system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[General] Can someone ELI5 hardlight? (Illusion context)
gpt
The idea of a hologram is a three-dimensional projected image.  Where normally we think of images as being two-dimensional and projected on a flat surface (like a movie screen or a television or your phone screen), a hologram uses either a special surface or some sort of force field to project a three-dimensional image. However, this is still just a projected light image: you can move your hand through it, and maybe even *see* through it. The hologram cannot pick things up or physically affect anything around it. Think of the 3D Jaws hologram that tried to "eat" Marty McFly in *Back to the Future Part II*.

"Hardlight" basically increases the forcefield(s) to the point that the hologram is tactile - you *can* touch it and feel it. The hologram is still essentially just light; it has no more mass than a bunch of photons - but your hand won't go through it anymore, which definitely increases the illusion.