Nvidia Ansel Takes In-Game Photography To The Next Level: Gigapixel Images, 360-Degree Shots, Filters And More

Nvidia took the wraps off Ansel, the fully adjustable in-game camera with a ton of remarkable photography features.

Going straight to how it works, when a player flips the switch on the tool, the game will be paused. While nothing is moving, the user can make all the necessary adjustments to take the perfect stills - zoom, change angle, pan around the subject and many others.

After those aspects have been taken care of, post-process filters come into play. These options let the game photographer tweak the images, from brightness and vignette to special FX options, which anyone can create and share, much like the case with ReShade.

What's more, the pictures can be saved as an EXR file, and that means they can be improved further on other photo-editing software such as Adobe Photoshop with the highest possible dynamic range.

When everything's said and done, users can take things up a notch and get the image up 61,440 x 34,560. That's the 4.5-gigapixel package right there.

To keep the good news rolling, VR enthusiasts will find the tool quite useful, as it can capture 360-degree images that let users immerse themselves in the game using an HTC Vive, Oculus Rift or even Google Cardboard.

"Simply put, Ansel enables you to make and capture your own unique and personally framed screenshots via an easy-to-use user interface, on Nvidia GeForce GTX graphics cards," Andrew Burnes of Nvidia says.

Also, to put things into perspective, professional game photographers already have the privilege to go beyond the limitations of the Print Screen key, armed with the developers' game builds, various custom tools and top-of-the-line computers. What Ansel is doing here is more or less handing over the same power to the masses - well, to anyone running on a compatible Nvidia card, that is.

It should also be noted that the game must have support for Ansel to get these features to work. Nvidia says that it'll start things off with The Division, The Witness, LawBreakers, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Paragon, No Man's Sky, Unreal Tournament, Fortnite and Obduction.

While Shadowplay has got the video-capturing front covered, there was no easy way to get the perfect stills in a game. Of course, the Print Screen key is always handy, but it's kind of difficult to take high-quality shots when the angles are limited, not to mention when there's no pause button, so enemies just relentlessly attack and cause a ruckus.

While the main headliners of the Nvidia event held in Austin, Texas, are the GTX 1080 and GTX 1070, Ansel is a huge "revolutionary, accessible game capture tool" that everyone should be excited about as well.

Do you love taking breathtaking, amazing in-game shots? Let us know in the comments section below, and tell us what you think of Ansel.