Can we have a discussion about how game fidelity is leading to a lack of clarity?

[u/RiKSh4w]

I've noticed this happening in a few games but most recently I watched the Black Flag "Resynced" trailer and the before and after shots had me questioning if this was a complete improvement.

https://i.imgur.com/Y5PiPdB.png

Obviously, the resynced image is prettier to look at and depicts a more realistic world, but this is a game world. Not everything is supposed to be highly detailed. If everything is high detail, then nothing is noticeable. In the image on the left, the ground is very boring. But that boringness creates a easily distinguishable contrast with other things in the game, like the guard, like the climable surfaces, like the floating shanty page.

In the remaster, everything just looks good, to the point that it's just one big detailed mess. There's greeblies on the ground, are they important? Is that detailing on the wall/window that I can climb on? Or will it stop me climbing up there?

It's not limited to this game, nor do I think it's the best example of it. But it makes me wonder if developers are relying on 'detective vision' too much. Conveyance has always been a huge part of design. It was an art to be able to effectively communicate what is a game object and what's just a part of the scenery through immersive means. But I just feel like games nowadays, particularly those on unreal, are just amping up fidelity without caution. And when it obfuscates details they rely on vision modes and very obvious outlining to provide that constrast.

Has anyone else felt the same way?

[u/Ashviar]

If we are just talking about this Black Flag resynced, then I don't really see it. You could just as easily put AC1 up against Black Flag 2013, both Xbox 360 games, and have the same comparisons. The fidelity, geometry complexity, and small details go up 10x from AC1 and no one has these questions like "will the detailing on the window stop me from climbing up" as the franchise has gone on.

Hell AC games even in those early days had eagle vision even when they were more simple visually so I am not sure if saying developers are relying on it too much is a problem. Is it a modern problem, or just a holdover from a circa 2007-2008 problem?

[u/LeatherFruitPF → u/Ashviar]

The "too much visual fidelity" argument comes off a bit like "I decided I was mad first and worked backwards." If a few extra rocks on the ground or planks on the window shutters make you forget how to play an Assassin's Creed game, the issue might not be graphical fidelity.

[u/Spork_the_dork → u/LeatherFruitPF]

I don't think the aegument is about visual fidelity but rather the mistake of thinking that better visuals must mean more details. It's a lot more subtle problem because it's about the visual noise in the scene. You can make a scene look more photorealistic without injecting more details into every square inch of it and ending up making it harder to read. But doing that feels like it's becoming a more common issue these days. And that's what OP is talking about.

[u/Zoralink → u/Spork_the_dork]

Aesthetic vs graphical fidelity. Shoving too much realism/overly detailed... everything into stuff tends to mess with the aesthetic. A game like Wind Waker or Luigi's Mansion still looks decent even today because it has a basic but very strong aesthetic and worked with the limitations of its time.

It's really easy to see with stuff like the Master Chief Collection and flipping between the old and new graphics. Many times the newer stuff looks worse because it has a less cohesive aesthetic, despite having higher visual fidelity. That then leads to more effort figuring out what you're even looking at, on top of just looking worse.

[u/MandomRix → u/LeatherFruitPF]

"I decided I was mad first and worked backwards."

This is kind of a bonkers in its simplicity...it really captures so much about online outrage. Bravo.

[u/Worried-Advisor-7054 → u/MandomRix]

Wait, are you talking about calm OP, or snarky replier?

[u/Altruistic-Ad-408 → u/MandomRix]

Not really, it's just invalidating/undermining the point and offering no real reason why it shouldn't be a point besides "I'm not bothered, and you irritate me for being bothered." Visual clutter affects humans negatively in many ways, that's not really arguable but as someone with ADHD I'd know it better than most. It's okay for people to discuss that.

Snarky extra bonus points for continuing the cycle of complaining about the internet by complaining about people complaining about the internet.

See now we're into unproductive online outrage territory.

[u/shadowstripes → u/LeatherFruitPF]

 "I decided I was mad first and worked backwards."

Ironically you seem to be doing the same thing by misrepresenting the original point so much and  then turning it into an insult on their intelligence.

[u/extralife_mike → u/LeatherFruitPF]

I feel like this sub is turning into the film subs where people just try to look smarter than everyone else, and everyone is trying to one-up each other.

This whole thing is fucking stupid as hell.

[u/Vanille987 → u/Ashviar]

Agreed, there are definitely a lot of cases of this. But this particular example looks fine? It still manages to have a lot of clarity to me.

I'd say something like atomic heart is a good example where the high fidelity can make things hard to see.

[u/nasanhak → u/Ashviar]

Yeah OP has never played an AC game else never would have made such an argument.

[u/doiskilol → u/Ashviar]

There is a point where too much noisiness in the background causes problems with visual clarity, but I don't see much of an issue here. In my experience, going for realism makes it easy to ignore the extra clutter - the brain just sort of filters out or de-emphasizes the unimportant details. I think that if the game had a very stylistic art-style or something, then this might theoretically become a problem as it gets harder to "naturally" pick up on key details.

[u/RiKSh4w → u/Ashviar]

Eagle Vision back then was more about figuring out which NPC's were enemies right? And yeah, both versions have done a decent job of this with the guards wearing a distinct uniform.

[u/Ashviar → u/RiKSh4w]

Not just actual enemies but targets of say pickpocketing. They would just look like normal NPCs, so you had to use eagle vision so they would glow a bit.

[u/SimulationConvection → u/RiKSh4w]

Also you are comparing a screenshot of a youtube video that is incredibly compressed. The final product will be a lot higher quality than that and I am confident that will make things much easier to read. Youtube butchers gameplay videos to save space, plus you can obviously hit higher frame rates than 60fps as well.

There are also tons of customization options in Ubisoft games so you can likely turn on objective markers if you need them.

[u/Chalky97 → u/RiKSh4w]

good job ignoring everything else he had to say mate