Quote:
Originally Posted by gekko
Is this something always on, or is it just an effect or certain parts of the game?
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In Mass Effect 2 the film grain effect is defaulted to on, but you can turn it off at any time. (I was more asking "What the fuck is the deal with film grain in video games" as a whole, I had just never thought about it until this game)
Clearly it's not a game-breaking thing, I just started to wonder (while playing it) what bonuses film grain gives to a game, in the age of HDMI cables and people wanting the sharpest quality image.
But after playing ME2 last night and needlessly switching the grain on and off, I discovered 2 things that it does (in this game, anyways)
1: The gameplay looks worse. Grainier. It sort of makes it seem like your cable has some little static-y bits all over it.
2: It makes the cutscenes look a lot better, despite not having as sharp of images (Not being able to see leaf detail on a tree behind you with film grain on, where you'd be able to see leaf detail on that tree without film grain)
But I noticed it makes the alien races look a lot more "real". The film grain isn't so good for effects, buildings, and scenery, but more for making the aliens look more natural.
But I'm still up in the air on the whole thing. So many people online hate film grain so much that I keep thinking that I
must be missing something major that it takes away from the game, or everyone is missing the great advantage that film grain gives, and is putting too much stock into background clarity and sharpness.