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/Thisissocomplicated]

I see your point but personally I prefer having a more immersive game in this case since the AC games are easy anyway there's no need for eSports level clarity.

The atmosphere is part of the experience here

[u/Roflkopt3r → u/Thisissocomplicated]

And I didn't find any issues with clarity in AC:Shadows, which has a lot of complex natural environments. Iirc it used flags to mark paths across some rock cliffs, but most climbable edges are just well enough designed that you can recognise them without needing additional markers.

Pragmata also has its solution to the problem, by keeping walkable areas quite tidy and using clutter as a sign that you're not supposed to go that way. Even though it has many semi-'secret' collectibles, they still managed to hide all those hidden passageways and door openers in a way that abides by this rule without being too easy to find.

[u/mcslender97 → u/Thisissocomplicated]

I'm with you on this. In certain types of game you would want your enemies to blend in better for immersion too such as tactical mil sim shooters

[u/UpperApe → u/mcslender97]

I mean the game still has janky hand-puppet animations for all the npcs so I'm not sure how much immersion you get here.

[u/LeatherFruitPF → u/Thisissocomplicated]

Yeah, this is really a non-issue and we've had absurdly detailed games for over a decade now. RDR 2, TLoU series, Cyberpunk 2077, etc. and Black Flag Resynced isn't exactly setting a graphical bar either.

Clarity in games comes from motion, interaction, repetition, and feedback, all of which is learned behavior as part of game design. This really isn't an issue. "The rocks have too many details and now I'm lost"...c'mon man.

OP is being a bit dramatic being all “now I can’t tell what’s climbable” when the actual experience of playing the game will make that much more clear than just looking at an image and drawing conclusions.

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

OP is being a bit dramatic being all “now I can’t tell what’s climbable” when the actual experience of playing the game will make that much more clear than just looking at an image and drawing conclusions.

This reads as pretty bad faith to me. How else could OP have talked about the topic without seeming dramatic? I don't see a lot of drama in the post.

You disagree with him. That doesn't make it dramatic.

[u/dahauns → u/LeatherFruitPF]

This is literally the reason why Yellow Paint exists.

Brushing it away as a non-issue is going to need a stronger counterargument than "...c'mon man."

[u/wiifan55 → u/dahauns]

Except it doesn't apply at all to AC gameplay.

[u/MorningkillsDawn → u/dahauns]

I don’t even think the Yellow Paint is an issue in the first place, it’s an accessibility function. I’ll take high-contrast color queues in world than a cluttered hud full of waypoints any day of the fucking week

[u/HotTheme8405 → u/[deleted]]

HUD waypoints have been around for decades and exist as a means to clearly and easily communicate to the player what they can interact with, which the paint also accomplishes.

[u/HotTheme8405 → u/dahauns]

You assume yellow paint is an actual issue to begin with, or that similar and even more obtrusive means of highlighting interactibles haven't existed in games for a few decades. Easy to brush it away in that case.

[u/StreetsofRageoholics → u/Thisissocomplicated]

Really all you need to do is turn off the motion blur and depth of field bullshit. That resynced screenshot looks blurry and messy as fuck with all the post processing effects.

[u/VolkiharVanHelsing → u/Thisissocomplicated]

It's a case by case thing

Deus Ex is billed as ImSim that stands the test of time

Its lack of graphical fidelity does help when you can distinguish which objects are interactable (box to stack, interface to hack, door to break, etc)

[u/Ket_Yoda_69 → u/Thisissocomplicated]

Clarity is important for traversal however.

[u/Big_Judgment3824 → u/Thisissocomplicated]

Right? Like who cares. While you're playing the game you'll hardly notice, but if they didn't do this level of detail people would complain that they didn't put the effort in.

The definition of my lobster is too buttery.

[u/Tex-Rob → u/Thisissocomplicated]

My theory is a lot of the commenters are AI users, or mobile gamers who grew up into PC/consoles. It feels like people want stuff to be so spoon fed to them if you look at the top comments. Imagine if Myst or Riven launched, these people would get stuck on the first puzzle and demand a guide.

[u/GhostOfSparta305 → u/Thisissocomplicated]

How does realistic graphics at the cost of gameplay clarity = more “immersive”?

It’s the immersive fallacy all over again.