Artistically, Star Wars Outlaws looks like it could very easily exist in the same galaxy that the original trilogy of films took place in. That direction helped establish the visual language of the game, but developer Massive Entertainment wanted to take things a step further by making Star Wars Outlaws look like it had been shot with the same film lenses as the classic movies.
To achieve this technical feat, the studio developed its own digital “camera lens” in the Snowdrop Engine, which was used to give Star Wars Outlaws a more cinematic presentation. While this is an optional mode, players can enable a widescreen presentation in the game that adds black bars to the bottom of the screen, a period-accurate film grain, and other small cinematic touches.
“We developed a lens, a camera lens within Snowdrop, our game engine, that allows us to replicate the sort of, lenses of the ’70s and 80s,” creative director Julian Gerighty explained in a new GameSpot Insider documentary. “So you have barrel distortion, chromatic aberration, film grain, and vignetting all wrapped up in an ultra-widescreen presentation. All of these things you can turn on and off individually, but the whole impact is that it really pulls you into a cinematic presentation.”
According to technical art director Stephen Hawes, the lens project was challenging but worth pursuing as it harkened back to how the original films were shot and helped create a cinematic experience for Star Wars Outlaws. Massive Entertainment was able to render technical effects like lens breathing and film grain that ran at 24fps independent of the game’s chosen frame rate, and other small touches like CRT screens, a slight barrel distortion, and a soft focus helped create a “grounded, cinematic” atmosphere, Hawes explained.
Star Wars Outlaws launches on August 30 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S, but if you’re looking to play a few days early, you’ll be able to do so if you have a Ubisoft Premium+ subscription. On GameSpot’s sister site Metacritic, Star Wars Outlaws currently has a “generally favorable” metascore of 77 from 59 reviews.
