1 Billion Pixels in Witcher 3

While I think they could have found a cooler location to take the picture, it's pretty impressive. I liked the shots I saw of Mirror's Edge a bit more though.
 
I don't see a new patch or new drivers... i'm confused :)
 
What's the point? Transport Tycoon could do giga screenshots decades ago.
 
Might as well ask what the point of an instant replay or photograph is. :D

People like to document the things they do. Maybe it's pointless, maybe it's not, but they do, and this just allows them to do it even more.

I mean, I don't really see myself using Ansel all that much if at all, but I can think of a few games where taking a nicely crafted screenshot could be fun. Things like Doom, Skyrim, No Man's Sky, Elite Dangerous maybe. It helps if it's not dependent on the game itself too.
 
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Things like Doom, Skyrim, No Man's Sky, Elite Dangerous maybe. It helps if it's not dependent on the game itself too.

Sadly the developers must add in support for Ansel so the game has to support it.

I do like this technology though. If they can mix in VR with this screenshot tech it would make for some pretty sweet VR-screenshots. Kinda like a View-Master but 2016 style. That could technically work in any game, VR or not.
 
Now that you mention it, I think I did read that previously. Still, yeah, pretty cool overall.
 
Wow, so I actually looked into this some more and it looks like the recent Mirror's Edge game has had this support since mid-July and wouldn't you know it....they do VR 360 degree screenshots. That's rad!

I also couldn't find evidence of a performance hit but then again that game doesn't yet support taking screenshots at larger than the resolution the game is being played at.
 
Wow, so I actually looked into this some more and it looks like the recent Mirror's Edge game has had this support since mid-July and wouldn't you know it....they do VR 360 degree screenshots. That's rad!

I also couldn't find evidence of a performance hit but then again that game doesn't yet support taking screenshots at larger than the resolution the game is being played at.

There was a demonstration video of Mirror's Edge Catalyst on some site. (might have been Kotaku or one of those sorts of places) It looks like you pause the game where you want, then you can fully zoom and rotate around the character, or location to take the shot you want. So performance probably doesn't come into it all that much since the game is paused. It looked fluid enough as they rotated around Faith. I don't know what resolution they had it in. It probably stays in the game's current settings, then renders the final output higher, which would still not incur much of a drop.
 
Enhancing. Enhancing... Enhancing complete... Yellow... Block...
 
There was a demonstration video of Mirror's Edge Catalyst on some site. (might have been Kotaku or one of those sorts of places) It looks like you pause the game where you want, then you can fully zoom and rotate around the character, or location to take the shot you want. So performance probably doesn't come into it all that much since the game is paused. It looked fluid enough as they rotated around Faith. I don't know what resolution they had it in. It probably stays in the game's current settings, then renders the final output higher, which would still not incur much of a drop.

Crysis was the first game I know of to have supersampled screenshots. It divides your current scene into quadrants depending on what resolution you chose it would render each quadrant at high resolution then stitch them all together. Made for some great 8K screenshots.

By the way Overwatch has this feature as well.
 
Cool from a tech demo perspective, but ultimately useless.

Actually, not even that cool from a tech demo perspective. It's only 120x 4k :p

It's like going from 320x200 to 4k :p
 
I'm not sure I understand the point. I mean it's cool and all, but it's just the same as taking a high resolution picture. I don't see the practical application in games though, unless maybe it's a sniper game maybe.
 
Since when has "cool and all" not been the point of something all on its own? Not everything needs a practical purpose. If you get right down to it games would fall into this category (of cool and entertaining) themselves. It's also not just taking screenshots from the POV that the game allows. It lets you completely/freely move through the current scene in 3D. It allows you to step outside your character.
 
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Since when has "cool and all" not been the point of something all on its own? Not everything needs a practical purpose. If you get right down to it games would fall into this category (of cool and entertaining) themselves. It's also not just taking screenshots from the POV that the game allows. It lets you completely/freely move through the current scene in 3D. It allows you to step outside your character.

Games have a practical purpose in that they entertain. I was simply stating that, while interesting, it seems useless. To me, most everything should have a practical purpose in life. I can see a practical purpose in that many pixels in real photography, but not in a video game setting. Maybe there is some application this would be better in, such as VR as someone previously mentioned, but for the moment it doesn't seem relevant. I could very well be wrong, though, as my experiences in life may have not crossed paths with such an application.
 
I can't imagine life without some frivolity. So what if the sole "purpose" of Ansel is to entertain those who find this sort of thing cool or interesting.
 
Well, to each their own I suppose. The world would be a very boring place if we were all alike.
 
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