IMHO, Speed is FAR more important than quality when it comes to games in motion. This will become especially true when games start to represent people realistically (this is not far off, but the north-american developer is quite far behind the japanese in this field). The subtlety of human expression that we're so used to in real life, can only be reprsented at high frame rates. Remember, the human eye is designed to sense FINE movement, and jerky motions (like those found in motion pictures), are not convincing to the human eye.
Of course, games like quake (and it's numerous clones, good or bad), do not have any semblance of realistic human animation, and so, would hardly benefit from higher frame rates. Un-natural, linear motion, no matter how fast, still looks wrong.
If games are to evolve to the next level, realism is key, and that means working on what is important to the human eye/brain. That means higher resolution, realistic, natural motions, and good edging, and a wide field of view . Image quality only matters if you're standing still. Adaptive algorithms which increase LOD for still images can be used to get the best of both worlds. |
