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Anyone else dislikes Nintendo's current love for washed out color schemes?

Okada

Member
I find it weird that people are saying the game isn't washed out looking? Personally it doesn't bother me but the "fog" look is almost always there, even in portable mode. Very similar to Team Ico games.

The people who are saying switching RGB to full are probably completely unaware about what they're doing. What's probably happening is they're not matching the black level on their TV which is then just crushing the blacks. If you matched Switch and TV black levels then difference between full and limited would be extremely difficult to notice.
 

Ansatz

Member
No fog <3

1488638889.jpg


Daytime </3

1488659994.jpg


Simple as that. I'm not saying it's an objective flaw of the game or due to weak hardware, you can call it weather effects or design choices for the sake of building atmosphere, that doesn't change the fact that the visuals are unappealing to me.
 

Slythe

Member
it's definitely washed out, and i don't think it particularly helps the visuals, but it's not like it's ugly or anything. i mean this is just a small tweak to levels using a random image and nothing else.

i think it looks a lot nicer with more vibrancy and depth.

I agree. I think your examples show the issue a bit more clearly than the OP. It's a preference thing I suppose, although I hate when I am playing breath of the wild and it looks like someone has breathed all over my screen and fogged it up.
 
it's definitely washed out, and i don't think it particularly helps the visuals, but it's not like it's ugly or anything. i mean this is just a small tweak to levels using a random image and nothing else.

3082292-zelda-breath-of-the-wild-grand-world-1.jpg


nFN8g2v.jpg


i think it looks a lot nicer with more vibrancy and depth.

That's at least a better example than what others have shown.
 

LJ11

Member
Wonder when we'll get a thread saying the Switch is too dark, because folks decided to just turn Full RGB on without matching it.
 

13ruce

Banned
I first thought the bright haze was a problem with my new 4k tv, but then i looked closely while playing portable mode and was relieved to see it's part if the game.

Guess i was annoyed with is because not all games use that effect.

I am adjusted to it and fine with it now.
And yeah it's like that in real life from time to time too but never noticed that till now lol.
 

Yarbskoo

Member
No fog <3

1488638889.jpg


Daytime </3

1488659994.jpg


Simple as that. I'm not saying it's an objective flaw of the game or due to weak hardware, you can call it weather effects or design choices for the sake of building atmosphere, that doesn't change the fact that the visuals are unappealing to me.

What's your opinion on the green?

Yes I know the imgur compression is awful, sorry.
 
it's definitely washed out, and i don't think it particularly helps the visuals, but it's not like it's ugly or anything. i mean this is just a small tweak to levels using a random image and nothing else.
3082292-zelda-breath-of-the-wild-grand-world-1.jpg

Do you know that picture is supposed to be ''wash out'' because it's captured at dawn and it's supposed to be foggy?

If you ACTUALLY played the game, you know it does't always look like that.
Here's an example, at 4:13 you can see him running to the same exact location.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xWXBxrPDAY&feature=youtu.be&t=253

or watch here if you didn't like AngryJoe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nTPQo5GVB4&feature=youtu.be&t=297

Look at my face and tell me that's washed out and colorless.
 
Looks like maybe the green fog is height dependent as well as showing up at different times of day.

Does the sky still look green at night when you're up there?
I tried climbing up a mountain at night but it was snowing, and I couldn't be bothered climbing back down again to fast forward the time to try again. Sorry. :p
 

KORNdoggy

Member
Do you know that picture is supposed to be ''wash out'' because it's captured at dawn and it's supposed to be foggy?

If you ACTUALLY played the game, you know it does't always look like that.
Here's an example, at 4:13 you can see him running to the same exact location.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xWXBxrPDAY&feature=youtu.be&t=253

or watch here if you didn't like AngryJoe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nTPQo5GVB4&feature=youtu.be&t=297

Look at my face and tell me that's washed out and colorless.

i'm not sure what your trying to prove here. i searched breath of the wild and this was like the 3rd image that popped up of decent enough res, and it was washed out. i used it as an example. nothing more. stop getting all defensive, christ.
 

Pizza

Member
Honestly it looks like the changes the op wants could be achieved by changing some tv settings for the most part
 
i'm not sure what your trying to prove here. i searched breath of the wild and this was like the 3rd image that popped up of decent enough res, and it was washed out. i used it as an example. nothing more. stop getting all defensive, christ.
This is the same problem as the OP. If you had played the game, you would know it doesn't always look like this. This is what people were trying to explain before but since OP hasn't played it, he had no worthwhile response. It's never a good idea to just take random Google images.
 
If BotW looks slightly grey washed it's probably not calibrated correctly on your tv or the youtube videos are using limited space recordings, it's not a super bright game but it's by no way a grey wash either.
 

KORNdoggy

Member
This is the same problem as the OP. If you had played the game, you would know it doesn't always look like this. This is what people were trying to explain before but since OP hasn't played it, he had no worthwhile response. It's never a good idea to just take random Google images.

and posting 2 video's showing the game looking just as washed out achieves what exactly? it was a levels tweak that was a little less obnoxiously exaggerated that the ones people have made in this thread.

it was just to show the game can look nicer without the washed out filter they use (whether it's all a time of day effect or not is kind of irrelevant)
 
i'm not sure what your trying to prove here. i searched breath of the wild and this was like the 3rd image that popped up of decent enough res, and it was washed out. i used it as an example. nothing more. stop getting all defensive, christ.

I am not sure what you are trying to prove here either, that the game is washed out?
If you really dislike how the game looks ''wash out'' then just set your RGB range to full in the Switch setting and maybe up the saturation to 70-90% on your TV, I am sure it's gonna look perfect for you even during foggy times.

it was just to show the game can look nicer without the washed out filter they use

Basically ''The game can look nicer with more color and stoner contrast'' which applies to every game ever, on a sujective level.
 

ErMerGerd

Neo Member
Even the screen shots people post to 'disprove' the OP look washed out and bland to me. The Odyssey ones look fine but man, I really don't like the colors in BOTW.
 
Botw looks gorgeous. The nuances in lightning from it's source or how objects reflect it make for some stunning vistas.

I'm wary of people bumping up contrast etc to make images look more vibrant. As a photographer it is something i see a lot of people get sucked in by - especially new photographers - they have a tendency to whack up contrast or try their hand at HDR. On first impressions images may "look better", but come back to that photo over time and you realise how cheap and nasty the effect is. You lose so much information and nuances in the image , especially depth and any sense of reality. It's a horrible look. HDR can do one in my opinion :)
 

pringles

Member
This is the same problem as the OP. If you had played the game, you would know it doesn't always look like this. This is what people were trying to explain before but since OP hasn't played it, he had no worthwhile response. It's never a good idea to just take random Google images.
Yep it's almost as if the game has a huge range of environments, weather patterns and thus ends up looking quite different from time to time. Sometimes it's very hazy, washed out. Other times the colors are full and it's clear and crisp.

botw5.jpg

botw6.jpg

botw7.jpg


Just a few of my recent screenshots. I will say that the game looks quite a bit more crisp and less washed out when I'm actually playing it on my TV but still I think these do convey that the game isn't all the sunny, mid-day haze that most of the "washed out" screenshots portray. Personally I think it's an absolutely gorgeous game.
 

Easy_D

never left the stone age
This is how Zelda looks on my TV:

tJ0pTIh.jpg


I love my Samsung.

Oh my god why. I mean I know why, you prefer it that way, but still, oh my god. But hey, at least you set your shit up in a way that suits your tastes, all the power to you for doing so, but... my god!
 

ghibli99

Member
Wow, the "fixes" some of you are applying to BOTW shots shows that Nintendo knows exactly what they're doing. And the whole premise of this thread is misguided. Nobody's posting stuff like Splatoon, MK8, or Arms. Just cherrypicked BOTW/SMO shots. C'mon now.
 

mlclmtckr

Banned
When I was younger I used to turn the saturation and contrast way up on my tv because I thought it looked 'better'.

Then I got over it.
 
Botw looks gorgeous. The nuances in lightning from it's source or how objects reflect it make for some stunning vistas.

I'm wary of people bumping up contrast etc to make images look more vibrant. As a photographer it is something i see a lot of people get sucked in by - especially new photographers - they have a tendency to whack up contrast or try their hand at HDR. On first impressions images may "look better", but come back to that photo over time and you realise how cheap and nasty the effect is. You lose so much information and nuances in the image , especially depth and any sense of reality. It's a horrible look. HDR can do one in my opinion :)

Been working with video/photography for about 10 years now and you do indeed see it a lot by amateurs.
 
i think breath of the wild looks great. the game that I thought of from the thread title was pokemon. gen 6 and 7 have had pretty washed-out palates but I think the series would look better with more saturated colors.
 
it's definitely washed out, and i don't think it particularly helps the visuals, but it's not like it's ugly or anything. i mean this is just a small tweak to levels using a random image and nothing else.

3082292-zelda-breath-of-the-wild-grand-world-1.jpg


nFN8g2v.jpg


i think it looks a lot nicer with more vibrancy and depth.

0fAnUxA.png


GidGY1m.png


Yeah BOTW looks totally so washed out, just like FFXV.
Look at this picture that I spend 2 minutes tweaking, I think it looks a lot nicer with more vibrancy and depth. I mean, just look at the grass and the mountain at the distance, the differnece is HUGE.

See? I can make any original game look ''washed out'' in comparison as well.
 

Paragon

Member
The game seems to have an intentionally flat, washed-out look a lot of the time, as it changes so much with time of day and weather.
I agree that they probably went too far with it, as my first impression of the game had me wondering if I had the video levels set incorrectly since it had been so long since I turned on my Wii U. (they were not)

It's more of a contrast issue than a color issue though, and I think that the look can be improved without having to completely crank up the saturation or make the image really dark.
Using an example image from earlier in this topic:

Original:
originalykubw.jpg


Subtle adjustment:
subtle-levelsftunu.jpg


Less-subtle. (probably went too far with it - I only spent a few seconds on these examples):
less-subtlei1uhk.jpg


Those still convey the same "look" to me, without feeling washed-out.
Zelda is the first game I've had to play with some of my TV's enhancements switched on.
The framerate is so bad that I need to have the motion smoothing options turned on, and the TV's "black corrector" to prevent things from looking completely washed out. (without completely sacrificing the intended look)

Well he sounds very pleased with himself for someone that appears to have things set incorrectly, as his examples of the "correct" levels appear to be clipping.
Just look at this comparison shot:
The highlights are clipped, causing the grass to turn into a solid mass of neon green.

Limited output + Limited capture should look virtually identical to Full output + Full capture, which is clearly not the case in his video.
The only difference between the two is that you have the potential for smoother gradation with a full range output. (256 levels vs 220 levels)
Image brightness/contrast should not be changing. If it is, you have something wrong in your setup.

To me, it looks like he's mixed up the labels on his images. The pair in the middle are most likely the correct captures where the levels match.
That one on the right looks like Full range output + Limited range capture.

Well, the shot on Square's site is more saturated. So what's it going to be?
edit: Oh wait, you switched out the second pic shortly after. I wonder why.
The image linked from the Square-Enix site is encoded in CMYK.
If your browser doesn't do proper color management, color will look ridiculous.
Here's the image as it looks in Chrome:

And here it is with a proper sRGB conversion - as it should appear in a properly color managed browser:

I'm guessing they were using Chrome when they posted that image.
 

BGBW

Maturity, bitches.
The funny thing is, the thread's title makes it sound like it's a problem affecting all of Nintendo's output and yet the only game that's been presented is BotW.

What an epidemic!
 

mlclmtckr

Banned
In BotW is definitely overdone.
I hope we can curb it on Cemu eventuall, with a reshade.

I mean you can curb it right now on your TV if you fuck with the settings.

Honestly though OP's edited screenshots look like the photos I posted on livejournal circa 2005.
 

trixx

Member
So no one posted screens of Captain toad, Tropical Freeze and Pikmin 3 to prove this thread wrong.

It's really only Zelda with the washed out/foggy look. I still like it but I prefer the aesthetic of Skyward Sword personally.
 

muteki

Member
I'm not really a fan of the look on BOTW specifically, be it intentional for style or technical reasons, either way.

Haven't really noticed it being a problem with other titles (such as Mario).
 

Tathanen

Get Inside Her!
I really, really cannot understand what people are thinking when they blame things that are artistic choices on "hardware limitations." Like it takes the power of the PS4 pro to have "vibrant colors." Like we didn't have vibrant colors on the damn N64. Lord almighty.

It actually takes a bit of hardware power to do what Zelda IS doing, there's a lot of variation in atmospheric effects in this game, wildly dependent upon location, time of day, and weather.
 

UrbanRats

Member
I mean you can curb it right now on your TV if you fuck with the settings.

Honestly though OP's edited screenshots look like the photos I posted on livejournal circa 2005.
Problem is, its dependent on time of day.
Which is why i say its overdone and not outright bad.
 
Weaker hardware is also a reason... Art style is often used as a smokescreen for the fact they cannot achieve greater visuals. Even Breath of the Wild. There is a marked haze and bloom and a cel shaded graphics style to mitigate the fact that to achieve what they have, they would need better hardware.
Except at night or early morning there is no haze at all...
 

Kebiinu

Banned
BotW definitely has a hazy look throughout, but there are degrees of haze, and it often looks vibrant and colorful. Screenshots honestly don't do it justice, but I digress.

The real crime here, is how OP insinuates that this permeates through all of their titles, which isn't true at all. So it comes across as concern trolling, tbh.
 
BotW definitely has a hazy look throughout, but there are degrees of haze, and it often looks vibrant and colorful. Screenshots honestly don't do it justice, but I digress.

The real crime here, is how OP insinuates that this permeates through all of their titles, which isn't true at all. So it comes across as concern trolling, tbh.

This.

and somehow people think we are getting overly defensive.
 

jett

D-Member
The game seems to have an intentionally flat, washed-out look a lot of the time, as it changes so much with time of day and weather.
I agree that they probably went too far with it, as my first impression of the game had me wondering if I had the video levels set incorrectly since it had been so long since I turned on my Wii U. (they were not)

It's more of a contrast issue than a color issue though, and I think that the look can be improved without having to completely crank up the saturation or make the image really dark.
Using an example image from earlier in this topic:

Original:
originalykubw.jpg


Subtle adjustment:
subtle-levelsftunu.jpg


Less-subtle. (probably went too far with it - I only spent a few seconds on these examples):
less-subtlei1uhk.jpg


Those still convey the same "look" to me, without feeling washed-out.
Zelda is the first game I've had to play with some of my TV's enhancements switched on.
The framerate is so bad that I need to have the motion smoothing options turned on, and the TV's "black corrector" to prevent things from looking completely washed out. (without completely sacrificing the intended look)

Well he sounds very pleased with himself for someone that appears to have things set incorrectly, as his examples of the "correct" levels appear to be clipping.
Just look at this comparison shot:

The highlights are clipped, causing the grass to turn into a solid mass of neon green.

Limited output + Limited capture should look virtually identical to Full output + Full capture, which is clearly not the case in his video.
The only difference between the two is that you have the potential for smoother gradation with a full range output. (256 levels vs 220 levels)
Image brightness/contrast should not be changing. If it is, you have something wrong in your setup.

To me, it looks like he's mixed up the labels on his images. The pair in the middle are most likely the correct captures where the levels match.
That one on the right looks like Full range output + Limited range capture.

The image linked from the Square-Enix site is encoded in CMYK.
If your browser doesn't do proper color management, color will look ridiculous.
Here's the image as it looks in Chrome:


And here it is with a proper sRGB conversion - as it should appear in a properly color managed browser:


I'm guessing they were using Chrome when they posted that image.

This is a solid post.

Zelda does have, inarguably, a hazy, washed-out color palette. Whether you personally like it or not. To me it almost looks like an issue with white balance. Your first altered screen is great.
 
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