Today Rockstar has announced, along with a very neat snap by @F1mBu1V1nT3r (that we may or may not have recommended ;)), that they will be adding an Advanced Camera you can buy from Wheeler, Rawson & Co. to Red Dead Online this upcoming Tuesday with the Naturalist role update.
Being that something that would make Albert Mason, pictured above, very proud of the Online protagonist, I do personally wonder what an advanced camera mode will bring to the table, and will be doing some wee speculation and brainstorming.
For quite a while now, fans of Red Dead Online have been speculating whether a photographer role was coming or not, as it would be a great addition for everyone who wants to (and already does!) take some amazing pictures in the Online mode, for a lack of Photo Mode as in single player.
While this doesn’t seem to mean that a fully fledged Photo Mode with a free cam is coming to the Online Mode, I do personally wonder about one feature that could easily be implemented into the camera: Panoramic shots.
It’s not the Rockstar Editor, but panoramic shots would be a pretty significant addition for a camera upgrade in Red Dead Online, as it would allow players to capture this exceptionally pretty world in new ways, without having to stitch it all up themselves externally. One would take one picture, drag the mouse/move controller stick to one side and take another, and so on, and the game would stitch it all up, resulting in something like the above.
Speaking of Albert Mason, one could also speculate about his appearance in Red Dead Online showing you how to use the advanced camera, but I feel like this would be best reserved for a photographer role, unless, that is, it’s included secretly in the update.
Tracking shots is something else I think could be explored in the advanced camera. Wildlife in RDR2 is widely photographed by the community, including birds, like @BeardedGibbon‘s image above.
A tracking camera could make it possible for a player to focus on one animal, flying or otherwise, and follow its movements automatically to catch them in the perfect position.
Moving with the camera I think is something that might be included. Maybe the new camera is a bit less heavy and the player can now stay in the camera UI while moving around to stay in the perfect position. At the moment, you can only stay where you are because of the camera’s tripod, which was indeed a thing back then, but I also wonder if it wasn’t possible for one to just grab the tripod and place it elsewhere while it’s open anyway… We do already have a handheld cam for selfies after all.
Something else they could add for those dark nights where you just want to play with lighting is a flash bulb. Those were damn bright and rough in the 1800’s it seems, so it would be fun to see R* adding one to the Red Dead Online camera – maybe you’d even be able to blind other players with it!
I’ll be very eagerly waiting for the update as I’m a bit of a snap freak, even if I don’t publish many of them on Twitter. Always loved video game photography and I’m glad to see it’s gonna get some love next Tuesday.