So, this perhaps may be the nerdiest blog post of the year, because it deals with a really cool detail in a video game called Infamous: Second Son. In the mission, you are finding clues about a rogue character named Fetch who has special powers, because you want to find her and absorb them for your own use. Her power is the ability to manipulate neon energy for use as a weapon and a way to be very mobile throughout the city. The clue search takes you to a hideout inside an advertisement sign and here you take various photos about Fetch’s personal life. She accidentally killed her brother Brent over drug use and wants to avenge him by killing drug dealers, so one of the clues is a neon viewpoint of his face that she created. However, this viewpoint is not any regular viewpoint but actually an Anamorphic projection.
Accidental viewpoints are viewing positions that produce a regular image not seen in the real world. The way that the retinal images align in our eyes, the image appears in a way that it is not seen at other angles. This comes back to the theme that an infinite number of images in space can create the same images on our retina and in our brain at various angles and viewpoints. Now, what is seen in Infamous may not be a true Anamorphic projection, since this view is seen from above and not necessarily uses linear prospective as a monocular clue. Still, this is an accidental viewpoint and instead of the image looking normal at all other angles but one, this image looks strange at all angles but one. There are 3 separate images in different parts of the viewpoint. One is located right where the person is standing and the other two are located in spots down below on a rooftop and the street. When the main character takes the picture for the clue, he needs to move to a position where the 3 pictures align perfectly to see the normal image.
This was very awesome to see the first time playing, because immediately I recognized this as an accidental viewpoint relating to the ideas we talked about in class. It was very interesting that video game developers would use an aspect like this in a video game although it is probably much easier to produce art like this in a video game rather in real life.
Images from YouTube Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHTTw36VQOo&list=PLs1-UdHIwbo6msTIJm0OtY_GKjt5r92AK
I have never played Infamous: Second Son but I do know about accidental viewpoints in games. My nephews are really good artists and they are aspiring graphic designers as well. I wish I had some of their work to show because they can make 3D objects on the simple paint application every computer comes with. They can also make multiple objects appear as one on Mine Craft. I once saw them make a house that was actually just trees but if seen from a certain angle all of the trees lined up to make a house. The house consisted of layers of tress all in different spots, if seen at the wrong angle it would just seem like a mini forest. It was really cool how the leaves and fruit made up the windows and doors. Even in real life there are accidental viewpoints, on purpose and actually accidentally.
First off, I think it is really interesting that an accidental viewpoint was purposely included, by designers, in a video game. After reading your post, I started to wonder whether it would matter if you were playing a first person or third person game – would you be able to rotate the fixation of your character as freely from a first person POV as from a third person POV? Would you still be able to align the pieces? Then I started to consider whether eye movement would make a difference. Say, in reality, you were walking in the same scene as the character you are playing as. The camera-like view in the game, I imagine, represents someone swiveling their head on a three dimensional plane, but do video games account for eye movements? Say, for instance, you were making saccades (rapid eye movement that changes in point of fixation) when running through the area, searching for the neon sign. Would you still have the same chance of noticing the accidental viewpoint?