Valve will soon add a variety of cinematic effects to their Source engine, raising a number of fascinating questions about the relationship between subjective reality (or ‘real’ reality) and cinematic reality. To what extent does the latter define the former? (It’s tough to try and imagine WW2 in your head without seeing things in grainy black and white, isn’t it?) By aping the imperfections of a camera, do these artificialities make things feel more ‘real’ for a player, make them feel more like they are ‘there’? If they do, to what extent, do games dictate their own visual language and to what extent must they work within the existing bounds defined by other visual media? What can be said about games’ artistic expression when they are trying to express a sense of being on a Spielberg filmset or an ancient filmreel, rather than some aspect of being on the battlefield?
I’ll be interested to see how their implementations work out in an interactive, actually-playing-the-game context, especially depth of field. Thankfully, Valve’s track record is of a delicate touch when it comes to introducing new graphical features, never over-emphasising them just for the sake of pointing out their presence. I also look forward to playing with the colour correction tools, since I went looking for just such a feature in Source, only a few weeks ago.
0 Responses to “Cinematic effects in Source”