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[KDR_11k]

Maybe that's more the environmental design though? The closer something mimics real life (mimesis) in general the more difficulty people have losing themselves in it. Then again, Arma 2 is nowhere near high fidelity in the first place, so what works there might not work so well anymore.

It's more the color selection and audio, most games are using a pretty distorted color palette, often with decreased saturation.

 

[RM8]

CA is the current "flavour of the generation" effect, and I think devs use it particularly to make their games look "next gen" in a generation with a comparatively small graphical gap.

 

[Mega]

Mimicking cameras is the short answer. Which is something that makes sense as an stylistic choice since photography and film are such influential mediums to many artist in many industries, including games. It makes sense, for instance, that Alien Isolation (even if the film itself is pretty clean) and Cuphead want to emulate something that can pass as physical distortions of camera lenses, since both are based on film aesthetics. That doesn't mean that it makes sense for all games.

It is the same as throwing a canvas texture or paper texture under a digital paint.

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

CA isn't like mimicking the canvas or texture paper an artist uses. CA is like imitating the jittery lines from an untrained hand, or unsightly accidental splotches of ink or paint. It's a comic book colorist screwing up the artwork he's given.

 

[spekkeh]

Its origins are not an intended or wanted effect like film grain or motion blur.

What's the functional difference between film grain and CA?

 

[Cheeseman Battitude]

It is used a lot but I kinda like them if they fit the mood and its not too strong. Like NMS is kinda going for a retro scanline look, and it works there imo. Generally gives the image a more tangible, analog feel.

Indeed. It works really well in NMS and also gives a feeling of being behind a visor.

 

[MetalGearZed]

Chromatic Aberration supposedly ruined Bloodborne for many people here, but in over 100 hours of playtime, I've never even noticed it.

i think CA fitted well with the aesthetics of Bloodborne; it wasn't subtle at all which is why i can see people being turned off by it. GTAV is an example of a game that uses it subtle and well. when its tacked on with no care is when there is issues.

 

[Vulcano's assistant]

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

CA isn't like mimicking the canvas or texture paper an artist uses. CA is like imitating the jittery lines from an untrained hand, or unsightly accidental splotches of ink or paint. It's a comic book colorist screwing up the artwork he's given.

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.

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)

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.

 

[Phreakuency]

Big thread on CA here.

http://64.91.255.7/forum/showthread.php?t=1018237

 

[Caayn]

The "artistic vision" of this generation, similar to bloom and lens flare before it.

Permanent CA and vignetting need to be a toggle in games. Forcing this upon me will only make me dislike your artistic vision and may cause me to ignore your game all together (Blood borne for example).

That said, the right effect at the right time doesn't bother me much. For example CA being upped to max in the original Titanfall when your Titan is hit/destroyed.

 

[Timu]

I don't know, guess it's the next big thing, but most of the time CA looks terrible in games, only a few do it well.

 

[Auto-Reply]

Not a fan of it in movies.

e.g.: Chromatic Aberration in this small sequence from T2 always sticks out for me.

Might be hard to see it in gif form though.

Lenses and coatings or using fluoride help minimise it, but I'm not sure if there's anything to completely remove it in optical equipment. My swarovski el 32 feature very little.

http://petapixel.com/2015/02/20/this-new-flat-lens-captures-perfect-colors-without-chromatic-aberration/

I can only imagine this will find it's way into consumer electronics at some point and CA will be gone forever.

 

[.JayZii]

A E S T H E T I C S A E S T H E T I C S A E S T H E T I C S A E S T H E T I C S
A E S T H E T I C S A E S T H E T I C S A E S T H E T I C S A E S T H E T I C S
A E S T H E T I C S A E S T H E T I C S A E S T H E T I C S A E S T H E T I C S
A E S T H E T I C S A E S T H E T I C S A E S T H E T I C S A E S T H E T I C S
A E S T H E T I C S A E S T H E T I C S A E S T H E T I C S A E S T H E T I C S

 

[majik13]

This is false.

It's a real effect but it's not necessary for photo realism. In fact, many photographers even try to buy specialized cameras that limit the effect or just remove it all together in post process.

I never said it was necasarry for photo realism, its just a very small component among many other effects and traits of a real world lens and camera. Doesn't change the fact that its naturally present in the plate of pretty much every hollywood movie.

I will say that games generally use it for aesthetic purposes though.

 

[ReaperXL7]

Because the visual team likes it.

 

[Movalpolos]

I like that stuff, works well for certain games. Ultimately it's the devs creative choice. If it actually effects gameplay in any signficant way, then there is an argument against it. Otherwise its just user preferance or whining just for the sake of it.

 

[Griss]

Bloodborne and Alien Isolation both used CA to great stylistic effect.

I love it when done well. It's an artistic choice, nothing more or less. The idea that stripping it away makes the game better is bizarre to me. The director / artists made a choice, deal with it and assess the experience as it was meant to be.

 

[spazimoose]

Chromatic aberration is like Auto-Tune, when it first came out everyone and their mom was using it. I dont mind it except for the fact that its in so many games. Once its clear where it works and doesn't work it wont be so overused.

If used correctly it can add a lot to a games visual style, but if its jut tossed on Generic War Sim 2020, just because, its going to come across as lazy.

People always want to use the new cool thing in graphics and once every one is on to something else CA will be just another tool.

 

[Roussow]

Bloodborne and Alien Isolation both used CA to great stylistic effect.

I love it when done well. It's an artistic choice, nothing more or less. The idea that stripping it away makes the game better is bizarre to me. The director / artists made a choice, deal with it and assess the experience as it was meant to be.

Well said.

 

[Dopiestrombo]

Doesn't bother me. I'm not sensitive do it. Don't even notice or see it.

 

[Jawbreaker]

It's certainly not because they want their games to look "worse." It could simply be a stylistic choice that they believe meshes with the tone they're going for. That being said, I think an option to disable these effects should be provided.

 

[Pops Maellard]

Nope.

This is not about a niche of GAF being obsessive. Chromatic aberration is quite literally an unfortunate and undesirable flaw in the light capture of photographic lenses. Its origins are not an intended or wanted effect like film grain or motion blur. It's a universally reviled and ugly mistake outside of games. This is garbage that some developer with no understanding of photography threw into his video game because it looked cool. It's no different than an amateur dropping excessive lens flares in Photoshop or a kid abusing Instagram filters.

What's next? Can't wait until overexposure, moire, extremely off color balance and excessive camera shake become new gaming PQ standards. Yay.

I get this. Everyone brings it up every time CA and other visual effects are discussed. I get it. I've had enough experience with photography to understand that chromatic aberration is a blatant flaw. I have a competent understanding of what can cause this on a technical level. Regardless, it can still add to the aesthetic and overall presentation of whatever art it's used in, from static imagery to film and videogames.

Taste is subjective, and I'm not here to dictate to anyone what is and is not aesthetically pleasing. Personally, I appreciate CA much in the same way that I can appreciate VHS distortion, scanlines, color grading, lens flare, and a myriad of other visual effects.

 

[Popsickles]

I like the look of CA as long as it's not too strong gives games a filmic quality. I though alien isolation made the best use of it where as dying light over did it. I like games to look sharp but not too sharp and these kind of effects soften images without bluring.

 

[Sword Of Doom]

Nope.

This is not about a niche of GAF being obsessive. Chromatic aberration is quite literally an unfortunate and undesirable flaw in the light capture of photographic lenses. Its origins are not an intended or wanted effect like film grain or motion blur. It's a universally reviled and ugly mistake outside of games. This is garbage that some developer with no understanding of photography threw into his video game because it looked cool. It's no different than an amateur dropping excessive lens flares in Photoshop or a kid abusing Instagram filters.

What's next? Can't wait until overexposure, moire, extremely off color balance and excessive camera shake become new gaming PQ standards. Yay.

It's overused and ugly in most games but that doesn't mean it should never be used. Art isn't always about perfection. Sometimes imperfection is what the artist wants to evoke a certain style. In Alien Isolation it makes sense because visually the game is trying to mimic a certain look.

All those things you mentioned like overexposure and extremely off color balance can be used and the artist can make it work. Just because most developers don't use it well it doesn't mean it should never be used


For example shaky hand held cameras are used in films for certain effects.

 

[Huge Succeeded]

Bloodborne and Alien Isolation both used CA to great stylistic effect.

I love it when done well. It's an artistic choice, nothing more or less. The idea that stripping it away makes the game better is bizarre to me. The director / artists made a choice, deal with it and assess the experience as it was meant to be.

One of the great things about PC gaming is that, generally speaking, I am given the tools, if not the in-game options, to change the experience in accordance to what I find desirable and aesthetically pleasing.

I am so glad that I don't have to deal with Christmas Filters every time I play last gen's Fallout games, for example. That was a choice that the creators behind the game made, but that doesn't mean that I find any merit in it personally, nor does it mean that I should have to as far as I'm concerned. Not when I find those games to be far more aesthetically appealing without incredibly drastic color correction dominating each and every scene, and when I've got the means to remove it myself.

BUT - I feel okay with removing those filters particularly because I personally don't feel that they're essential to the aesthetic of those games to begin with. I get more out of Fallout's ruined world when clear blue skies are contrasting the post-apocalyptic decay, when each building and town are colored in ways that don't blend into one another so uniformly. One of the few things that Fallout 4 really nailed from my perspective. Conversely, I wouldn't remove the chromatic aberration from Alien: Isolation as I do find it essential to the game's look and feel.

I only really disable chromatic aberration when I feel that it detracts from visibility or just looks ugly. Vignetting, though, I can live without entirely, despite that also being a valid artistic choice, because I tend to scan the entire image when I'm playing most games and I don't like how the effect makes the image as a whole look and feel.

 

[jediyoshi]

This is not about a niche of GAF being obsessive. Chromatic aberration is quite literally an unfortunate and undesirable flaw in the light capture of photographic lenses. Its origins are not an intended or wanted effect like film grain or motion blur.

I want to know this world where film grain or motion blur were, by design, deliberately designed elements in the creation of film itself.

 

[DocSeuss]

They are probably trying to make the game look better. I mean it's pretty subjective, and I don't think developers are trying to make their game look worse.

I do agree that turning on or off image effects should be a thing in games that have them though.

No, they're trying to mimic the effect of bad lenses in an attempt to seem more cinematic. A real DP would have a heart attack.

 

[EvB]

I think that like anything it can look really good when used in moderation. I think a bigger issue for CA effects is that It's a little OTT due to the low resolution of games right now and that this effect is often limited to just splitting into RGB.
When chromatic aberration is visual in real life, it occurs most often at certain wavelengths , so the actual fringing effect is quite different to the videegame representation.

Like anything games will get better at using it and it will become less obvious.

 

[Inviusx]

I think it looks cool. /shrug

 

[Jobbs]

Because the designers like it. I like it too. There's your answer. I solved the riddle 💪

 

[Jobbs]

Nope.

This is not about a niche of GAF being obsessive. Chromatic aberration is quite literally an unfortunate and undesirable flaw in the light capture of photographic lenses. Its origins are not an intended or wanted effect like film grain or motion blur. It's a universally reviled and ugly mistake outside of games. This is garbage that some developer with no understanding of photography threw into his video game because it looked cool. It's no different than an amateur dropping excessive lens flares in Photoshop or a kid abusing Instagram filters.

What's next? Can't wait until overexposure, moire, extremely off color balance and excessive camera shake become new gaming PQ standards. Yay.

Haha what? Film grain and motion blur were deliberately designed features in film?

Because it looks cool is reason enough for anything.

 

[laxu]

The whole imitating cameras thing is ridiculous. Most first person games are supposed to be from the view of the player's eyes, not a camera. I always turn off the motion blur effects in games too because having blur when I turn fast makes no sense.

 

[Mega]

I want to know this world where film grain or motion blur were, by design, deliberately designed elements in the creation of film itself.

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.

Outside of camera shake and low light accident, motion blur via panning, shutter speed, lens aperture, subject behavior and so on is deliberate and wanted. High end cameras are advanced enough now to eradicate almost all blurred movement in both pictures and movies and yet it doesn't happen and won't happen because people want to convey that movement for artistic reasons. This, again, is not the case for CA... except in the world of video games where another industry's eyesore has become a weird visual standard.

Besides guys like Abrams going crazy with lens flare or stuff like shaky cam action that's hard to follow, I trust the film and photo professionals with utter attention to detail and a century of knowledge and experience more than the game dev who only yesterday decided CA or bloom is the trendy cool thing to throw in haphazardly. The video game industry is riddled with these amateurish PQ decisions and mistakes that a videophile would find sickening. Look at Wii U's VC dark and blurry emulation, Rare Replay's horrible CRT filter or the terrible DOF implementation in games for example.

 

[SeeNoWeevil]

Nope.

This is not about a niche of GAF being obsessive. Chromatic aberration is quite literally an unfortunate and undesirable flaw in the light capture of photographic lenses. Its origins are not an intended or wanted effect like film grain or motion blur. It's a universally reviled and ugly mistake outside of games. This is garbage that some developer with no understanding of photography threw into his video game because it looked cool. It's no different than an amateur dropping excessive lens flares in Photoshop or a kid abusing Instagram filters.

What's next? Can't wait until overexposure, moire, extremely off color balance and excessive camera shake become new gaming PQ standards. Yay.

You do realise you're talking about an artistic medium, right?

 

[Melfice7]

Chromatic Aberration supposedly ruined Bloodborne for many people here, but in over 100 hours of playtime, I've never even noticed it.

I envy you, it ruined it for me

All is ask is option to turn it off, too much to ask?

 

[Tecnniqe]

It cool that some of you in this thread just post "I don't mind" or "I don't notice" but that's not the point of the thread.

If you like it that's cool but for all of us who can't stand it there is no way to turn it off.

I mean motion blur, DoF and CA is the first options I'd turn off as it dislike all of them and without those options there to remove these things, depending on how over-used they are, they mildly to massively impact my gameplay experience in a negative way.

You do realise you're talking about an artistic medium, right?

Being artistic is not a reason not to include options.

 

[Langdon Alger]

I don't mind chromatic aberration, but vignetting is the worst. It almost ruined Mass Effect.

 

[SiegfriedFM]

Sharpening is the in-fashion awfulness at the moment, even in games that aren't upscaled or otherwise particularly blurry. Some use it to counteract mild temporal anti aliasing blur but it still looks bad.

Vignetting and CA I can accept to varying degrees depending on the scenario.

edit: just look at this shit:

Doesn't really need the magnification, but if you're on a small mobile display, there it is.

Really? Really? A barely noticable white line makes the entire image "shit"?

Find something else to do with your life if the tiniest imperfection makes you so upset.

 

[BlazeHedgehog]

According to Valve's usage of vignetting in Left 4 Dead, it's there because it supposedly helps keep the player focused on what's in front of them instead of letting their eye wander.

Like most effects, they don't bother me as long as they're used tastefully and responsibly.

The one I'm sick of is the "dirty camera lens" effect, where the screen is dirty and smudged/splattered because nobody bothered to wipe it off. It's the new lens flare.

 

[Zomba13]

I hate CA most of the time because it makes no sense. Like in Bloodborne, the camera isn't some real physical camera following the hunter around so why is there CA on the image? In something like No Man's Sky, even though it does look shitty it is believable because you're got this space suit with weird tech and stuff and you have this HUD and it kind of fits along with the scan lines.

I just don't get why every dev under the sun wants to throw it into their game when it doesn't fit at all.

 

[SeeNoWeevil]

It cool that some of you in this thread just post "I don't mind" or "I don't notice" but that's not the point of the thread.

If you like it that's cool but for all of us who can't stand it there is no way to turn it off.

I mean motion blur, DoF and CA is the first options I'd turn off as it dislike all of them and without those options there to remove these things, depending on how over-used they are, they mildly to massively impact my gameplay experience in a negative way.



Being artistic is not a reason not to include options.

I never said it was. FYI I dislike CA a lot of the time and would like options. But some people talk about videogames like absolute photo-realism is the only allowable goal and everything must prescribe to their own checklist of dos and dont's. Nonsense.

 

[deadscreensky]

Chromatic aberration becoming so popular is bewildering. I understand intentional imperfections can make things look a little more real, and I'm okay with it being used sparingly and appropriately. Good examples are Kane & Lynch 2, where the whole game looks like it's been shot with a cellphone, Alien Isolation with its 70s cinematic style, and Guild Wars 2's use of it for ley-line effects, where small parts of the environment are practically melting from magic energy. It's a tool, and like all tools there's a place for it.

But you have a lot of modern games where it's slathered all over the screen for no reasonable purpose. It's a painful effect to look at for long periods of time, essentially being an artifact from poor camera focus, so why you want to make your whole game look deliberately bad is bizarre. As trendy visual effects go (bloom, colored lighting, etc.) it's easily the worst I've encountered, often a lazy stretch towards some sort of faux-authenticity from an old-fashioned look, and I'm really excited about whatever comes next and replaces it. Looking at it for long periods gives me a headache.

Vignetting I'm mostly okay with. I can't think of any games that really overuse it, and unlike something like chromatic aberration the impact on the overall image is generally quite minor.

 

[The Janitor]

Really? Really? A barely noticable white line makes the entire image "shit"?

Find something else to do with your life if the tiniest imperfection makes you so upset.

It's not just one line, the entire image is affected. If there was a screenshot without sharpening to compare you'd see the difference.

 

[cyberheater]

I'm all for it but the devs should make it a graphics option.

 

[XANDER CAGE]

It really depends on the game. I don't think there's a single effect I would call 100% across the board inherently bad, but I do think CA and vignetting in particular have been used in some... odd cases. Dust on the lens is another one that I often find strange.

Off the top of my head, two games that use CA I've played relatively recently are Alien Isolation and Bloodborne. Alien Isolation uses the effect perfectly; it fits in perfectly with the aesthetic of the world with all of the shitty 70s scifi computers and video equipment all over the ship. Hell, in a slightly meta way, it evokes how Alien the movie looked on crappy VHS tapes back when I first rented and watched the movie. It works.

Bloodborne, on the other hand, slathers it all over everything except the very center of the screen. It gave me tunnel vision and made the game difficult to play for long sittings. Looking anywhere on the screen except the middle really, really bothered my eyeballs. It also seems like a strange effect to include in a Victorian-style fantasy game; there aren't any other old-video-equipment style effects in the game and no reason to include any, so it just sticks out like a sore thumb, the same way that fantasy games that include the "dusty lens " effect have generally baffled me. That works wonderfully in games where you play as characters with helmets, for example, but not like... Dragon Age.

Lastly, and this is a weird one - has anyone else noticed a lot of games using an oddly low-resolution overlay for screen effects? That bugs the shit out of me. If I'm going to be looking at a vignette or screen dust or whatever all the time in a game, make sure that stuff looks great!

 

[Mithos]

Why do games keep using chromatic aberration and vignetting?

Why INDEED?

It's the reason why I yet have finished Zombi U, after a short play session I start to feel nausea and have to stop playing and playing short sessions is nothing I actively try to return to.

 

[Coreda]

Sharpening is the in-fashion awfulness at the moment, even in games that aren't upscaled or otherwise particularly blurry. Some use it to counteract mild temporal anti aliasing blur but it still looks bad.

Vignetting and CA I can accept to varying degrees depending on the scenario.

edit: just look at this shit:

Doesn't really need the magnification, but if you're on a small mobile display, there it is.

Looks like an uncorrected digital camera shot before raw adjustment to remove such effects. It's the worst when masking images. Otherwise it's kind of a non-issue for most people.

Vignetting to me is fine though in games. I always keep it enabled.

 

[Skux]

Effects are not inherently good or bad, it's all up to the designers using them to complement the aesthetics of the game.

Games where it's used well:

- The Order: 1886, where the developers deliberately aimed to emulate an early, low quality lens

- The Witcher 3, where the effect is very subtle

- Destiny, where the effect adds a futuristic visor look to the screen

Games where it's used badly:

- Payday 2. Why.

- Bloodborne, where the aliasing combined with the CA just makes your eyes bleed

 

[FunkyDealer]

I don't like overly strong uses of chromatic aberation like in The Order and Bloodborne. It could be because I've got a mild case of astigmatism. I feel a considerably more eye-strain when playing these games.

I quite like it in Doom though, which also has a vignette. The game actually looks a bit too clinical without it in my opinion.

So it's all down to implementation in my book. They're not bad effects, but there are poor uses of them.

 

[molnizzle]

Tasteful vignetting I'm cool with. I actually prefer the vignetting in Witcher 3, for example. The shit from No Man's Sky is another story. Absolute garbage.

Chromatic aberration on the other hand is unacceptable no matter what. I will never understand why devs put that shit in their games.

 

[Diancecht]

I don't give a fuck if it's an aesthetic choice or not. I play games on PC so I always turn of CA, vignetting, blur. If I can't turn them off, I'll go and edit the .ini files.