[nawariata]

Remember when 640kb was ought to be enough for anybody? Never say never in tech world. Someone might and probably will come up with tech to realistically render individual grass blades, just like they did with TreesFX, hair strand simulation technology used in most recent Tomb Raider game.

[crististm]

I remember reading something about O(2^n)... That may apply to the cost of making the illusion appear real: it doesn't scale.

It may be that instead of looking at rendered photo-realistic grass, one may be better of going out touching the real thing.

As for the artificial realm, who cares if it isn't photo-realistic? It is artificial anyway.