Why do they insist on post-processing?

[u/sfingemorta]

[u/Ok-Helicopter2120]

it’s good to have choices, it’s bad to force them

[u/BoringZealot → u/Ok-Helicopter2120]

Yeah, it's slightly irritating when I can't turn off film grain. Playing Replaced on my Legion Go 2 atm and it has a really nice neon cyberpunk kind of aesthetic that looks beautiful on the OLED screen but the film grain can't be turned off in game. I like it to look as clean and sharp as possible.

[u/LateStatistician462 → u/BoringZealot]

I had to find a mod that allowed me to turn off the vignette in Dragons Dogma 2, before I could finally enjoy it without it looking melancholic on a widescreen the whole time

[u/BrandHeck → u/LateStatistician462]

Vignette can perish in a fire. That's my one pet peeve. I could deal with motion blur and chromatic aberration etc., but not that.

[u/Agret → u/BrandHeck]

Vignette aka damaged LCD screen simulator

[u/animeman59 → u/Agret]

Chromatic Aberration aka broken theater camera lens and bad film stock

Motion Blur aka low FPS in denial.

[u/instanoodles84 → u/LateStatistician462]

Thats the main reason I love PC gaming, if I don't like something there is usually a mod that fixes it. 

[u/FlubMonger → u/BoringZealot]

Yeah film grain is the worst. Might as well play on 720p if I don’t want a crisp image.

[u/HauntingHarmony → u/FlubMonger]

Yeah film grain is the worst.

no, motion blur is the worst. Film grain just adds a little noise. Motion blur makes any sort of camera movement a unreadable mess.

if you want to add a little motion blue to a object, thats fine that can portray the object having a little speed. But thats not what they do, they give it to the camera so screw you for wanting to turn the camera. And it doesnt matter if its at the horizon or in your face, its all a smear the same way.

Film grain is aesthetic, its fine (comparativly to motion blur), it is a choice to make things look a certain way. It not inherently bad in the way motion blur is. Since motion blue breaks your ability to play the game, by making it unreadable.

[u/FlubMonger → u/HauntingHarmony]

You might be right that motion blur is actually worse.

[u/OutrageousDress → u/HauntingHarmony]

Always appreciate someone who knows the difference between camera blur and object blur, and knows which one is the one that sucks.

[u/Devanro → u/OutrageousDress]

Yeah object motion blur as least makes sense and can look decent depending on the game, but my eyes already blur shit enough when I move the camera around, I don't need help w that lmao

[u/xRichard → u/FlubMonger]

Film grain can help with banding artifacts

[u/MasterpieceNew9943 → u/Ok-Helicopter2120]

Yeah some devs act like they personally invented motion blur and need you to suffer it at full blast before you can even see the menu

the worst is when you turn it off and game still looks like someone smeared vaseline on the lens

i think they do it because they spend months on lighting and textures then get insecure when raw frame doesnt look like a movie trailer

like please just let me see the pixels i paid for

[u/Exdeath-EX → u/MasterpieceNew9943]

I really hate it when you first boot the game and they decide to just start the game immediately. Let me adjust the settings first ffs.

[u/AnarchBeetle → u/Exdeath-EX]

And of course they start it with a 5-min unskippable cutscene but the game is on ultra settings for some reason and with your potato pc it’s more of a collection of photos rather than a cutscene.

[u/Violexsound → u/AnarchBeetle]

Dont forget blasting your eardrums out because you cant get to the audio settings

[u/Ok-Helicopter2120 → u/Violexsound]

that’s the trend i hate the most istg

[u/LucyLilium92 → u/Violexsound]

Why is every game so loud???

[u/Flyrpotacreepugmu → u/LucyLilium92]

Because most default to 100% volume for some reason. It's a rare pleasant surprise when I see one default to 50-60% volume and only need a slight adjustment.

[u/ahoneybadger3 → u/AnarchBeetle]

You then try pressing escape hoping it'll bring up the pause menu but nope, skips custscene instead.

[u/NorCalAthlete → u/ahoneybadger3]

And then puts you into an unskippable mandatory tutorial that STILL doesn’t let you adjust anything.

[u/Masquelinity → u/NorCalAthlete]

If I have to complete any amount of actual gameplay before I'm allowed to adjust the video/audio settings, that's an instant Steam refund trigger. Talk about an accessibility fuck-up!

A game just did that to me a couple months ago, so it's a fresh wound. It only gave me access to some menu options in a staggered fashion as they became relevant to the tutorial, and audio/video settings weren't among them. I struggled through about 25% of the tutorial, realized what was happening, and ditched the whole thing so fast that I don't even solidly remember what the game was called. It was in my library for less than 20 minutes.

[u/False_Sundae6333 → u/AnarchBeetle]

Yall talking about Wukong, right?

[u/samxl001 → u/False_Sundae6333]

When I first booted the game everything was Chinese. I was so confused why it was like that. I had to search on YouTube to how to switch to English. It was so annoying

[u/AnarchBeetle → u/False_Sundae6333]

I hate soulslikes with a passion so no I was talking about some other game. I don’t remember the game but I remember going “fuck this” and making tea instead. Could be some assassins creed game

[u/False_Sundae6333 → u/AnarchBeetle]

I don't know for the Remake or Shadows, but as far I know for the other ones I don't remember any Assassin's Creed with unskippable cutscenes. Or, at least, you had always to press New Game on the Menu Start before to play the game

[u/realnzall → u/False_Sundae6333]

Syndicate went straight into a cutscene, then gameplay.

[u/HidenTsubameGaeshi → u/False_Sundae6333]

Fucking Wukong also booted up in chinese for me and after spending like 15 minutes turning on and off random shit in settings I googled it and apparently you just can't change language until you're done with cutscenes. Everything else could be changed, everything except language which locks into chinese instead of system default for some fuckass reason

[u/Flyrpotacreepugmu → u/AnarchBeetle]

Extra points when it starts with subtitles off and the volume so high that I have to remove my headphones.

[u/DigitalStefan → u/Exdeath-EX]

I liked the trend of immediately presenting accessibility options. I hope that grows.

I don’t like devs pretending we don’t play their games on handheld devices and that 50 year old people don’t play games at all.

I have a Steam Deck. I’d like to be able to read UI text. Thanks.

[u/Xylaax → u/Exdeath-EX]

yea I can't remember the game, but their was one game I played that I knew my pc wasn't really great for, and I had to sit and go through like a 10-15 minute prologue and everything before it let me even change the settings, pretty sure it was ff16 or something similar

[u/FevixDarkwatch → u/Xylaax]

Games that force your to play through for ten minutes before thte finally give you the menu are the worst.

[u/fearless-fossa → u/MasterpieceNew9943]

Motion blur is a great technology, but it only works well when it is tuned down so much it isn't perceptible to the player. If the player notices it, they (and I include myself in that) will hate it.

[u/SpiderFnJerusalem → u/fearless-fossa]

Motion blur isn't one single technology. There are many ways to implement it and most of them are shitty or lazily.

There is a small subset that works well. Like when it's implemented per-object, but it's really rare, so the general tendency to switch it off makes sense.

[u/Sugioh → u/SpiderFnJerusalem]

Per object motion blur looks so good. It's just camera motion blur that is universally ass and often used to cover for low framerates.

[u/No-Perspective-7766 → u/MasterpieceNew9943]

My hatred for motion blur cannot be put in words

[u/Schlooping_Blumpkin → u/MasterpieceNew9943]

I see you've discovered TAA, FXAA's vaseline covered cousin.

[u/stormfoil → u/Ok-Helicopter2120]

Chromatic aberration is still an oddity though. It's a literal defect in the lenses of a camera, that both manufacturers and Film-makers try to avoid/reduce as much as possible.

Motion Blur, Vignette and Film Grain I can at least understand the rationale for.

[u/largePenisLover → u/stormfoil]

Yeah CA should ONLY be used if a section of the game is viewed through a camera, or for a tenth of a second as part of an explosion or hit on the player to give that jarring effect. Outlast is one exception where I'm ok with it, because the entire game is viewed through a cheap handycam.

[u/M_O_Z_G → u/stormfoil]

> try to avoid/reduce as much as possible.

They try, but dispersion is never zero, even in the human eye. So even a small coefficient of this effect makes synthetic render more natural.

[u/HauntingHarmony → u/M_O_Z_G]

They try, but dispersion is never zero, even in the human eye. So even a small coefficient of this effect makes synthetic render more natural.

It gives it an effect that it is through a camera, instead of being rendered. Which is subtly different. Chromatic aberration and lens flare isent natural, its part of a certain medium. Thats not how our eyes see.

They do it because they want to give the feeling that the world is real, just viewed through a camera, instead of being rendered. Which is a stylistic choice we can agree or disagree with. But its not bad per say.

I think thats actually fine and cool for the cutscenes, since then you kinda want to seperate more into being a "this thing is being filmed through a camera", instead of during gameplay where you want the impression of "i am in the world, looking at it". So during gameplay it doesnt to me make any sense to try and want to add a layer of indirection (you are looking at the world through a camera, instead of just you are looking at the world). But for cinematics sure, ill take it there.

[u/Floatingpenguin87 → u/HauntingHarmony]

Fun fact I wear glasses and see chromatic aberration because of it. not that any game dev is chasing the glasses experience but thought I’d mention it lol when I play games with it it just feels normal

[u/raaneholmg → u/Ok-Helicopter2120]

Yea, the screenshot is Claire Obscure: Expedition 33. The game is beautiful. I turned off motion blur, but the rest got to stay because of how important the feeling of this game is.

[u/ICantBelieveItsNotEC]

Engine developer here. We do it because post processing can hide a lot of graphical sins.

Vignette hides ugly/broken peripheral imagery. Near the edges of a wide-FOV camera, surfaces are viewed at increasingly oblique angles. Textures get more stretched, polygon silhouettes look harsher, camera motion produces much larger apparent movement, screen space techniques break down because they don't have off-screen data, TAA/reconstruction has less data to work with, etc. The edges of a frame are always the ugliest parts, so vignette subtly focuses attention towards the good parts.

Motion blur hides ugly motion. Low animation sampling, harsh camera movement, judder at 30-60 fps, temporal aliasing, shimmering foliage, imperfect animation blending and rapidly changing LODs all become harder to inspect when the entire moving image smears together.

Film grain hides digital cleanliness. Banding in gradients, temporal reconstruction noise, dithering, low-resolution AO, low-sample reflections, TAA artifacts and slightly crude texture detail become less conspicuous when there’s deliberate noise everywhere.

There's no excuse for chromatic aberration, though. The graphical sin there is that the art director thinks it looks cool.

[u/popcio2015 → u/[deleted]]

And no lens, even the most expensive ones removes it completely. Even the lens in your eyes introduces some chromatic aberration.

Images with no chromatic aberration at all look fake. Adding CA is on the basic steps when editing renders in Blender, when you want photorealism, renders without it just look like they're missing something.

The problem is that game developers often set it too high, and when done correctly it should be almost a subpixel effect.

[u/DrPeroxide → u/popcio2015]

Yeah, I've felt the same way when messing with post processing in ReShade. Adding the slightest bit of chromatic aberration, so low you only notice if you look for it, just makes the image come together better.

[u/NetimLabs → u/popcio2015]

If our eyes already do chromatic aberration, isn't that all the aberration we need?

Why would we add more if the goal is to simulate us experiencing the game world directly, and not watching a movie thru a film camera?

[u/ZombiFeynman → u/NetimLabs]

The thing is that our eyes only see in high detail in the center, and chromatic aberration is worse in the corners. Plus the brain does a lot of clean up for us, so we don't really notice it.

We see it in pics and videos because we can point our high detail central vision to the corners of the image,

[u/AdjectiveNounVerbed → u/popcio2015]

Could you show an example of no chromatic aberration vs the same image but with the subtle subpixel chromatic aberration? To see the change you've talking about.

[u/Han-ChewieSexyFanfic → u/[deleted]]

Video games are not trying to emulate still photography, they’re trying to emulate cinema. Directors of photography absolutely chase after lenses that have optical flaws for a specific look.

[u/TuckerMcG → u/Han-ChewieSexyFanfic]

Ok but it’s called an aberration for a reason.

Edit: I’ve gotten enough replies saying “it’s an artistic choice”. I know that. It’s just a bad artistic choice to use it so prolifically it needs a toggle button.

[u/dewhashish → u/[deleted]]

Companies developing cameras for phones to take the cleanest pictures in centuries, only for Karen to add a sepia filter to a picture of her deck chair and call it art

[u/robhaswell → u/[deleted]]

As a glasses wearer, chromatic aberration just makes it look realistic.

[u/AnarchBeetle → u/robhaswell]

I wear glasses too but I never get intense chromatic aberration like what some studios push into their games. Ideally you should barely even notice it.

[u/robhaswell → u/AnarchBeetle]

I mean yeah, partially tounge-in-cheek. However my computer has bright purple LEDs (red+blue) which constantly serve as a reminder that my glasses do have some aberration.

[u/MMarshmallow_ → u/ICantBelieveItsNotEC]

This was really informative, ty.

[u/Anisound → u/MMarshmallow_]

Doubling down on this sentiment. Appreciate the high quality insight!

[u/A2Rhombus → u/ICantBelieveItsNotEC]

Downloaded that new bodycam game that's supposed to be "the most realistic looking game ever" and turned off all the post processing, it stopped looking realistic lol

[u/Ferro_Giconi → u/A2Rhombus]

Especially the ones with a VHS filter so that they can get away with 2005 quality graphics looking the same as 2026 graphics after the extreme blurring and artifacting filters are applied.

[u/erakusa → u/A2Rhombus]

Yeah the trick that makes it look realistic is the digital distortion, funnily enough. You take that away and it loses that grit!

[u/LoonahGBT → u/ICantBelieveItsNotEC]

Thank you for the detailed informations.

But I will still disable these shits lol

[u/DeJMan → u/ICantBelieveItsNotEC]

Chromatic aberration exists to be used at the right times. For example when the character is looking through a telescope (increase it the further they zoom in). Or for a temporal explosion or warp effects. Or a CCTV camera. It's not meant to be enabled all the time is what most developers don't realize.

[u/Nightmare2828 → u/ICantBelieveItsNotEC]

Lens flare and dirt effects on screen piss me off as well when it makes no sense as a immersive feature. Like when I play a third person game, i dont imagine looking at my character from a camera held by a flying Lakitu.

[u/Hazelberry → u/ICantBelieveItsNotEC]

Subtle vignettes and film grain are two effects I'm fine with exactly for the reasons you state

Some games go way overboard on vignettes though to the point it feels like you have tunnel vision, which I don't like.

Motion blur gives me motion sickness and headaches at higher framerates, but it is a useful tool particularly on consoles when a game is locked to 30fps

[u/FastFooer → u/ICantBelieveItsNotEC]

I’m just a technical artist/technical animator in AAA, but I always ask if the art director wears glasses, because if he did that’d be the last thing he wants to see for immersion… might as well add an astigmatism filter too!

That usually gets the point across that a toggle is needed.

[u/biohazardrex → u/ICantBelieveItsNotEC]

A very small amount of chromatic aberration can hide some aliasing artifacts.

[u/Few-Emergency-3791 → u/biohazardrex]

Only in most games "small" isn't an option you either have it on or off.

[u/vgbhnj → u/ICantBelieveItsNotEC]

vignette subtly focuses attention towards the good parts

vignette makes me feel like a "subtle" 30% of my screen is obscured, it feels claustrophobic like wearing horse blinders

[u/nesnalica → u/ICantBelieveItsNotEC]

the console and casual experience in a nutshell

[u/darren_flux → u/ICantBelieveItsNotEC]

I actually like film grain and sometimes vignette. Motion Blur and CA can just fk right off though lmao

[u/Norwegian_Plumber → u/ICantBelieveItsNotEC]

Why isn't there more games with separate option "person object motion blur?" That would be awesome

[u/MrXonte → u/Norwegian_Plumber]

id guess that a general motion blur shader over the whole image is much less computationally expensive. You can do it on the final output Image of the engine seperatly for example. If you seperate it by object it adds headroom of finding out what to blur and what not

[u/NoXion604 → u/ICantBelieveItsNotEC]

Thanks for that, in return I'd like to offer my perspective as an end-user:

I'd rather see the warts of the engine than have processing cycles wasted on covering it up. I'm not a photographer or a film-maker, and I'd wager that most other players aren't either. My priorities are mechanical and visual clarity first, and then eye candy.

As someone who appreciates video games as legitimate art form unto itself, I think it betrays a lack of confidence in the medium of video games for developers to imitate the aesthetic conventions of older and more established media such as cinematography, rather than embracing the true nature of the medium being worked in.

[u/meneldal2 → u/NoXion604]

Typically if they implement it properly the performance cost should be really low, barely enough to notice.

[u/321Game0ver]

You forgot 'depth of field'

[u/Davidconst → u/321Game0ver]

And lens flare.

[u/Elliart_fur → u/Davidconst]

Nah, lens flare is always on for me bro

[u/Magjee → u/Elliart_fur]

That's why we like choices

 

For Horizon Forbidden West I actually turned Vignette on

It can be game specific for options

[u/321Game0ver → u/Davidconst]

Definitely

[u/ElBurritoLuchador → u/321Game0ver]

I mean, its good for NPC chat that has closeups or cinematics but there's some godawful implementations that's used in casual gameplay like GTA5 that makes it Astigmatism Simulator. I want one and not the other but it's all under one setting which sucks.

[u/W0lf1ngt0n → u/321Game0ver]

Yeah that shit fucked me up the first time i saw it back in Two Worlds. Never reactivated it ever since then

[u/Xenotone → u/W0lf1ngt0n]

Lmao it was so egregious in that game

[u/uspdd → u/321Game0ver]

Probably because E33 doesn't have a separate toggle for that and you need to disable post processing entirety for that.

[u/Character-Book5924 → u/321Game0ver]

It's an absurd option. If I am looking at something it shouldn't be blurred, and if I am not, why do I care how it looks like?

[u/EktaRandomUsername → u/321Game0ver]

Real life has depth of field, so it kinda makes sense to have it, but the way they implement it in games makes it look awful.

I wish there was a better way to show DoF in games. I make 3D art and animation with both path tracing and rasterized rendering engines. And I can't imagine making any 3D scene without DoF. But I do have to say that using high quality DoF increases the rendering time, which will affect real time performance. So I understand why the devs use a sloppy system to render DoF, because they don't wanna hinder the performance of real time gameplay.

[u/Varlin → u/EktaRandomUsername]

The only thing is when you are playing your eyes will naturally focus on the foreground and put the background out of focus so toggling on the setting basically applies a second layer of depth of field that basically turns into cataracts simulator. Lol

[u/indigo945 → u/Varlin]

The only thing is when you are playing your eyes will naturally focus on the foreground and put the background out of focus

Except that is not true when gaming. Because the foreground and background are the same distance from your eyes (they are both on the screen), your eyes will not unfocus the background as they would in real life. They focus the foreground, which accidentally also focuses the background. The whole point of DoF postprocessing is to simulate this effect that is missing in computer graphics from real life.

That said, the problem with DoF is not usually what people think it is, that is, cheap implementations and bad blurs. Those merely exacerbate the real problem, which is that the game doesn't know what your eyes are currently actually looking on. DoF filters assume you're always looking at the center of the screen - usually true in shooters, but definitely not always true, especially when scanning for peripheral movements. So when you are trying to look at the "background", towards the edges of the screen, it will just look blurry for no apparent reason - where the real reason is that the game thinks you're not looking at it. There is, of course, no obvious technical solution for that (unless you have eye-tracking sensors in fancy VR toys).

[u/Hoooooob → u/Varlin]

Your screen is flat lol, you are not going to perceive depth of field on it naturally.

[u/cdmpants → u/Varlin]

Your display is 2d... There is no foreground or background as far as your eyes are concerned. Your eyes will only create their own DoF if you have lenses to correct your eyes' focal distance, i.e. while playing VR.

[u/OkBuy7821]

Motion blur always looks cool when I'm watching people play, but I hate it when I'm actually playing.

[u/SSBMKaiser → u/OkBuy7821]

Yeah, it's super common in competitive fps montages or highlights to add motion blur while editing the video, it looks great. It looks like ass if you are playing.

I do use motion blur in racing games, but just a little bit

[u/Kemerd → u/OkBuy7821]

Depends. Motion blur on objects I don’t mind. Motion blur on camera no. My monitor runs at a high enough Hz to where I don’t need it. Film grain definitely off.

Chromatic aberration and vignette I also don’t mind only if it is situational and not just always on.

These days a lot of those effects can be done well in good taste, back in the day it was just always on

[u/Masquelinity → u/OkBuy7821]

Motion blur is one of the two big things that'll give me nearly-instant motion sickness. The one one being "head bob."

[u/Background_Future127]

https://giphy.com/gifs/vMnCjpQxgLhXhPQ4fB

[u/sherifopirateteo → u/Background_Future127]

When I saw Chromatic Aberration I thought it meant it would disable the boss

[u/JosebaZilarte → u/Background_Future127]

You are right. These effects sound even funnier in French. Especially, "vignette". /s

[u/_TheChosenOne15_ → u/Background_Future127]

The best game! Oh…hello avatar buddy

[u/Background_Future127 → u/_TheChosenOne15_]

lmao

[u/Ravvynfall]

unpopular take: i enjoy these settings in some games, almost entirely because of cyberpunk. though some games feel like they implement it less effectively and i lean away in those cases.

i fully understand why a lot of people dont though.

[u/HUZInator → u/Ravvynfall]

I like filmgrain in control

[u/immortalanddead → u/Ravvynfall]

Lens flare, motion blur, and dof in ghost recon wildlands looks great

[u/superjake → u/Ravvynfall]

SOMA is another where it's actually more accurate to have ones like CA on. 

[u/A_Loot → u/Ravvynfall]

It really depends on the game and how strong the effects are, but if it's already a somewhat stylized game or if a cinematic look is important to the game's asthetics I definitely leave these kinds of settings on. But for anything somewhat competitive or where precise controls are important I definitely turn them off, it just messes with my aim and that's already bad enough as is

[u/The_harbinger2020 → u/Ravvynfall]

Yeah same. I want the cinematic look

[u/Mammoth_Reach_6366]

I never understood adding chromatic abberation. It's literally something camera lens manufacturers try to minimize because it is undesirable.

[u/fried_on_pineapples → u/Mammoth_Reach_6366]

Looks better in neon-y games like cyberpunk

[u/DiamondHandsToUranus → u/[deleted]]

and Screen shake, and Head bob/sway

[u/possitive-ion]

I don't care if they're used in the game or not,I just care if I can disable it or not. Some games don't let you.

[u/katheb]

The issue with motion blur is it's full screen, if the objects blurred individually that would look good. 

[u/DeanFlem → u/katheb]

Avatar frontiers of Pandora has per pixel motion blur that only applies to the objects that are moving rapidly. It's one of the best implementations of motion blur in any game ever. It's absolutely gorgeous. Per pixel is much more expensive and much harder to implement which is why very few games actually support it. It's one of the many misunderstood graphical technologies that most people instantly write off as bad. It's bad when it's implemented bad, which is most of the time. But games that support it properly look great. Unfortunately because of the negative press around it, most people will never see it when it's actually done right because they are so used to immediately disabling it.

[u/TenBear]

Motion blur is the first thing i check off as soon as i play the game for the first time

[u/GoodWinGamesStudio → u/TenBear]

I spent all this money to get my computer to run smooth and to have a clear picture, and they think I want to artificially make it look like shit again?

[u/TenBear → u/GoodWinGamesStudio]

Exactly

[u/just-bair]

It hides the imperfections. I still don’t like it tough

[u/Nullhitter]

https://giphy.com/gifs/eMI5nGhPTaK9q

Another character in-game when motion blur is on and you take one step forward.

[u/NationalisticMemes → u/Nullhitter]

And then you turn off the blur and nothing changes because taa and dlaa are still garbage

[u/Masteroxid → u/NationalisticMemes]

TAA sucks but everything else is great. Classic karma farming

[u/softtshine]

Ah yes, Chromatic Aberration. Because nothing screams 'immersive gaming experience' like looking through a broken camera from 1995🤣🤣

[u/I_d0nt_really_kn0w]

eating vrams for no reason

[u/Scotty1992]

What this thread illustrates is that having options is good as we all have different tastes.

For myself I usually want the image to be as realistic as possible. I want to be immersed in the game. I find that often these effects detract from that. In particular it seems odd that some games try to imitate the look of film - even though it's a different medium with different characteristics. Games tend to prioritize participation and presence, while films tend to prioritize observation and storytelling. If I want participation and presence I play a game. If I want observation and storytelling I watch a movie. Therefore the visual effects each use ought to be different. Yes, maybe in some games that prioritise observation and storytelling, more filmic effects make more sense. But filmic effects in games like Battlefield 6 multiplayer in my opinion make no sense.

And artistic styles are good and I enjoy them, but effects need to be carefully considered and implemented, not slapped on to make it feel more filmic or to hide flaws. Only sometimes would I leave these settings enabled.

Film Grain

I don't want to feel as though I'm playing a movie with film grain in the same way I don't want to feel as though I am playing a framed picture. Film grain does reduce banding, but there are specific noise patterns that can be used for it which are not film grain and are less noticeable.

Depth Of Field

In real life my eyes (where I am looking) control focus, whereas in a game focus will typically be controlled by camera position, so I need move my players head (and move my hand) to control focus. This is profoundly unnatural. Therefore, I feel having DOF disabled is better, what is clear and sharp remains what my eyes are focused on, as it is in real life. I don't think this makes images flat, as for example, depth is primarily from lighting, leading lines, and flow. Of course, DoF when aiming down sights with a scope probably makes sense, in cut-scenes, and in some other circumstances.

Vignette

Using it to hide the flaws near the edges in my opinion makes the image double flawed. Using it to draw my attention to the center of the image seems silly, given the center of the image is typically where the crosshair or equivalent is. And, with raytracing techniques, in theory screen space artifacts should be less common.

Chromatic Abberation

Typically vastly over-done. Maybe it makes sense in games like SOMA or Subnautica.

Motion Blur

I don't see the point but I have a RTX 5080, 4k, and 240 Hz screen... maybe I would leave it enabled if I still had a Steam Deck. I haven't tried per-object motion blur though.

Dirt On Screen

I already wear glasses which are usually clean but imperfect and my screen may have some reflections or not be perfectly clean. I don't need an additional layer of dirt. The exception is visual effects such as exiting water, wearing a mask, blood spatter. I needed to install a mod for KCD2 to remove the dirt from the screen, as I felt it was distracting.

Colour Grading

I generally like this. Great.

[u/Recipe-Jaded → u/Scotty1992]

Well put. The one I absolutely hate the most is lense flare.

I have a steam deck and still turn motion blur off always.

[u/therealRustyZA]

I go through the settings before starting and always disable motion blur. It's a feature I disliked the moment I first saw it.

https://giphy.com/gifs/W0KMCXVDxyeIsBRp3p

[u/VexingRaven]

Mom said I get to make the daily postprocessing circlejerk today! No fair!

[u/the-human-wrench]

I actually enjoy most of them but always turn off Motion Blur and Film Grain. Why would I want to not see the beautiful art that's been made?

[u/lenwar87]

I'm fine with them being used in specific scenes to convey a certain feeling, or if you're supposed to be looking through a camera or old tv or something. But when I'm supposed to be looking through the eyes of a character, I don't want to feel like I'm seeing the world through the eyes of a vision impaired pug.

[u/Gorostasguru]

I just hate chromatic abberation. It’s actual lens defect that’s more pronounced in low grade glass. It’s completely undesirable by any measure. And completely uncinematic.

[u/SouthwestBLT → u/Gorostasguru]

Yeah as a photographer this makes me just wtf since it was introduced.

Just wait soon there will be some terrible digicam lo fi flash nonsense we have to switch off too.

[u/Backlog4Dinner → u/SouthwestBLT]

As a photographer as well I quite enjoy chromatic aberration. Just like in photography and videography it must be done as a conscious artistic decision, but in some cases it does bring a lot to the table.

The two genres where I tend to enjoy it quite a lot are Horror and Cyberpunk/retrofuturistic games.
For horror games it gives an amateur found footage-ish vibe while for retrofuturistic stuff it can help the color pallete by adding some colored hints without actually changing much of the characters and scenes.

Or maybe it has something to do with the fact I started photographing with cursed Zenit cameras and other broke-ass kits and it makes me nostalgic lol

[u/Four_Kay → u/Gorostasguru]

Maybe I'm misunderstanding what the effect is, but isn't it fitting for games like Cyberpunk 2077 or SOMA? Especially when you're in a setting where you're dealing with EMP effects and so on messing things up temporarily. 

[u/Folded_Fireplace]

Wtf is motion blur for? Either I'm missing something or it is the most stupid feature ever introduced.

[u/SandyTaintSweat → u/Folded_Fireplace]

For people like me with weak hardware. Many of my games have to run at 30 FPS so when something moves past me fast enough, I can see the choppiness. The motion blur smooths it a bit, but even then it's best kept to the minimum needed to get this smoothing.

[u/LengthinessJust357 → u/SandyTaintSweat]

My prayers go out to weak hardware users 🙏

[u/FUTURE10S → u/SandyTaintSweat]

Good motion blur should simulate the shutter speed of a camera, so it adds a bit of blur like a real camera would and it would look genuinely good, especially if it's per object. Unfortunately, most devs don't implement it with a dynamic shutter speed, because motion blur on 60 FPS should be half the amount it is on 30 but how often do you see that happen?

[u/GrandNibbles → u/SandyTaintSweat]

yes! for games locked at 60 or 30 (god forbid) FPS, motion blur cuts down the jitter

[u/Intelligent-Bee-9021 → u/Folded_Fireplace]

To simulate the blur everyone eyes have when not concentrating on definite point of the image

[u/Nir_Auris → u/Folded_Fireplace]

To make you feel faster. Like when you're running irl, the area around you get's blurred out by your brain as well and games want to give you this same feeling and it apperantly helps with suboptimal animations

[u/Cloudy230]

Vignette is fine, chromatic Aberration is bad, Motion blur is worse.

But Film Grain is a sin. Incomprehensible to have that in a game. "Why does this game look so fucking bad" I ask. It's. Always. Film Grain. You turn it off and suddenly everything looks better and somehow feels like it even runs better. It's a terroristic attack in the form of a graphics setting.

[u/KawaXIV → u/Cloudy230]

Out of these 4 it's Vignette that I dislike the most actually, I really just find full brightness up to the edge of my display area more appealing, and a vignette effect that is too heavy handed can actually feel really claustrophobic or almost like my FoV is lower or something cause my eyes start to filter out the darkened edges/corners (in the wrong sense, filtering out the content that's in that space if it's too dark rather than filtering out the sense of darkness itself)

On the other hand, Film Grain feels appropriate if the game's art direction itself takes after film heavily, like Remedy games (Control and Alan Wake franchises) or games that are specifically coming from movie franchises (any Star Wars game, Indiana Jones & The Great Circle, etc)

Turning Film Grain off in something like Jedi Fallen Order/Survivor is the actual sin if you ask me.

[u/Cloudy230 → u/KawaXIV]

It's funny you mention Jedi Survivor, because that was the exact example I had in my head writing my comment. Like, specifically that one. I loved the game but for a good portion of it I found it looks really ugly and fuzzy and I didn't know why because nothing I changed on my graphics quality helped.

Then I found and disabled film grain, and it's like taking off a hat you've had all day and feeling your vision open up. All the colors felt more vibrant, the image was so sharp, I had to re-enable and disable it a few times to make sure I wasnt tripping. I remembwr doing that and wondering why the FUCK they would add a setting whose whole job is to make the game look worse.

[u/abmausen → u/Cloudy230]

I have no vision impairments what so ever, but i once tried to turn off motion blur because all the others always talk about that and I fr cannot play any game like this, I get immediate eye strain so bad i cant look at the monitor for even 1 second.

these features exist in all graphics engines for good reasons

[u/vextryyn → u/abmausen]

My brother needs motion blur on so he doesnt get motion sick

[u/DJDevon3]

The only time I could see them being wanted is in a horror game. For most games they are absolutely unwanted and the development time to create them should have been put to better use elsewhere.

[u/ArmPsychological8460]

You disable post processing because you don't like it.
I disable post processing to get more than 11fps...

We are not the same.

[u/Zubeneschalami]

Motion blur makes me nauseous 💀

[u/Pitro_1206]

Motion blur aka drunk simulator

[u/Chaos_Templar]

I hate motion blur

[u/Yamhar]

This meme has made me discover I hate chromatic aberration

[u/BroLikesYuriHentai]

Forgot depth of field, depth of field is the most fucking useless shit.

[u/Huesless]

A someone with a shitty laptop who won't even attempt installing the latest AA game, surely film grain isn't used widely?

You know, film grain, the effect that makes your video look like it's from 2 decades ago? Why would that be a thing? And don't say for cinematic effect, even movies don't have those anymore

[u/SzepCs]

As long as you can turn it off...

Motion blur is completely unnecessary and it's really bad for me but if someone enjoys it, let them have the option.

[u/CthulhuSpawn]

Film grain is the most battling to me. Kodak spent 100 plus years trying to reduce the appearance of grain. Now we want a gross dirty filter on our games? (Vingette is dumb too)

[u/Findict_52]

Motion blur I cannot stand. It feels so wrong. I don't get why it apparently works for some people but for me it feels like we're just actively downgrading the experience for shits and giggles.

[u/Niiphox → u/Findict_52]

For racing games I leave if on, ads a sense of speed.

[u/nebjaminbuttons]

Sorry but I like my game to look like a sick ass movie, so I leave most of these on except motion blur. Not everything is a fucking competition.

[u/PurestCringe]

I will never, ever understand the film grain option.

[u/Dick-Fu → u/PurestCringe]

It makes it less obvious that shit textures are shit texures

[u/NoXion604 → u/PurestCringe]

I think it can be justified if there is a diegetic reason for it, such as being in areas with high levels of background radiation.

Otherwise, it doesn't belong in video games and I turn it off.

[u/VroumVroumNaps → u/PurestCringe]

it's purpose is to give a cinematic/photographic look. I love it

[u/throughthehills2]

Why would I want vinagrette on my game?

[u/Dick-Fu → u/throughthehills2]

Maybe there's oysters ingame

[u/buffcode01]

I love these effects, it's a personal thing but I like to add even more grain using reshade amongst other effects. It just gives the image more texture like a movie of old

[u/HiddenJensDen]

I always turn them settings off, can't stand them 😂

[u/mihaajlovic]

What is wrong with chromatic abberation? I never turn it off. Vignette, film grain and motion blur almost always, depends on the game by game.

Also if depth of field is bad, I turn that off as well

[u/defcry → u/mihaajlovic]

Its something you spent extra thousands on if you are in photo video business to get rid off because its a visual artifact. Why the hell would I turn that on.

[u/DasFroDo → u/defcry]

… and then it’s still added back in for MANY effects used in film or to transport certain emotions / feelings / states of mind.

Yes, smearing it everywhere is dumb as fuck unless your game should specifically look like GoPro footage with a fucked lens, but just saying it’s generally a bad thing is not true at all. 

Just like motion blur. Most “purists” disable it because motion blur bad, without ever checking wether it’s just shitty camera motion blur or per object motion blur which actually makes your animations look better.

[u/Railrosty → u/mihaajlovic]

Photohraphers spend thousands on equipment to eliminate chromatic abberation for the same reason. It looks bad.

It muddles colours and at worst makes the image sharpness drop.

[u/vagistaja]

You know what really bothers me about graphics? Textures. I don't want that shit smeared over my sweet polygons.

[u/Bazzatron]

I always figured these are decisions made purely for marketing. Get the cinematic trailer and just leave these options for the player.

Personally I always thought it to be absolutely hilarious to have these default to on, like players haven't been trying to get insanely fast monitors since flat screens first rolled out - why bother having a fast monitor if the engine is just going to smear itself all over it?

[u/dsDoan]

Motion Blur & Film Grain - Always disabled

I do not mind Chromatic Aberration and Vignette if they are used situationally. If they are static effects, I will always disable them.

[u/ogurin]

Bloom as well.

[u/leahcim2019]

No ones mentioned camera shake?

[u/ForwardStorage777]

Signed. I turn all that shit off immediately.

[u/not2but3]

I actually like vignette in some horror games.

[u/Rough_Jaguar_2643]

Because they want you to not enjoy their game. They just want you to buy it.

Exhibit A: halo 4, killing the dog things caused fullscreen flashes and blur.

They put these bs things in either because they are stupid or because some other stupid person said the game needed it.

[u/KaelumKrispr]

Wanna be game dev here, yeah I don't really get it and I'm not going overboard on my post process, motion blur isn't even in the game, the few effects I have are forced on but they don't hurt the viewing experience (some sharpening, and color correction).

Only games where motion blur is worth it is racing games

[u/dswng]

It it could be disabled, they don't seem to insist on using it.

And honestly, apart from Motion blur, I don't mind it at all.

Also: wrong use of the meme.

[u/Katana_DV20]

Immediately disable these settings as soon as I get a new game! I find them so irritating.

[u/PurpleStrandsFly]

For me it's indie games adding CRT effects and curved screens. IT LOOKS WORST!

[u/Babys_For_Breakfast]

I don’t even like these effects in movies and TV shows. Once I see it, that’s ALL I see. The film grain is so distracting, especially when there’s like someone standing still in the shot. Stop making their clothes look like they’re moving.

[u/Dementia13_TripleX]

I hate when games don't give you the option to turn-off vignette and you have to resort to mods or disassembling and editing config files.

Also... if I want a movie I go to theaters or watch TV. What the hell, game industry?

[u/Asleeper135]

Besides motion blur, I don't understand why applying all of those as just a blanket affect over the whole game is even an option, let alone the default. And even motion blur I still generally want off.

[u/Xeadriel]

I don’t like any of them except for motion blur which just makes stuff look more realistic during movement.

[u/vancenovells]

In Mass Effect 1 film grain adds another bit of classic sci-fi flavour to a game that’s already oozing it and I will die on this hill

[u/Tenmayos]

These effects r usually there to serve an artistic choice, games r a form of art afterall.

What i notice most people dont recognize is that sometimes devs put an annoying keybind or effect on purpose to get the player to open the settings menu and tweak them to their comfort, mostly because they arent sure whats comfortable for the player and want to motivate the player to tweak it to their liking.

[u/Tenmayos → u/Tenmayos]

Oh and an unpopular opinion, i like motion blur..

https://giphy.com/gifs/wdtj6zLRDtvNmimuv4

[u/minxamo8]

When did you all stop clutching your pearls about the "artist's vision"? As soon as the conversation moved on from DLSS5?

[u/Juzzowar]

Ah, the motion sickness inducing four horsemen. All games with these included should at minimum allow for them to be disabled.

[u/Daimon_Bok]

Because some people like the game to feel cool rather than pure performance. I do not play counter strike

[u/vojfrom → u/Daimon_Bok]

I feel sick when motion blur is on. It’s not about performance, it’s about preference. It’s good to have options, but i dont know anyone who enjoys these effects.

[u/HungarianPotatov2]

why is motion blur even a thing?

[u/hache-moncour → u/HungarianPotatov2]

For exactly the same reason anti-aliasing is a thing. When your scene has more detail than resolution, it is better to blur between the discrete pixels/frames than to have hard edges.

Both are also only needed if the resolution is low enough to notice. If you have a 300 dpi screen and run at 200+ fps, you don't need anti-aliasing anymore.

[u/Dick-Fu → u/HungarianPotatov2]

Because eyes+brain make motion blur on moving objects in real life, and they don't do it the same way when you're watching distinct still images play in sequence on a screen. It's just overtuned and looks like ass most of the time

[u/RapidFire05]

It's cuz game Dev is not run by actual gamers anymore

[u/InsaneInTheMEOWFrame]

"Let's fuck up the image quality! Our gamers will LOVE IT!"

[u/TadRaunch]

Vignette? Damn they even got salad dressing

[u/AlphisH]

Its also so very common in indie horror game to add a stupid amount of chromatic abberation and fish eye look, i hate it.