nVIDIA introduced Ansel, a new in-game photo technology. Video games are constantly upping the bar in feats of graphics and visual awesomeness. Many gamers, however, complain that while they are immersed in a beautiful and artful masterpiece, most screenshots end up looking several shades of “meh” less impressive.

In-game photo modes, such as Ansel, want to empower the user. They enable the freedom of capturing a scene according to the user’s vision, and not the game’s limitations set by gameplay or controls.

Well, after nVIDIA recently first announced Ansel along with the GeForce GTX 1070 and 1080m, the company has now made it available to the public. Along with Ansel, nVIDIA also released VR Funhouse, a virtual reality technical demo, meant to push past the limitations of user hardware.

Features of nVIDIA’s Ansel

Ansel is a lot more complex in terms of features and liberties than an average screenshot tool, however. In order for it to run optimally, the technology needs to be implemented into the game by the game’s developers rather than through driver support.

Mirror’s Edge Catalyst is Ansel’s first full support game. The first impression that the photo mode left players was absolutely stellar.

Ansel is fired up with the Alt-F2 keyboard shortcut. The entire action in the game will instantly and perfectly freeze. The freeze isolates the current frame and keeps all active data present in it on display. Bloom, motion blur, and particle effects are all vividly present in the isolated frame.

While the scene remains frozen, players can access options through the compact panel which pops up in the left of the screen. The panel has settings for filters, luminosity, as well as other settings which most photo modes currently come with.

Ansel also comes with a full array of 3D control over the scene. The camera is freed from any restrictions, such as first-person, allowing users to take photos from any angle and point they want. It is mainly this amazing degree of freedom which requires developer integration into game titles.

The photo mode also boasts with the option of taking full 360-degree stereoscopic photos. These photos can be seen with a VR PC headset such as the Oculus Rift or the HTC Vive, with Virtual Desktop, or with the nVIDIA VR Viewer Android app which works with Google Cardboard.

nVIDIA’s Ansel saves photos in the full resolution they were taken in, under the .png file format. Card support for Ansel currently ranges from the GeForce GTX 770M to the current 1080. Many already released titles, such as The Witcher III: Wild Hunt will soon be receiving patches to enable functionality for the new tech.

Image Courtesy of YouTube.