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CA is terrible and when there is too much of it I usually get headaches. Cuphead, for an example, way too much of that shit.

 

[Vulcano's assistant]

I'll continue to say that CA (moderately done, none of that Pay Day 2 shit where you clearly see each separate color) actually looks pretty good on the canopy of trees that are far away and silhouetted against the sky. Like on those Revenat pics. Just blur that forest lines a bit; it makes it come together with the sky.

 

[eot]

I'll continue to say that CA (moderately done, none of that Pay Day 2 shit where you clearly see each separate color) actually looks pretty good on the canopy of trees that are far away and silhouetted against the sky. Like on those Revenat pics. Just blur that forest lines a bit; it makes it come together with the sky.

1080p is not suffucient to do subtle CA unless you downsample. Maybe with 4K games could get away with it.

 

[Mega]

So you're saying something wholly artificial and not reflective of any aspect of real life visuals was embraced.

wow you got me there airtight argument


Actually, no. What's your point? You're disregarding everything said on why film characteristics like grain matter and CA is a universally reviled mistake and reducing it to a trivial and simplistic argument of artificiality. Many aspects of photography take on an artistic quality that isn't always seen in real life (I already touched on grain as a film side effect), but these are employed with finesse and purpose on how it affects the picture and benefits it. CA is still not one of these, it's a visual blight, just like accidentally damaging a drawing with a giant ink spill is not a wanted outcome.

 

[MissCauthon]

I hated CA with a passion when playing Destiny, it's simply ugly and makes my head ache. I removed it from NMS and the game looks better. Hopefully they release Destiny on PC some day so i can remove the CA until then i'm not playing it.

 

[low-G]

People have whined about lens flares, tone mapping... pretty much everything.

CA is the only effect I think is actually bad & useless. It doesn't bother me like some people, but I really don't see the point unless it's supposed to be because your sci-fi visor is getting damaged or something.

 

[TheAdmiester]

Do you also wonder why so many photographers shoot in black and white, when camera manufacturers have fought so hard to make color possible?

No, because photographers can use B&W for artistic effect. It's something that's optional that people can choose to have if they want. I've never seen a single instance of a photographer talking about how they WANT chromatic aberration in their shots. B&W in modern photography can be desirable but CA isn't, it's a defect with the design of the lens that's hard to avoid.

 

[RionaaM]

I liked the chromatic aberration implementation in Trials of the Blood Dragon, it fits the lo-fi style of the game perfectly. I rarely like it anywhere else though, it's very annoying in Mirror's Edge Catalyst for example. As for vignetting, I can't recall seeing it in many games. So far, only Distance and Stacking are the ones I remember having it, and I disliked it in both.

I don't like CA when it's overused just add some visual flair and doesn't add anything to the experience (e.g. Lords of the Fallen)

I do like CA when it's used sparingly and makes sense in the game-world.

Recent example: Mirror's Edge Catalyst. You wear an augmented reality plug-in that shows your runner's vision path through the game-world and has pop-up info about the city. When you get hit in the head or fall from a great height without properly rolling after landing, you get a brief moment of CA that gives you the sense that something's wrong with the camera of your augmented-reality device. It's very effective and a great use of CA.

Hahaha, this is the opposite of my opinion. I like my ME totally clean, which is why I disabled every HUD option I could. It's a shame that mission markers can't be hidden.

 

[Gbraga]

Cuphead was the only game I've seen using CA that pleased me. I wouldn't disable the effect if given the option.

 

[Xenoblade]

I hate both of these effects so much, I won't buy a game if it has it. No exceptions, no shit.

 

[Corpekata]

It's just a fad like bloom and len's flare last gen. It'll peter off like they did, with more sane applications and it being present in less games overall.

 

[Wowfunhappy]

I like them. Chromatic aberration is often overused, by I pretty much always like vignetting.

What I absolutely can't stand is film grain. It looks awful. It looks awful in actual films as well.

 

[kraspkibble]

i can put up with CA but vignette is disgusting. i will it turn off or mod that shit out fast.

 

[Gbraga]

If the Neo can deliver Bloodborne at the same IQ as the promotional shots, I'll need to buy one:

 

[MUnited83]

For the most part, it's just that "bext-gen effect" that is trendy right now. Grossly overused, with absolutely no care put into it most of the timr. Artistic vision has jackshit to do with it.

 

[eso76]

I find that CA can sometimes make highlights softer and also hides a bit of aliasing. Should be used in tiny amounts though.
Vignette can sometimes make an image more appealing by giving it a little more pop, it's often added in post to photos and movies because it can make an otherwise flat image more.. interesting.

A think a lot of people who hate these effects are bothered more by what they 'represent' than what they look like. They can both be attributed to low quality equipment, lens or display. Fake CA makes it look like your TV's grilles are not properly aligned and vignette is a thing low quality lens and old CRT TVs suffered from, so I can understand people who invested in their setup being somewhat pissed at anything hiding their games 1:1 pixel exact fidelity.

As usual, there's nothing inherently bad about either, and as usual, overuse or gratuitous use is always bad

 

[Adam_Vania]

No, because photographers can use B&W for artistic effect. It's something that's optional that people can choose to have if they want. I've never seen a single instance of a photographer talking about how they WANT chromatic aberration in their shots.

you must have never been to an art school

 

[Mega]

Chromatic aberration in Cuphead makes no sense.

Sure a canvas texture is more like throwing grain on top. But it is the same principle. You add imperfections that allude to another medium. Cuphead mimicking products from the 1930s will understandably be allowed to intentionally have lower quality product of 90yo technology than one mimicking the 1970s, in which curent CA uses in video games it is just going overboard.

What products from the 1930s? Color film was just introduced and so most films had no color in order to exhibit any chromatic aberration. 1930s cartoons were black & white and hand drawn... there were no lenses to cause CA. This is a misapplied effect by the dev. What people are remembering are cartoons on home VHS with bad tracking and lo-fi artifacts, bad convergence from 1980s and 1990s CRTs, possibly degradation and errors from the television network's broadcast videotape reels (not VHS). This was all garbage from decades after 1930s cartoon were made and not CA. Cuphead also shouldn't have scanlines and phosphor glow like an 80s-90s video game.

But even today amateurs still make mistakes and the flaw still evoke these media, so while, say, a Hollywood production should mean pristine IQ, you can still get away with exaggeratedly adding such distortions in order to call upon the works of the avant garde, or just the amateur. (even filmmakers shove lens flares to evoke previous decades)

You'll find that many people, including me, don't like the Abrams lens effects and other stuff like excessive camera shake that reduces one's ability to follow what's happening.

Things like the Suicide Squad posters trying to evoke a grunge aesthetic, with ink sploshes, and all sort of printing press mistakes, and damaged added to the paper follow the same principle. A direct and easily readable method to hide distract from the 100% digital nature of the product because even if they are not necessarily present in physical media (and often only present deliberately), they are inherently not digital.

You're comparing graphic design to best practices for optimal picture quality in a movie or realistic video game.

 

[Mula]

I don't get the hate on CA. It can look really good when it It is used right.

 

[Stitch]

If the Neo can deliver Bloodborne at the same IQ as the promotional shots, I'll need to buy one:

Hahaha so for the promotional Shots they've disabled CA!? 😄

Oh yeah and you can't hide imperfections with CA, you only make ugly parts of the game even more ugly. Like jaggies look even worse with CA. It's like you're seeing them 3 times, in different colors.

The problem with CA isn't just that it looks terrible, it also is just hard to look at for many people. For me it feels like looking at a blurry picture and my eyes try to focus. But obviously they can't because they picture stays blurry, no matter how hard my eyes are trying to focus.

Play a game like this for a while and your eyes start to hurt, you get a headache and sickness is the next thing.

If Devs want to make people sick then CA is a great way to do it. For maximum damage they can combine it with low FOV and shitty framerates.

 

[BKK]

I like it in NMS, it enforces the fact that you're in a spacesuit viewing the hostile environment outside through a visor.

 

[SeeNoWeevil]

I personally dislike screen dirt and rain splashes more

 

[Domaje]

'Cause it looks good.

 

[Adam_Vania]

Chromatic aberration in Cuphead makes no sense.

What products from the 1930s? Color film was just introduced and so most films had no color in order to exhibit any chromatic aberration. 1930s cartoons were black & white and hand drawn... there were no lenses to cause CA. This is a misapplied effect by the dev. What people are remembering are cartoons on home VHS with bad tracking and lo-fi artifacts, bad convergence from 1980s and 1990s CRTs, possibly degradation and errors from the television network's broadcast videotape reels (not VHS). This was all garbage from decades after 1930s cartoon were made and not CA. Cuphead also shouldn't have scanlines and phosphor glow like an 80s-90s video game.

except the game makers were born after the 1930s and lived through the 1980s and are making a game for that audience!

"misapplied" as a term seems to imply the only accepted use of post-processing is period accuracy.

 

[eot]

If the Neo can deliver Bloodborne at the same IQ as the promotional shots, I'll need to buy one:

The pre-release shots looked downsampled to me so I doubt it.
Maybe someone with a sharper eye can correct me.

 

[Mega]

except the game makers were born after the 1930s and lived through the 1980s and are making a game for that audience!

"misapplied" as a term seems to imply the only accepted use of post-processing is period accuracy.

I'm responding to the people saying CA is in Cuphead because the creators are trying to mimic a 1930s cartoon... which makes absolutely no sense and has no basis in reality. It would be like reviving the style of silent era films and applying pixelation and bloom and calling it accurate.

 

[Rapscallion74]

I absolutely hate CA. Thankfully you can usually disable it on PC games via options, .ini editing or mods.

 

[injurai]

When I liked it:
Killzone 2
Crysis
Alien: Isolation

When I hated it:
Every other time

 

[WillyFive]

Animation from the early 20th century did use lenses, they were filmed by cameras pointed to the cel.

The one Disney used for parallax effects is even on display at Disney Hollywood Studio.

 

[injurai]

The pre-release shots looked downsampled to me so I doubt it.
Maybe someone with a sharper eye can correct me.

I actually think a little bit of down-sampling is fair for screen captures. Generally games look better in motion, because static artifact looks worse than artifact that is moving.

 

[kiaaa]

It always surprises me reading about so many people literally getting headaches and other types of pain from these things. I mean, the worst I've ever had is sore/tired eyes from writing long papers in college where I would be staring at the white screen for long periods of time but flux fixed that.

Are people exaggerating or does a thread like this just bring in all the people with issues?

 

[Adam_Vania]

I'm responding to the people saying CA is in Cuphead because the creators are trying to mimic a 1930s cartoon... which makes absolutely no sense and has no basis in reality. It would be like reviving the style of silent era films and applying pixelation and bloom and calling it accurate.

ah, ok, i see where you were coming from.

still, i think it's appropriate. CA as a style seems to emulate the kind of mis-printing you would get in analog design in things like comic strips.

fwiw i think applying bloom to a silent film-emulating style would be a good idea. a lot of early films had blown-out photography and at the time many used techniques like smearing stuff on the camera to simulate a bloom effect.

 

[Mega]

Animation from the early 20th century did use lenses, they were filmed by cameras pointed to the cel.

The one Disney used for parallax effects is even on display at Disney Hollywood Studio.

You mean like kinescope? Okay, but they didnt feature the aggressive CA everyone is now copying and seen rearing its ugly head in Cuphead. The cartoons of that era look pretty clean (I was wrong about the number of color cartoons, seems there were a number of them). Both of these are the actual film, not cleaned up restorations:

https://youtu.be/Yuz9813AoUE
https://youtu.be/0Yi17kLZgT0

 

[spekkeh]

No, because motion pictures don't intentionally shove CA into their [films]. It's a flaw to eradicate and avoid.

There are types of film that have finer grain, coarse grain, more or less grain, because the shooter wants that effect. The type of film developing fluid and method/timing can also further affect it. Yeah, grain came about in the creation of film as a side effect, not an invented technique from the outset, but it was embraced and became technique itself a very long time ago. It doesn't exist in the same realm of being an ugly problem like CA. It is not functionally the same.

I think grain only became a purposeful effect with Saving Private Ryan, to emulate old movies? Until that time (and now still) it was something most photographers and camera manufacturers endeavored to reduce, with larger apertures and better quality high iso film. Now they introduce it to add grittiness, a certain 'handfilmed' quality so it feels more like you are actually there, and to mask CGI shots. I reckon it's the exact same thing as CA.

 

[spekkeh]

Really? Is there any proof of that?

Good question. Certainly not for CA no, it's too young. Not as much for other imperfections as you'd think either apparently, cause I can't find it right now. Although there is some modest evidence for the existence of the uncanny valley in games, and that for instance cartoony settings can sometimes induce greater presence than realistic ones. It sort of dates back to Aristotle (mimesis), but you'd think there would be more actual scientific evidence, also for the reason HFR didn't get any uptake in cinema. I need to look it up when I'm back at work.

No, because photographers can use B&W for artistic effect. It's something that's optional that people can choose to have if they want. I've never seen a single instance of a photographer talking about how they WANT chromatic aberration in their shots. B&W in modern photography can be desirable but CA isn't, it's a defect with the design of the lens that's hard to avoid.

You've missed the entire lomography, fisheye and polaroid revival did you? Instagram? No?

Are you a CA and vignetting lobbyist? There's something fishy about your comments...

Heh no I actually think they are greatly overused, but I can see why some art directors (at least the ones who know what they are doing) would want to have it. I prefer it over some blurring algorithms, and like it in games such as Life is Strange.

 

[KDR_11k]

I guess I need to watch more movies to associate any of these effects with something positive because as it is I compare images to what my eyes see in real life.

 

[III-V]

The CA in BB was a bit heavy handed, but that being said, I don't mind seeing a bit of it here and there. I don't get any nausea from seeing it tho, so I might be in the completely immune category. Done well, it makes the scene feel dream like.

Vignette is typically pretty lame, I don't think it adds much, really for me it just breaks the 4th wall. I end up looking at it, if its blurred by blood for instance. I just find it distracting and don't think it adds to the atmosphere.

I also am fairly immune to sickness from dropped frames and jutter, so ymmv.

 

[Yarbskoo]

I think it looks terrible, but some people don't, so they put it in.

There really should be options though.

 

[nomis]

CA in Alien Isolation is the absolute perfect case for its use as a style aid

Witcher 3 without vingetting just looks off, I find that it frames Geralt really nicely and puts the focus on him

 

[KDR_11k]

Hm, I wonder how much of this discussion is influenced by wearing or not wearing glasses, visible lens effects are usually a cue for me to clean my glasses so of course I dislike it when games look like they're using dirty glasses. And vignetting might look a bit too much like the edges of my glasses which are much further out than the screen edges (aned more subtle unless there's e.g. an insect landed on them).

 

[Atomicfireman]

They are cheap ways to add "atmosphere" to a game without actually creating immersive and stylistic environments. I understand the reasoning behind the use of such post processing effects but they often just end up hurting my eyes and I turn them off.

 

[yanipheonu]

I don't mind chromatic aberration. I like it in Bloodborne despite complaints.
I've seem it used appropriately. Like when you're in warp in Destiny.

 

[Dezzy]

Chromatic aberration is the worst. I don't see how emulating an adverse effect of lenses adds to the mood of anything. Am I supposed to believe that I'm looking through a crappy camera behind my character or something?

 

[DXLelouch153]

Chomatic aberration and Bloom are the two things i turn off in any game that gives me the option too

 

[Ruff]

I only really noticed CA in Dying Light, because it was so strong around the edges it ws starting to give me eyestrain. Everything just looked like double vision unless it was in the center.

 

[The_Architect]

These days a lot of devs are trying to mimic the camera/lens rather than the human eye, so you have effects which are actually artifacts of imperfection in the lens. This also includes things such as bokeh depth of field, etc.

Arguably it is subjective, but ultimately an attempt at some kind of camera or filmic style of sorts.

 

[The_Architect]

Am I supposed to believe that I'm looking through a crappy camera behind my character or something?

Yes. Yes your are (think the floating cloud guy in Mario 64).

 

[Gbraga]

The pre-release shots looked downsampled to me so I doubt it.
Maybe someone with a sharper eye can correct me.

Absolutely, from 4K. But since this engine is so CPU-heavy, I figure it would be much easier to run it at 4K than 1080p/60fps.

Hahaha so for the promotional Shots they've disabled CA!? ��

The second shot is from the DLC, too, so you can't even assume they decided on using it after the shots were taken.

 

[Huge Succeeded]

I'm responding to the people saying CA is in Cuphead because the creators are trying to mimic a 1930s cartoon... which makes absolutely no sense and has no basis in reality. It would be like reviving the style of silent era films and applying pixelation and bloom and calling it accurate.

It's mimicking a 1930s cartoon as the general public recalls them today from their own childhoods. Which means, with all the defects associated with the technologies of the 70s, 80s, and 90s. I mean, yeah, I get where you're coming from, but when it's so obvious what they're going for it just makes me think you're splitting hairs a little bit.

 

[GametimeUK]

For anyone asking what CA is, if you have Uncharted 4, take a photo in photo mode, go to your photo options, slide the CA slider and watch the picture go to shit right in front of your eyes. You're welcome.