›

S&M3: Please, an option to disable film grain!

juandemarcojuandemarco
edited April 2010 in Game Support
Hello,
I've just started up the first episode of the new season and I've noticed the film grain. While it can be a nice effect, some people might want to be able to turn it off. I, for one, would like to have the option to disable it as it gives me really memorable headaches (I had the same problem with Mass Effect 1, my eyes tired almost immediately, as soon as I disabled it I could play with no problems whatsoever).
Apart from that the game looks great, but this filter makes it very very difficult for me to play it...

Comments

  • BloodShedBloodShed
    edited April 2010
    I second this request. It drives me nuts.
  • enlargedhousecatsenlargedhousecats
    edited April 2010
    as much as I like the effect, it could be an option
  • der_ketzerder_ketzer
    edited April 2010
    Please give us wicked powers that let us disable the film grain forever if we wish to use them for it.
  • KreeblahKreeblah
    edited April 2010
    I came here to ask for this, too. I personally find it to be a really irritating effect.
  • lersveenlersveen
    edited April 2010
    I strongly disagree. It's a part of what makes the feel of the game. Why don't they have an option so you can give the whole game a freaking sunshiny feel? Because they want the game's style to give off a certain feel. Stop whining!

    Besides, is it really that annoying? Honestly, I barely notice it. Is it more noticable at lower resolutions or something?
  • FireAzaFireAza
    edited April 2010
    I agree, I don't see the point in the film grain, is it suppose to look like it was shot on film or something? I don't see the connection to S&M if so.
  • lersveenlersveen
    edited April 2010
    basically all video or photos have some degree of grain/noise, but as things progress it's less and less visible. The noise in S&M is supposed to make it look like it's from the 70s.

    Shoot me, but if anything, I'd say it's too mild an effect.
  • FalancaFalanca
    edited April 2010
    FireAza wrote: »
    I agree, I don't see the point in the film grain, is it suppose to look like it was shot on film or something? I don't see the connection to S&M if so.

    Then you don't check out the forums that much.

    It's done simply to give a film effect because all the season's paying homage to 70's scifi movies. Not to mention the whole game is played like a movie, unlike the previous seasons.

    I play in quality setting 3 and 1024x768 resolution and... no it never bothers me either. "I" can't see the point why so many people are complaining about it.
  • juandemarcojuandemarco
    edited April 2010
    I play the game on my iMac 27 i5 at 2560x1440 with quality set to 7 (or 6? I don't recall) and it *does* bother me, exactly as it did with Mass Effect. I do understand that it has a meaning, but since it can indeed be bothersome (and, in the end, the game does not suffer without it) there should be an option to disable it. It's not that I want the game to have a sunshine effect all over it, I just don't want to have to shut the game down after 20 minutes because my eyes can't take it anymore.
    It's shouldn't be an issue for Telltale to get a patch out to disable it, and it's not that I'm complaining because I like to, I do because it really makes it difficult for me to enjoy a game that I've been looking forward to for quite some time now.

    Cheers,
    Juan
  • thornatethornate
    edited April 2010
    Falanca wrote: »
    I play in quality setting 3 and 1024x768 resolution and... no it never bothers me either. "I" can't see the point why so many people are complaining about it.
    Because the grain effect is only really noticable at higher quality settings. You're probably only seeing a very mild effect.
  • lersveenlersveen
    edited April 2010
    Well, I haven't really tested the game at anything higher than 1680x1050, so I can't vouch for how it looks then, but I've tested back and forth with both the quality setting and the resolution, and I couldn't really see a difference in the intensity of the effect.
  • FriarFriar
    edited April 2010
    I'm unsure if i like it. I did get used to it in the end, but i would like the option to disable it, just to see how much of a difference it makes.
  • DjNDBDjNDB Moderator
    edited April 2010
    I vote for an option to disable it too. It is very noticeable at 1920x1200 Quality 9 on 24". It will probably be better when i lean back so it just blurs away, but then why put it there in the first place.

    It is probably one of these things many people just don't notice like flickering in cinemas, framerate and lip sync issues, and Audio or Video compression artifacts.

    That doesn't help people with sharper senses of course.
  • der_ketzerder_ketzer
    edited April 2010
    Once I was in the last 2 hours of the game I didn't notice the grain any more.
    The option to turn it off would be nice but I have seen far worse film grain effects
  • DjNDBDjNDB Moderator
    edited April 2010
    The thing is: That kind of effect works for movies, because the image is moving most of the time and you don't focus as much on details because you are driven by the story and action.
    In Adventure games though you look really close at items on the screen to inspect them. Then it's just irritating to have an area where nothing happens with flickering pixels dancing around on it, because it distracts the eye from more interesting things.
  • guitarsareboringguitarsareboring
    edited April 2010
    I love the grain, it's one of my favourite things about the new season. I think a lot of other games would benefit from a similar effect to take off the 21st century sheen. However if it's possible (and not too time consuming) to add a disable option to future episodes it might be a good idea for those who can't get used to it for whatever reason.
  • juandemarcojuandemarco
    edited April 2010
    I'd really like to hear from Telltale about this...
  • elzbenzelzbenz
    edited April 2010
    hmm, I didn't really have an issue with it when I was playing on my PS3...

    But when, out of curiosity, I downloaded the demo of the PC version.

    Wow... that actually REALLY gave me a headache. UNBEARABLE!

    I do intend to buy the PC version in the future for the DVD and would like an option to turn it off... or even better, have an option to lower it in intensity... I still want the awesome atmosphere it created in the PS3 port.
  • Hassat HunterHassat Hunter
    edited April 2010
    Options are always good, so this gets my vote.

    Same with more advanced options than just 1-9...
  • RipcordRipcord
    edited April 2010
    Is the effect worse or at least much stronger on some video cards? I find it very subtle on my system.
  • juandemarcojuandemarco
    edited April 2010
    I don't know, I only tried it on my machine with the built in Radeon HD 4850 512MB. I would guess that it's the same everywhere though, the only difference being the user's visual system, specifically the eyes :)
  • sascha23sascha23
    edited April 2010
    I also would like to see the game without grain on PS3 and PC/Mac. An option would be greatly appreciated.

    Even with titles like Mass Effect, I disable the grain.

    S
  • lersveenlersveen
    edited April 2010
    Can someone who thinks it's horrible post a damn screenshot? I want to see if it's actually something I can't see or if it's just you who have weird eyes.
  • JakeJake Telltale Alumni
    edited April 2010
    It's more intense in some environments than others, and mostly towards the beginning of the game to set the tone. We all think it adds to the "poorly exposed, cheap film transfer of a very 'B' 70s movie" feeling, which is the world in which we're trying to set The Devil's Playhouse.

    I can't say it is an easy thing to build an on/off switch for. I will investigate, but odds are if this becomes a feature (again not a guarantee), it wouldn't be until the DVD or some later release. It's hard/risky to change core features and settings in the middle of the season, because you often run into a situation where you press something in over here, and something ends up popping out somewhere else, causing a chase across five episodes of shared code.

    Thanks for expressing your concern, though, guys. I will definitely at least look into it for you.
  • DjNDBDjNDB Moderator
    edited April 2010
    lersveen wrote: »
    Can someone who thinks it's horrible post a damn screenshot? I want to see if it's actually something I can't see or if it's just you who have weird eyes.

    A screenshot would be worthless, because it wouldn't show the grain pixels moving around rapidly and flickering.
    A Video would probably only show it if it was uncompressed or using lossless compression, because lossy compression would smooth it out. That's why you won't see it in youtube videos.
  • juandemarcojuandemarco
    edited April 2010
    Jake wrote: »
    It's more intense in some environments than others, and mostly towards the beginning of the game to set the tone. We all think it adds to the "poorly exposed, cheap film transfer of a very 'B' 70s movie" feeling, which is the world in which we're trying to set The Devil's Playhouse.

    I can't say it is an easy thing to build an on/off switch for. I will investigate, but odds are if this becomes a feature (again not a guarantee), it wouldn't be until the DVD or some later release. It's hard/risky to change core features and settings in the middle of the season, because you often run into a situation where you press something in over here, and something ends up popping out somewhere else, causing a chase across five episodes of shared code.

    Thanks for expressing your concern, though, guys. I will definitely at least look into it for you.

    Thanks for the reply.
    As a developer I understand the difficulty of make such a modification to a somewhat consolidated shared code, but I assume that it's modular enough to allow such a modification without the fear of having Max coming out of the screen with a chainsaw... I know that the effect is there for a reason, and I do like the 'wink' to B '70s movies (I am a fan of those myself). This effect, though, applied to a game like S&M, makes it almost unplayable for me and for some of the others who are complaining, and I don't think you want that.
    Look, I would even settle for the lowest quality if the effect wasn't there, or for some optional patch that disables it permanently for those who don't want it, but since (I hope) you'll be tweaking the code to achieve decent framerates on the Mac version (at the very least comparable to those achieved in Windows using the same hardware), you should look into this as well (and the Mac performance issue is something you'll definitly look up *before* the DVD release). Otherwise I'm sorry to say that I'll have to sit this season out and consider asking for a refund of some sort (or for some mad scientist to fix my eyes, that'll do :) ).
    Again, thanks for your reply, I hope to hear some sort of follow up.
    Cheers
    Juan
This discussion has been closed.