The PlayStation 5 will very likely have the capabilities to push videogame graphics towards the realms of photorealism, although it isn’t guaranteed to hit that mark, according to developer grip-digital’s Jakub Mikyska.
Speaking during an interview with GamingBolt, Mikyska noted that with every console generation we’re moving closer to achieving photorealism within the games industry, and that with PS5 graphics we’re only going to leap forward significantly to achieving that goal. Whether or not they reach the mark, however, is another thing altogether.
“Closer? Sure. We’re always moving closer,” he said. “People thought that we had ‘hit’ photorealism with the 360 generation. And then again with the Xbox One generation. But ‘photorealism’ is a moving target that rushes away from you as fast as you run toward it. We’re not even ‘there’ with offline rendering yet in film. In games, we’re getting environments much closer, and a better GPU helps that tremendously (have a look at Quixel Megascans for some teasers of the future), and we’ve made great strides on faces too (particularly on subsurface skin shading and hair shaders), but now we’re going to start realizing just how limited our animation tools are, and how stiff and unrealistic those faces are..or how choppy our shadows look or how ghostly the screenspace-AO feels in motion. There’s always room for improvement.”
This isn’t the first time we’ve heard devs touching on the subject of photorealistic graphics with PS5. Stardock’s Brad Wardell reckons we could potentially hit that benchmark with the PS4 Pro, while Climax’s Jamie Fisher feels that Sony’s next-generation system will possess the technical horsepower to produce some truly stunning visuals.
Of course, Sony has yet to announce any plans regarding a successor to the PS4, which is currently leading the pack in terms of sales for the current crop of systems. Despite this, that hasn’t stopped various analysts from attempting to predict a PS5 release date, with Michael Pachter of Wedbush Morgan Industries reckoning we’ll see a new PlayStation console released around 2020.
The PS4 launched in November 2013 alongside the Xbox One from Microsoft, and has sold over 53 million units worldwide.