Fog effects in games today. WHY?

[Tazor]

Nowhere else is this effect more clear than in remasters. Take Mafia for example.

https://ibb.co/58fJczm
https://ibb.co/Hr2FVVd

Look at how clean the original looks in the distance. Then the remaster... You got this fog effect in pretty much every modern AAA title I can think of. And it's not because of the weather in game. It can be crystal clear sunny and you still have fog. You got blue skies in both of those screenshots.

So...why? Why do they do this? Technology clearly isn't the answer. We had the tech to not use fog for hiding parts of the map over 20 years ago.

Do they think it makes their video games look more realistic? It doesn't. Here is a random real life outside shot.

https://ibb.co/YNFpTvT

Look at those buildings that are so far away. Much further than in the Mafia remastered screenshot. There is basically no fog on them. You start seeing the fog on the mountains that are waaay in the distance. The distance to that place is probably larger than the entire game map.

Delta Force Land Warrior emulated this fog effect from real life in a rather realistic way, 23 years ago. I think it is slightly exaggerated but not much.

https://ibb.co/PjxyFVs

Is it an artistic choice and do they think it makes their video games look better? More beautiful? This seems like the only logical reason as to why they would do it. If this is it, I think it makes the game look MUCH uglier. It makes it hard to see. It makes things look less detailed.

I don't understand the purpose of the fog effect.

[Gwynddraigon]

I do believe it is to do with technology, back in the day technology was more standardised, there was not huge gaps between the playerbase's specs because there wasn't as much available, these days games have to account for a wider range of technology where some people are playing on 30/40 cards while a majority are not, as well as accounting for those on consoles, so to reduce demand on a system the fog acts as a barrier for the unrendered objects.

[Tazor]

Originally posted by Blue Eye Bandit:

I do believe it is to do with technology, back in the day technology was more standardised, there was not huge gaps between the playerbase's specs because there wasn't as much available, these days games have to account for a wider range of technology where some people are playing on 30/40 cards while a majority are not, as well as accounting for those on consoles, so to reduce demand on a system the fog acts as a barrier for the unrendered objects.

That is why graphical settings exist. If you got a potato (or a console) you choose potato graphics from the menu. If you got a 4090 you choose the polar opposite.

[Gwynddraigon]

Originally posted by Tazor:

Originally posted by Blue Eye Bandit:

I do believe it is to do with technology, back in the day technology was more standardised, there was not huge gaps between the playerbase's specs because there wasn't as much available, these days games have to account for a wider range of technology where some people are playing on 30/40 cards while a majority are not, as well as accounting for those on consoles, so to reduce demand on a system the fog acts as a barrier for the unrendered objects.

That is why graphical settings exist. If you got a potato (or a console) you choose potato graphics from the menu. If you got a 4090 you choose the polar opposite.

absolutely but trying to render large maps will make even 4090s choke, its also a bit of a dev trick to cover areas of map and skyline that are not rendered to save development time

[Tazor]

Originally posted by Drink and Snack:

Also I'm pretty sure the draw distance in the remastered screenshot looks a lot greater than the original. The buildings are much smaller because of how far away they are.

You start seeing that effect quite early. Look at the building on the left side. Past the red sign.

[Tazor]

Originally posted by Blue Eye Bandit:

Originally posted by Tazor:

That is why graphical settings exist. If you got a potato (or a console) you choose potato graphics from the menu. If you got a 4090 you choose the polar opposite.

absolutely but trying to render large maps will make even 4090s choke, its also a bit of a dev trick to cover areas of map and skyline that are not rendered to save development time

How exactly did they manage such large view distances 20+ years ago? On hardware that is basically ancient by today's standards. I am aware that the level of detail is much lower in those games.

[Gwynddraigon]

Originally posted by Tazor:

Originally posted by Blue Eye Bandit:

absolutely but trying to render large maps will make even 4090s choke, its also a bit of a dev trick to cover areas of map and skyline that are not rendered to save development time

How exactly did they manage such large view distances 20+ years ago? On hardware that is basically ancient by today's standards. I am aware that the level of detail is much lower in those games.

I would have to assume there are developer tricks behind that too, where as now blocky/untextured items in the background would be noticed and considered ugly, I guess when the entire game was using simpler textures this didn't matter as much, either way it is clever that they are able to have good view distance

[Tazor]

Originally posted by Blue Eye Bandit:

Originally posted by Tazor:

How exactly did they manage such large view distances 20+ years ago? On hardware that is basically ancient by today's standards. I am aware that the level of detail is much lower in those games.

I would have to assume there are developer tricks behind that too, where as now blocky/untextured items in the background would be noticed and considered ugly, I guess when the entire game was using simpler textures this didn't matter as much, either way it is clever that they are able to have good view distance

I rather have ugly textures and blocky 3D models instead of the fog. At least then I can see better what is going on. What they are doing is the equivalent of someone with an ugly face trying to hide it by putting a sheer piece of fabric on their face. Nobody does that. It makes no sense. It doesn't help. It only makes it worse.

[Gwynddraigon]

Originally posted by Tazor:

Originally posted by Blue Eye Bandit:

I would have to assume there are developer tricks behind that too, where as now blocky/untextured items in the background would be noticed and considered ugly, I guess when the entire game was using simpler textures this didn't matter as much, either way it is clever that they are able to have good view distance

I rather have ugly textures and blocky 3D models instead of the fog. At least then I can see better what is going on. What they are doing is the equivalent of someone with an ugly face trying to hide it by putting a sheer piece of fabric on their face. Nobody does that. It makes no sense. It doesn't help. It only makes it worse.

And that's certainly an argument against it, I know others share that same view. Perhaps one day the standard will change and developers will go back to a visible distance but the mainstream audience will pick up on 'ugly' background details/textures as unimmersive

[Tazor]

Originally posted by Drink and Snack:

Originally posted by Tazor:

How exactly did they manage such large view distances 20+ years ago? On hardware that is basically ancient by today's standards. I am aware that the level of detail is much lower in those games.

They didn't. Those games had very low draw distances with a lot of pop-in. Even with modern hardware, older games have their draw distances limited it seems.

You can shoot people at very long ranges in Delta Force for example. You can see buildings in the distance that don't pop in. It even uses a rudimentary picture in picture scope. PIP scopes generally cause huge performance drops in games today.

[Under there]

same reason games are 70-150 gigs now

[Silverlight]

It's because games used to be developed by software engineers.

Now games can be made by anyone with access to a game engine and blender

[Tazor]

Originally posted by Bellen:

It's because games used to be developed by software engineers.

Now games can be made by anyone with access to a game engine and blender

This could be a reason. We have seen a massive brain drain from the AAA industry over the last decade because of the terrible pay and work conditions, as it became increasingly corporate. The quality of their products have taken a nose dive. All the talent in the indie scene didn't come out of thin air.

[Jquist47]

I fully agree with this. What on earth is going on with all these modern games and their fog/hazy effects? It's beyond annoying, almost every single game has it these days, and i'ts ugly, terrible and awful in any way.

It should only exist in actual foggy weather, but in modern games it's on all the time. Funny thing how many "reviews" praise the "lighting" effects when it looks terrible and also makes gameplay worse since you can't crap at distances more than 50 meters ahead.

While older games may have worse graphical fidelity, I actually found many of them more pleasing for the eye to look at. A lot less "lighting" effects, post processing effects, motion blur, depth of field, lens flare and all stupid crap introduced in modern games. I want a clean look with a good artstyle and decent textures, hard to find these days.

[i.markanthonyclark]

it's gotten to the point where i will not buy or play a game that uses constant fog as a way of increasing profits by limiting the graphics. creating high quality realistic graphics is going to cost a lot more in computing power and programmers with the required coding skills than simple, 2d games. i would rather play a game with less detailed graphics than no graphics at all.

[Duck Twacy]

Originally posted by Tazor:

Nowhere else is this effect more clear than in remasters. Take Mafia for example.

https://ibb.co/58fJczm
https://ibb.co/Hr2FVVd

Look at how clean the original looks in the distance. Then the remaster... You got this fog effect in pretty much every modern AAA title I can think of. And it's not because of the weather in game. It can be crystal clear sunny and you still have fog. You got blue skies in both of those screenshots.

So...why? Why do they do this? Technology clearly isn't the answer. We had the tech to not use fog for hiding parts of the map over 20 years ago.

Do they think it makes their video games look more realistic? It doesn't. Here is a random real life outside shot.

https://ibb.co/YNFpTvT

Look at those buildings that are so far away. Much further than in the Mafia remastered screenshot. There is basically no fog on them. You start seeing the fog on the mountains that are waaay in the distance. The distance to that place is probably larger than the entire game map.

Delta Force Land Warrior emulated this fog effect from real life in a rather realistic way, 23 years ago. I think it is slightly exaggerated but not much.

https://ibb.co/PjxyFVs

Is it an artistic choice and do they think it makes their video games look better? More beautiful? This seems like the only logical reason as to why they would do it. If this is it, I think it makes the game look MUCH uglier. It makes it hard to see. It makes things look less detailed.

I don't understand the purpose of the fog effect.

It's due to processing power. It eases the rendering load on the CPU, and part of the reason GPUs were upgraded to handle the extra demand by graphics' demanding games.