I was flipping through Youtube, when I saw this video :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00gAbgBu8R4
According to the video, the every object in our current games is made of "polygons" or geometrical shapes. The more polygons used in an object, the more detail it has, and therefore the more realistic it looks.
However, there is a limit of how much polygons you can use in a game (because our computers can only render so many polygons), hindering an artist's ability to invest too much polygons into objects - like the unrealistic, 2D looking ground with a couple unrealistic grass sticking out you often find in video games. Thus, you get less realitic graphics.
Each year, the Polygon cap is raised by 25%, which is why you see better graphics in newer games, compared to older games, since more polygons = more detail = more realistic looking graphics.
But according to this video, they are working on an engine that uses "small atoms" to create polygons, drastically reducing the workload of rendering, and increasing the polygon cap by infinite amounts, and creating very realistic looking graphics. With infinite polygon count, "graphics will be increased by a factor of 100 thousand times", according to the video.
This is either a revolution in the game industry, or the biggest, most convincing and expensive troll video ever made on youtube. I hope its real though
