Grainy Graphics even on High settings

[A Walrus]

I don't know what it is about this game and ARK, but the graphics on both of these games seriously hurt my eyes, and I can't play it for more than 15 minutes at a time to where it doesn't make sense for me to play it at all. I know the engine they both use makes even the blades of grass like shiny metal spikes coming out of the ground, and everything is bright, reflective and blurred all in one scene.

Is there any way to tone down the grainy, shiny reflective graphics, while still maintaining a certain quality that doesn't make it look like I'm playing an old console? Not every inch of water and rock needs to be shiny like polished metal reflecting in the sun...

[Towelie_]

Turn off Light Bloom and Light Shafts

Turn Resolution Scale to max

[A Walrus]

Originally posted by Towelie:

Turn off Light Bloom and Light Shafts

Turn Resolution Scale to max

Will try it out, thank you!

[Magnus Chro]

Yep that is resolution scaling also known as film grain effect!

[2ugly]

Originally posted by The Professional:

Yep that is resolution scaling also known as film grain effect!

2 different things. The resolution scaling was implemented to hide low res background textures and models with a blur effect, then stating it's to make it more 3D looking by giving distant objects a blurred effect....no. That's just a line of BS. The Unreal engine is just not a very good engine for large scale games. Which is why there is such a short draw distance and the spyglass had to be arcaded out to make use of it's nonusable feature. Better if used for old school small level designed games.

Film grain effect.....not even sure why it's used in a game... especially first person games where we are supposed to be viewing the game through the characters eyes, and not a 3rd person camera. Nothing worse than playing a FPS game that has camera effects and a plate of glass 3ft in front of the player at all times.....very distracting.

IMO Atlas runs and looks much better than Ark. Ark hurt my eyes with the bad blurry textures....even on epic settings. Atlas only does it with the crap lighting effects that go up and down with no logic. The lanterns dim on their own....for no reason at sunrise leaving you with no light to view your map and compass on occasion. The lighting in both games is bad..... The lack of dynamic lighting looks very funny inside your base or any interior. Lights just shine right through walls only making the backside of the wall dark, but the floor and surrounding area lit up for no reason. It's Bush league development IMO.

[Magnus Chro]

Originally posted by 2ugly:

Originally posted by The Professional:

Yep that is resolution scaling also known as film grain effect!

2 different things. The resolution scaling was implemented to hide low res background textures and models with a blur effect, then stating it's to make it more 3D looking by giving distant objects a blurred effect....no. That's just a line of BS. The Unreal engine is just not a very good engine for large scale games. Which is why there is such a short draw distance and the spyglass had to be arcaded out to make use of it's nonusable feature. Better if used for old school small level designed games.

Film grain effect.....not even sure why it's used in a game... especially first person games where we are supposed to be viewing the game through the characters eyes, and not a 3rd person camera. Nothing worse than playing a FPS game that has camera effects and a plate of glass 3ft in front of the player at all times.....very distracting.

IMO Atlas runs and looks much better than Ark. Ark hurt my eyes with the bad blurry textures....even on epic settings. Atlas only does it with the crap lighting effects that go up and down with no logic. The lanterns dim on their own....for no reason at sunrise leaving you with no light to view your map and compass on occasion. The lighting in both games is bad..... The lack of dynamic lighting looks very funny inside your base or any interior. Lights just shine right through walls only making the backside of the wall dark, but the floor and surrounding area lit up for no reason. It's Bush league development IMO.

Oh I thought I had read somewhere that some games reduce texture lag by scaling down the graphics of the textures to less then the native resolution thereby creating a less anti aliased texture and a resultant grain effect.

Thanks for clearing that up!

[2ugly]

Originally posted by The Professional:

Originally posted by 2ugly:

2 different things. The resolution scaling was implemented to hide low res background textures and models with a blur effect, then stating it's to make it more 3D looking by giving distant objects a blurred effect....no. That's just a line of BS. The Unreal engine is just not a very good engine for large scale games. Which is why there is such a short draw distance and the spyglass had to be arcaded out to make use of it's nonusable feature. Better if used for old school small level designed games.

Film grain effect.....not even sure why it's used in a game... especially first person games where we are supposed to be viewing the game through the characters eyes, and not a 3rd person camera. Nothing worse than playing a FPS game that has camera effects and a plate of glass 3ft in front of the player at all times.....very distracting.

IMO Atlas runs and looks much better than Ark. Ark hurt my eyes with the bad blurry textures....even on epic settings. Atlas only does it with the crap lighting effects that go up and down with no logic. The lanterns dim on their own....for no reason at sunrise leaving you with no light to view your map and compass on occasion. The lighting in both games is bad..... The lack of dynamic lighting looks very funny inside your base or any interior. Lights just shine right through walls only making the backside of the wall dark, but the floor and surrounding area lit up for no reason. It's Bush league development IMO.

Oh I thought I had read somewhere that some games reduce texture lag by scaling down the graphics of the textures to less then the native resolution thereby creating a less anti aliased texture and a resultant grain effect.

Thanks for clearing that up!

Don't take my word for a thing.... :) Most of the industry likes trading up nomenclature to disguise problems or lack of quality in their product.

Game devs will have to make concessions to get the game running as it should. What they call it to mask the drop in quality is up to them. I don't like most of it.... but if it's what they got to do....they got to do it. They'd rather not I'm sure...