The first time I saw a god-ray was in a videogame. Not in a forest, not in a cathedral. The shaft of light came through a broken window in a corridor I cannot now name, and the engine drew it for fewer minutes than I spent staring at it.
The aesthetic memory those games built — Half-Life 2, Silent Hill, the early Souls — is closer to the cinematic editorial mode than to documentary photography. Volumetric fog, motivated light, an understanding that empty rooms are full.
what they got right
Atmosphere over information. The frame is allowed to be ambiguous. Faces are partial. Spaces are negative. None of it is "well-lit"; all of it is intentional.
what I borrow
The willingness to underexpose. The trust that a viewer will lean in. The habit of building a frame around what isn't in it.
The credit goes both ways: photographers taught the game designers, and then the game designers taught the next photographers. The line is not interesting. What is interesting is that the language is shared.