Unlimited Detail

Euclideon, a technology company based in Australia, are developing a game engine they refer to as being Unlimited Detail, because it contains detail equivalent to almost over hundreds of thousand times more than that found in any current game engines. This video is from when the engine was in early development and no doubt they have progressed further over then and now, but I still find it a very good video to watch as the progression of video games to me has always been natural for my generation. However, this seemed a large step in the right direction.

From what I can see in the comment they utilize 'voxels' over polygons, but do it in such a way that the presenter refers to them as 'atoms'. The video is pretty incredible and demonstrates the extent of the detail with this game engine where even the grains of dirt on the ground are individually visible. It is also programmed to import models and things crated in 3DS Max and Maya, so it's pretty easy for artists to work with it in a business as usual manner.

It is all still in development but I am eager to see the finished article utilized in a game.