Film grain: wtf?

[Metalgamer81]

Seriously, who thought this was a good idea?

Did the meeting go something like this:
"Hey, I've got a great idea! Let's overlay the visuals of our new game with a coating that resembles dusty wax paper! It will make the graphics super realistic!"

"How does that make the graphics more realistic?"

"Players will feel like they're watching a movie from the 1940s instead of playing a video game! The cinematic value will triple! Besides, everyone knows that anything that looks "gritty" is more real than anything that does not."

"Well, can't beat that logic. Shitty overlays for all!"

Of course, I realize that not a single game denies the player the option to shut this very stupid feature off, and I'm sure it's great for really scary cut scenes... but during gameplay it's just ugly.

Thanks for listening to my rant

 

[xitel]

It's designed to make a scene look old, like the way old film looks. I don't know why they decided to use it, but who oh well.

 

[Spartan Bannana]

In some titles it's a little more fitting, like, having a film grain in Mass Effect was a little odd considering it was set in the future, but in Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway, it made sense. Most games have an option to turn it off anyway though, so it doesn't really end up mattering.

 

[GothmogII]

It works for certain games, not others. Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth was set around that period anyway, so yes, there it added to the effect. Although strictly speaking the sepia tone and grain were used sparingly in that game, as a lot of it was in color but with a special filter.

 

[Bored Tomatoe]

It works great in Left 4 Dead.
I personally like it.

 

[Grimm91]

It works in some games, but is a terrible idea in others. I don't really like it and think that it is oh, so very dumb but what can you do.

 

[Syntax Error]

Two Three words: Silent Hill series. Gotta love the grain on that one. There was a game in that series that allowed you to turn off the grainy filter as an unlockable. Playing the game without the grainy filter proved a bit weird, actually.

 

[Fenring]

I've played Mass Effect both with and without the film grain and I like it with, just gives it more personality.

 

[Fightgarr]

I remember in Shadow of the Colossus there's a scene where Wander is dreaming and it looks like old cinema. Me and my buddy were confused by that, but I really don't think its the end of the world. I also don't think the reasoning you gave is the exact reason for it.

 

[Viewtiful SNAkE]

Two Three words: Silent Hill series. Gotta love the grain on that one. There was a game in that series that allowed you to turn off the grainy filter as an unlockable. Playing the game without the grainy filter proved a bit weird, actually.

Yea! The Silent Hill series did a great job with that. It added to the atmosphere of the game and gives it more of that other worldly feel to it. And I think it was the third game in the series that let you do that, wasn't it...

 

[hoskie]

I believe Yahtzee said in his Mirror's Edge review something along the lines of a lot of newer games from the past few years have a tendency to come in one of two colours: "Gunmetal Grey" and "Dystopia Brown" (he was making the point that ME was a nice change).

And a VG Cats comic from 2007 addressed the excessive use of bloom [http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=224].

... it's not surprising that when someone gets a good idea, it gets exploited over and over again and subsequently overdone. I think the film grain technique can be really cool if executed well, but it's not the kind of thing I would want to see all the time.

 

[curlycrouton]

It worked really well In Left 4 Dead:

The top one is without film grain, the bottom one with it.

I believe a technique called Vignetting was also used.

 

[Lord Beautiful]

I've played Mass Effect both with and without the film grain and I like it with, just gives it more personality.

I second this. Mass Effect was all the more gorgeous because of the grain.

 

[mr mcshiznit]

IMO I really like how its done in Mass Effect. It gives it a cool look to it - plus if you hate it that much you can just turn it off.

 

[Doug]

Well, so long as you have an option to turn it on/off, grain in games should be allowed. Tis a personal taste thing.

 

[PitrDeVries]

I second this. Mass Effect was all the more gorgeous because of the grain.

Its lovely in dialoge and cinematic sequences, but very annoying during combat due to the major FPS hit. I turned it off and it ran so much better.

If visual effects are thrown into a game, they need to be well placed and functional.
At the very least, customizable.