Battlefront and Mass Effect: Andromeda share a rock. Yes, a rock.
Rocks in video games aren’t something we think about all too much. To some developers, however, they can be very noticeable.
In a recent feature on the making of Mass Effect: Andromeda, the game’s senior environmental artist Scotty Brown discussed the topic with Glixel.
“You think of a rock as just a rock,” he said. “But there might be little tiny pebbles embedded within the cracks of the rock, or different kinds of grass of different colors. A lot of artists here have learned that those subtle details you don’t think about are actually very important.”
Those important subtitle details caused the game’s development team to notice a carry over in Battlefront. According to the article, “the team was alarmed to discover one of their more distinctive rocks appear in someone else’s game, Star Wars Battlefront.”
Brown added: “It was a very good rock.”
DICE concept artist Anton Grandert on location in Iceland.
That rock came from Iceland (which means it’s probably somewhere on Sullust in Battlefront). Because both teams utilized photogrammetry and sent scouting trips to Iceland, the rock wound up in both games. It’s also interesting to note that both games are published by EA, although they were developed by different studios (BioWare did Andromeda, while DICE tackled Battlefront).
Photogrammetry is a relatively new technique that allows real-world objects to be captured and translated into high resolution 3D models. Battlefront’s lead environment artist Andrew Hamilton explained the method in a neat piece on the official Battlefront site from 2015.
“Photogrammetry is essentially the technique of processing still images to produce a high resolution 3D mesh,” Hamilton said. “There are a number approaches to this, but they all involve taking photos of a subject in real-life and running it through photogrammetry software.”
A DICE employee on location in California.
In my mind, the technique is largely why Battlefront is such a gorgeous game. I’ve very keen to see where the team takes the technique for EA’s next Battlefront.
I’m also very keen for news on the Battlefront sequel to begin picking up. We’ll hopefully find out more about the game at next month’s Star Wars Celebration (April 13 to 16 in Orlando, Florida) so I won’t need to spend the next few months typing up articles on rocks.
(H/T Gamasutra)
(Top image by Cinematic Captures. Check out their Flickr page for more awesome Battlefront screenshots. Second image source. Third image source.)
