Yes. It's cheaper to build film sets and fly scouting teams to multiple exotic locations for months on end to capture approximations of your art direction, than hand author assets.
We just use an iPhone and gaussian splatting. You don't even have to go outside, you can even use AR captured imagery as well: https://youtu.be/UdCKeO4c_xM
EDIT: Just wanted to address this part because I forgot something...
Production has changed in a way that not only stifles creativity, but lends itself to poorly polished and poorly performing games. All in the pursuit of "realism", where many prefer the aesthetics of last generation. That's the definition of diminishing returns
This is true, and part of the point, but also we see that on the flip side we have games like Bodycam, made by two guys, one of whom was 17 at the time when they started, and it looks more realistic than any AAA shooter and most people are none the wiser to how it was made. Mostly UE5 Blueprints and asset packs made from laser-scanned entities.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/_Gh0x9mtIuQ?feature=share
In this regard, they managed to make a top-selling game that fools a lot of people into thinking it looks "real" without having spent an arm and a leg to do so.
It's possible to get creative, push boundaries and make use of these tools to build out fascinating, unique, or groundbreaking games using these tools and techniques, but as you stated, most studios do not do this.
Yes. It's cheaper to build film sets and fly scouting teams to multiple exotic locations for months on end to capture approximations of your art direction, than hand author assets.
Nope, we just use an iPhone and gaussian splatting. You don't even have to go outside, you can also use AR captured imagery as well: https://youtu.be/UdCKeO4c_xM
EDIT: Just wanted to address this part because I forgot something...
Production has changed in a way that not only stifles creativity, but lends itself to poorly polished and poorly performing games. All in the pursuit of "realism", where many prefer the aesthetics of last generation. That's the definition of diminishing returns
This is true, and part of the point, but also we see that on the flip side we have games like Bodycam, made by two guys, one of whom was 17 at the time when they started, and it looks more realistic than any AAA shooter and most people are none the wiser to how it was made. Mostly UE5 Blueprints and asset packs made from laser-scanned entities.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/_Gh0x9mtIuQ?feature=share
In this regard, they managed to make a top-selling game that fools a lot of people into thinking it looks "real" without having spent an arm and a leg to do so.
It's possible to get creative, push boundaries and make use of these tools to build out fascinating, unique, or groundbreaking games using these tools and techniques, but as you stated, most studios do not do this.
Yes. It's cheaper to build film sets and fly scouting teams to multiple exotic locations for months on end to capture approximations of your art direction, than hand author assets.
Nope, we just use an iPhone and gaussian splatting. You don't even have to go outside, you can also use AR captured imagery as well: https://youtu.be/UdCKeO4c_xM