EvaUnit02 on 22/6/2011 at 08:55
:weird: I thought that it was common knowledge that SSAO in games is generally a big performance hog? It's also an effect in games that most people barely notice whilst actually playing.
Motion blur can suck my dick honestly. Too many games lately abuse it excessively - FEAR 2, Crysis 2, Alpha Protocol. The latest Crysis 2 patch (v1.8 - finally added customisable graphical options) REQUIRES it to be on, otherwise you get a black screen. The workaround is to add a CVar to autoexec.cfg that puts it to the lowest possible setting.
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https://secure.mycrysis.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=29554)
Renzatic on 22/6/2011 at 09:03
Quote Posted by EvaUnit02
:weird: I thought that it was common knowledge that SSAO in games is generally a big performance hog? It's also an effect in games that most people barely notice whilst actually playing.
I knew SSAO was, but I liked the effect enough to keep it running (and yeah, I do notice a difference. Specially in Witcher 2, which puts it to use better than most other games). Motion blur, on the other hand, kinda surprised me a bit. I always thought of it as a GPU easy throwaway effect.
Quote:
Motion blur can suck my dick honestly. Too many games lately abuse it excessively - FEAR 2, Crysis 2, Alpha Protocol.
I dunno why, but I like it. I guess because it makes the camera movement feel more fluid and natural to me. Of course it's very much a YMMV type situation.
EvaUnit02 on 22/6/2011 at 09:29
I usually don't mind DoF effects for gun scopes or whatever, but the excessive implementation from DNF was awful. Go-go flawlesswidescreen.org and WSGF!
Yakoob on 22/6/2011 at 15:35
Quote Posted by EvaUnit02
:weird: I thought that it was common knowledge that SSAO in games is generally a big performance hog? It's also an effect in games that most people barely notice whilst actually playing.
I donno, I'd disagree. Maybe it's because I am interested in graphics programming and read a lot of theory + looked a lot of comparison pictures, but SSAO looks like it makes a big difference. It's kind of like a poorer version of real-time radiosity. And that makes a big difference in creating more photo realistic environments.
Sulphur on 22/6/2011 at 16:51
Yeah, it's not pure radiosity per se. SSAO just simulates the ambient/diffuse lighting effect you get when light from a relatively large source bounces and scatters off multiple surfaces to bleed into the general area, causing soft, subtle shadows in the environment.
Actual radiosity is much more accurate, mathematically and physically, and even accounts for colour bleeding, which of course means that it's ridiculously slow and completely impractical for the real-time raster renderers that games use.
Yakoob on 22/6/2011 at 18:19
...which is why I said poorer version of radiosity.
Sulphur on 22/6/2011 at 18:43
Yeah yeah, don't getcher knickers in a twist, I'm agreeing with ya!
I'm sort of wishing they dialled it down a bit or went with GI baked into the maps a la Bulletstorm though, W2's SSAO seems a little too heavy.
Renzatic on 22/6/2011 at 18:57
It's more like a representation of one aspect of radiosity. It simulates light bounce by lightly shadowing any surface that won't be fully lit under normal lighting situations. So crevices, porches, the ground beneath underbrush, it'll all be slightly to moderately softer and darker than what the engine would normally draw them as under the usual realtime lights in a scene.
Like I said, it's a subtle effect, but one that brings that much more life and detail to a game.
van HellSing on 22/6/2011 at 19:30
I don't know about the technicalities, I'm just grateful I can turn it off, since not only is it hardware-draining, it also looks like crap. Somehow I never noticed a dark aura around people in real life.
Renzatic on 22/6/2011 at 19:45
That is one of the downsides of SSAO. The GPU isn't doing any complex light calculations to figure out where it needs to render AO, that'd only be one step away from true and proper radiosity, it's just taking semi educated guesses. Most of the time it does a good job. Though you will have those occasions where it'll draw shadows around a character if they're nearish to a wall or something.
Overall, I think the plusses far outweight the minuses. But then again, I'm obviously an unnecessary eyecandy junky over here.
