Why have video game graphics taken 37 years to look this way? Apart from purely technical (and power) limitations, what exactly gets better every three or four years (PS2 to PS3 to PS4 in game cutscenes for example)
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There’s not much beyond technical limitation. So perhaps you are asking how exactly the technical capability limit visual fidelity?
Unlike real life, a surface in video games is not a smooth continuous piece, like your skin for example. Video game uses small flat triangles (polygons) connected to each other to make a surface.
The thing with using flat surfaces to make curves is that the amount you use dictates how curvy it looks. If you are only allowed to use 20 triangles to make a sphere, it will look like a D20 dice. If you’re allowed to use more, then you might make something like a D100, while still not a sphere, it’s much more spherical than a D20. So, the smoother you want some surface to look, the more triangles you would need to use.
This is where the technical limitation comes in. Since each of those small triangles needs to be calculated by the GPU to be rendered. The power of the GPU dictates how many triangles you can use at any given time. That’s why FF7 characters have those blocky bodies and arms and legs. As the power of GPU increases, developers are able to use increasingly more triangles in their games, making surfaces look increasingly smoother than before.
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