Excellent Demo, with some feedback

[Stegosaur]

First thing's first: for the average user, this is an amazing way to traipse around beautiful locales and take some gorgeous photographs. The soundtrack suits the mood of the game quite nicely, and while the game does run a bit heavy graphics-wise, its leisurely pace means it can be enjoyed even at lower framerates (30-40fps). That said, I do have some feedback that I'm going to try and break down into photography and technical feature sets.

Photography Feedback

• EXIF Data: If the game is recreating a camera well enough to calculate EXIF data, I'd love to see it attached to the resultant PNG.
  
• LUT Support: Similar to how Fuji cameras have film simulations, and Lightroom has recipes and presets, being able to import standard LUTs (or Lightroom recipes) into the game to alter how our resultant photos look would be an amazing add. Even if it's not a persistent view/only applies during the viewfinder or photograph post-processing phase, that'd be a nice addition.
  
• Exposure Compensation: Being able to adjust exposure in stops (+/- 1/3 increments) would be incredibly helpful for reigning in the high-noon blowout in the default level, or for boosting the shadows in other situations. For controllers, maybe bind to the up/down D-Pad in camera mode? This already exists! It's not mentioned in the tutorial that I saw, but you can access these controls using the D-Pad while the camera is up.
  
• Focus Peaking: The current manual focus mode isn't bad, but it's very difficult to tell where the focal plane is in a precise way, leading to photos being slightly out of focus at times. Having some focus peaking (red/white/blue dots) could help immensely with fine-tuning a shot.
  
• Priority/Manual Modes: I realize I'm asking for a bit much with this one, given that it'd require a lot of additional programming on the developer side of things, but being able to fix the camera in a given priority mode (aperture or shutter-speed) could enable more unique or varied shots within the landscapes offered. Offering a full manual mode would be even better for letting us practice different combinations that we could then try on our physical cameras at home, but that's an even taller order than basic priority modes. Which brings me to the "moonshot" request... This already exists, kinda! It's not mentioned in the tutorial that I saw, but you can access these controls using the D-Pad while the camera is up.
  
• Physically Accurate Filters: This is almost certainly not going to be a thing due to the programming and processing required, but being able to use Neutral Density filters to create long exposures or color filters to radically change how scenes are captured, would be a really fun creative addition. The problem with adding these would be the additional detail and rendering required for things like long-exposure captures of moving water, for instance, for what would amount to a very niche user base.

Technical Feedback

• Super Resolution: The output slider already gets us to 3000x2000 maximum output, but having the ability to capture super-resolution images (4x or higher) could help us turn our favorite photos into printable artwork for home display.
  
• nVidia Ansel Support: Alternatively, baking-in nVidia Ansel could also create those Super Resolution photos while also giving us access to OpenEXR RAW-style images for post-processing. That said, I dislike promoting a vendor-specific technology for something as fundamental as screenshots or image capture, and would much rather see a basic super resolution feature in-game.
  
• Disabling Reconstruction at Photograph Capture: I am sure some folks will clamor for DLSS/FSR/XeSS support, but I'm not entirely sure this particular title needs all of those baked-in. TSR is more than acceptable for AA and image reconstruction purposes, especially given the slow nature of the game. However, I would like to see image reconstruction disabled at image capture in favor of super resolution and downsampling. The game already conditions the user to wait after capturing a photo, so having the option to bake this into the capture process at the expense of additional waiting time would be a nice option to have.
  
• Ray Tracing: This is the "moonshot" technical request, seeing as how the environments currently have pristine baked-shadows and lighting models as-is. At a minimum, RT-reflections and RT-Ambient Occlusion could clean up some image errors on things like bodies of water or object detail, while RT-shadows could possibly add a stronger feeling of "life" to areas with dynamic objects (forests, flags, etc). Depending on the render cost (the game is already quite "heavy"), they could be tucked behind a "tripod mode" similar to the crouch mode, prohibiting significant movement so the framerate remains usable while the denoiser is less of a problem.

Overall, I was really impressed with the demo and can't wait to get my mitts on the full version. You've done an amazing job!

[5qu34k]

Love the EXIF idea. Would be awesome to have metadata attached to the images.

I believe the game already has Exposure Compensation and Priority/Manual modes.

[Stegosaur]

Originally posted by 5qu34k:

I believe the game already has Exposure Compensation and Priority/Manual modes.

Oh heck, I did not see the D-pad controls on the tutorial for the camera. There's basically everything I was looking for photography-wise! Gotta edit the OP, now.

[Sam]

Originally posted by Stegosaur:

First thing's first: for the average user, this is an amazing way to traipse around beautiful locales and take some gorgeous photographs. The soundtrack suits the mood of the game quite nicely, and while the game does run a bit heavy graphics-wise, its leisurely pace means it can be enjoyed even at lower framerates (30-40fps). That said, I do have some feedback that I'm going to try and break down into photography and technical feature sets.

Photography Feedback

• EXIF Data: If the game is recreating a camera well enough to calculate EXIF data, I'd love to see it attached to the resultant PNG.
  
• LUT Support: Similar to how Fuji cameras have film simulations, and Lightroom has recipes and presets, being able to import standard LUTs (or Lightroom recipes) into the game to alter how our resultant photos look would be an amazing add. Even if it's not a persistent view/only applies during the viewfinder or photograph post-processing phase, that'd be a nice addition.
  
• Exposure Compensation: Being able to adjust exposure in stops (+/- 1/3 increments) would be incredibly helpful for reigning in the high-noon blowout in the default level, or for boosting the shadows in other situations. For controllers, maybe bind to the up/down D-Pad in camera mode? This already exists! It's not mentioned in the tutorial that I saw, but you can access these controls using the D-Pad while the camera is up.
  
• Focus Peaking: The current manual focus mode isn't bad, but it's very difficult to tell where the focal plane is in a precise way, leading to photos being slightly out of focus at times. Having some focus peaking (red/white/blue dots) could help immensely with fine-tuning a shot.
  
• Priority/Manual Modes: I realize I'm asking for a bit much with this one, given that it'd require a lot of additional programming on the developer side of things, but being able to fix the camera in a given priority mode (aperture or shutter-speed) could enable more unique or varied shots within the landscapes offered. Offering a full manual mode would be even better for letting us practice different combinations that we could then try on our physical cameras at home, but that's an even taller order than basic priority modes. Which brings me to the "moonshot" request... This already exists, kinda! It's not mentioned in the tutorial that I saw, but you can access these controls using the D-Pad while the camera is up.
  
• Physically Accurate Filters: This is almost certainly not going to be a thing due to the programming and processing required, but being able to use Neutral Density filters to create long exposures or color filters to radically change how scenes are captured, would be a really fun creative addition. The problem with adding these would be the additional detail and rendering required for things like long-exposure captures of moving water, for instance, for what would amount to a very niche user base.

Technical Feedback

• Super Resolution: The output slider already gets us to 3000x2000 maximum output, but having the ability to capture super-resolution images (4x or higher) could help us turn our favorite photos into printable artwork for home display.
  
• nVidia Ansel Support: Alternatively, baking-in nVidia Ansel could also create those Super Resolution photos while also giving us access to OpenEXR RAW-style images for post-processing. That said, I dislike promoting a vendor-specific technology for something as fundamental as screenshots or image capture, and would much rather see a basic super resolution feature in-game.
  
• Disabling Reconstruction at Photograph Capture: I am sure some folks will clamor for DLSS/FSR/XeSS support, but I'm not entirely sure this particular title needs all of those baked-in. TSR is more than acceptable for AA and image reconstruction purposes, especially given the slow nature of the game. However, I would like to see image reconstruction disabled at image capture in favor of super resolution and downsampling. The game already conditions the user to wait after capturing a photo, so having the option to bake this into the capture process at the expense of additional waiting time would be a nice option to have.
  
• Ray Tracing: This is the "moonshot" technical request, seeing as how the environments currently have pristine baked-shadows and lighting models as-is. At a minimum, RT-reflections and RT-Ambient Occlusion could clean up some image errors on things like bodies of water or object detail, while RT-shadows could possibly add a stronger feeling of "life" to areas with dynamic objects (forests, flags, etc). Depending on the render cost (the game is already quite "heavy"), they could be tucked behind a "tripod mode" similar to the crouch mode, prohibiting significant movement so the framerate remains usable while the denoiser is less of a problem.

Overall, I was really impressed with the demo and can't wait to get my mitts on the full version. You've done an amazing job!

Really glad to hear you enjoyed the demo! Thanks for taking the time to leave such detailed feedback.