Next-Gen Lighting Is Pushing the Limits of Realism
Should be "Next-Gen Game Lighting".<p>This is just Physically-based shading basically, which has been done for the past 4/5 years in VFX. Essentially it's energy-conserving materials with the correct fresnel effect based on the surface's IOR which takes things to the next level (for games at least). Doing this properly for layered surfaces (e.g. diffuse wood layer with a clearcoat varnish layer) gives very nice looking results.<p>Some complex materials can have up to 3 spectral BSDF lobes for reflection, which can only really be done with pathtracing.<p>For VFX, people are starting to push into spectral rendering now, and trying to optimise things like volumetric rendering for things like SSS which are needed for ultimate realism.