Games Colour

[Good morning blues]

It's understandable in my mind that game engines if told to render excess of 2,000,000 surfaces every frame at 60fps, (Believe me, every frame renders alot, regardless where you look. A face is typically 2000 surfaces on today's gen), it has to give somewhere. In that respect, they render with less colour because black is easier to calculate than blood red.
If they stop trying to get more detail into games and start working on vividity, the problem will be solvéd.

This is completely incorrect. Every frame of every video game you play follows this procedure:

draw everything on the screen and save it -> erase everything on the screen -> paste the new frame onto the screen for a thousandth of a second and repeat the procedure

Everything on the screen needs to be re-rendered for every frame (unless there's some sort of system to detect the unchanging images and leave them the same), and the brightness of the colours don't affect this. There's just as much information in a shade of brown or gray as there is in a vivid red or blue.

 

[searanox]

Early Far Cry 2:

http://pcmedia.ign.com/pc/image/article/814/814456/far-cry-2--20070822014513921.jpg
http://pcmedia.ign.com/pc/image/article/814/814456/far-cry-2--20070822014518889.jpg


Final Far Cry 2:

http://xbox360media.ign.com/xbox360/image/article/916/916925/far-cry-2--20081007102842507.jpg
http://xbox360media.ign.com/xbox360/image/article/916/916925/far-cry-2--20081007102920898.jpg

What the heck happened? They made some really major changes in the art direction along the way, opting for a much less realistic, less detailed, subdued look with an emphasis on primary colours. Hell, half of the stuff in the game doesn't even have textures, just solid colours with normal maps. Something must have happened along the way to make them make such a significant alteration... my guess is demands to "make it brown" from on high. I much prefer the original bright colours... hopefully mods will fix that.

 

[mkxiii]

Person: I'm sick of all these bright colors! I want a game that's life-like and cool!

Me: Gives copy of Gears of War.

Person: Gears of War is shitty! It's all gray and drab! I want a game with color!

Me: *Gives person copy of Halo*

Person: Halo is shitty! People hype it up too much and the guns feel like toys!

Moral of the story: Stop bitching about the little things and have fun. No game is perfect, and all this whining is giving me hives.

correct, no game is perfect, but halo is shit

 

[Nimbus]

I miss color too. Are you British?

Colour...tee hee.

But anyways, this grey bullshit will continue, because people want "realism."

Everyone outside the USA spells it like that.

 

[Anarchemitis]

It's understandable in my mind that game engines if told to render excess of 2,000,000 surfaces every frame at 60fps, (Believe me, every frame renders alot, regardless where you look. A face is typically 2000 surfaces on today's gen), it has to give somewhere. In that respect, they render with less colour because black is easier to calculate than blood red.
If they stop trying to get more detail into games and start working on vividity, the problem will be solvéd.

This is completely incorrect. Every frame of every video game you play follows this procedure:

draw everything on the screen and save it -> erase everything on the screen -> paste the new frame onto the screen for a thousandth of a second and repeat the procedure

Everything on the screen needs to be re-rendered for every frame (unless there's some sort of system to detect the unchanging images and leave them the same), and the brightness of the colours don't affect this. There's just as much information in a shade of brown or gray as there is in a vivid red or blue.

But there's still a 3D Rendering engine that takes a Computerized world that draws the image, and shades are easier to calculate. 255 shades versus 255[sup]3[/sup]colours with shades.

 

[Good morning blues]

It's understandable in my mind that game engines if told to render excess of 2,000,000 surfaces every frame at 60fps, (Believe me, every frame renders alot, regardless where you look. A face is typically 2000 surfaces on today's gen), it has to give somewhere. In that respect, they render with less colour because black is easier to calculate than blood red.
If they stop trying to get more detail into games and start working on vividity, the problem will be solvéd.

This is completely incorrect. Every frame of every video game you play follows this procedure:

draw everything on the screen and save it -> erase everything on the screen -> paste the new frame onto the screen for a thousandth of a second and repeat the procedure

Everything on the screen needs to be re-rendered for every frame (unless there's some sort of system to detect the unchanging images and leave them the same), and the brightness of the colours don't affect this. There's just as much information in a shade of brown or gray as there is in a vivid red or blue.

But there's still a 3D Rendering engine that takes a Computerized world that draws the image, and shades are easier to calculate. 255 shades versus 255[sup]3[/sup]colours with shades.

Well, yeah, if the game was completely in greyscale, there would be 255 shades to calculate, but even the most obviously gray and drab games aren't in greyscale. Those dull shades are just the part of the 255[sup]3[/sup] colours that are used almost exclusively in these particular games. That doesn't make it any harder to reach outside of these values.

 

[shadow skill]

I miss color too. Are you British?

Colour...tee hee.

But anyways, this grey bullshit will continue, because people want "realism."

Everyone outside the USA spells it like that.

You know I am American by birth and have always prefered the European (British English) spelling for things like colour and theatre, I also spell centre this way though I have never been sure how to do the European spelling of centre when adding ing to the end.

I hate how the short form of mathematics is pluralized though, just strikes me as an ugly ass way to spell an inherently plural word.

 

[Ursus Astrorum]

Realism is fun and all, but I do miss my fantastic color palettes. must be another reason for my absolute worship of Okami.

 

[Nimbus]

I miss color too. Are you British?

Colour...tee hee.

But anyways, this grey bullshit will continue, because people want "realism."

Everyone outside the USA spells it like that.

You know I am American by birth and have always prefered the European (British English) spelling for things like colour and theatre, I also spell centre this way though I have never been sure how to do the European spelling of centre when adding ing to the end.

I hate how the short form of mathematics is pluralized though, just strikes me as an ugly ass way to spell an inherently plural word.

Well it's not "Mathamatic" now is it?

 

[Cahlee]

I love bright colours in games.. De Blob was a gaming masterpiece. I'm tired of games that look muddy. It's ok sometimes but it's getting kindof ridiculous.

 

[SneakyBawls]

I love Fallout 3 and all, but playing it makes me feel like I've suddenly gone color blind and can't look up. (LOL)

 

[ChromeAlchemist]

Person: I'm sick of all these bright colors! I want a game that's life-like and cool!

Me: Gives copy of Gears of War.

Person: Gears of War is shitty! It's all gray and drab! I want a game with color!

Me: *Gives person copy of Halo*

Person: Halo is shitty! People hype it up too much and the guns feel like toys!

Moral of the story: Stop bitching about the little things and have fun. No game is perfect, and all this whining is giving me hives.

This. I've been saying this for a long time. People whine about all the drab colors in Gears of War and GTA IV, but then when they see a game like Halo 3 or Fable 2, they whine about all the bloom and call the colors "gay."

Tbh the bloom is ridiculous on halo 3 lol.

When realism gets into the uncanny valley, then devs will start to deviate from realism, either that or they will make their games less violent, as it will be disturbing to many to see such a realistic depiction of killing on games. Then the palettes will get a lovely overhaul (hopefully) because of the deviation from realism.

 

[nick_knack]

It's understandable in my mind that game engines if told to render excess of 2,000,000 surfaces every frame at 60fps, (Believe me, every frame renders alot, regardless where you look. A face is typically 2000 surfaces on today's gen), it has to give somewhere. In that respect, they render with less colour because black is easier to calculate than blood red.
If they stop trying to get more detail into games and start working on vividity, the problem will be solvéd.

Yay, the modelers response. You're the first person I've seen who thinks that too!

 

[Sketchy]

Well, look outside.
Is it brown and grey?
No...?
What's that, colour?
Oh, funny that.

 

[darthsmily]

Person: I'm sick of all these bright colors! I want a game that's life-like and cool!

Me: Gives copy of Gears of War.

Person: Gears of War is shitty! It's all gray and drab! I want a game with color!

Me: *Gives person copy of Halo*

Person: Halo is shitty! People hype it up too much and the guns feel like toys!

Moral of the story: Stop bitching about the little things and have fun. No game is perfect, and all this whining is giving me hives.

Instead of Halo 3, I would of recomended Team Fortress 2. Just giving my opinion.

 

[Sewblon]

I don't know why people keep calling gunmetal grey, murky brown and black Realism. Real Life features all colors, except in Newyork. I grew up on cartoons so I like bright primary colors.

 

[goater24]

Play 'Mario Galaxy' to get away from your grey coloured woes!!!!

 

[aigamer123]

I think it's to set an atmosphere. Remove the filters on Fallout 3 and NFS Most Wanted and it will loose the sinister and isolated feel. I always used a soft focus filter on my camera to make my crappy photography skills look better with the least amount of effort.

 

[hypothetical fact]

Play geometry wars 2 or boom boom rocket and marvel at the gift of colour.

 

[Piemaster]

Dull colours are good for some games, bright colours are better for others.