This single still is from the widescreen version of ?A Detective Story?, one of the Animatrix animated shorts. It has been considerably scaled back from the original material.

A Detective story is unique in the Animatrix set, because it deliberately uses a different colour palette for the world. All characters seem to get on with the changed palette and treat it as normal, a grainy, yellowing film noir look.

Its an aspect another great VR fiction work has played with. The Thirteenth Floor uses the same palette changing idea, and points out that if that palette and those colours are all you have ever known, you are going to accept them as real.

It also takes place in a very different city to the one in the Matrix that we know, with much more gothic architecture. This highlights the possibility that if the world is virtual, and large enough, it doesn't have to look or feel the same, all throughout. Indeed it is quite likely that those who live within it, are subtly 'encouraged' not to leave their own 'country', thus never knowing that the others are truly different.

Link: Animatrix: A Detective Story