VisceralBowl
Member
Some pre-built example games from Unreal 4.
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Developers: STOP using Chromatic Aberration
- Thread starter Seanspeed
- Start date
hullostranger
Member
It's this generations motion blur/ piss filter.
Devs, please give the option to disable such trash. It hurts the look of the game in most cases.
Devs, please give the option to disable such trash. It hurts the look of the game in most cases.
Shao Kahn Brewing a Stew
Banned
The Witcher 3 uses CA as well, but in PC you can turn it off. I think that was announced today so this thread's timing is quite funny.
SapientWolf
Trucker Sexologist
It's looking like subtle use of the effect can help with the sterile look you get when you're running low resolution textures at high resolutions. I'm wondering if it looks that bad in motion, because I know motion blur doesn't.
The lens flare is in the wrong position, but fuck.
That shit would give me motion sickness.
Dictator93
Member
I think the thread's genesis was Seanspeed's realization that TW3 uses CA. Ad then "glory to god in the highest," we found out that CA was able to be disabled in TW3.
Seanspeed justfied. Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra.
BlastProcessing
Member
How is it equivalent to 3D? 3D is currently being pushed in film because it allows higher ticket prices and more TV sales. It requires specific hardware to view to boot.
I don't mind this particular effect when its applied subtly and competently, but that goes for all post-processing stuff.
What bothers me is when they're used gratuitously and obnoxiously, like DICE did in BF3 with their implementation of glare, blinding "taclights", dirt-o-vision, etc. that constantly obscures your vision.
What bothers me is when they're used gratuitously and obnoxiously, like DICE did in BF3 with their implementation of glare, blinding "taclights", dirt-o-vision, etc. that constantly obscures your vision.
tonythedemon
Neo Member
Just have a switch for it and be done with it.
That is all well and good. But given that in some games the effect is so strong and so horribly applied, threads like these exist because apparently art directors have no idea that CA is so disliked or outright uncomfortable for people. It is almost like they slather it on without a second thought.
Nikodemos
Member
I don't think Cuphead has chromatic aberration. To me the effect looks more like an emulation of the color bleed-out artifact that was typical of early color celluloid films.
Chromatic aberration is more of a photographic or photo-realistic (rather than drawn imagery) artifact.
Chromatic aberration is more of a photographic or photo-realistic (rather than drawn imagery) artifact.
Yup, CA several pixels wide looks very bad when done like in most games.They can get pretty close in places
Most implementations do not have the radial blur component either, so there is clear gaps between colors.
Imho. very small amount of CA is ok, sadly it's usually turned up to eleven.. (very small means width within pixel, these images have it wider than 5..)
Sad to see art ruined by such decision, It can ruin the dimensionality and depth of an image just like overuse of sharpening filter.
So console versions are the only ones that will respect the devs true "artistic vision", huh ?
XANDER CAGE
Member
But camera tricks that wouldn't exist without, well, cameras have existed in fantasy films for years. I get that there's no "camera" for lens effects to apply to in the logic of a fantasy game, but sometimes the rather nebulous concept of immersion isn't the only thing developers are chasing with their visual design. Sometimes they just want things to look cool. In Lord of the Rings, they dangled Christmas lights above the set while filming so Galadriel's eyes would look unnaturally sparkly for the camera. Were there lights in the context of the scene that would actually do that? No, but it sure looks neat.
How successful they are varies. Personally, I think the CA in Bloodborne fucking sucks, but I don't think that's a reason to write off camera-style effects for fantasy settings altogether. When it isn't being blown out to the point where color banding is obvious, CA can absolutely add some nice blur and depth to scenes.
Freshmaker
I am Korean.
If they don't make any sense, then it gets to me. Like I said, if there is some reason for the stuff to be happening, ok.
But the current trend seems to be "Fantasy game!?! HEAVY CA!!!" which just seems like people playing with a new plug in.
Morrigan Stark
Arrogant Smirk
I agree it's a dumb effect and probably should never be used and all, but sometimes the hyperbole is just ridiculous. Case in point:
Jesus, come on...
Mass Effect
Member
Psychoward
Banned
I had purposefully avoided looking in to it before because I didn't want another graphical technicality to be disappointed with - but it's too late now. I finally know what it is and notice it in screenshots.
grandwizard
Member
The CA in Bloodborne is really bad. It makes it look like a jaggy mess despite being a native 1080p game, and everything shimmers like crazy when you move the camera. Some areas are worse than others due to the geometry, the central area of the city is particularly bad due to so many fences and spikes and things.
I'm sorry playing this game gives me motion sickness and I feel like vomiting. I got up to father gascoigne and stopped playing the same day.
I bought a PS4 specifically for this game and I really want to play it.
Morrigan Stark
Arrogant Smirk
lol motion sickness? How? I just played for several hours and even knowing the CA is apparently there, I never noticed a thing while playing. Then again I don't stop every 10 seconds to peek at some spiked fence jutting out of the corner of my screen either.
Meh, I really don't get the hyperbolic reaction. It might suck if you want to take a nice screenshot, but other than that, I can't imagine noticing that stuff, let alone being affected by it.
Meh, I really don't get the hyperbolic reaction. It might suck if you want to take a nice screenshot, but other than that, I can't imagine noticing that stuff, let alone being affected by it.
HyperBitHero
Member
This stuff gives me a headache. Every time I've played Bloodborne it has given me a headache. I push through it because the game is good, but it is still annoying.
I guess they turn it up to eleven because the computational requirement for making an exaggerated CA is probably the same as a subtle, almost unnoticeable one. They may be going, well if I'm spending this many cycles doing this, might as well make it blatantly obvious!
They will hopefully learn one day.
KojiKnight
Member
You do however have the hyperbolic reaction to others reactions down...
"I don't get motion sickness therefore if ANYONE gets it, it must be them just being hyperbolic or them not actually playing the game."
If you don't even notice it most of the time, then what's the harm in it being removed or an option to toggle it off?
Some things affect people in different ways. Low FoVs and screen tearing have long caused headaches and motion sickness in some people for instance.
Theonik
Member
I don't think it's that only. The base problem is creative bankruptcy. It's the same mentality that lead to shit effect explosion last gen. A lot of game artists simply look at what's in style and just add the most they can. If they really wanted to emulate lenses they don't do a very good job at it at all, and hell they'd need to implement actually decent DOF and proper blur and light estimates to apply CA not in a fullscreen basis but on an edge basis. All of this would be very taxing on even the strongest of hardware though, so they should just drop it altogether.
Whipped Spartan
Member
Never even noticed it existed thanks op 
That's actually what I kind of like about the effect. In a weird way it adds blur but everything retains some of its sharpness.
As a (poor) juxtaposition, consider these screenshots from Life is Strange and GTA (I know GTA has CA too, but it's not really apparent in this pic)
Of course more stuff is happening, lighting, vignetting, blur, the fact that some of the characters in GTA are weirdly missing shadows, but the angular graphics (r) of GTAV make a number of the characters look weirdly cut out of a magazine and pasted into the scene, whereas the slight aberration around the edges of the LiS characters make them look more part of the scene.
It's also an example I think where mimicking a bad camera lens, thereby creating a fourth wall, actually improves immersion. I feel much more like I'm there in the scenes of Life is Strange than in GTAV, even if the latter has ten times the budget and a newer engine.
Of course this is only if the CA is used relatively sparingly. Stuff like this just looks incredibly obnoxious to me.
(it's better in motion luckily)
It doesn't seem arbitrary or bandwagon-y in some cases, for example Bloodborne. The game has a very surreal atmosphere where I question the authenticity of the events occuring and my own place in the scheme of things. CA may have possibly (at least in my subjectivity) added to that effect.
The trend of dogmatism ("it is bad period!") displayed here is the bigger danger, where we start rioting on developers for game development decisions that we barely understand and have zero statistical data to support our bias. Saying "it looks bad to me" as a product-specific customer feedback is a great thing. But what OP is doing here, telling developers how to do their jobs, is a different sticky matter.
martino
Member
this is bad argument missing the point of what bring video games (interactivity and real time adaptative rendering)
typical cinematic console crappy excuse (imo)
My post was purposefully made inflammatory in order to get a bit of attention and raise awareness. Obviously one little forum member is not going to make a difference and no developer is going to read what I wrote and suddenly change their practices. But if I can at least get people understanding what's going on, show what the effect is and why it is so often being abused and ruining otherwise nice looking games, then I consider it a good thing and job done. One person isn't going to change anything, but if more people start recognizing it and maybe speaking up about it, then maybe something can change. Like I even said in the OP, at the very least, give us the option to turn it off. If this takes a step towards this happening more often, then I'm super happy.
If you read my comments past just my OP, you'll see I'm not quite as dogmatic as you're painting me to be. I don't personally like the effect anywhere I've seen it, but that is my taste and I admit it can be at the least - tolerable - when 'done right'. The reason I state the thread title as it is is because I don't feel devs are using it tastefully or responsibly in most cases. And like any kid who shows they cant use something responsibly, the best course of action is take it away from them. I really think some developers should back away from using it til they get a better grasp on it. I look forward to you calling me arrogant again for believing I know what's right(even though the last time you called me arrogant for saying something, you eventually admitted you agreed with my statement...), but I think the amount of other people who feel similarly to me is a sign that perhaps the usage of the effect we see is generally doing more harm than good and should be reevaluated.
Personally, I find the other extreme of the argument - just blindly accepting what we're given as an inherently uncriticizable 'artistically merited' decision - to be a bit concerning.
Dictator93
Member
Don't be so sure about that Sean! I am pretty sure my comparative posting about Metro 2033 Redux's nerfs on PC brought back some of the volumetric lighting (aka really on in the scenes where I pointed out their error: it is missing in tons of other scenes still). Maybe more devs will at least include the option to disable it because of this thread. 65k views is nothing to scoff at.
I'm usually not too focused on it, but Bloodborne certainly has a distracting use of CA. Nothing preventing me from playing or enjoying the art-style, but I think it seriously deteriorate the look of the game and is tiring my eyes at times. Please make it at least a "toggle".
While certainly overused, it's nowhere near motionblur/bloom annoying imo. Personally I mostly don't even realize it's there unless I am paying attention to specific things. The implementation in BB is a bit too much, but even then it doesn't bother me much.
While slightly annoying it is nowhere near "Oh, sweet, I can't see anything anymore because the whole screen looks like a giant smear!" or "Oh, I guess I will go snowblind if I continue playing this!".
Piss filter, while looking shit in 95% of the games, at least lets me see stuff on screen.
While slightly annoying it is nowhere near "Oh, sweet, I can't see anything anymore because the whole screen looks like a giant smear!" or "Oh, I guess I will go snowblind if I continue playing this!".
Piss filter, while looking shit in 95% of the games, at least lets me see stuff on screen.
Agreed, this is not OK anymore. Crysis 3 was terrible with this, I had to disable it with tweaks, made everything look better.
I would ordinarily add my pitchfork (and point to other camera effects such as vignetting and motion blur) but I think it comes down to a question of taste. In short, if you notice the CA, you're doing it wrong.
It is particularly strange with the 720p/900p/1080p debate because CA is essentially a blur effect which defeats the entire purpose of a 1080p image (at least at the periphery and/or high-contrast edges).
Having more options is always better, even on consoles (e.g. Mass Effect 1 had a film grain toggle on Xbox 360).
It is particularly strange with the 720p/900p/1080p debate because CA is essentially a blur effect which defeats the entire purpose of a 1080p image (at least at the periphery and/or high-contrast edges).
Having more options is always better, even on consoles (e.g. Mass Effect 1 had a film grain toggle on Xbox 360).
Morrigan Stark
Arrogant Smirk
I didn't say they haven't played the game, I said I don't get how someone could be affected so strongly. Perhaps they suffer from a medical condition, in which case, my sympathies.
And I'd totally be fine with an option to remove it or even removing it completely. In fact I specifically agreed that games would look better without it, so I don't know why you're telling me this.
I get the headaches from the screen tearing when it's really strong, and those exaggerated CA examples posted earlier would also give headaches for sure, but more subtle effects that most people don't notice, I find it a bit baffling that people are throwing up and stuff.
Thanks for the thread Seanspeed, I agree 100% and am glad someone's spreading some awareness about this.
Chromatic aberration is, well, an aberration... an artifact to camera lenses like aliasing is to 3D rendering. Actively implementing it in video games is like actively implementing aliasing in photography; in other words, stupid as hell, a detriment to image quality, and a nonsensical decision that actively lacks an understanding of the source of the effect in the first place most of the time.
Outside of some extremely rare, temporary, and subtle circumstances, it's just counterintuitive (and frankly ugly regardless) and to the usage level it's currently blown up to it's flat-out asinine.
Chromatic aberration is, well, an aberration... an artifact to camera lenses like aliasing is to 3D rendering. Actively implementing it in video games is like actively implementing aliasing in photography; in other words, stupid as hell, a detriment to image quality, and a nonsensical decision that actively lacks an understanding of the source of the effect in the first place most of the time.
Outside of some extremely rare, temporary, and subtle circumstances, it's just counterintuitive (and frankly ugly regardless) and to the usage level it's currently blown up to it's flat-out asinine.
https://twitter.com/System11b/status/588727509908328448
Well, I asked, let's see if I get a reply! I wanted to be more wordy and polite so it's sad that the only way to communicate with people directly sometimes is a platform which forces one liners.
Well, I asked, let's see if I get a reply! I wanted to be more wordy and polite so it's sad that the only way to communicate with people directly sometimes is a platform which forces one liners.
ichtyander
Member
Saw the new Star Wars teaser today and immediately noticed some, I'd say deliberate, chromatic aberration in there. It's obvious the whole movie is keeping a bit of an older look with the camera lenses, but I thought it was still an interesting example of the effect being used in something other than video games. I put the screens as links if folks wanna stay off the spoilers for the movie.
Upper right corner. You can mostly notice it on the right side of everything during the whole scene.
http://imgur.com/0Dwr8mw
Pretty much all over, especially at the center-right area.
http://imgur.com/hMcTBEQ
Upper right corner. You can mostly notice it on the right side of everything during the whole scene.
http://imgur.com/0Dwr8mw
Pretty much all over, especially at the center-right area.
http://imgur.com/hMcTBEQ
MrNyarlathotep
Banned
JJ Abrams going overboard with digital post processing effects? Gosh.