Hyper realistic game fools gamers.

[Colstan]

This post has no educational value. It's simply a demonstration of how realistic modern games are becoming. A new trailer for a game called "Unrecord", which I have never heard of, is stirring up the gaming community. Watch the trailer full screen and you'll see what I mean. (I intentionally didn't attach it as media.)

The gameplay has managed to convince some gamers that it's recorded footage, and not an engine at work, even though the developer has posted a video noclipping through walls. If you examine the physics, lighting, and character movements, it becomes obvious that it's not real. However, little details such as the idle movement of the gun, rather than being essentially affixed to the screen, plus the feeling of being recorded on a body cam, shaky footage and all, helps add to that notion.

On a somewhat unrelated matter, this does bring up the question of deep fakes, as they become more realistic and easier to produce en masse. It's going to have a significant impact on industries like gaming, movies, pornography, enhanced historical footage, and illegitimate political advertisements.

All of that aside, the trailer is fun to watch.

 

[Cmaier]

What I don’t get is what that guy is doing shooting people in my house.

 

[KingOfPain]

It also looked like a fake to me at first.
The smoke trail that the gun leaves behind in one scene convinced me that this could actually be in-engine.

@Cmaier: Fancy digs!

 

[casperes1996]

Thought some of the materials looked a tad flat as well; That is to say, it looked incredibly impressive, but I wouldn't go as far as to say it was close to being able to fool me if looked at sceptically.

However, would you even really want this look in games? I mean for some, absolutely, but the point of games, as I see it anyway, is not just to give experiences in high graphics, but to offer fun experiences. I've always thought art style matters more than graphics fidelity. And aspects that improve graphical fidelity can have detrimental effects to 'fun' as well, if they fight against UX. Like the way the gun sways around could be seen as fighting against control, aiming and precision. Now for some games that can be intentional and immersion is the most important thing, but it would not be a universally positive thing. As long as something is "realistic" enough to where it seems believable within the world it happens it's good enough. Asking Captain Kirk to just use the force is unrealistic but it isn't unrealistic to ask Luke Skywalker to do so. Realism in media is more about believability within the framework of a world than replicating our reality. There's definitely place for games like this, but in the larger scope of things I'd rather play exclusively games that let me throw fireballs compared to games that force me to have shaky hands and a gun that jams because of realism.

This rant is semi-unprompted, I know nobody explicitly advocated for that kind of realism. But I feel like it's tangentially related to the goal of graphical realism.