I’m just reading this post now, but just wanted to echo some previous replies. Especially since I’m strongly in favor and want to help push/utilize the technology for using real time simulations.
I agree it’s another tool that can be added to the kit. But further than that, I don’t see it as just stylized vs “realistic” when it comes to billboards vs simulations. Most simulations we see are based on real physics (or at least faked to mimic), but that doesn’t mean they need to be. The math and parameters can be tweaked to achieve something else, something stylized. I think we see what we see now because we’re trying to break into a new technology. I would relate it to everything being super shiny chrome when rendering 3d models first became a thing, because it was, “Hey, look what we can do now!”.
Compared to your comments on explosions looking too “buttery”, I have a problem with a destruction I see in a lot of movies. Everything that gets destroyed, whether it’s a building, a cliff side, a spaceship, etc looks like it’s made of sand and just crumbles apart. These problems aren’t necessarily the technology behind them as much as they are the artist/art director who made them. The way an effect is “supposed” to look is subjective. Michael Bay’s movies are not made the way they are on accident.
I work closely with a graphics programmer who can create a lot of cool systems. Particle systems, etc, I had available weren’t doing the job I needed, so I had him create a custom system with parameters I defined for control. When he handed it over to me, I tweaked those parameters (added some tiny custom behavior of my own), and created something. When he saw it he was amazed with how it looked, claiming he could never do that. I was actually amazed thinking, “You created the system, and understand the math behind the parameters in place, I just tweaked those parameters.” So basically, long story short, these things will always need an artist’s touch to get the right look.
Besides that, as the technology we use to consume entertainment advances, so does the source material behind it. For example, on a TV or monitor a composited explosion might look fine (in certain circumstances) but it starts to fall apart in VR (in many more circumstances).
Sorry for the long post, but something I’m passionate about. (::quiet chant:: down with billboards, down with billboards…) j/k j/k