Yes I agree with the plastic people comment or as I call it 'shiny plasticine' ever since doom 3 everything is getting a bit too shiny. Every 360 game up to now seems to add shine just because the hardware supports it. But this seems like a phase at the mo I’ve seen some screens of future releases that seem to use lighting in a better way.
Fable is so damn bright...even in Dark Caves! There was this guy on that game that literally hurt my eyes with his bright bald head.
alot of the shinyness in models have come from bad use of normal maps. I think once we get a system that suports hw displacement maps we will see alot of the shinny effect go away.
I am sure developers such as Capcom (with RE4 comming to mind) know their stuff well enough to avoid a plastic look, whenever possible to do so.
No matter how good 3d models and texture are, light effects are becoming more important. I'll give an example on something i can talk about: Gran Turismo 4 X Forza Motorsport. Although Forza runs on a more powerful system, the cars look like they are made of cheap plastic. Even though GT4 textures and 3d models aren't so high detailed as the ones from Forza, the game looks better because of the light effects (reflections, shadows,... ). In Forza the light is a bit bland. Of course "human" 3d models are more complex than cars... On FPS, Half Life 2 with HDR looks great. If you have a powerful PC and can run it with 1280+ resolutions with everything at the maximum, you'll be impressed.
The issue of facial expressions and how persuading a 3D character looks , goes beyond just the glossyness of the model and the lighting. It's the whole muscle/bone system and the skin reaction that has to fit. Another important detail is resolution. You need some blur to make something look real, nothing in nature is extra-cut-out and stand alone.
Yeah, skin and muscle imperfections are very important to make it believable. But remember last year's E3, that real time model of Alfred Molina in Spiderman 2? Lighting had a major importance to make that "close to real"
it's far more an issue of movement than anything graphical per se IMO. in terms of fighting games (VF and Tekken) neither have exhibited well enough the intricacies of human movement. contact between characters in these games is still not believeable - impact really isn't there 'anymore' (conversly it was back in the PS1 era because it was so fresh and seemingly at ground level) - and neither is the way characters react to blows or fall. it adds to the whole rubber-like spectacle.
I say the next big thing is physics. Did anyone see the AGEIA demos? when the guy uses the "force" against the other player, the way it picks the model up with surrounding objects and then tosses it away is so smooth and detailed it looks like real life. With physics you get more objects flying around, hairs and hanging objects reacting in a more realistic way to movement, etc...
