I'm sure it will come - and video processors like the GEForce and Voodoo line are sure to factor tremendously. But seeing images of this caliber in a video sim will still be a little ways away. My 1024 x 768 rendering took 7 hours. Need lots of advances to get that to where it will display at 40 frames/second. That's only an increase of about 1,000,000-fold.
I got into this game quite a while back with a 1 MHz, 48k byte Apple II (I think it was 1 MHz - I know the original IBM PCs were 4.77 MHz) and the original floppy version of SubLogic's Flight Simulator (Before Microsoft took them over). I'm now running a significantly more efficient and powerful processor that is 928 times faster. Even without the architecture differences, there has been a 1000-fold increase right there (give or take for bus speeds, etc). I'd figure the architecture adds at least 100-fold.
With technology increasing at faster and faster rates, it is definitely possible in the next 10-20 years or so we could see this level of quality in a consumer flight sim. Should also have full virtual reality to go along with it - head tracking, force feedback body suit, virtual instrument panels, etc.
The possibilities just boggle the mind. Hook me up!
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Rape, pillage, then burn...
[This message has been edited by PakRat (edited 01-17-2001).]