The Unreal video game engine is famous for their focus on the beauty of what it can render, and this video contains examples of photo realistic images rendered in the new Unreal 4 video game engine, and a number of trailers of upcoming video games that incorporate some of that photo realism. The video games don't actually look photo realistic, but they come close enough that you start to no longer care about the distinction and the artwork can compliment the immersion all that much better. Of all the video game engines on the market, this is likely to be the first one to produce drop dead gorgeous real time ray traced video games, sometime in the not too distant future.
I think I played this one. They must have come a long way. 15 years ago graphics wouldn't have mattered to me much, but it's interesting to read this update.
Yeah, they've come a long way since then. Believe it or not, little kids who love run-n-gun arena shooters are huge fans of Unreal engine, simply because it looks slightly better than most other popular engines. Its an incredibly commercial video game engine, but a great one that fills a niche. A single video game made using an engine like this can cost up to 200 million dollars to develop and gross more than any Hollywood movie. Of course, the one thing even Unreal engine struggles to render realistically is the ocean surf and waves, or even the waves of a large pond. At this point in time, that kind of realism requires well over 40 teraflops to achieve, while Unreal 4 is pretty good with relatively static interiors, landscapes, and characters.
