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Graphical Fidelity I Expect This Gen

In what Universe is this not good IQ?

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You guys must be trolling, as OP stated.
:messenger_grinning_squinting:

Is this a good IQ?


Wib4ox8.jpeg


Everything is blurry and fuzzy.

Is this a good IQ (bottom without CA)?

this-is-a-depreciation-post-about-how-assassins-creed-v0-7af3bpq4mosb1.png


You might fuck up your eyes if you look at this for too long, your brain thinks your eyes can't properly focus (many people can't handle CA in games).
 
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Imagine Leonard DaVinci painting the Mona Lisa and then taking a massive piss on it and just say it's "artistic intention".
FFS, Chromatic Aberration and Film Grain should always have an option to be turned off, for the sake of all of us with the blessing of sight.
 
Is this a good IQ?


Wib4ox8.jpeg


Everything is blurry and fuzzy.
Yes, it looks incredible. Absolutely nailed the FILM aesthetic they were going for, thanks to FILM grain....

Film grain does not equal "bad IQ"... its a post processing effect, for aesthetic....

This is why I said yall need to study film/art more. I'm not even trying to diss, it's just facts... There's more to good graphics than just a clean image. The hell are we doing here?
Is this a good IQ (bottom without CA)?

this-is-a-depreciation-post-about-how-assassins-creed-v0-7af3bpq4mosb1.png


You might fuck up your eyes if you look at this for too long, your brain thinks your eyes can't properly focus (many people can't handle CA in games).
Top one looks better. Bottom one looks stale and boring and unfinished.
 
Is there film grain and CA in this shot from the Odyssey? I see some motion blur but im too blind to see CA and film grain. All i know is that it looks amazing and i wish games looked like this at night.

HN_x2u7aAAAZlVK
 
Yes, it looks incredible. Absolutely nailed the FILM aesthetic they were going for, thanks to FILM grain....

Film grain does not equal "bad IQ"... its a post processing effect, for aesthetic....

This is why I said yall need to study film/art more. I'm not even trying to diss, it's just facts... There's more to good graphics than just a clean image. The hell are we doing here?

Top one looks better. Bottom one looks stale and boring and unfinished.

You know why film grain is even present in the old movies shot on film? Because that's the physical feature of film, you don't have that in your eyes or modern digital cameras.

ZplsBvYi4tR1abfw.png


Game devs do the same, why?! What's the fucking point? To fuck up the contrast on OLED screens (nothing can be black with FG on)?
 
Careful, that's artistic vision.


No need to imagine, just apply small fix and remove that trash.

Went from looking like a Cinematic piece of ART, to a cheap, cookie cutter Netflix show that doesnt know anything about post processing.

Hellblade II
RE9
Alan Wake 2
GTA 6
HALO
Horizon Burning Shores
Crimson Desert
Black Flag
Black Myth WUKONG

Quite literally all of the best looking games this gen are covered in CA and film grain.. its a you problem :messenger_confused:
 
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Went from looking like a Cinematic piece of ART, to a cheap, cookie cutter Netflix show that doesnt know anything about post processing.

Hellblade II
RE9
Alan Wake 2
GTA 6
HALO
Crimson Desert
Black Flag
Black Myth WUKONG

Quite literally all of the best looking games this gen are covered in CA and film grain.. its a you problem :messenger_confused:
All of them look better without this shit on screen.

Imagine Leonard DaVinci painting the Mona Lisa and then taking a massive piss on it and just say it's "artistic intention".
FFS, Chromatic Aberration and Film Grain should always have an option to be turned off, for the sake of all of us with the blessing of sight.

I protest that we don't see CA, FG and Radial Blur on 500 year old paintings from great masters!! Looks like they didn't know what true ART is!!!!1111

raphael-most-important-works.jpg
 
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Expert use of CA and film grain here.

Shit, I think im gonna buy Hellblade II again tonight, 50% off... Haven't seen it on the PRO. And they updated the hell out of the photo mode :lollipop_fire: :lollipop_fire: :lollipop_fire:
 
What? It is pretty much a lock to win best cinematography. Its stunning use of real light over post processed digital mess we've been getting the last few decades is precisely what you guys want, no?

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Costumes, art and casting are all terrible.
What does it matter if it has good picture quality, if the rest looks like a bad viking cosplay.
 
All of them look better without this shit on screen.



I protest that we don't see CA, FG and Radial Blur on 500 year old paintings from great masters!! Looks like they didn't know what true ART is!!!!1111

raphael-most-important-works.jpg
yes, but even those legendary artists took liberties and didnt just create a 1:1 photorealistic painting did they they? these paintings you use are heavily stylized.

Film as a medium has limitations in that it is essentially capturing reallife which means they risk everything look like a soap opera. real life is boring as fuck. People pay thousands just to go to other countries to see something different. Which is why filmmakers have used all kinds of different filters to make their movies not feel like you captured it using your iphone. Be it Godfather which is meant to look like a period piece or Saving Private Ryan with its documentary look. CA and Film Grain are just two of the many tools being used here. devs use a whole host of post processing effects to give games their distinct look.
 
Costumes, art and casting are all terrible.
What does it matter if it has good picture quality, if the rest looks like a bad viking cosplay.
because we are specifically talking about cinematography here.

Playing Black Flag right now and it looks dull as fuck at night. Wish it looked like the Agamemnon shot at night. I dont care if you need CA or Film Grain or RTGI or hero lighting to get there. i want us to get there.
 
yes, but even those legendary artists took liberties and didnt just create a 1:1 photorealistic painting did they they? these paintings you use are heavily stylized.

Film as a medium has limitations in that it is essentially capturing reallife which means they risk everything look like a soap opera. real life is boring as fuck. People pay thousands just to go to other countries to see something different. Which is why filmmakers have used all kinds of different filters to make their movies not feel like you captured it using your iphone. Be it Godfather which is meant to look like a period piece or Saving Private Ryan with its documentary look. CA and Film Grain are just two of the many tools being used here. devs use a whole host of post processing effects to give games their distinct look.

CA and FG were never intended effects in the first place, they are just properties of early cameras and film tape.

Right now they simulate those effects because some people are nostalgic. Same way we see some shitty video quality to simulate dogshit videotapes from the 80s

vhs-tape-effect-0-medium.jpg


Do we need games to look like this?
 
Games don't, though. There's nothing wrong with stylization when it's genuine artistic expression, not just cheap effects used to make the image look artificially worse.
I disagree. i think games have even more limitations because even if you can scan in photorealistic textures and assets, you will see need photorealistic lighting to get them to look good. We've seen how poor lighting can bring down good character models. If they have to rely heavily on post processing effects to get them to look good without needing path tracing or 50 tflops GPUs then i guess thats a pretty big limitation they have to get around, and they are using these cheap effects to get there. For now at least.

Halo is getting rave reviews for its graphics from virtually every corner of the internet, from fans to tech critics to industry artists on youtube, and only this thread and a few others seem to have an issue with CA. Everyone else is impressed by the graphics fidelity regardless of the so-called bad CA implementation.

I am looking at the gifs below and marveling at the water quality, the fantastic lighting, reflections and asset quality. The CA is not distracting in anyway. Even Gonzito who thinks CA is gay keeps raving about the graphics. Again, it's really not that big of a deal.

097eeb44687226df5971ace5e8867df8c1546466.gifv


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You know why film grain is even present in the old movies shot on film? Because that's the physical feature of film, you don't have that in your eyes or modern digital cameras.

ZplsBvYi4tR1abfw.png


Game devs do the same, why?! What's the fucking point? To fuck up the contrast on OLED screens (nothing can be black with FG on)?
For the same reason modern movies recorded digitally still have film grain. They are added to convey something beyond what the camera captures. Is that always effective or done meaningfully? Definitely not. But there is something to it... It shouldn't be seen as any different than color grading. Every movie has color grading. As a result, they rarely ever capture reality as-is. It would look like a documentary or soap-opera if 1:1 replication and maximum IQ was always the goal. It would be objectively better, but less effective in its subjective impact. It loses visual identity and every movie would start looking the same.

Criticizing the very existence of artificial flaws in movies/games is like criticizing distortion in a guitar solo. Those are artificial flaws too. Perfection doesn't have to be the goal. That's not the purpose of art.

I actually think this shot would have been more potent with more film grain. Not less. It still looks too clean and a little bit at odds with the scene's context. It's just not messy enough. Purely subjective opinion.

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The "eye" argument is not valid either. First person games are just PoV cameras. Rarely eye simulation.

I do agree there is something to be said about when these defects are effective and when it is not. But I do believe it's all subjective. Your appeal to logic isn't as strong an argument as you believe. There is not much logic either way, just like we can't actually see the veins in our eyes when we are low on health. All of it is make-believe. Some of it just more effective than others. And finding that right balance is the job of an artist. Some are simply better at it than others.
 
CA and FG were never intended effects in the first place, they are just properties of early cameras and film tape.

Right now they simulate those effects because some people are nostalgic. Same way we see some shitty video quality to simulate dogshit videotapes from the 80s

vhs-tape-effect-0-medium.jpg


Do we need games to look like this?
And yet, even after the switch to digital, filmmakers and DPs far more talented than us are keeping those effects. the tried removing it and movies looked like they were shot on camcorders.

I can promise you that the same thing happened to games. As the tech improved, the devs were like oh maybe we dont need CA and film grain or motion blur, turned it off and were like nope, its garbage, lets turn it back on. I do agree that it should be something you and others who hate CA can disable, but its still there for a reason. Just like with movies who now have to add it in there if they are shooting on digital.
 
I disagree. i think games have even more limitations because even if you can scan in photorealistic textures and assets, you will see need photorealistic lighting to get them to look good. We've seen how poor lighting can bring down good character models. If they have to rely heavily on post processing effects to get them to look good without needing path tracing or 50 tflops GPUs then i guess thats a pretty big limitation they have to get around, and they are using these cheap effects to get there. For now at least.

Halo is getting rave reviews for its graphics from virtually every corner of the internet, from fans to tech critics to industry artists on youtube, and only this thread and a few others seem to have an issue with CA. Everyone else is impressed by the graphics fidelity regardless of the so-called bad CA implementation.

I am looking at the gifs below and marveling at the water quality, the fantastic lighting, reflections and asset quality. The CA is not distracting in anyway. Even Gonzito who thinks CA is gay keeps raving about the graphics. Again, it's really not that big of a deal.

097eeb44687226df5971ace5e8867df8c1546466.gifv


Yk4wAuk.gif

Ubisoft was bombarded with hate for CA when Mirage launched, that's why they promised a patch.

Most new games have toggles for effects like CA (at least on PC) but some retarded devs think they know better. Some people get sick when they look at image with heavy CA, game (Halo) has millions of accessibility options but nothing to help them...
 
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because we are specifically talking about cinematography here.

Playing Black Flag right now and it looks dull as fuck at night. Wish it looked like the Agamemnon shot at night. I dont care if you need CA or Film Grain or RTGI or hero lighting to get there. i want us to get there.

Then use Reshade and set the color grading to your liking.
 
For the same reason modern movies recorded digitally still have film grain. They are added to convey something beyond what the camera captures. Is that always effective or done meaningfully? Definitely not. But there is something to it... It shouldn't be seen as any different than color grading. Every movie has color grading. As a result, they rarely ever capture reality as-is. It would look like a documentary or soap-opera if 1:1 replication and maximum IQ was always the goal. It would be objectively better, but less effective in its subjective impact. It loses visual identity and every movie would start looking the same.

Criticizing the very existence of artificial flaws in movies/games is like criticizing distortion in a guitar solo. Those are artificial flaws too. Perfection doesn't have to be the goal. That's not the purpose of art.

I actually think this shot would have been more potent with more film grain. Not less. It still looks too clean and a little bit at odds with the scene's context. It's just not messy enough. Purely subjective opinion.

GOMA8rwWUAEMhiI



The "eye" argument is not valid either. First person games are just PoV cameras. Rarely eye simulation.

I do agree there is something to be said about when these defects are effective and when it is not. But I do believe it's all subjective. Your appeal to logic isn't as strong an argument as you believe. There is not much logic either way, just like we can't actually see the veins in our eyes when we are low on health. All of it is make-believe. Some of it just more effective than others. And finding that right balance is the job of an artist. Some are simply better at it than others.

And yet, even after the switch to digital, filmmakers and DPs far more talented than us are keeping those effects. the tried removing it and movies looked like they were shot on camcorders.

I can promise you that the same thing happened to games. As the tech improved, the devs were like oh maybe we dont need CA and film grain or motion blur, turned it off and were like nope, its garbage, lets turn it back on. I do agree that it should be something you and others who hate CA can disable, but its still there for a reason. Just like with movies who now have to add it in there if they are shooting on digital.

I'm fine with those effects if they are subtle, but this word is something unknown to game developers, they are also allergic to options and sliders.

Not to mention Films and tv shows have the perfect image quality, they can add and remove effects in post process and see how this affects image quality. Many console games are fucking 720p-900p, with already piss poor image quality and tons of upscaling artifacts they add another layer of noise on the screen.

As I said earlier, even UE5 basic motion blur creates tons artifacts around objects.
 
I'm fine with those effects if they are subtle, but this word is something unknown to game developers, they are also allergic to options and sliders.

Not to mention Films and tv shows have the perfect image quality, they can add and remove effects in post process and see how this affects image quality. Many console games are fucking 720p-900p, with already piss poor image quality and tons of upscaling artifacts they add another layer of noise on the screen.

As I said earlier, even UE5 basic motion blur creates tons artifacts around objects.
I agree with these. All fair points. Devs are definitely abusing it and using it to fill gaps in render quality. The Mirage shot, for example, does look more unfinished without CA. But it can be headache inducing with CA. There's just no winning either way. That's a failure of art direction.
 
Not to mention Films and tv shows have the perfect image quality, they can add and remove effects in post process and see how this affects image quality.
They also never use these effects globally.

Movies arent games. Theres careful curation and full control in movies, a global filter in games cannot have any. Player controls the game and what hardware they have so they should have control over having these effects on or off, luckily most games get it right.
 
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i think games have even more limitations because even if you can scan in photorealistic textures and assets, you will see need photorealistic lighting to get them to look good.
I don't see what you mean by "limitations" here. Developers have complete freedom over the rendering. It can be realistic or not.

I am looking at the gifs below and marveling at the water quality, the fantastic lighting, reflections and asset quality. The CA is not distracting in anyway. Even Gonzito who thinks CA is gay keeps raving about the graphics.
You're marveling (I'm too) at the game's graphics. That's not the same as image quality.

For the same reason modern movies recorded digitally still have film grain.
They don't, though. _Some_ of them use it for artistic purposes, but it's not _that_ common.
 
And I am turning it off for players intent.
Sunglasses Reaction GIF
Good, that's YOUR choice.
I'll go ahead and say it:

Chromatic aberration is Gay
That's YOUR opinion.
Sure, and the lack of AA or low quality AF are also added cause of artistic intent.
720p resolution is an artistic intent, as well as 30 fps.
Don't you dare change these.

On a more serious note, all lens distortion emulation stuff is mostly an attempt at making a game to look like a movie.
There was this argument some years ago that a vaseline-like AA which blurs stuff into oblivion would make game look more "realistic" cause it would look more like a DVD movie. Similar reasoning and origin.
Basically if you want your game to "emulate" movies then CA/FG will help you with that.
If you want your game to simulate reality then CA/FG should be disabled cause there are no lens distortions in reality; even though our eyes do have some of these, our brain "cleans up" the image, removing the physical optical issues of our eyes in "post processing".
Arguing whether this is an artistic intent or not is rather pointless cause the way people prefer to see the world isn't up to the artists to decide. Hence why the options to disable this stuff is necessary.
If the devs added it, it was intended, what don't you understand?
Common sense.


These DEFECTS are the opposite of fidelity, what don't you guys get?
This is opinion. period. simple.
 
Imagine Leonard DaVinci painting the Mona Lisa and then taking a massive piss on it and just say it's "artistic intention".
FFS, Chromatic Aberration and Film Grain should always have an option to be turned off, for the sake of all of us with the blessing of sight.
No one is saying that there shouldn't be options, the problem is that there are asshole opinions saying "CA, Film grain and motion blur don't belong in video games, they arent movies!!!111!!"
 
They don't, though. _Some_ of them use it for artistic purposes, but it's not _that_ common.
I agree it's not as common in movies anymore, but its not that rare either. Massive films well known for their cinematography still use it. A lot of good TV shows as well. Here's an analysis on Dune, The Batman and Project Hail Mary, all captured first on digital. They went to great lengths to bring film grain back into digital. One of the techniques is called film-out. They print the digital imagery onto film stock and then scan it back to digital. Completely unnecessary from an objective standpoint and intentionally "ruining the image". But the end result is a more striking visual presentation.

Video games naturally aspire to reach these heights, as movies are a relatively mature visual medium that video games makers try to emulate. Most fall short or overdo it, but that's what separates the good artists from the wannabes.

 
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No one is saying that there shouldn't be options, the problem is that there are asshole opinions saying "CA, Film grain and motion blur don't belong in video games, they arent movies!!!111!!"

But they aren't movies. The best example is that in videogames, 23.976 fps is not acceptable.
CA and Film Grain are defects from the era of film exposure.
 
So what? It's ARTISTIC INTENT... what don't you get? These effects are added to convey a mood or tone. Lawd have mercy lol.

Defect is not artistic intent.
CA and Film Grain are not art. They don't make a good movie. Nor game.
Do you know what makes a good movie. Good scrip, good dialogs, acting, editing, pacing, staging, blocking.
 
So what? It's ARTISTIC INTENT... what don't you get? These effects are added to convey a mood or tone. Lawd have mercy lol.
Where does ARTISTIC INTENT stop though? Is low detail textures artistic intent? Is flat lighting artistic intent? Is low poly models artistic intent? Couldn't all of the above be labeled as artistic content ie added intentionally by Devs to portray a mood or tone?

Edit: to me, focusing on artistic intent is a slippery slope that effectively blocks criticism of how any game looks. Each decision the Devs make on how a game looks is intentional. Does that mean those decisions are beyond criticism? I would argue..hell no.

Go ahead and have your CA, grain and whatnot. But please please make them a toggle. I fully respect some people like how those effects look, but I also know that I and many others dislike them most of the time. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. So just make them optional.
 
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Defect is not artistic intent.
CA and Film Grain are not art. They don't make a good movie. Nor game.
Do you know what makes a good movie. Good scrip, good dialogs, acting, editing, pacing, staging, blocking.
Artistic Intent can be anything. Art isn't a science, but art can be badly implemented.
 
I like CA very much. Don't fan of Film Grain. My OLED getting dimmed when per pixel Motion Blur kicks in, therefore I don't wanna use it but I like MB as well generally.

So come at me bros!

Come On GIF by HBO Max


Note: I definitely support the idea of making these things optional. Let people play with what they like most.
 
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While we are on the topic of camera defects, how do people feel about lens flares these days? I still cringe when I see it being slapped on as a replacement for actual lighting. Plenty of it in Wolverine. The one below is acceptable. Actual bright laser beam causing a "flare":

J8JBk3HNjrDwTXyh.png



But I can't stand these types of bullshit headlights that can't even light up the road ahead, but "flaring" to cover up that fact.
vNjlfvDNyGIVHhDk.png



Even spotted one in GTA 6
5rB23Na63JYa45DK.png



Can't wait for the complete transition to megalights-style solutions so we don't ever have to see these anymore. These are objectively being used as crutches to hide rendering inadequacies. Flares are not a replacement for real lighting!
 
While we are on the topic of camera defects, how do people feel about lens flares these days? I still cringe when I see it being slapped on as a replacement for actual lighting. Plenty of it in Wolverine. The one below is acceptable. Actual bright laser beam causing a "flare":

J8JBk3HNjrDwTXyh.png



But I can't stand these types of bullshit headlights that can't even light up the road ahead, but "flaring" to cover up that fact.
vNjlfvDNyGIVHhDk.png



Even spotted one in GTA 6
5rB23Na63JYa45DK.png



Can't wait for the complete transition to megalights-style solutions so we don't ever have to see these anymore. These are objectively being used as crutches to hide rendering inadequacies. Flares are not a replacement for real lighting!

Killzone 2 was using deferred rendering in 2009 and even Helghast eyes were light sources.

ptqYYZmeHDh0QYLi.png


Yet here we are in 2026 with wolverine where they can't be bothered to use many light sources in the scene. What happened?
 
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But they aren't movies. The best example is that in videogames, 23.976 fps is not acceptable.
CA and Film Grain are defects from the era of film exposure.
they are both visual mediums. TV shows have also switched to making sure they look just like movies. Everyone realizes that movies have figured it out and those defects were actually a blessing in disguise because it lets them standout.

And some movies are now being shot at 48 fps. A lot of directors dont like the juttery pans anymore. Watching Avatar 2 and 3 in 48 fps was a religious experience. Nolan, Villenvue and Snyder are now effectively shooting 4:3 movies in IMAX because they realize that tall format is actually way more immersive than widescreen in some cases. Like vivek said, they have gone back to adding film grain and CA in some movies after the audiences basically rejected clean looking movies.

Point is that movies are also evolving and trying to find new ways to make them more immersive.
 
While we are on the topic of camera defects, how do people feel about lens flares these days? I still cringe when I see it being slapped on as a replacement for actual lighting. Plenty of it in Wolverine. The one below is acceptable. Actual bright laser beam causing a "flare":

J8JBk3HNjrDwTXyh.png



But I can't stand these types of bullshit headlights that can't even light up the road ahead, but "flaring" to cover up that fact.
vNjlfvDNyGIVHhDk.png



Even spotted one in GTA 6
5rB23Na63JYa45DK.png



Can't wait for the complete transition to megalights-style solutions so we don't ever have to see these anymore. These are objectively being used as crutches to hide rendering inadequacies. Flares are not a replacement for real lighting!

They might as well try to simulate my astigmatism when I don't wear glasses :messenger_tears_of_joy:

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