But, since one knows that they are playing a video game, it is already apparent that the imagery is “fake”, or, more accurately, a simulation. I don’t understand what exactly it is that people need to be convinced of. Just like trying to make a framed painting pass for being a real window, this sounds more like a conceit compensating for lack of imagination rather than any sort of exercise in artistry or craft. I simply don’t consider games and “illusions” to have anything to do with each other. Are people so accustomed to being deluded in their daily lives that they express derision when media fails to fool them somehow?
The way I see it, the unreality of certain games can be jarring and detract from gameplay.
For instance, ARMA3. The character models are really good. They use motion capture, have realistic gaits and movement, bodily positioning counts in marksmanship (eg if your gun has a bipod, you can kneel down to an appropriately sized rock and rest the bipod for better aim without a stupid “snapping” maneuver, it just happens naturally if you’re positioned right.)
But ARMA still has problems. The character eyes just aren’t good. They look like literal glass eyes and roll around. Hitboxes on some bushes ingame are done wrong, and so if you’re lucky sometimes you can hide in plain view behind an “iron bush” that’s bullet proof. In some mods the character won’t stop wiping his forehead in an annoying way (depending on the environment’s temperature), even though it’s for the sake of “realism” it removes control from the player.
So… What I’m trying to get at is… Sometimes striving for realism is a mistake. But in a lot of cases it makes the player feel more connected and immersed. UE4 is an engine, it can do many, many things besides just photorealism. It’s just another tool for artists. And since so many people want photorealism, that’s what they’re optimizing. And boy howdy, does it look good. Nice and shiny. But the fact that UE4 has so many features to make the artist’s job easier is a boon for the game devs as artists specifically. And don’t tell me games aren’t art, they totally are. Just look at all the work that goes into making them. All the creativity and “soul” (for lack of a better word) the devs put into them.
Sure it matters. It’s the difference between looking at a landscape vista with awe or looking at a collection of clumsy polygons that are meant to represent a landscape. Those are two different experiences. Not that one is intellectually convinced that what is looking at is “real” in either example.
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