PPE (Post Processing Effects for the Noobs)

For this blog, I will be going over a topic that I feel carries a very heavy weight when it comes to designing and programming a game.  In my opinion, this topic can help to turn a game from a great looking game, into a visual masterpiece.  This topic ladies and gentlemen, is Post Processing Effects.

Among the many different types of Post Processing Effects, there are a few that I feel are the top contenders for being used in the games we see today.  Those Post Processing Effects are, Motion Blur,  Bloom, and Depth of Field.  Cel Shading is also a post processing effect, however I will be covering this in a later blog in more detail. 

First on the list is motion blur.  I personally do not find motion blur enjoyable in games however, it does add a certain sense of realism to a game that others feel add a valuable factor to the games overall realism.  When I imagine games with motion blur, I think of the Crysis series.  Since the character has a certain ability allowing super speed to be enabled, the developers gave the player the sonic speed sensation by adding motion blur along the borders of the screen.  Not only is the motion blur used during super speed, it is also used when the character makes a swift turn of their head.  Again, I do not personally enjoy this while playing a game, but this is only my opinion.

Motion Blur in Crysis

After post processing effects, I feel like bloom is the next best post processing effect used in video games.  Bloom is the effect used to add a bright blurry effect around the outside of the character or object, similar to a halo effect.  Bloom is done by sending the bright light above a certain threshold to the FBO.  After this step, Gaussian blur is applied to the light to blur it out along the edges of the object.  Finally, the blurred parts are composited with the original dark images to give it the final bloomed image.  Games such as Warframe use bloom heavily throughout to give it a sci-fi dark feel.  

Warframe: Bloomapalooza

The final PPE I will be covering in this blog is depth of field.  Depth of field is a fairly easy concept to grasp.  As an image gets close or farther away from the viewport, the image will become distorted and slightly blurry.  This is used to simulate the natural blur that happens in the human eye during our day to day lives.  When coding this, the programmer must set a certain threshold that will determine determine the blur distance, as well as how intense the blur will be.  I will also be using a picture of Crysis to demonstrate what depth of field looks like in game.  

Notice the Trees in the Distance are Distorted

This is the first of many blogs that will show certain elements used in games, as well as certain game topics I enjoy and want to share with the world!