Game Lens #7: Panorama-rama

January 15, 2013

Joanne Harper

Game Lens is a game photography feature. I hack, mod, tweak, and stress games (and myself) to not only make them as beautiful as possible; but to explore their environments free of HUD, overlays, and physical confinements; and take interesting, high-resolution screenshots.

Most gamers, at least PC gamers, have probably taken a screenshot of a game before for one reason or another. While I do like to think my process is a little more sophisticated than just wandering around and pressing “print-screen”, its still at its core something you see a lot of on the internet. One thing that still remains relatively untapped are gaming panoramas, and since last year when I began with my arduous game-by-game process of trying to access a free-camera, field of view adjustments, and various other tricks, I have experimented with panoramas. These days, I try to get panoramas in every game I “tour”, and while the results are sometimes hit-and-miss, and not all games are suited for them, I’ve become much more confident in taking them.

Expect many more of these to come in the future, mixed in with my normal shots of particular games, but in the mean time, here is a panorama-specific feature spanning various different games I’ve done in the past.

Just Cause 2

“Cotton Candy” — DOWNLOAD

“Natural Wonder” — DOWNLOAD

“Connections” — DOWNLOAD

3552×1998 rendering (multiple shots), 8xMSAA, SweetFX, HD Improved Clouds, Camhack, (for Freecam, Hidden HUD, Custom FOVs).

Crysis

“Forgotten Lands” — DOWNLOAD

8640p rendering (multiple shots), 4xAA + EdgeAA, custom distance LOD, Parallax Occlusion Mapping, RELI 2 TOD, Rygel’s Textures, High-Resolution Foliage, HD Grass, time-scale adjustment, hidden view-model, noclip, custom FOV.

Crysis 2

“Apocalypse on a Postcard” — DOWNLOAD

“End of Days” — DOWNLOAD

“Collateral Damage” — DOWNLOAD

“Snaked” — DOWNLOAD

“Showroom” — DOWNLOAD

1620p rendering (multiple shots), CryEngine 3 SDK, Official DX11 & HD Texture Patches, disabled vignette, noclip, hidden HUD & view model, custom FOV.

Mass Effect 3