i think in the next couple of years we''ll be seeing a big movement in light and shadow technology. Real time diffuse lighting, real time raytracing, volumetric light and shadow...all good things, and they add a HUGE amount of realism to games.

i''m sure nvidia will keep giving us all more cycles then we will ever know what to do with, so polygon counts will continue to skyrocket. I would like to see more organic rendering focused on, like realtime deformable skin, musculature, cloth and hair animations, etc. to get those working requires more than just polygon pushers though. the algorithms behind these systems (same with light/shadows) are now the big stubbling block; calculating the motion of hair takes far longer than rendering it ever will.

true volume rendering should be explored too, but in games especially there has been a big move away from it, with games like commanche ditchin'' their voxel engines for polies...

<(o)>

man you guys are freaking me out... you left me back at "print" in qbasic.