of all of the things that would take place and have taken place in the world of technology after this statement was made. Here are examples of some of the amazing strides in computer graphics over the past six years: Massive was developed in 2004 and then went on to receive the Academy Scientific and Engineering Awards that same year (and it was used to develop the battle sequences in Peter Jackson's movie The Lord of the Rings trilogy and the CGI cartoon of Lord of the Rings that came out shortly thereafter and won many awards as well), convergent devices such as the Japanese Smart-phone technologies, etc. In the words of my own professor, Dr. Mark Bannatyne PhD., "We want MORE AND FASTER!" There are so many amazing things for us to enjoy now and all of it makes me think of theme song for the Pixar movie Meet the Robinsons, that...“The Future has Arrived Today.” I think that perhaps the future has arrive but there is more...
There is a peripheral haptic device that just might set the gaming industry "on its ear" whenever they get an opportunity to fully utilize it whenever it goes commercial. In the article I found on the internet, “Computer Graphics Get a Feel for Real” from 2008, stated that the device was only used by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University to allow surgical students to perform cardiac surgeries virtually! The students stated that they could actually feel the virtual scalpels in their hands and when they used it the feeling they got was that they were actually cutting through real tissue! So far the program is still for surgical students ONLY! This is not at all as I imagine that this program could do and I think that when this program goes public and then can be fully utilized by the gaming industry THEN it will set the gaming industry “on its ear!” Gamers will be able to feel their virtual swords in their hands, and feel the virtual air rushing around the blades as they flash in the air and will even feel blade touching blade! (I don’t need or want to say what it might do for the pornography industry!) I really feel that this program, converged with other programs and devices, will pave the way for some revolutionary uses of virtual technology that has not been used thus far, such as...“in engineering design, entertainment, assembly, remote operation of robots, and in medical and dental training".... http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/health/magnetic-levitation-based-interface-to-give-computer-users-sense-of-touch_10024209.html
In my opinion, the full potential of haptic technology has not begun to be explored, and that is why putting this tool in the hands of graphic engineers will be very desirable for gaming and for gamers! Maybe virtual vacations such as those taken on Mars in the movie Total Recall will not be so unbelievable or so far into the future after all; perhaps as the song "The Future Has Arrived Today" states the future is here BUT now it is waiting...waiting for us because we haven't the ability or imagination to apply all the technologies that we have now and then converge them!
