system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why is it so difficult to make reflections in video games?

Why is it so difficult to make reflections in video games? Is it impossible to do without a very large consumption of resources?
gpt
Doing a reflection essentially means drawing the scene twice, once from the camera's point of view and once from "within" the mirror.

Drawing the scene takes a lot of processing power. If the game runs at say 60 fps normally, having to draw the scene twice will make that framerate drop significantly.

That said it should be possible if the developers are clever about where they place mirrors. For example if a lot of the game has wide open spaces with lots of stuff in it, but mirrors are only ever in enclosed spaces with not much in them then it could work ok.

But it's still a lot of work to implement mirrors, and generally do players care about them that much? The time is usually better spent on other features.