Photogrammetry for Game Environments 2014-2019: What Happened Since The Vanishing of Ethan Carter

Between 2014 and 2019, photogrammetry in game development moved from an experimental practice to a standardized, team-based workflow, and the document traces this maturation across 26 published games plus seven in development. Its scope spans indie and AAA developers roughly evenly, with adoption growing sharply after 2017. Developers consistently report gains in detail and realism and reductions in production time, though these savings typically exclude the costs of scanning and processing.

The shift is also visible in how the technique has been discussed. Early coverage, exemplified by EA DICE's 2015 learning-by-doing approach, gave way by 2018 with Battlefield V to a stronger emphasis on quality over quantity. Media framing likewise moved from presenting photogrammetry as near-magical to treating it as a familiar marketing selling point, a framing that often overstates how automated and widely applicable the process actually is.

Application is concentrated in natural assets and props, including landscapes, vegetation, and rocks, which suit the method well. Man-made environments and modular assets are rarely photoscanned. Architecture is largely limited to small structures and key locations, since scanned buildings lack game-ready detail and the problem of modularity remains unresolved. AAA teams face the added difficulty of matching scanned assets against traditionally modeled content.

The overall conclusion is that photogrammetry, though increasingly desirable and present in major franchises such as Battlefield, Call of Duty, and Forza, remains in its early stages. Legal permissions for scanned locations, ethical concerns about depicting real-world places, and high production costs continue to constrain its wider adoption.