The poetry of fakeness.

Since the reality that I’m trying to represent in Bientôt l’été is a simulation running on a holodeck, elements that are obviously fake are in fact realistic. Much like my game engine, I imagine a holodeck would simplify the appearance of certain things, stylize their behavior, and optimize rendering to improve technical performance.

One of the things that I particularly like in the latter category is the trick of having everything happen around the player’s avatar. When The Endless Forest seems to be drowning in a shower, in actuality the rain particles only fall around your deer avatar. In The Path, only the parts of the woods close to the Red Girl are being drawn. Likewise in Bientôt l’été, the waves and the gulls exist only near the player. They even follow him around when he walks the beach.

Since the scene in Bientôt l’été is so barren, the illusion doesn’t actually work completely. But since we’re on a holodeck, it doesn’t matter. Seeing the fakeness of the system actually makes the scene more realistic!

There’s a certain amount of poetry in these optimizations. The fact that the world only creates itself to be seen by you. That everything is turned to show its best side to you. That life happens where you step, and only where you step. Why hide this? It’s a beautiful, slightly unnerving thought.