Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores Will Provide Next-gen Clouds to Fly Around [UPDATE: Video]

Update

Guerrilla Games has expanded yesterday's cloud lecture in Burning Shores with a new video from Horizon: Forbidden West DLC. It showcases the Waterwing - a machine serving as Aloy's mount, which can not only soar into the skies, but also dive into the depths.

Original message (March 29)

Counter-Strike 2 will have its volumetric smoke, and Guerrilla Games will use the technology to make clouds in the Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores DLC for PlayStation 5, which will be more than just a background view. The details, though not all, were revealed by Andrew Schneider, who is responsible for special effects on the team.

This is by no means a sudden whim of the developers. As we read in a post on the PlayStation's official blog, the Dutch developer dreamed of using volumetric objects in the sky already in the the first game in the Horizon series. The team even created a dedicated simulator to test "interactive" clouds.

However, technological limitations did not allow for this vision to be realized in either Zero Dawn or Forbidden West (although the system used in the previous game was greatly improved in the sequel). Not until after work on the second game was completed, Guerrilla Games took to the clouds in earnest, having abandoned the vintage PlayStation 4.

One of the reasons was the addition of flying mounts in FW, which enabled the players to interact more closely with the clouds. The developers want players to be able to swoop not through individual volumetric puffs but entire landscapes and "environments" made of clouds (bluntly described as "Frankencloudscape" by Schneider) during sky travels.

In practice, the new technology will make clouds more than just be a background in flight. The clouds will become a location in themselves, so to speak, full of - and we quote - "tunnels, caves and various surprises." On top of that, this landscape will change depending on the time of day (and probably also the weather - Schneider didn't want to reveal too much, but expressed hope that we won't be afraid of "some lightning").

Players will be able to explore "cloudy" locations.Source: Guerrilla Games.

Of course, at the end of the day, this novelty is primarily intended to provide breathtaking views, which would not be shunned by representatives of luminism (it was this trend in American painting that inspired the devs).

Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores will debut on April 19, 2023. You will need the base game for PlayStation 5 to play.