Introduction to high visual fidelity

In this tutorial, you will:

• Consider what high visual fidelity means in the context of this course
• Review Unity features that are used to create high fidelity visuals

By the end of this tutorial, you’ll be ready to learn more about how Buried Memories: Serekh was made and then explore the playable demo.

Visual fidelity refers to the extent to which a game,or other digital experience, is an accurate visual reproduction of real world equivalents. Games with high visual fidelity faithfully recreate reality, or an imagined version of reality.

Games with high fidelity visuals are not inherently better than games with low fidelity visuals. Instead, high fidelity visuals are able to provide a more immersive experience coupled with environments and scenarios that are more believable for players and users.

New games are released constantly, from small game jam projects made by individuals or small teams, to large AAA games developed by large studios. With so many types of game possible, categorization can help you identify how well a game meets the needs of its intended audience.

There are four domains to consider when evaluating the visual fidelity of a game or digital experience.

1. Scope

At a strategic level, high visual fidelity is reflected in the scope of a game or experience.

The scope of a game includes its:

• Creative vision
• Story
• Aesthetics

Unity’s Adam: Episode 1 short film, created in the engine, is a good example of a project with high visual fidelity scope. The film is relatively short (with a runtime of just under six minutes), but the scope of its vision and worldbuilding is vast.

2. Scale

High fidelity directly relates to the scale at which visuals are rendered to the screen. This includes:

• Texture detail
• Resolution
• Polycounts
• Draw distance

3. Performance

The benefits of high visual fidelity can be diminished if the overall player experience is poor. The performance factors which contribute to a high fidelity experience include:

• Framerate
• Loading times
• Game feel, or the overall experience of interacting in the gamespace and being immersed in its environment

4. Polish

Polish involves refining and balancing different elements within a project to create truly high fidelity visuals. This can involve adding extra detail to a scene, improving textures, and adding extra visual effects.

The following elements can be executed at a range of levels, but have a significant impact on a high fidelity player experience:

• AI
• Particles
• Effects
• Lighting

In this course, you’ll explore how different artistic contributors to Buried Memories: Serekh created high fidelity visuals. Different contributors will have different areas of focus. Model polycounts are of limited importance to the Lighting Artist, for example, but lighting design and implementation is their primary role.

Although each contributor has different priorities, successful high fidelity visuals lie in the synthesis of the four domains.

One way to understand visual fidelity is to imagine it as a spectrum, from low to high fidelity. You can locate games, cinematic media and interactive experiences at different places on that spectrum.

Imagine these different examples:

• A simple 2D mobile game
• A video recorded on your phone
• A 4D cinema experience.

Where would you place each on the visual fidelity spectrum?

Although the four domains (scope, scale, performance, and polish) include defined elements, interpretation of their realization in a project can be subjective. This means that it could be relatively easy to agree with a friend that one game delivers high fidelity visuals, another may provoke more debate. Your opinion will partially depend on which you consider to be the most important elements within the four domains.

High fidelity visuals change with time. As technology, expectations, and cultural reference points evolve, so do the critical components of high fidelity visuals. This means that styles that are considered immersive and cutting-edge become outdated and seen as tied to a specific movement of popular design as trends progress.

Consider films made in the 1960s. While these may still be compelling media in their own right, the visual effects now feel dated, and in some cases highly stylised. Techniques which delivered the highest visual fidelity for the time are useful now to evoke the style of the period, but are not seen as the impressive modern effects that they once were.

Another example is game pixel art. In the 1980s, 8-bit and 16-bit pixel art were seen as cutting-edge game visuals. Many games using this were considered high fidelity at the time. However, game graphics have now advanced considerably. It is possible to make a visually rich and engaging modern game using pixel art, but this will not be considered high visual fidelity.

Current standards for high fidelity game visuals are the foundation of this course, but over time these too may become dated. As you complete the course, consider what this may mean for each of the artistic roles it explores.

Buried Memories: Serekh uses High Definition Render Pipeline (HDRP) features to deliver a high fidelity visuals which contribute to the immersive player experience created in the demo.

In this course, depending on your personal learning needs, you will have the opportunity to use the learning Scene to complete challenges and experiment with the following features:

• HDRP Materials (Character)
• HDRP Decal Projector (Environment)
• HDRP Lighting (Lighting)
• HDRP Volumetric Fog (Lighting)
• HDRP Post Processing Effects (Lighting)

In this tutorial, you:

• Considered what high visual fidelity means in the context of this course
• Reviewed Unity features used to deliver high fidelity visuals

Next, you’ll explore the design brief and playable demo for Buried Memories: Serekh.