Billboard trees and lack of fog, detailed reflections and shadows were tradeoffs of last gen that at that time weren’t as perceivable as they are now, when compared side by side. I wonder what the next gen would look like? Accurate RTAO, RTGI, RTR and no ghosting artifacts? It definitely feels like we’re near the end phase of graphical fidelity. I mean we can improve infinitely but it’ll come at extremely diminishing returns and insane amounts of pixel peeping.
Maybe the focus would shift towards realistic animation blending and pixel accurate collision physics once everything is path traced and uses photogrammetry. Thanks for listening to my ramblings.