PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is finally getting the previously teased 3D replay feature as part of the game’s big upcoming 1.0 release. South Korean company Minkonet, which has been hard at work putting the final touches on the feature, announced that the 3D replay will in fact be ready in time for the official December 20 launch, when the new desert map Miramar debuts alongside both climbing and vaulting mechanics.
Originally announced at E3 2017, 3D replay is capable of recording anything happening in a 1km radius around the player, obviously including other players. This information is retained and stored on your computer as you play, allowing you to take in a 20-second clip “kill cam” to get to the bottom of how you met your swift end.
Not only can you see what happened from directly behind you, but you can move around the environment of each recording from any angle. Think of it as a feature akin to “Photo Mode,” where you can move freely around the environment to capture photos of character models from different positions, only it’s being recorded as you play PUBG. You can view the action from “player view” perspective, which shows you what your assailant saw at the time you went down, “following” will slap a camera right above and directly behind you, and “free camera” lets you roam throughout the entire battlefield to see what was going on at any given moment.
If it’s not enough to see who you were killed by and how it happened, you can access the entirety of each recording on your computer after matches have ended. Though you can only save up to 20 at a time, you can set certain recordings to be locked so that they’re not accidentally overwritten. Of course, you could just record these via third-party methods to save them forever, too, which most players will likely opt to do for video editing purposes.
3D replay has vast implications for both PUBG itself as well as streaming in general, especially given the breadth of what’s being captured. Not only will you be able to gain better insight into what’s going on in the map around you to learn new play strategies, but you’ll be able to use this footage for replays and other video edits that PUBG fans will no doubt eat up. It’s an extremely robust system that, if as successful as it seems it will be, we might see several more games adopting in the near future.
If you’re interested in trying out 3D replay right now, you can do so via the PUBG test servers.
| Name | PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds |
|---|---|
| Type | Shooter |
| Developer | Bluehole |
| Publisher | Bluehole |
| Platforms | PC, Xbox One |
| Where To Buy | Steam |
| Release Date | March 23, 2017 (Early Access)December 20, 2017 (Official release) |