
Tools and tricks: in-game free camera tool, antialiasing (in-game 2xMSAA + high-quality in-game FXAA), TweakIt lighting editor, timestop, custom FOV, 2160p rendering.

Tools and tricks: 2160p rendering, antialiasing (in-game 4xMSAA), custom build from Remedy Entertainment (details under NDA).

Alt version here. Tools and tricks: 2160p rendering, antialiasing (in-game 4xMSAA), custom build from Remedy Entertainment (details under NDA).

Alt version here. Gone are the days when games would take regular trips to the ‘disco room’ (contents: a box of hand grenades and a strip light hanging from wires) to show off their fancy lighting. This is the new shit, and it’s awesome. Tools and tricks: 2160p rendering, antialiasing (in-game 4xMSAA), custom build from Remedy Entertainment (details under NDA).

Taking a screenshot arguably involves ‘art’ when you’re forced to think about ‘lost’ and ‘found’ edges. Some games make that easy. Though there are several gradations, this is about which edges (of a character against a background, for instance) should be obvious and which should disappear. Look at paintings by Velázquez and you’ll see striking rhythms of the two. This fundamental aspect of painting and photography is, as you can imagine, incredibly hard to pull off in a game where camera and actors are constantly moving around. Alan Wake is a masterpiece of dynamic lighting because it uses layer upon layer of ancillary effects to impose its artistic vision upon the variables. Here we see one of the clearest benefits of ‘losing’ edges: making a character look like it’s part of its environment. What makes The Taken in Alan Wake so terrifying is how they seem to grow out of Bright Falls itself, watching and waiting within trees and shadows. Tools and tricks: 2160p rendering, antialiasing (in-game 4xMSAA), custom build from Remedy Entertainment (details under NDA).

Tools and tricks: 2160p rendering, antialiasing (in-game 4xMSAA), custom build from Remedy Entertainment (details under NDA).

Alt version here. Tools and tricks: 2160p rendering, antialiasing (in-game 4xMSAA), custom build from Remedy Entertainment (details under NDA).

Tools and tricks: 2160p rendering, antialiasing (in-game 4xMSAA), custom build from Remedy Entertainment (details under NDA).

Tools and tricks: 2160p rendering, antialiasing (in-game 4xMSAA), custom build from Remedy Entertainment (details under NDA).

I can only apologise for how pedestrian these Battlefield shots are. The good news is that I’ve had a not-entirely-dismissive response from DICE regarding debug code for singleplayer, so not all the screens will necessarily look like something from an OPEC report. Tools and tricks: no-HUD, weapon hide, 2160p rendering, antialiasing (2x in-engine Deferred MSAA, injected FXAA).
