In the realm of video games, constructing functional mirrors presents a challenging endeavor that calls for inventive approaches. Numerous games choose to omit mirrors or portray them as shattered due to the technical difficulties associated with rendering authentic reflections. A remarkable instance of a smart workaround is evident in the adventure title The Walking Dead.
In the inaugural episode of The Walking Dead, the developers utilized an original method to imitate a rearview mirror reflection. Rather than generating an actual reflection, the mirror serves as a portal with a mirrored depiction of the scene behind it. This requires the duplication of the player character and other components to craft the illusion of a reflection. A particularly imaginative variation of this method is displayed in a car scene, where the driver’s face and the landscape fly by are reflected in the rearview mirror. Here, the mirror does not have a fully mirrored world behind it; only the driver and a portion of the car are replicated. The moving landscape is depicted by a sizable cone featuring a shifting texture, mimicking the look of a mirrored environment.
While contemporary graphics technologies such as ray tracing facilitate the generation of reflective surfaces, they necessitate considerable hardware resources. Consequently, the crafty techniques employed in earlier games may eventually fall out of use. Nevertheless, game developers will probably continue to leverage such illusions to augment realism and enhance performance in virtual realms.