Wow I could actually read the emotions on the guy's face and it didn't feel too uncanny to me at least. But calling this real-time I think is stretching things

Wow I could actually read the emotions on the guy's face and it didn't feel too uncanny to me at least. But calling this real-time I think is stretching things a bit, even if its using the game engine and not prerendered. The demo and assets were probably polished and optimized for that machine, angle, lighting and scenario. And it was heavily scripted. I think an engine flexible enough for more general gameplay - with more calculations, interactions, assets and erm unmasked NPCs would be a lot less smooth and certainly less realistic looking. This seems like one of those theoretical optimums with requirements that just don't line up for most practical purposes. Not trying to downplay how cool this is though. It will still be and is a visually and computationally amazing feat.