Obviously Star Citizen looks on another level visually but hasn't No Man's Sky already done the whole planet jumping then flying down to it in real time for years?
The server layering has definitely already been done in Classic WoW. It's really cool technology.
The timing of the video is a bit strange (with next gen right around the corner) as are the pot shots towards consoles (nothing new from Alex unfortunately) not being able to handle it when it's more than likely that the PS5 Pro / XB2 X will be out by the time the full SC game is released. We will be looking at 20tflop GPU's in those consoles so they could easily handle it. The standard next gen consoles will be able to handle it with the massive leap in CPU compute.
I really wish Alex would concentrate on the topic at hand rather than playing up to the PC stereotype gamer at times by mocking consoles. I have a PC as my main platform but I've turned many of his videos off after eye rolling 'console warz' comments. It's embarrassing especially when he's representing Digital Foundry which has done a great and professional job of staying away from that whole toxic mess since they started doing YouTube videos.
Great video though overall. The game looks stunning.
Yes, other games have done seamless Space to planet surface, but Star Citizen is pushing more players/entities (50 per server, no instances yet) than No Man's Sky and Elite Dangerous that can support in a single instance (32). I can think of about three other games that support a higher player count than Star Citizen, but they are also in development (Infinity Battlescape is one, forgot the title of the other two).
I don't consider what Alex explained as pot shots towards consoles, but a look into the technical side of what one may consider to be a next-gen console game, with a need for an ssd included. As we all patiently wait for next-gen games to be revealed/developed, what might they look like and how would they behave? Star Citizen is a perfect example of a project beyond what current consoles are capable of, not in terms of graphical fidelity, but content. Thus, it is a good example to show the capabilities of a next-gen console.