How Forza Horizon 3 became the most beautiful game on Xbox

In the age of photorealism, developer Playground Games used intricate HD sky footage and 'sub-pixel'-detail car models to raise the bar on authenticity

Last October, video game developer Playground Games sent six staff members from its studio in Leamington Spa to a tiny town 120 miles south-west of Sydney called Braidwood, New South Wales. Armed with a custom built 12K-resolution camera worth tens of thousands of pounds, they weren't there to capture the scenery or film movie sequences with a cast of actors. They were there to record the sky.

Released in September, Forza Horizon 3 is widely credited as one of the most visually impressive console games ever made. A driving simulation based in and around a fictitious car festival, the game gives players hundreds of miles of accurately modelled Australian scenery to explore, from dense rain forests to sun-bleached outback wastelands.