Screenshotter and photographer Andy Cull has, with the help of fellow artist Berduu, put together a gallery called “Reality Bytes”, with the aim being “to showcase amazing images captured in video games, images which blur the lines between the virtual and reality.”
Below is an example of the kind of stunning work that they’re celebrating. Note that while some of these shots were taken using mods, and others using a game’s custom photo mode, none of the images were “manipulated in image editing software afterwards.”
Nobody is saying these are indistinguishable from photos. At first glance the shot of an F-14 below looks incredible, until you stare at it a little longer and notice the blocky textures on the fighter’s cockpit. Instead, the gallery is simply celebrating the fact that, thanks to the lighting and depth of field effects in most modern games (not to mention ultra HD textures), screenshots can now be arranged and taken in much the same way a professional photo would be.
You can see the full gallery here.
Battlefield 3, by N1ghtwalker.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance, by Andy Cull.
Grand Theft Auto V, by Berduu.
Need For Speed Rivals, by Berduu.
Grand Theft Auto V, by Egor Travin.
The Last Of Us, by oPengu.
Assetto Corsa, by PulseZET.
Comments
3 responses to “When Video Game Screenshots Look More Like Photos”
Damn. Grand Theft Auto V polishes up well. I may have to play it some day.
My first exposure to near photo realism was with GT3. I think what really got me was the thermal shimmer you could see just before the race started. So amazing! For the time.
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter screenshots should definitely be in here.
As fantastic as these shots are I can’t help but worry that aiming for photo realism as some companies seem to do can hurt the potential for aesthetic style; the best looking games in my eyes are indie titles like The Music Machine, Gunpoint and Don’t Starve (haven’t played that one yet, but I love the visuals). The older a game is the more imaginative it often seems to be as well; Half-Life had a vista and scope that HL2 didn’t, mainstream games like Banjo-Kazooie just don’t happen any more (at least in the world of AAA development) and I worry that as graphical fidelity of this sort is more and more common devs will put less effort into the art style. Mirrors edge would be the counterpoint; a game that combines highly stylized elements with pretty realistic animations and models in regard to people, but I worry that will be the exception to the rule and we’ll instead see a glut of game design that only goes so far as looking “realistic”.