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Does anyone else dislike Depth of Field in games?

Depends. The New Vegas example posted I find generally inoffensive but most of the time I hate it. Until games can accurately tell where my eyes are aimed on the screen without requiring the cursor as an analog it will mostly come off as obtrusive. Many devs just overdo it and make me feel like i'm going fucking blind.
 
LurkerPrime said:
It generally doesn't bother me, unless it makes the game look weird.

Example of weirdness (from Watch_Dogs_Unlocked; Aiden is now 10 inches tall):
Click to expand...


Yep. Your action game is effectively "miniature" photography now, with a simulated fstop at around 0.4.

On the other hand, that would be one freaking expensive lens IRL.
 
There are two things I hate about DoF - bad implementations with ugly gaussian blurs, bad transitions from blurred to sharp, and bleeding between foreground and background (pretty much any example on previous-gen consoles, due to technical limitations, and some new-gen examples due to devs not implementing more accurate algorithms), and using it when it's not appropriate. If you're using DoF at any point where I might reasonably want to focus on a part of the scene you've blurred out, you've fucked up. So basically anywhere that isn't a cutscene or a QTE.

The first part should be slowly fixed over the next few years as people retire those crappy old implementations. The second part, I'm less confident on. At least until we move over completely to VR with eyetracking, so that the plane of focus can be accurately placed exactly where the player is looking.
 
It's fine in cutscenes. The cinematic DOF in The Witcher 2 is gorgeous. During a well directed cutscene there most certainly is a spot you should be looking. I think it adds a lot.
 
I like it a lot when done well, though agree it can be very distracting when it's used in a sloppy manner.
 
No because If I ever want to look at something that the game doesn't think I'm looking at then it's a blurry mess.

If there's ever a way to mix eye tracking in with a DOF effect. Well that's a different story.
 
LurkerPrime said:
What game is the second set of screenshots from? (The one with the horse.)

There's:

Tomb Raider
???
The Witcher 2
Fallout: New Vegas
Battlefield Hardline?



Good point. I will call the modded version Watch_Dogs_Unlocked.

It does link to Dennis' post in that thread, so it shouldn't be too confusing.
Click to expand...

Call of Juarez

And the last is Black Ops 2
 
It always distracting because it's not dependent on where you (as a person, not the character) are looking. I disable it whenever I can.

Motion Blur, Bloom, Chromatic Abberation, Depth of Field. Those are the four things that are immediately turned off because they're garbage most of the time. AO as well, but mostly because the hit to performance isn't worth it.
 
yeah, if it is overdown, can make things looks tiny/miniature. If done correctly, like far of in the distances, or a cutscene with a long,zoomed in lens(or zooming in with a scope). Or only when something is actually super up close(like the gun example in the OP) that stuff is fine, and works well.

Pikmin 3 was good for obvious reasons too.
 
It depends on HOW it's used.

If it's gradual and only used to soften far distant landscape/objects, then fine.

But if you're talking about blurring stuff 15 feet in front of you, FORGET IT.
 
Bokah in general is hard to employ with significant benefits. What fumbles me the most in games is how spread the use of bokeh is, especially in situations where it is all but necessary, sometimes even introducing unnecessary strain on the player. Motion blur is another effect that seems for the most part a redundant addition, because the player will see movement blurring regardless, that's how eyes work anyhow.

Games in general have poor understanding of photographic principles.
 
ItIsOkBro said:
Call of Juarez

And the last is Black Ops 2
Click to expand...

Ha-ha, thanks. I suppose it's good I didn't guess. I would have said that it was that Uncharted clone, Unearthed: The Trail of Ibn Battuta.

And I guess all shooters look the same to me. In my defense, that image has a police car in it.
 
Personally, I think Depth of Field as with almost all other post-processing effects like Motion Blur, Film Grain, Lens Flares, Colour Grading/Tinting, Chromatic Aberration, Vignetting & FXAA are complete abominations that ruin image quality IMO.

I hate those effects so much, BUT that being said I know lots of other people love them so to each his own. What REALLY makes my blood boil is when developers are too lazy or incompetent to provide the player with the OPTION to turn them off. All it takes is a simple toggle switch in the video options menu.

Also it really grinds my gears when they just lump multiple effects like those under some general "Post-Processing" slider. Gimme SEPERATE options please!!!

Although a lot of recent AAA titles have been very good in this regard I'm still getting a little tired of having to tweak .ini files to change one feature that should have its own setting under the game's options menu.

-Hawk
 
It has to be used sparingly and subtly, unless you're going for a super mysterious vibe like in Limbo. It's been a while, but I remember Sleeping Dogs using it well. Blur on stuff closer to the camera than your character, and also on stuff well into the distance.
 
In the early days of DoF it always looked heavy-handed and forced and I hated it. But when used sparingly and properly I think it really adds to the visuals and I really like it.
 
It depends for me. I don't care for objects losing focus when they are 'too close' to the camera, since I actually like to zoom in that close to look at the assets. Done right I think it can add immersion, but I also like to be able to see things in the distance.

The problem is that the human eye can focus nearly instantly at any distance, and you don't have that control in a video game. Some FPS games mimic it (particularly when looking down a scope).

I implemented DoF into my game because it was 2D and I needed to differentiate what was scene dressing and what was interactive. DoF can be really helpful from a usability standpoint.
 
Improper DOF may make everything look like miniatures (e.g. COD 3rd person kill animaton DOF), but when properly used, it may be used to unobtrusively highlight active objects where you don't need to see other things clearly (Crysis weapon attachment DOF)

It may be put in cinematic portions to good use.

Otherwise, any blur is loss of information.
 
Hawkeye 131 said:
Personally, I think Depth of Field as with almost all other post-processing effects like Motion Blur, Film Grain, Lens Flares, Colour Grading/Tinting, Chromatic Aberration, Vignetting & FXAA are complete abominations that ruin image quality IMO.
Click to expand...

I completely agree with every single example you gave, with the possible exception of color grading.

I turn all those examples off. It sucks that other people like those things, which means some games have it and are unable to turn off.
 
I like it when it is done well, like in some shooters. Ideally, it is important for directing the eyes of the player.
hesido said:
Otherwise, any blur is loss of information.
Click to expand...
Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. The player doesn't need 100% of the visual information at all times.
 
Snow has possibly the most criminal use of DoF

snow.jpg
 
Femmeworth said:
I like it when it is done well, like in some shooters. Ideally, it is important for directing the eyes of the player.

Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. The player doesn't need 100% of the visual information at all times.
Click to expand...

Dingaling, DOF is a wonderful and easily understood way of guiding the focal point of the viewer.
 
It works sometimes. The effect isn't good or bad entirely, it depends on developer implementation, and of course personal preference. The option to turn it off would be nice. I wonder for certain games though if it's used to hide low res textures way in the distance.

WiiU_MarioKart8_121813_SCRN_04.jpg
 
Most of the time i have it off. I will dislike it till the moment we have great eye tracking to make a really good DoF effect.
 
great in cutscenes, generally don't like it during gameplay. It's funny that you used witcher 2 as an example. I'm playing through that right now and cinematic DoF is such a performance killer I just turned it off. I think it's bugged
 
Since I game on PC and most games are competent to include the option to turn it off, I always turn it off. Always. And motion blurring. Motion blurring is the worse, but DOF is another offender.

I don't need things to look blurred. It just lowers the experience for me. DOF doesn't even simulate it well enough. I've seen some tech demos that overkill it immensely and while it looks okay, definitely not better than without it imo.

Maybe when VR becomes big? Probably not even then.
 
It's a shitty effect that I always turn off, along with camera motion blur.

I don't need the game to simulate what my eyes do naturally.
 
DOF really does work well in Pikmin. I guess it's so effective because of the presumed size difference and distance involved.

Watch_Dogs_Unlocked redeemed?
 
It breaks immersion for me. I don't want to imagine there is an actual video camera in the game world.

Unless it's like Lakitu in Super Mario 64.
 
When it's used correctly and tastefully, it can be a very nice way to imbue levels with a sense of depth. The images in the OP, for instance, look somewhat flat (IMO) without DOF enabled. As others have said, it can also be a handy way to guide the eye of the player. Until we can do proper 3D depth perception on telly boxes, games are always going to have to find work arounds to trick our eyes into perceiving fundamentally 2D images as 3D, and well done DOF is a fine effect for that.

When it's overdone, of course, it ends up looking hazier than a smoggy day in London, but the same can be said about any visual effect.
 
lowhighkang_LHK said:
depth of field that is done right is the kind where you don't actively notice it when it's enabled. then you know it's implemented properly.
Click to expand...

There's the rub! DoF simulates something being out of focus, ie: not being given attention. So it works best when you don't pay it any attention.
 
I said this earlier but I feel it bears repeating: my eyes already do DOF and motion blur, I don't need an algorithm to do it for me
 
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