Version 15: Say Cheese!
Version 15: Say Cheese!
How game engines are turning every video game into a content studio
Like other American families, I spent a portion of my childhood at a Sears Portrait Studio located in our local mall. Beyond the mundane pain of being directed by adults to pose in every way imaginable, I was always struck by the speed of its customization. A single photographer could quickly change backdrops, props, and lights to create a range of output options. Those studios have since shuttered, replaced by the ease and price of digital photography.
Professionally, I've also held a physical camera for most of my life. From photos to video, I love how a camera is a specialized toolbox for capturing reality. But cameras are also built for an operator, or in more complex productions, a team of operators. IRL, they still mostly work the same way they always have: point the lens, adjust it, capture, and edit later. Smartphones have enabled computational photography abilities, like Portrait Mode on newer iPhones, but they still require a user to point and shoot.
Many video games replicate photography mechanics in-game so players can capture pictures and video content. I've been playing a lot of Disney Dreamlite Valley lately, and I like how characters will automatically strike a pose and turn towards the camera when you use the camera tool. Animal Crossing similarly has a camera tool that players can use to capture photographic moments in their villages.
As a result of these mechanics, every video game is becoming a content studio. Ever since Twitch turned video games into participatory entertainment, games themselves are now vessels for content. When coupled with smarter camera or clipping controls, players are now more easily capturing moments while playing. Game engine maker Unity, for example, is evolving its cinema toolset to better support linear output like videos. Cinemachine’s founder (which Unity acquired), said this:
"I wanted to create a relationship between the cameras and their subjects so they would act as an army of little camera operator robots, following your direction. That’s how Cinemachine was born."
I currently have a client using game engines in real-time to output educational content much faster than traditional VFX workflows. I call it a "portrait studio" because their assets are used as modular props to quickly setup and capture a scene as a screenshot. It's as if The Sims updated a Sears Portrait Studio, and it turns what can be a mundane production process into a more fun game-like process!
The real power comes when AI can determine the best camera angles, at the best moments, and act as a producer or director to serve up media highlights. Just like how Super Mario 64 innovated camera angles and integrated them into an NPC (Lakitu!), future games will find ways to distill complex cinematic techniques into easier in-game mechanics. Because everything in a game engine is natively 3D, highlights can be recaptured and rendered out with ease. Fortnite has a powerful "Replay" system that does this, as does NVIDIA with its Highlights product:
As we build our VR game Derby, we've already heard from many younger users that want to use it as a content studio for showing off their baseball finesse. By better supporting video output like trick shots and goofing around with friends, we can enable our game players to become their own TikTok content creators, faster.
IRL, it takes a partner to capture a trickshot, and even then you're limited by the bounds of time and space at a public park or in a backyard. But in a game engine, cameras can automatically cut between objects, creating the perfect clip for the action. Players can focus on having fun in the moment, but still have a collection of content to share when no longer in a headset. This also fuels discovery and early growth to our still early-access game!
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Derby is currently on SideQuest, if you have a Quest 2 and are willing to sideload content on it, please check it out!
Hullabaloo
WIRED asks how to make video games kinder and gentler? VR games should take note, especially given the Times' recent editorial on toxic gun culture in America. KINDER, GUNS
The smartphone still dominates as our device of choice. Major layoffs amongst tech companies lately remind us that hardware novelty isn’t enough (better AR/VR headsets are no exception). SMARTPHONE, LAYOFFS
Bloomberg wrote that even though many more women are now using VR, it's still mostly men building for it. LINK
Meta walked back “metaverse” rhetoric, saying social media is still their company priority and WhatsApp monetization will soon drive more sales. SOCIAL MEDIA, WHATSAPP
Bob's Burgers gave fun commentary on VR expectation vs. reality. As a vivid lucid dreamer myself, headsets have always paled in comparison! LINK
New research shows VR can benefit pregnant women via green spaces (n=63) and patients with MS (n=100). PREGNANT, MS
ForeVR added pool to their collection of VR games and Triband launched a new absurd bat-based game, What The Bat? There’s also a new IRL bar that crosses VR with...physical axe throwing?? POOL, BATS, AXES
What’s worse, Zuck suffering a hiccup attack in VR, or him retreating to Hawaii during mass company layoffs? HICCUPS, HAWAII
FYP
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Great piece! As the camera technology improves, it seems likely we'll see a ton of experimentation around character-driven stories... shooting video in VR can essentially substitute for animated video content.