ilfait
Member
I can relate to that impulse. When I mess around with emulators for 3D consoles like Dolphin or PCSX2 I always start out wanting to see every game rendered at native or higher than native on the sharpest display; or when I get some new PC hardware I just wanna see everything as crisp as possible; but when I actually compare the way things look, their visual coherency, and the way they convey a sense of place, I realize that my first impulse isn't one that best complements every game.am sorry but as good as it is to have it on the switch it looks like the screen needs wiping to clear it up
Another time it becomes apparent to me is in games like Cuphead that have optional effects that let you clean up the image. I'm instinctively drawn to the idea of setting it to "wipe it clear" mode, but when I actually compare the two, like in Cuphead, I sometimes realize the importance of what the blurriness/softening/obscuring effect is doing for the game.
Softening is commonly accepted as being a valid and important technique or choice, or whatever you wanna call it, in other mediums like conventional art, film, in music (example equivalent in music is EQing during recording and mastering in a way that makes the sound less clear/vivid). But in games it's far less accepted, and rarely used or appreciated. Sometimes for good reason, because of the way it can impact the way a game plays, but sometimes for no good reason other than typical anti-"vaseline" gamer and digital artist sentiment. I don't know if it's a possibility that many digital artists even consider.
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