Current Events > Why the fuck does lens flare even exist in video games?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Seriously, why is this a thing?

I have never once in my life played a video game and had a moment where I thought "Damn, that bright glowing light obscuring half the screen really makes this scene beautiful. I'm so glad it's there otherwise this would have been a very bland moment, but it is so instead it's a really great shot and hits me right in the feels."

Its only purpose is literally to annoy the fuck outta the player and preventing them from seeing things. Besides, just because we call it a "camera" doesn't mean everybody literally imagines a guy running around 15 feet behind the player character watching everything through a lens. And I've never seen a lens flare when looking through my own eyes in the real world without there being something else in between my eyes and the light source (rain, glass, etc). So why is there a giant fucking Star-Trek tractor-beam cone of light covering half my field of view when I simply look up and have the sun visible somewhere on the screen?

It's stupid and every game ever made should have the option to turn it off. Frankly, it should be off by default and have the option to turn it on (for the weirdos).

On a somewhat related note, fuck Trials Fusion and a couple of the extreme maps. >_>
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It looks pretty.
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DesuDeku posted...

It looks pretty.

It doesn't.
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They want to ape the cinematic style of Hollywood faves like J.J. Abrams and video games have been trying to look like movies for a while now.
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hollow_shrine posted...

They want to ape the cinematic style of Hollywood faves like J.J. Abrams and video games have been trying to look like movies for a while now.

It's stupid in movies, too. But you don't get a choice in movies because there are no settings to tweak. There's literally no excuse for it being forced on you in a video game.
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Aristoph posted...

DesuDeku posted...

It looks pretty.

It doesn't.

It's not their fault that your opinion is shit.
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Aristoph posted...

But you don't get a choice in movies because there are no settings to tweak

Honestly, with DVDs this should change. You can select languages, captions, widescreen or fullscreen. I should have the option to turn off lens flare, make the pointlessly dark "It's 3am and my mansion literally has one lamp on" scenes brighter, de-shake the cam during action scenes, and so on.

You're really slacking, Hollywood.