# Can a video game look like its cgi trailer? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [June 4, 2009, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-video-game-look-like-its-cgi-trailer/498649 "2009-06-04T00:07:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![chrisk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2009, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-video-game-look-like-its-cgi-trailer/498649/21 "2009-06-10T17:28:28Z")
> [@Kinthalis](#): > > Edited for legibility and clarity a bit, but I missed my edit window. Otherwise, it’s what I already said. > > * * * > > Film techniques for CGI are indeed a considerable step above what we can currently do in rasterization 3d graphics. And I’m talking about what we can currently do on PC’s in games, obviously consoles, being 3 to 4 generations old are even further from the mark. > > A lot of such cut scenes use calculation heavy processes that take even hardware specialized computers, heck, farms of such systems, some time to render a single frame of the scene. Obviously, this doesn’t matter when you have plenty of time to put frame to film, but it’s no acceptable for a game, where you want to be rendering at least 30 per second. > > When CGI cut scenes and movies use rasterisation, they don’t have to limit polygons, they can use many passes to achieve great post processing effects, and they have time to render great looking reflections and shadows, simulate amazing physics (like the cloth on the cloaks in the OP’s trailer), as well as use super high resolution and HDR textures. They also don’t have to use rasterisation at all. Some will use other techniques like ray tracing which can produce very life like light interactions. > > We’re still no only far from that in in-engine game 3d rasterisation, but as film techniques continue to improve/have more processing muscle to achieve better effects, They will still remain ahead of what games can render simply due to the fact that they don’t have to render several frames per second. They can take their time. This sort of thing is what I was thinking about coming in, that trailers/cut scenes have huge advantages over gameplay ‘look’ in terms of having to only show one basic sequence instead of responding to changes, in terms of being able to throw MUCH more elaborate hardware at the problem and take more time in the processing, that I think the only way the two will ever match is as a ‘what you see is what you get’ marketing stunt. That is, as long as the game designers think that they can sell more games by making the trailer look glitzier, they’re going to do it. The expense that costs them wouldn’t be much of a drop in the bucket compared to what it takes to actually make gameplay look a little better. Of course, all of this is a WAG, and I’m not even much of a gamer at all. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2009, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-video-game-look-like-its-cgi-trailer/498649/22 "2009-06-10T17:58:39Z")
> [@shijinn](#): > > > [@Daddypants](#): > > > > Take a look at this trailer for Star Wars: The Old Republic, nevermind the fact that it is better, in every single way, than episodes 1, 2, and 3. … > > and i thought that was hyperbole.. Trailers like that make me sad for how much Ep 1-3 sucked. A bit of a tangent, but I think the graphics for videogames are basically “good enough”. Not that I think they should stop improving them as technology improves. I just think that more effort and resources should go into things like the AI and environment engines. ---
**Author:** ![in\_hiding](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c5a1d2/32.png) [@in\_hiding](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/in_hiding)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2009, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-video-game-look-like-its-cgi-trailer/498649/23 "2009-06-10T18:28:28Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > A bit of a tangent, but I think the graphics for videogames are basically “good enough”. Not that I think they should stop improving them as technology improves. I just think that more effort and resources should go into things like the AI and environment engines. If people would learn that, we might actually get a few good games instead of the 23rd WWII first person shooter. But I’ve given up hope. ---
**Author:** ![Airk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de053/32.png) [@Airk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airk)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2009, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-video-game-look-like-its-cgi-trailer/498649/24 "2009-06-10T18:58:20Z")
> [@in\_hiding](#): > > If people would learn that, we might actually get a few good games instead of the 23rd WWII first person shooter. But I’ve given up hope. Nonsense. You’d just get a WWII FPS with lush environments and great AI. Don’t confuse technological advances with game design advances. The games with the best design are often well behind the bleeding edge technologically. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2009, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-video-game-look-like-its-cgi-trailer/498649/25 "2009-06-10T21:17:03Z")
> [@in\_hiding](#): > > If people would learn that, we might actually get a few good games instead of the 23rd WWII first person shooter. But I’ve given up hope. Games like Fallout 3 and GTA4 and even Dead Rising are good like that. They create a sandbox world where you can wander around and whatever actions you take effect how the story unfolds. I thought Dead Rising particularly interesting because everything was time driven. It creates a sense of urgency and you can’t do everything or save everyone in one game. FarCry 2 failed for me in sense this because while it was visually appealing, I had no particular sense that anything I did mattered. It was all “drive around Africa asaulting the same checkpoints over and over again.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-video-game-look-like-its-cgi-trailer/498649.md?page=1)