4 ms·

Yes, I worked on a video game that was in the near future and had transparent and semi-transparent screens everywhere. I spent a lot of time adding new renderin

Yes, I worked on a video game that was in the near future and had transparent and semi-transparent screens everywhere. I spent a lot of time adding new rendering features to the engine that did proper transparency sorting, blur/darkening passes and helping artists tweak materials to make them more readable. At multiple points in the project I wanted the art direction to switch to opaque screens. Not only because of the technical effort (in many ways that was fun) but just because how impractical they were in many scenarios.

NoSorryCannot 6y ago
Tangentially related, the "futuristic" displays in video games and movies and TV often look worse than what we'd see in real life. Sometimes it's a hologram, which would be cool even if the fidelity were a bit shit, but it's interesting that art directors make them pretty bad looking even in fiction, presumably as a cue to the viewer that it's a hologram. Any fiction that portrays holograms as opaque and convincing usually plays it for surprise, because standard-issue holograms in fiction aren't convincing.
- Negitivefrags 6y ago
  I was particulary offended by this in the recent Star Trek: Picard. In previous shows the Federation has demonstrated the ability to create totally flawless and interactable holograms. Yet somehow in this show everyone has switched over to glowly flickering interfaces hovering over your desk. In the headquarters of Star Fleet, a giant hologram of a star ship is in the atrium, and it glitches out for a moment as the camera looks at it just to let the viewer know it's a hologram. Not only is there no reason for holograms to glitch out all the time assuming that the technology could be created, but this TV series has already demonstrated their ability to do this much better!
  - TeMPOraL 6y ago
    ST:Picard and ST:Discovery are unfortunately both regressions where it comes to ST wordbuilding and style. Frankly, Lower Decks - currently airing animated "Rick&Morty meets ST:TNG" - does it better. Holograms there look and behave like they should.
- Impossible 6y ago
  I've heard, and the art director on the game followed the same philosophy, that art directors tend to make future tech look worse\glitchy on purpose so it's very clear to the audience that it's "tech". Technology that for all intents and purposes works mostly flawlessly looks a little too much like magic to audiences I guess? Like really you'd just want to have a person show up and look like they were there, but that might not read clearly as a hologram to a 20th or early 21st century movie goer so they're monochrome blue, flickering and noisy with clear projector rays. I'd like to see a sci-fi game or movie where all of the tech mostly worked flawlessly except maybe in some exceptional situations.
  - grogenaut 6y ago
    isn't that like most episodes of STTNG? All the fuckups are becuse exceptional situations, usually involving tachyons. Or many others did too. Earth Final Conflict for one, the hand tablets. Hell Tech works amazing in black mirror, one might argue WAY TOO WELL.
    - TeMPOraL 6y ago
      Right. Tech in Star Trek is part of the world, protagonists are living and breathing it, so it's shown as mostly working and not exceptional to people on-screen. Still, usually the viewer is told that something is a piece of tech through sounds and blinking lights. As for Star Trek holograms, when the episode doesn't want to "play for surprise", it usually briefly shows the hologram appearing - which uses its very specific VFX, so that it's immediately recognized as a hologram (and not confused with teleportation, which uses a different style of VFX).
  - ClikeX 6y ago
    I thought the Hologram technology in Blade Runner 2049 was pretty "flawless". The most interesting thing for that movie was that you see different levels of hologram technology. The hologram that follows the main characters seems to be pretty high tech, and looks flawless. And they show the hologram stuff by having her move through objects. But when the main characters walks around the city, you see hologram commercials that are the size of buildings. Those don't look lifelike. They're transparent and have limited colors.

NoSorryCannot 6y ago

Tangentially related, the "futuristic" displays in video games and movies and TV often look worse than what we'd see in real life. Sometimes it's a hologram, which would be cool even if the fidelity were a bit shit, but it's interesting that art directors make them pretty bad looking even in fiction, presumably as a cue to the viewer that it's a hologram. Any fiction that portrays holograms as opaque and convincing usually plays it for surprise, because standard-issue holograms in fiction aren't convincing.

Negitivefrags 6y ago
I was particulary offended by this in the recent Star Trek: Picard. In previous shows the Federation has demonstrated the ability to create totally flawless and interactable holograms. Yet somehow in this show everyone has switched over to glowly flickering interfaces hovering over your desk. In the headquarters of Star Fleet, a giant hologram of a star ship is in the atrium, and it glitches out for a moment as the camera looks at it just to let the viewer know it's a hologram. Not only is there no reason for holograms to glitch out all the time assuming that the technology could be created, but this TV series has already demonstrated their ability to do this much better!
- TeMPOraL 6y ago
  ST:Picard and ST:Discovery are unfortunately both regressions where it comes to ST wordbuilding and style. Frankly, Lower Decks - currently airing animated "Rick&Morty meets ST:TNG" - does it better. Holograms there look and behave like they should.
Impossible 6y ago
I've heard, and the art director on the game followed the same philosophy, that art directors tend to make future tech look worse\glitchy on purpose so it's very clear to the audience that it's "tech". Technology that for all intents and purposes works mostly flawlessly looks a little too much like magic to audiences I guess? Like really you'd just want to have a person show up and look like they were there, but that might not read clearly as a hologram to a 20th or early 21st century movie goer so they're monochrome blue, flickering and noisy with clear projector rays. I'd like to see a sci-fi game or movie where all of the tech mostly worked flawlessly except maybe in some exceptional situations.
- grogenaut 6y ago
  isn't that like most episodes of STTNG? All the fuckups are becuse exceptional situations, usually involving tachyons. Or many others did too. Earth Final Conflict for one, the hand tablets. Hell Tech works amazing in black mirror, one might argue WAY TOO WELL.
  - TeMPOraL 6y ago
    Right. Tech in Star Trek is part of the world, protagonists are living and breathing it, so it's shown as mostly working and not exceptional to people on-screen. Still, usually the viewer is told that something is a piece of tech through sounds and blinking lights. As for Star Trek holograms, when the episode doesn't want to "play for surprise", it usually briefly shows the hologram appearing - which uses its very specific VFX, so that it's immediately recognized as a hologram (and not confused with teleportation, which uses a different style of VFX).
- ClikeX 6y ago
  I thought the Hologram technology in Blade Runner 2049 was pretty "flawless". The most interesting thing for that movie was that you see different levels of hologram technology. The hologram that follows the main characters seems to be pretty high tech, and looks flawless. And they show the hologram stuff by having her move through objects. But when the main characters walks around the city, you see hologram commercials that are the size of buildings. Those don't look lifelike. They're transparent and have limited colors.