If you hang around in game-dev circles, you may have recently come across one of these videos:

If you don't find this technique instantly fascinating, it's hard to explain what exactly it's doing differently. There are plenty of games that are pixelated, even plenty of 3D, first person games that use a low-res, pixelated camera, but this technique (which I'll call the Shadowglass technique going forward), creates a unique effect.

Let's try to list what Shadowglass does differently than the naive (low-res camera) approach:

• Pixel stability: As the camera moves, so do the pixels. Whether you rotate the camera, or move around in space (walking), the pixels seem to remain solid, defined chunks.
• Minimal shimmering: Because of the pixel stability, there is very little shimmering around the edges of objects as you move around.
• Clear distant details and smooth transitions: Very far away objects and buildings remain remarkably clear, and almost look like hand-painted skyboxes, and smoothly transition to high-res versions of themselves when you get close to them.