BCM434 - Underwater bubbles and more
(7:58) Level 6 ('343 Guilty Spark') on Easy. There's some interesting stuff you can do underwater in the swamp. Create lots of pretty bubbles for example! The movie also shows a few other things I noticed in connection with that. All of which showcases admirable craft from Bungie.
- Download: BCM434.mov (138.8 MB)
- Watch at HBO in full quality
Released June 8th 2020, gameplay recorded June 1st-6th 2020.
Commentary
00:02 (Handy checkpoint) At the start here, I top up my AR and trigger a new checkpoint (associated with an explosion plus covie triggering), getting it back in deep water, ready for some bubble work (with flashlight on). This set-up was my starting point for the rest of the movie.
00:22 (AR and pistol) Now I demonstrate making bubbles with an AR and then a pistol. With the AR, notice that you get two bubble streams and there's no muzzle flash.
01:56 (Plasma grenades) Next, two clips showing bubbles from plasma grenades.
02:25 (Shotty and self-damage) You don't get bubbles from a shotgun, but I soon found that you can end up killing yourself. Likewise with AR fire. This has to do with the water surface, as mentioned in my article. I may be elaborating on that in another movie shortly.
03:14 (Head above water, gun below) These next three clips show that you can still get bubbles even if you're not submerged. You just need the gun submerged.
04:12 (Another deep spot, and sinking splashes) Moving to another deep area (rather smaller), I do a bit more bubble work and highlight how surface splashes sink.
05:02 (Floating bark) Four clips now, showing the behaviour of bark fragments. They float on the water, making a nice sight. It's something I noticed while having bubble fun, but I didn't think it merited a separate movie so I've just included a few examples here. The second clip is over at a tree root near the crashed Pelican. The short fourth clip was a last-minute addition, after I checked through some reserve footage.
06:17 (Rubble underwater) Another aspect I noticed: rubble is slowed underwater.
06:49 (Final medley) Here's a medley of four bubble clips to finish. The first is at a place where you can't actually submerge, but it gave me some nice footage involving water lillies. The second is at a place where you can submerge, but I'll leave you to figure out where. The third shows a strange view which you may have trouble interpreting, and again I'll leave that as a mystery. In the final clip I'm back in the original large area and I've got the camera level with the water surface, which is nice for viewing sinking splashes. I timed things so that after my death you'd hear the end of the audio message, which I though would make a nice ending. It took quite a few tries to get a sufficiently pleasing clip though. For example I wanted a good loud death cry, but often there was no cry at all.
Closing remarks I made quite an effort here to get lots of appealing footage, not just in regard to showing bubbles and other phenomena but also the sheer beauty of the swamp. Hopefully that came through. I used Easy for the sake of being able to feature a shotgun. On higher difficulties there's no shotgun at the crashed Pelican.