Devs: A Video Game Is Not A Movie (Eye Candy Update)

KlinnKlinn Lost in a cave Join Date: 2016-03-09 Member: 214022Members
Please repeat after me -- a video game is *not* a movie!

The "eye candy" in the latest update is a waste of development time and resources. So many games make the mistake of thinking all these special effects make things more cinematic but ignore the fact that the experience of playing a game is completely different from sitting back and watching a movie. It's a matter of active involvement versus being passive.

Let's take a common problem, applying a DOF effect.

A first-person game such as Subnautica is supposed to replicate our experience in a real world (an alien one, granted). When we're in a real world and our gaze shifts from something close by to something in the distance, our eyes automatically change focus so what we're viewing is always sharp. But now that you've added DOF, I may be looking at a nearby chunk of rock which is nice and sharp, hear a noise and look up to see a large critter swimming in my direction, but its all blurry. That's not how it works in real life, and as a result the player's experience is compromised. The world you've spent so much time creating now feels fake.

Some games need to do this because their distant LOD is so low-resolution, or kicks in so close to the player, that they use DOF to disguise how bad their world is. Subnautica was not one of those worlds. Before DOF was added, the view was nice and crisp, at least on the PC. Don't know if it looked different on consoles.

Adding DOF to Subnautica is a step backwards. Thanks goodness we can turn it off.

Same for the other "eye candy" -- chromatic aberrations, blurring, dirt on one's mask, etc, these are all things that we normally filter out when looking around the world. Movies use some of these things for specific dramatic effects, but again -- you're *not* making a movie! That's not the experience you're trying to replicate.

Thank you for including check boxes to get rid of all these distractions, but my point is you have spent valuable time and resources to create something completely unneeded.

[/rant] ;)

Comments

  • NozyspyNozyspy Great Britain Join Date: 2016-10-02 Member: 222806Members
    I have to completely agree with the OP. I hate these kinds of things in games, chromatic aberration, DOF, motion blur and, god forbid, vignetting. They just cover up a games nice visuals, and half of the games these days probably have them to cover up flaws or jaggies without having to use AA. As for bloom, it should be used very sparingly, i used to do level design as a hobby and i remember how hideous bloom could make things look.

    I always turn them off at the first possible opportunity. Very disappointed the devs wasted time on this when the game looked just perfect already! The visual language of Subnautica did not need anything doing to it. It was already just right.

    Dont fix what aint broken!
  • Jim444Jim444 Join Date: 2017-11-20 Member: 234049Members
    Nozyspy wrote: »
    I have to completely agree with the OP. I hate these kinds of things in games, chromatic aberration, DOF, motion blur and, god forbid, vignetting. They just cover up a games nice visuals, and half of the games these days probably have them to cover up flaws or jaggies without having to use AA. As for bloom, it should be used very sparingly, i used to do level design as a hobby and i remember how hideous bloom could make things look.

    I always turn them off at the first possible opportunity. Very disappointed the devs wasted time on this when the game looked just perfect already! The visual language of Subnautica did not need anything doing to it. It was already just right.

    Dont fix what aint broken!

    Same here! I also turned these off immediately! :)
    I hope next update will bring some new biome/Creatures/story content
  • william1134william1134 Join Date: 2017-01-09 Member: 226439Members
    I appreciate the eye candy update but don't really think it was needed as the game looks amazing anyways. Thanks for making it entirely option as I will certainly use some of the settings but certainly never the motion blur.
  • KlinnKlinn Lost in a cave Join Date: 2016-03-09 Member: 214022Members
    Do people not understand the fact it takes like 5 seconds to turn of the new features?

    Not the point, please read my post more closely. If you don't want to read the whole thing, at least look at the very last tl;dr line which says "my point is..." ;)

    They are trying to replicate the feel of being underwater. <snip> Underwater your vision starts blurring way earlier than on air due to increased light scattering.

    Yes, I wondered if that was the devs' intent and I played for several hours keeping that in mind. Thing is, they were already able to design a biome to give that impression.

    Specifically, I always thought the Kelp Forests gave a great feeling of murky, cloudy water with more limited visibility. It made the contrast to the Safe Shallows more dramatic, since that's more like diving in the Caribbean with crystal clear waters and bright colors.

    By applying a heavy DOF filter over top of everything, the devs have reduced their ability to communicate the differences between biomes.

    Calarand77 wrote:
    For you it may be a waste of development time, and that's unfortunate, but for others all of the new features may just as well be something they've been waiting for a long time.

    My choice of the word "waste" may have been too heavy-handed, but what I meant was that game development involves setting priorities and channeling time & resources towards them. Maybe there are some people who have been eagerly looking forward to these features, but I think *everybody* would have benefited from, for example, time spent on bug fixes and reducing pop-in instead.

    As SnailsAttack suggested, perhaps not too much time was needed to add the eye candy compared to the effort needed for other fixes. Unfortunately only the devs know the answer to that question. All I can do is suggest that releasing an update with the theme of "eye candy" tends to indicate that their priorities, at least in part, may have shifted to a direction which is less beneficial to the game as a whole.

    All just IMHO of course. ;) Thanks for the responses folks!
  • adel_50adel_50 Join Date: 2016-09-01 Member: 221973Members
    Klinn wrote: »
    Do people not understand the fact it takes like 5 seconds to turn of the new features?

    Not the point, please read my post more closely. If you don't want to read the whole thing, at least look at the very last tl;dr line which says "my point is..." ;)

    They are trying to replicate the feel of being underwater. <snip> Underwater your vision starts blurring way earlier than on air due to increased light scattering.

    Yes, I wondered if that was the devs' intent and I played for several hours keeping that in mind. Thing is, they were already able to design a biome to give that impression.

    Specifically, I always thought the Kelp Forests gave a great feeling of murky, cloudy water with more limited visibility. It made the contrast to the Safe Shallows more dramatic, since that's more like diving in the Caribbean with crystal clear waters and bright colors.

    By applying a heavy DOF filter over top of everything, the devs have reduced their ability to communicate the differences between biomes.

    Calarand77 wrote:
    For you it may be a waste of development time, and that's unfortunate, but for others all of the new features may just as well be something they've been waiting for a long time.

    My choice of the word "waste" may have been too heavy-handed, but what I meant was that game development involves setting priorities and channeling time & resources towards them. Maybe there are some people who have been eagerly looking forward to these features, but I think *everybody* would have benefited from, for example, time spent on bug fixes and reducing pop-in instead.

    As SnailsAttack suggested, perhaps not too much time was needed to add the eye candy compared to the effort needed for other fixes. Unfortunately only the devs know the answer to that question. All I can do is suggest that releasing an update with the theme of "eye candy" tends to indicate that their priorities, at least in part, may have shifted to a direction which is less beneficial to the game as a whole.

    All just IMHO of course. ;) Thanks for the responses folks!

    Nothing is left content wise other than the rocket's sequences and content the rest is polish performance and bug fixes and according to the update note more than 250 bugs were fixed whether its true or not they're doing an excellent job at making the game ready for release
  • VincentNZVincentNZ Germany Join Date: 2016-05-31 Member: 217829Members
    I would have to agree with the OP more or less. I was rather excited about an update with that name, but then I saw the video and only thought: "Ah they made it blurry." Which are options that I always immediately turn off. It just does not give me anything, although it tries to mimic real life effects.
    This is a noble cause, but it never works outside of screenshots, because rapid focusing and unfocusing is unneeded since we already do that with our eyes when we play. As mentioned, if everything but the thing I currently look at with my crosshair is blurry, I can not look somewhere else and refocus without moving my mouse.
    As an example, I was playing a Zombie Game the other day, where I was sneaking through gras, my eyes were on the Zombie, but my crosshair was on the tip of the grass. Which part was blurry? The Zombie of course. It makes no sense.

    Also Subnautica is a game of constant amazement from the world. There is always stuff to find and things to look at and explore. Do not hide it with making the whole thing blurry.

    I can only see this as a good and immersive thing in the light of VR (probably, haven't tried it) and if you are really into screenshots and cinematics.
  • AzirphaeliAzirphaeli USA Join Date: 2016-05-20 Member: 217144Members
    Dear devs:

    This was not a waste of time and is pretty awesome, thank you for the update.
  • BDelacroixBDelacroix Florida Join Date: 2016-04-08 Member: 215511Members
    I have actually been in the water. If you want to simulate that you can pretty much turn off the monitor to get the same effect.
  • MaalterommMaalteromm Brasil Join Date: 2017-09-22 Member: 233183Members
    BDelacroix wrote: »
    I have actually been in the water. If you want to simulate that you can pretty much turn off the monitor to get the same effect.
    Dude, I just did. It kinda felt like I was in a dark room. Never thought diving was this awesome.
  • BDelacroixBDelacroix Florida Join Date: 2016-04-08 Member: 215511Members
    Oh it isn't my intent to say these changes are bad. I'm fine with them. I was commenting on the simulating a real ocean thing. I think we want idealised ocean rather than actual.
  • DaveyNYDaveyNY Schenectady, NY Join Date: 2016-08-30 Member: 221903Members
    I for one, am very grateful for any updates the Dev's add to this game, whether I use them or not.

    This is such a great game and knowing that They have a firm plan to continue to add to it for some time to come, makes me very glad that I was able to get in on it from pretty much the start.
    This is one of a fews game that I have purchased, that I will never be sorry for doing so.
    B)
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