What's the consensus on the new HDR/Bloom effects?

[Oi!Oi!Oi!]

I didn't find a thread where it was discussed.

I played for the first time today since the new patch and I impressed with it. There's clearly a vast improvement.

There is one thing that bugged me though. The Mosin Nagant bolt seems to be glowing like a lightsaber nearly all the time. It's very distracting. (edit: not on all maps)

 

[blkmgc]

The Mosin Nagant bolt seems to be glowing like a lightsaber nearly all the time.

The force is strong with this one.

 

[Bogdan]

I didn't find a thread where it was discussed.

I played for the first time today since the new patch and I impressed with it. There's clearly a vast improvement.

There is one thing that bugged me though. The Mosin Nagant bolt seems to be glowing like a lightsaber nearly all the time. It's very distracting. (edit: not on all maps)

Try here: http://www.redorchestragame.com/forum/showthread.php?t=22284

Also, in some other threads.

 

[I. Kant]

Well, I was definitely excited with the new bloom when I read it in the update log. I had been unable to play with bloom before, since I'm running at 800x600 and it felt like being short-sighted.

After the update I seriously considered opening up a whine thread on the new bloom. I kept asking people in-game whether they were using the bloom or not and what were their opinions. I felt it was a bit more difficult to hit targets over range. I kept thinking - "hell, this sure looks purty, but I ain't no gonna be doing no good with this 'un".

But after a couple of days I adjusted and now on most maps I hardly notice the difference. Sure, some of them have this, as EvilHobo put it in the other thread, dreamy feel to them (Baksan Valley is the one I experienced it most; Tula was just blinding, not dreamy). In case of Tula, where you hardly see anything like I used to w/o bloom (being in the Soviet bunkers and not really being able to clearly see the Germans running out of the forest because of snow-blindness, defying the usefullness of the bunkers) I just use a go-around by looking down, using the extended FoV and trying to track the target through the whiteness.
Think of it as covering your eyes with your hand

Anyways, me likes, because now the game looks much better and runs more or less the same (oh, thanks for that part of the update!).

 

[Makabi]

it looks good on the low resolution I'm forced to play on, but I honestly feel it's overdone on some maps, and I think that dark/overcast maps like Baksan Valley shouldn't have any bloom at all.

 

[kapulA]

To be honest I really like the new bloom on some maps and I even like the snowblind effect but it can really be too much.
Now,I don't recall playing Tula lately but I recall a clan match on Tcherkassy where I had to turn of the bloom to see anyone.

Doesn't quite describe it but I could barely see Ski in front of me.

 

[MattyDienhoff]

I honestly don't understand all of this negativity. I really like the new bloom effects, and I haven't had any problems with blurriness at distance or overbrightness. I realise the bloom is configured on a per-map basis, and on a few of them it is a little exaggerated (I seem to remember Odessa as being one of them), but overall it looks fine. Even the snow maps.

Since it seems to look different for every one of us, I've taken screenshots of some key maps with bloom on.

TulaOutskirts from the Axis side


TulaOutskirts from the Allied side


Inside the bunker on the Allied side


Rakowice - outside


Rakowice - inside


Hedgehog



As you can see, on my system Bloom is very subtle, the light is just a bit softer and more natural looking. No glaring white snow, no fuzziness. To anyone who's having trouble, I suggest you fiddle around with your brightness, gamma and contrast settings in the game and on your monitor, rather than just writing the feature off right away. I have to turn my monitor brightness up to 60 for the snow maps to be blinding (I usually leave it between 0 and 10)

 

[I. Kant]

Are you sure the bloom's on on these?!? I'll have to go and fetch some screens from the computer I'm playing on and they are nowhere close to what you're showing!

Brb with the screens soon.

 

[fiftyone]

Bloom is on, you can see by looking at the hand in the Hedgehog shot for example.

It doe's need to be fine tuned in the video options.
I set mine to "default" after the release and worked from there on.

I like the new Bloom !

 

[Atomskytten]

I hate HDR and bloom effects..

I hate HDR and bloom effects..

I hate and loathe HDR and bloom effects out of principle; Why try simulating real world effects when we can't get the same screen resolution as our eyes have? These effects only makes it harder than in real life to observe and engage targets at any range so why use it at all other than to show off on the graphics coders skill?
Try and go out and note how long you can actually observe with the naked eye, even in strong sunshine, and the level of detail you can pick up on long ranges and compare it with the level of detail possible to observe on similar ranges in this game. It is amazing how long and with high level of detail it is possible to observe in the real world - quite contrary to this game and other as well.

As you might expect I allways play with HDR and bloom disabled and my opinion on those effects is that they are unnecessary and actually makes observation become less realistic and as a consequence of that reduces combat ranges way below the weapons real life effective ranges - When have you ever used the DP, MG34/42 with any kind of effectiveness to engage infantry at ranges further than 200 meters due to the combined effects of HDR/Bloom and the relatively low screen resolution when compared to the human eye?

 

[MattyDienhoff]

...

All I can say is, bloom does not effect my long range targeting at all. If I could see them before, I can see them now. I haven't had any trouble engaging targets at long range.

 

[I. Kant]

Well, I may have overreacted. It seems there are just a couple of those ultra-shiny spots on a map, but mostly it's ok.

Baksan, one of the less bloomy places.

Kriegstat, the place where sun won't be blinding you.

Tula, in-game it felt bloomier. Notice the smoke grenade produced in... Tula.

Tula, the bloomiest place around. I think.

Lyes Krovy, oh the fog .

It might be that just in game it feels much brighter. But on the other hand even on a not-so-sunny day in real life even a bit sun on bright surfaces might be enough to blind you.

As I said, the bloom's good, only needs some fine tuning in future, in some places.

 

[Xendance]

I think it looks awesome. It's just hard to to adjust what should bloom and what not. Should be easier to do on UE 3 game of TWI I think.

 

[Oi!Oi!Oi!]

This is the glowing that annoys me. Even the thumb glows.

 

[Funker42]

It really depends on the map. Some maps make good use of it and some make me want to wear sunglasses.

 

[Quietus]

I think it looks awesome. It's just hard to to adjust what should bloom and what not. Should be easier to do on UE 3 game of TWI I think.

Just the sky (clouds), sun, moon, lightbulbs and things that are white and reflect alot of light should bloom. The things that actually give off light and glow separated from their physical shape. Then it would make sense. Right now it's just a "dreamy" effect.

 

[ImNotRyan]

I CAN NOT BELIEVE THIS HASN'T BEEN MENTIONED...
SCREEN SHOTS DO NOT USUALLY CAPTURE THE BLOOM EFFECT!!!!

If they do than NONE of your computer's have as much HDR bloom / blinding light as any of the computer's I've played RO on! I've experimented with this on several systems and NONE of them are able to capture the effect of the HDR bloom when screen capped. NONE of the screen shots provided in this thread depict HDR bloom, otherwise none of you have as much brightness and blinding light as I've been seeing.

 

[Oi!Oi!Oi!]

The screenshot shows exactly what was on screen when you took it. It may look different in motion, that's all.

Here's a side by side comparison:

 

[ImNotRyan]

On my computer, the glare off the hand and bolt are simply unplayable, and messing with the gamma,brightness,contrast only results in making the darks too dark.

 

[Nimsky]

The screenshot shows exactly what was on screen when you took it. It may look different in motion, that's all.

Here's a side by side comparison:

Wow, that's quite a big difference. Needless to say if there were Germans in the Ruins in the background, they'd probably be more difficult to hit with bloom enabled.

I don't know; RO does bloom rather well, at least it's subtle. But on some maps I am more inclined to believe that it is a tad overdone. Snow does "glow" a bit if in the sun shines on it (hence the shades skiers always wear), but in RO it seems to make long-range shooting more difficult.

For clan matches, you're probably better off if you turn it off.