‘Fallout 4’ Director Talks Weather And Lighting In New Video

The talk of weather may not seem like much in casual conversation, but you will get an eye-widening reaction when you add it to a game like Fallout 4. Creative Director Todd Howard discussed the details that are going into the upcoming PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC role-playing title, and the post-apocalypse has never sounded so good.

As many have noticed already, the drab grey look of Fallout 3 is getting brightened up significantly for Fallout 4. Specifically, the dreary grey skies of Fallout 3 have been changed to clear blue for the new sequel.

Howard explains the change in the “Why Details Matter” video shared by Bethesda. Interestingly, he and others on the team had gotten so used to the blue skies while working on Fallout 4 that they were a bit surprised at the reaction.

“I think we’re so used to it because we’ve been working on the game for so long that when people said ‘oh my God there’s blue’ and looking back at [Fallout 3] there is this sameness to the environment. If you play the game at an eight hour stretch, it can be a little depressing,” Howard said.

“Our view was, the world is already destroyed. You’re going to get a lot greys, and browns, and dust. Our lead artist was really into calling out things to your attention that had bits of color.”

Aside from the blue skies, you can see where more color is being infused into the Fallout palette. Buildings, signs, and clothing all have color. Not everything is static, though, and definitely not always bright and sunny. Fallout 4 is introducing a dynamic weather system which can actually make things dark and dangerous since it takes place right next to where a nuclear bomb went off.

“We actually have a part of the world we call the Glowing Sea, which is where the bomb falls. That looks more like your classic Fallout 3 wasteland, but even more so,” Howard explained. “We have a new weather system so that the storms from the Glowing Sea, these radiation storms, can flare up and blow through the world. When the lightning goes off, you get irradiated.

“That creates a very post-apocalyptic look. Having that change when you’re playing the game is very important to us,” he concluded.

The details in Fallout 4 go beyond the lighting and weather, though. As previously reported by the Inquisitr, Fallout 4 may be the largest time sink to be released this holiday season. Part of that is due to the amount of stuff that’s in the game world. The power in the PS4, Xbox One, and PC allows Bethesda to make it all react as Howard explains.

“Everything in the world [is] something tangible – you don’t walk into a room and see lots of stuff and it’s all fake,” he said. “All the items are actual items. You set off a grenade in a room? It’s going to blow s*** around and knock it all over the place. You have to spend cycles and stuff tracking where all of that went, and how it’s going to bounce around.”

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Fallout 4 is currently set for a November 10 release on the PS4, Xbox One, and PC.

[Images via Fallout 4]