Photogrammetry for Game Environments 2014-2019: What Happened Since The Vanishing of Ethan Carter

Abstract

This review examines how the use of photogrammetry in game environment art has changed since The Vanishing of Ethan Carter. It identifies 26 games released between 2014–2019 featuring photoscanned environment assets, including the well-established AAA franchises Battlefront, Far Cry, Forza, and Resident Evil. In popular media, photogrammetry went from an unknown technique to become entrenched with high- quality realistic game graphics, and gamers have come to expect that productions of high caliber should utilize photogrammetry. So far, developers have focused on photoscanned natural assets and small props, while photogrammetry for architecture and modular assets remains underdeveloped, still battling with technical challenges both in terms of capturing the data as well as processing it. Legal and ethical ramifications of digitally representing real-world locations in games remain for the most part unaddressed, as do the visual identities of franchises that rely on photoscanned game environments.