> One of the big problems at the moment is that photorealistic texturing basically requires finding and mapping a real life actor, which is all sorts of expensive.
As a hobby game dev myself I find this to not be a problem at all. I think human skin is largely a solved problem. It largely boils down to creating a proper material/shader, the material will have many layers of textures. These days, with the proper tools, this is easy, and generally more of an artistic affair than technical.
In fact, I will claim that texturing for games, in general, is largely a solved problem.
Look into both Substance suite and Quixel's offerings, watch/read tutorials. Both Algorithmic and Quixel revolutionized texturing and made AAA quality possible for indies, just like Unreal Engine made AAA quality available for indies.
To clarify, largely do not mean completely solved, right? It's not perfect, yet. Either way, I should have qualified by saying I think it's a largely solved problem as far as the technical implementation.
What an artist does with that implementation is always another matter, and it will always be down to the artist to create a pleasing final result. Specularity is one thing I think artists gets wrong all the time. At the artistic level, games often deliberately go for a more cartoony look, too.
And the uncanny valley thing is very subjective, no?
I think this is more than good enough for real-time games. Of course, you will probably say, "no that sucks, uncanny valley!"
One thing to notice here is that the albedo (diffuse) map (texture) used can be very crude/simple, as it is simply one small piece of the puzzle.
If you have looked at a video, or even screenshots, like the digital human ones, where the focus is solely on the subject, often close-up, that is very different to see it running in a game, where you are less likely to notice small faults.
These days, I think facial rigs and animation is the cause of uncanny valley, to a higher degree than skin shaders.
As a hobby game dev myself I find this to not be a problem at all. I think human skin is largely a solved problem. It largely boils down to creating a proper material/shader, the material will have many layers of textures. These days, with the proper tools, this is easy, and generally more of an artistic affair than technical.
In fact, I will claim that texturing for games, in general, is largely a solved problem.
Look into both Substance suite and Quixel's offerings, watch/read tutorials. Both Algorithmic and Quixel revolutionized texturing and made AAA quality possible for indies, just like Unreal Engine made AAA quality available for indies.