Virtual Photography
#1
Video Game "Screenshots" Thread. The point of the thread title is to encourage some lateral thought towards the thing. Create new art within other art. Or capture and share any point of view of a thing you find interesting. I'll be using screenshots to talk about Elden Ring first, but this is just what I'm into right now. No rules here.

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In Elden Ring my interest is in showing off the colour palette. This is something From have always been very deliberate with. It's a shame that the game's a bit drab, but it's thematic so I understand. Faded Gold is the essential idea in Elden Ring, and they do it very nicely here. You transition from typical video game green fields, with a bit of a drab English tone to them, and then from there transition into this amazing golden-red-brown-orange area. You've reached the gold, but it looks like it may have seen better days. Still nice to look at.

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This is your colour palette before reaching the above area. Sad rained on grey stones and dull but robust grass-greens. With gold being mostly a suggestion on the horizon for the first act of the game.

From are great with colour, and Elden Ring interests me because it reminds me of my favourite From game, Evergrace. Orange and gold everywhere here.

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Very early PS2 game in look and style, but a lot of Elden Ring DNA if you look around.

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Again the idea is orange and gold being colours of faded glory. It's a very pretty game that I just wanted to show off a little here. How it looks is on my mind a lot lately. I'll probably post about it at length in my other thread soon.

Please everyone share whatever you want here. I'll post more of my own stuff now and then too.
#2
Megaman Legends 2. Some of the best-aged graphics I've ever seen from a PS1 game. 

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#3
https://i.imgur.com/MvTNUXU.png
https://i.imgur.com/2gD1pPx.png
https://i.imgur.com/qKO7lTF.png
https://i.imgur.com/3EVoYbq.png
https://i.imgur.com/HE1O6ut.png
https://i.imgur.com/HqD4GHk.png
https://i.imgur.com/mekhG1Q.png
https://i.imgur.com/AdApKpi.png
https://i.imgur.com/iUsZJhG.png
https://i.imgur.com/eOJ7OGe.png
https://i.imgur.com/gLeJQ22.png
https://i.imgur.com/N6NObHF.png
https://i.imgur.com/fEDggcU.png
https://i.imgur.com/x0hbh8I.png
https://i.imgur.com/9RnCkLP.png

I design text to image neural networks that generate things like above, as of late. This is almost the only thing I use them for. I curate them extensively, wrote 30,000 words or so of captions with no copying and pasting, just because I enjoy looking at old video game screenshots. From's early titles and Baroque are somewhat overrepresented. The Shadow Tower UI is literally reproduced again and again. Plenty of games that Anthony enjoys, I'm sure, have an inescapable influence on every output. Bias in AI is another topic. I have one for pre-rendered backgrounds, another for Build Engine games, and finally a general purpose fifth gen/sixth gen fantasy model trained on nearly 40,000 screenshots, ripped with my own scraping program from MobyGames and various other sites that timed me out here and there, forcing me to use a VPN.

It is a perverse obsession. I don't actually play games much anymore. It's just a way of accessing the power of raw fantasizing, before it is socialized into more acceptable forms, imagining that decadent oriental JRPG for the PS2 that never existed. A positive outcome of this is that I have started to learn how to do 3D modeling.

- JF
#4
(02-05-2023, 11:45 PM)Guest Wrote: I design text to image neural networks that generate things like above, as of late. This is almost the only thing I use them for. I curate them extensively, wrote 30,000 words or so of captions with no copying and pasting, just because I enjoy looking at old video game screenshots. From's early titles and Baroque are somewhat overrepresented. The Shadow Tower UI is literally reproduced again and again. Plenty of games that Anthony enjoys, I'm sure, have an inescapable influence on every output. Bias in AI is another topic. I have one for pre-rendered backgrounds, another for Build Engine games, and finally a general purpose fifth gen/sixth gen fantasy model trained on nearly 40,000 screenshots, ripped with my own scraping program from MobyGames and various other sites that timed me out here and there, forcing me to use a VPN.

It is a perverse obsession. I don't actually play games much anymore. It's just a way of accessing the power of raw fantasizing, before it is socialized into more acceptable forms, imagining that decadent oriental JRPG for the PS2 that never existed. A positive outcome of this is that I have started to learn how to do 3D modeling.

- JF

Fascinating work. Sharing these two in particular directly because I like them so much.

[Image: image.png]

[Image: image.png]

I like how you put it. "Decadent oriental JRPG". It really is in the best sense possible. Really love the orange.
#5
(02-05-2023, 11:45 PM)Guest Wrote: https://i.imgur.com/MvTNUXU.png
https://i.imgur.com/2gD1pPx.png
https://i.imgur.com/qKO7lTF.png
https://i.imgur.com/3EVoYbq.png
https://i.imgur.com/HE1O6ut.png
https://i.imgur.com/HqD4GHk.png
https://i.imgur.com/mekhG1Q.png
https://i.imgur.com/AdApKpi.png
https://i.imgur.com/iUsZJhG.png
https://i.imgur.com/eOJ7OGe.png
https://i.imgur.com/gLeJQ22.png
https://i.imgur.com/N6NObHF.png
https://i.imgur.com/fEDggcU.png
https://i.imgur.com/x0hbh8I.png
https://i.imgur.com/9RnCkLP.png

I design text to image neural networks that generate things like above, as of late. This is almost the only thing I use them for. I curate them extensively, wrote 30,000 words or so of captions with no copying and pasting, just because I enjoy looking at old video game screenshots. From's early titles and Baroque are somewhat overrepresented. The Shadow Tower UI is literally reproduced again and again. Plenty of games that Anthony enjoys, I'm sure, have an inescapable influence on every output. Bias in AI is another topic. I have one for pre-rendered backgrounds, another for Build Engine games, and finally a general purpose fifth gen/sixth gen fantasy model trained on nearly 40,000 screenshots, ripped with my own scraping program from MobyGames and various other sites that timed me out here and there, forcing me to use a VPN.

It is a perverse obsession. I don't actually play games much anymore. It's just a way of accessing the power of raw fantasizing, before it is socialized into more acceptable forms, imagining that decadent oriental JRPG for the PS2 that never existed. A positive outcome of this is that I have started to learn how to do 3D modeling.

- JF

I love all of these. Fantastic taste. The mark of a scholar. Make sure you post again sometime.
#6
(02-05-2023, 11:45 PM)Guest Wrote: https://i.imgur.com/MvTNUXU.png
https://i.imgur.com/2gD1pPx.png
https://i.imgur.com/qKO7lTF.png
https://i.imgur.com/3EVoYbq.png
https://i.imgur.com/HE1O6ut.png
https://i.imgur.com/HqD4GHk.png
https://i.imgur.com/mekhG1Q.png
https://i.imgur.com/AdApKpi.png
https://i.imgur.com/iUsZJhG.png
https://i.imgur.com/eOJ7OGe.png
https://i.imgur.com/gLeJQ22.png
https://i.imgur.com/N6NObHF.png
https://i.imgur.com/fEDggcU.png
https://i.imgur.com/x0hbh8I.png
https://i.imgur.com/9RnCkLP.png

I design text to image neural networks that generate things like above, as of late. This is almost the only thing I use them for. I curate them extensively, wrote 30,000 words or so of captions with no copying and pasting, just because I enjoy looking at old video game screenshots. From's early titles and Baroque are somewhat overrepresented. The Shadow Tower UI is literally reproduced again and again. Plenty of games that Anthony enjoys, I'm sure, have an inescapable influence on every output. Bias in AI is another topic. I have one for pre-rendered backgrounds, another for Build Engine games, and finally a general purpose fifth gen/sixth gen fantasy model trained on nearly 40,000 screenshots, ripped with my own scraping program from MobyGames and various other sites that timed me out here and there, forcing me to use a VPN.

It is a perverse obsession. I don't actually play games much anymore. It's just a way of accessing the power of raw fantasizing, before it is socialized into more acceptable forms, imagining that decadent oriental JRPG for the PS2 that never existed. A positive outcome of this is that I have started to learn how to do 3D modeling.

- JF

Very interesting and very powerful. I am forced to post in order to send respect. Good luck with your task!
#7
Screenshots from the game SIGNALIS which I have been playing on and off and really like the style of. I rarely take screenshots but I have a few more I like I may post later.
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“Power changes its appearance but not its reality.”― Bertrand De Jouvenel
#8
More PS1/2 style:
https://imgur.com/1zeokB9
https://imgur.com/dRGEGbd
https://imgur.com/KRWyew0
https://imgur.com/6qkEzwN
https://imgur.com/pyEO13y

Some dystopian visions of Morocco, pre-rendered backgrounds, post-apocalyptic 2.5D scenes:
https://imgur.com/YHfvehQ
https://imgur.com/pUpFR7a
https://imgur.com/IRm84hB
https://imgur.com/tW2fZmf

A kind of Ico clone inspired by Goya (my favorite as of late):
https://imgur.com/3RyQ1UZ
https://imgur.com/M3RlfTE
https://imgur.com/FZBa5qe
https://imgur.com/1L4Ua0q
https://imgur.com/PJnr3QN
https://imgur.com/0gUlsGm
https://imgur.com/nkCpvv5
https://imgur.com/oin0PXf
https://imgur.com/NenzSGm

Similar scenes, generated by inputting an actual photograph of a Tangier bazaar and transforming it into a JRPG:
https://imgur.com/E8k5oJ6
https://imgur.com/SjOTunh
https://imgur.com/0sbXm8j
https://imgur.com/O6wFLTn

These were mostly generated while testing the models for the first time. Doesn't take much strain to prompt for them. I designed them so they could be prompted in plain language. It's a common opinion with non-professional users of this technology that the dataset curation of StabilityAI's base model is the reason that prompting is so "esoteric". It's like the kind of obscurantist rituals that priests wield against ignorant people in the late stages of a civilizational cycle. It's stupid, that's why it's so complicated.

Funny thing about Evergrace is that any mention of the color orange skews the output toward this game. I went the extra mile and took pictures from this assets disk: https://archive.org/details/agetec. It has totally colonized the concept "orange". Baroque has done a similar thing with "dark red sky", and the A-Train series has a close influence on any mention of trains or a city. These games are not, going by number of screenshots, technically overrepresented in the dataset, so it's an interesting phenomena.
#9
(02-06-2023, 07:35 PM)Guest Wrote: These were mostly generated while testing the models for the first time. Doesn't take much strain to prompt for them. I designed them so they could be prompted in plain language. It's a common opinion with non-professional users of this technology that the dataset curation of StabilityAI's base model is the reason that prompting is so "esoteric". It's like the kind of obscurantist rituals that priests wield against ignorant people in the late stages of a civilizational cycle. It's stupid, that's why it's so complicated.

Funny thing about Evergrace is that any mention of the color orange skews the output toward this game. I went the extra mile and took pictures from this assets disk: https://archive.org/details/agetec. It has totally colonized the concept "orange". Baroque has done a similar thing with "dark red sky", and the A-Train series has a close influence on any mention of trains or a city. These games are not, going by number of screenshots, technically overrepresented in the dataset, so it's an interesting phenomena.

Amazing work. And fascinating how certain ideas can be "colonized" in a computer's mind. It's funny because I've heard it said before that Evergrace is "The Orange Game". The computer agrees. In my mind it's easily the most striking and memorable orange in the history of video games. Somehow this seems to be true on a level even a perfectly impartial observer picks up on too.
#10
You can tell Elden Ring is 10/10 from screenshots alone.
#11
(02-07-2023, 09:34 PM)BillyONare Wrote: You can tell Elden Ring is 10/10 from screenshots alone.

It does look fantastic a lot of the time. I've been trying to take more interesting ones as I've been playing further.

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I liked this cliff I found while climbing some path to a much higher place. For a game that's a bit constrained in how you're able to interact with terrain they do a pretty good job of getting you to a lot of interesting places. Lots of angles and perspectives to be gained.

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I like how stars look in this game. I actually think Elden Ring does a better job of making its cosmos fascinating than Bloodborne. Maybe because day and night pass more naturally here, so you can better appreciate the stages and different perspectives.

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Night scenes generally look great in this game. Always something interesting to look at.

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My favourite thing about the game's openness is just how much perspective you can get on every part of the thing.

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Two views of the same place. Sorry my HUD is up in the first one. I sometimes forget that when doing these.

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Last thing I want to share for now, this nice Evergrace throwback looking area. On the subject of architecture of natural spaces I raised in the From thread, this is a great example. It's a kind of natural emerging from the dungeon moment. This little church ruin full of relatively healthy looking natural growth is on the other side of this game's unpleasant poison murderswamp. I found it very interesting how this place managed to feel like it belonged perfectly alongside/within such a horrible place, while also looking and feeling so peaceful.
#12
Xenoblade X is one of few games to successfully create a world which exists outwith your own involvement. The sense of discovery and exploration it gave is something I had not felt since reading space encyclopedias as a child.
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#13
(02-11-2023, 11:20 AM)Guest Wrote:
Xenoblade X is one of few games to successfully create a world which exists outwith your own involvement. The sense of discovery and exploration it gave is something I had not felt since reading space encyclopedias as a child.

I've heard extraordinarily good things about this game. A true, "see that mountain, you can climb it" type of experience. The Japanese understand the importance of that kind of tactile relationship with space to actually make it interesting and not just a gigantic waste of energy.

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Elden Ring looks very nice, but I would say that its limitation is how you move. You glide and hop over flat surfaces. So the world is laid out in paths. Even if they do a good job of getting you everywhere despite this.
#14
https://i.imgur.com/Ih3R3Tr.mp4

I recommend The Drowned God, by Inscape.

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#15
(02-14-2023, 11:24 PM)JF_ Wrote: https://i.imgur.com/Ih3R3Tr.mp4

I recommend The Drowned God, by Inscape.

Very cool. I actually found out about this game and discussed it with Sphag before it became a minor meme. We've been meaning to give it a look.
#16
(02-14-2023, 11:35 PM)anthony Wrote:
(02-14-2023, 11:24 PM)JF_ Wrote: https://i.imgur.com/Ih3R3Tr.mp4

I recommend The Drowned God, by Inscape.

Very cool. I actually found out about this game and discussed it with Sphag before it became a minor meme. We've been meaning to give it a look.

I expected it to be some Chariot of the Gods in Macromedia Director thing but it's a whole different animal. Harry Horse was quite literate in this subject. He mentioned a list of authors in this interview that I have mostly read, and his attitude is obviously one of distance.

His unfortunate end is perhaps why the game has become a meme (wasn't aware it was). It is genuinely difficult to the find reliable sources about his death. It was not a totally uncommon end for someone who investigates topics that he did, if you've read about them much. In the best case scenario, you get tailed by a buick and receive harassing phone calls for months. In the worst case scenario, you end up like this. Shamanic sickness, Ultras, Fortean Aliens, blah blah - but it really is a mystery. The Daily Mail claimed he was on "a 'cocktail' of drugs". Another source says a toxicology report came clean. He seems perfectly lucid in the interview. Too bad we never had a sequel.

This, and the other Inscape title, The Dark Eye, are excellent. These are some of the best games I have played in a long time. I didn't feel I was simply tolerating the writing, the premise, but actually enjoyed it. If The Drowned God was a novel, I would judge it as good as the game.
#17
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I've been thinking a bit about PS2 games lately and how nice they could look. This is emulated with 3x upscaling, a few effects maybe rendering a bit funny, but this game looks great. This waterfront scene looks nicer than the Horizon games. How one friend of mine puts it is that the Japanese think about 3d graphics like drawing. It's about assembling a composition. You're making an image to look good, or a certain way. Westerners by contrast, I get the impression they think like they're assembling tech at all times. Anyway let me post more of this cool game.

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Nothing striking about these images on their own. This isn't that kind of post. I just wanted to share cool stuff about this old game I just played. Doesn't it look fun? More fun than anything coming out now? Even with the half-broken visuals at times I loved this thing to death. I'm sharing it in this thread rather than the other just to make the point about how PS2 games look, also just to show off all of the cool stuff on screen at once. Don't all of the flashing words and colourful bars look enjoyable?
#18
Alien vs. Predator (1999). Never enjoyed the films, but the two AvP games from 1999 and 2001 are a different animal. I have played Predator mode over and over for years. Most Predator games are bad unfortunately. Concrete Jungle is really as horrible as it sounds. 

These franchises had a monopoly on the 80s-90s brutalist/gothic science fiction style. I trained a model on screencaps from Aliens, Predator, Gunhed, Hardware, and a few others. I am fascinated by the original Predator's digital interface design, those tick marks in triangular patterns.

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