Inside Breath of the Wild: The “Unreal” Physics Engine

Commonwealth Realm uploaded the second segment of their current series “Inside Breath of the Wild” onto YouTube. In this episode, the members of Commonwealth Realm tackle the idea of Breath of the Wild as an immersive, yet unrealistic game. They initially look at the art style of the upcoming title, and note that Eiji Aonuma had admittedly been influenced by Japanese anime when considering part of Breath of the Wild’s design. Also, the team at Commonwealth Realm enlists the help of Artsy Omni for an explanation of the “open air” and “gouache” styles of painting.

They then realize that because of Breath of the Wild’s semi-shaded yet semi-animated graphics lends to less polygons being needed for rendering, which allows for the world’s size, depth, and lack of loading screens on the overworld. Commonwealth Realm then turns their attention to how the game’s unrealistic physics—namely dynamic weather physics and rag doll physics—fit in with the art style. They notice that the dynamic weather helps provide a sense of realism in an arguably “unrealistic” world in terms of what Link can do within the world. They conclude that the mixture of anime style animation allows the rag doll physics to make Breath of the Wild truly feel like an immersive environment by freeing the player to, for example, create a hover board with the Sheikah Slate’s rune powers.

Check out Commonwealth Realm’s video, and let us know your thoughts on the combination of art and physics in Breath of the Wild in the comment section below.