Yeah, I think they have their place also.
The thing is everything is made of just pixels even the polygons. The problem with the normal maps is that they aren't as dynamic as polys and also sometimes you see artifacts in them. In Doom 3 when I cranked up the resolution and texture quality it was very nice ... I think on the highest quality with the uncompressed normal maps it'll be pretty tight.
In the future I suppose though we'll be back to dealing with high polygon counts in real time ... unless this shader thing sticks around. For now though there's no way to really have this sort of detail and tangible look without them. High quality textures just aren't enough because the light adds such depth ... like the hallway in your demo if you just stand at one end and watch the light travel back and forth it brings the whole scene to life because you can see 'depth' in the walls.
The thing is everything is made of just pixels even the polygons. The problem with the normal maps is that they aren't as dynamic as polys and also sometimes you see artifacts in them. In Doom 3 when I cranked up the resolution and texture quality it was very nice ... I think on the highest quality with the uncompressed normal maps it'll be pretty tight.
In the future I suppose though we'll be back to dealing with high polygon counts in real time ... unless this shader thing sticks around. For now though there's no way to really have this sort of detail and tangible look without them. High quality textures just aren't enough because the light adds such depth ... like the hallway in your demo if you just stand at one end and watch the light travel back and forth it brings the whole scene to life because you can see 'depth' in the walls.