Definitely, we’re at a point where geometry isn’t a key factor in rendering times - at least for a decently optimized game (I’m looking at you, Cities Skylines 2 and all your teeth).
Games are going ham with the lighting - ray tracing and all that jazz that help with photorealism.
There are workarounds that have been used for a long time to “mimic” these effects but with a big quality Vs speed trade-off. Since computational power is now so cheap (or used to, before ai…) they’re removing those crutches and using techniques that give better results, but it’s definitely marginal improvements.
Definitely, we’re at a point where geometry isn’t a key factor in rendering times - at least for a decently optimized game (I’m looking at you, Cities Skylines 2 and all your teeth).
Games are going ham with the lighting - ray tracing and all that jazz that help with photorealism.
There are workarounds that have been used for a long time to “mimic” these effects but with a big quality Vs speed trade-off. Since computational power is now so cheap (or used to, before ai…) they’re removing those crutches and using techniques that give better results, but it’s definitely marginal improvements.