I am currently spending my time in coding something unrelated to 3D games. And i don't enjoy it. Although, it has infinite applications and thousands of job offers online. When I finish my project, i expect to find job easily using it as a demo. But I don't enjoy codding it.

I would very enjoy to program for realistic 3D. It would be what I would enjoy the most. I wish to download 3D models and try to render them realistically in real time.

But I am afraid to do that, because game companies who aim for realism are much fewer than the companies who look for what I currently code.
I am also not sure, how interested in realism those few game companies are.

An hypothetical case:
I manage to create something pretty realistic that can run in real time. Who cares?! What current companies offer is realistic enough to sell well, and they DO sell well. I talk from my experience when i say that often companies prefer to keep selling their 9 of 10 products, rather than risking to improve their products to 10 of 10. If something sells good enough, why risk for a 10 of 10?! It is easier to marketing-out the last 1 of that 10 of 10, than invest effort in it.

Unless i can code something to look literally real life like, that has an indisputable value. Something i don't know if i can do until i try. That's why i formulated my question this way- invest time.

I very wish to code for 3D games, but I doubt it is worth. Is it? Before 30 one does what he wants, after 30 one does what he has to. I'm not in the "i'll become an astronaut" period of my life.

1 hour ago, NikiTo said:

I manage to create something pretty realistic that can run in real time. Who cares?! What current companies offer is realistic enough to sell well, and they DO sell well. I talk from my experience when i say that often companies prefer to keep selling their 9 of 10 products, rather than risking to improve their products to 10 of 10. If something sells good enough, why risk for a 10 of 10?! It is easier to marketing-out the last 1 of that 10 of 10, than invest effort in it.

Looking back, there always was effort to improve realism. Games that achieved noticeable progress towards this often sold well just because of that. I assume this trend continues until games look like reality, but it becomes harder and harder to achieve progress, which is just natural.

Because progress is slower now than 20 years ago, we may think there actually is less interest in more realistic graphics. But this must be wrong. Think of one company releasing a game that looks real. All other companies games would look outdated - nobody wants this. Also realistic graphics likely means less work for artists so reducing costs (one main argument for upcoming raytracing 'revolution').

But that's just my personal opinion as an industry outsider. I second your question...

Personally i would advise you to focus on finishing what you're currently working on. Likely developing graphics tech means many years of work and an extremely high risk somebody comes up with something better before you. Many people already work in this field. And i think you can not plan inventions at all - they just happen if you're lucky, and only after that you can think of making money from it (assuming you don't have a concrete idea yet). This means doing it just for fun for some time, even if you're >30

I just had an idea this night. A way to improve 3D graphics. So far, while i am counting registers on hand by the boring project, i think about that 3D rendering idea, and so far it sounds plausible.
I can not tell nothing sure until i try to code it. It just looks good for now.

It is bad to switch projects. I agree at 1000%.
I could fool myself to believe that the time i spent for the current project was worthy, because "it let me trough practice know much better the 3D API".

Another problem is that i lose the focus. If i let the current project apart for some time, i will forget it. Later, when I am back I will need two days to fully remember again what I was doing.

The good thing is that if i code for 3D i would be more productive, because i enjoy it. Now I am coding only 2h a day, the rest of the day I am procrastinating. Last time i coded for 3D i was spending sleepless nights doing what i like.

I guess, i could finish to compile the shader i am currently writing, and let it there. Then try to code for 3D.

What you say about the competence sounds encouraging. It makes sense to show on an interview your real-life-like demo and if they try to fool you around you to tell them - "i can sell this to the competence, and they will make your game look like 10 years older". Just talking.... Because plans are made to fail....

13 minutes ago, NikiTo said:

I just had an idea this night.

Well then, of course implement it in any case!

Trying out ideas is fast, just making a product of it lasts long.

21 minutes ago, NikiTo said:

Last time i coded for 3D i was spending sleepless nights doing what i like.

You know i do exactly what you consider, and i can tell you: You won't enjoy this either when it comes tho the details which take 95% of time. haha

3 hours ago, NikiTo said:

I would very enjoy to program for realistic 3D. It would be what I would enjoy the most.

That makes it worth your while. You don't have to do it from a possibly unrealistic expectation of obtaining lifelong employment doing it. Doing it once would give you a great portfolio piece, at the very least.  

3 hours ago, JoeJ said:

Trying out ideas is fast, just making a product of it lasts long.

If my idea looks nice, i will just make a character walking around with the keyboard directions and free camera mode. Just enough for a demo.

3 hours ago, JoeJ said:

You won't enjoy this either when it comes tho the details which take 95% of time. haha

That's why i will use models of hot chicks. Downloaded few already to test the ambient occlusion under the skirts.
Will take its time to convert the model formats...

1 hour ago, Tom Sloper said:

Doing it once would give you a great portfolio piece, at the very least.

30 minutes ago, NikiTo said:

i will use models of hot chicks. Downloaded few already to test the ambient occlusion under the skirts.

Come on. You cannot use that as a portfolio piece for a game industry job. Unless you're going to apply only to jobs making porno games. 

18 minutes ago, Tom Sloper said:

Come on. You cannot use that as a portfolio piece for a game industry job

I will use it only during the development.
I downloaded Nier and Aloy to work on. I have Ellie from Last Of Us somewhere too. Nobody naked.
Don't tell me you never peek under the skirts of the female models you download When i manage to unpack the .mdl file of Nier, this will be the first thing I do.

Aloy is a good challenge as she has lot of details.

(knowing my sense of humor....i can imagine myself defending my app on an interview using NSFV models XDDD. I dont think it would be a problem if we are only bros at the interview)

38 minutes ago, NikiTo said:

knowing my sense of humor...

You should assume that absolutely nobody is interested in this kind of...

guess what i mean. (well meant advise!)

In Denmark it is required to talk about your personality and character in the resume. They want to know about the personality of the person they will have to work with. A sense of humor there is a plus.
In Germany only the professional side of an applicant matters, nobody cares about the personality.
In other places this could vary even more. Internet is a meeting point of people from many cultures and mentalities.

Anyway, this is a huge deviation from the original topic. I am halting now...