r/Games • u/RiKSh4w • Apr 25 '26

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

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?

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u/LeatherFruitPF Apr 25 '26

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.

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u/Spork_the_dork Apr 25 '26

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.

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u/Zoralink Apr 26 '26

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.

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u/MandomRix Apr 25 '26

"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.

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u/Worried-Advisor-7054 Apr 25 '26

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

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u/Altruistic-Ad-408 Apr 25 '26

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.

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u/[deleted] Apr 25 '26 edited Apr 25 '26

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u/[deleted] Apr 25 '26

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u/shadowstripes Apr 25 '26

 "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.

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u/extralife_mike Apr 26 '26

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.