Hardware, software and the future of flight combat sims.

[flyingblind]

With the sad demise of CloD a thought occured to me. What is the future for realistic combat sims?

All serious simers want ever more realism and deeper immersion. Up until now the limiting factor has been the hardware. Even way above average home computers simply did not have the power to cope with photo realistic video, complex interactive objects plus processor hungry systems like lighting and partical effects and weather on their own let alone online with a whole bunch of players and AIs.

This is all now rapidly changing. CloD has shown that even a home PC is reaching the point where they can indeed handle that level of complexity. The problem with CloD was not the code as such as the problems could have been fixed or even better code written. The problem was that there was simply insufficiant funds available. Or rather the amount of money required was too large to see a return on the investment.

So my point is - are computers now so powerful they hold out the prospect of unbelievable realism and complexity but the cost of developing the code and the modeling to realise this is so prohibitably expensive that developers are reaching a point where a profit cannot be made if hardware coming out now or the near future is to be fully utilised.

If this is the case (and please feel free to disagree) then what are the solutions?

Is this as good as it will get for some time? 777 Studios have already stated quite bluntly that they will be taking a few steps back from CloD purely because of time and cost constraints.

This also has serious consequences for hardware manufacturers and vendors. As long as they are playing catch up with PC users asperations they have a ready market for their wares but if those asperations are being thwarted by the developement cost of games then the point and need for upgrades vanishes.

Thoughts anyone?