/vr/ - Retro Games

You've a point in your views of modern CGI's seemingly "stagnant" location nowadays.

Growing up in the early 90s, I remember seeing the growing changes from the dominant 2D to 3D architecture and landscape, so to speak. I think what perpetuated the "CGI Rush" of the later 90s can be traced back towards the fact that the realm of "3D Gaming" was generally a new and unexplored medium in the world of video games (although some had attempted it in earlier years, to mixed success both within the companies that dabbled in such, and the general public who they depended on to buy their games). When it became a focus towards gamers at the time that graphics take the forefront (IE: More bits = better games, for example) I believe that's when companies started trying to see just how far they could push the (at the time) current tech in order to see what could be done with it.

By no means was early CG in video games the end-all-be-all of CGI, but it definitely has it's charming moments, and I still find myself enjoying the overall simplicity, comparatively speaking to today's standard of CGI. Because back then everything wasn't photo-realistic, or produced with millions upon millions of dollars and a team of over hundreds of people, there was a bigger need for your imagination to help things along. There was that sense of magic there that I think has been mostly lost with the giant leap of graphical fidelity between the last 3 generations of platforms. Back then, it was new and exciting being able to witness the characters and objects you controlled and interacted with in a totally new way. Nowadays, it's merely taken for granted as the norm.

Since we've hit the ceiling (at least in my eyes) as far as pseudo-realism are concerned, there's nowhere really to turn unless the entire medium is shaken up. At least, that's my opinion.

Really enjoyed your topic OP; haven't had to sit down and really think about something like this for some time.