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Hitman: Absolution Camera Analysis 03

13/2/2016

This is a catalogue of all the cameras I could find in this game, excluding those mentioned in previous posts. Credit to https://www.youtube.com/user/HassanAlHajry for capturing most of these shots, and obviously to Io-Interactive for developing the game and engine.

Signature Stealth Cameras

All of these cameras have a completely hidden mode in close up third person, and transition to a pseudo first person perspective camera when the player chooses to look out of their hiding space. There are a few more variations on the stealth camera that derive from other cameras:

Derived from dumpster camera:

Crate
Ice chest
Fancy wooden chest
Giant birthday cake
Variations on the dumpster type body container

Derived from closet camera:

Variations on the closet type body container

Clothing based, derived from main gameplay camera:

Scarecrow
Samurai armor

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Tomb Raider (2013) Camera Analysis 01

10/2/2016

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Notice that efforts have been made to make the reticule crossover on the avatar's head less noticeable

This game has some serious camera going on. It will likely take me many articles to describe the camera for it. The first article will just be a quick comparison with some of the features I called out in Hitman: Absolution. Furthermore, I am almost finished my catalogue of cameras to wrap up the Hitman camera analysis series so I do not want to make a large digression yet.

I may have been quick to judge Hitman: Absolution in a previous post for putting a reticule on the back of its' avatar's head. Even Tomb Raider was unable to avoid this completely, although their treatment is much more elegant, and the reticule seems to quickly slip over Lara's head unless one is really focusing on it.

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Hitman: Absolution Camera Analysis 02

3/2/2016

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Hitman: Absolution actually has a very simple camera, that they maintain through cinematic gameplay sequences without many changes from when Agent 47 is running or sneaking normally. The main camera is not much more advanced than the default UE4 Third Person Project Camera. There are differences in height or boom from crouching to standing, aiming mode with toggle crossover, and a maximum upward pitch that is maintained when colliding with the wall or floor. These cameras work the same in or out of cover, unlike other games (GoW) that have cover specific cameras. There are other cameras for unique situations like shimmying across ledges and hiding in a closet, but those will be discussed in a later post.

Crouch to Crouched Aiming and Standing to Standing Aiming (no mouse movement)

These are what the player sees when transitioning between the various crouch and aiming modes. The camera height does not change between Standing and Standing Aiming, but it increases when transitioning from Crouched to Crouched Aiming. The lift is quite abrupt, made palatable only because it is triggered by direct player action.This feature allows the same camera to be used for cover shooting mechanics, where the player must slightly expose their avatar to takes shots (also revealing their location in the process).

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