General Discussion

Graphics in video games have long chased the "holy grail" of photorealism. The new Unreal Engine 5 is startlingly close to photorealism. There have been a few game trailers I've seen that I thought were live footage until it was revealed to be in-engine footage using Unreal 5.

Hollywood hit photorealism in CGI effects within the last five years or so, I'd say. High-quality CGI can be difficult to distinguish from the real thing. As the tech continues to mature, it'll become harder and harder to tell the difference until it's finally impossible unless you're an industry insider and know exactly what to look for. AI performers might struggle for a while with the uncanny valley effect, I suppose, but sooner or later that too will be overcome and there'll be movies with AI actors convincing enough that you won't be able to tell them apart from the real thing.

It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when. The benefits to the movie studios are tremendous, so they'll pour resources into getting there if they're not already doing so.