I was wondering about the term 'photorealistic' in regards to rendering and was wondering how this is used.
Is it used to describe a shader (or set of) that have certain quantifiable features? Or any rendering thats not meant to be abstract, like the cartoon effect seen in Borderlands? Or is it just a subjective term meaning 'really really realistic'?
I've worked on a few games that have been described as photorealistic and I'd have to say it's purely subjective, especially as what we might describe as photorealistic today won't in a few years (as hardware improves, rendering gets closed to perfection and people's expectations of games goes up).
You can apply the term to anything that is rendered, I would take it to mean that what your describing looks as real as you can make it (be that the shading, textures, lighting, etc). In an ideal world, a screenshot would look just like a photo taken on a camera.
When I've seen the term "photorealistic" used, it's shorthand for "trying to be photorealistic." That is, aiming for the rendered picture to look as real as possible, and using as much real physics with regard to lighting that the machine can handle.
Most rendering is photorealistic, or trying to be. If you make a conscious choice toward the stylized, as in Borderlands, you're no longer photorealistic.
