Constructive plea to CA regarding color filters

**talljoe** · July 17, 2013, 04:13 PM

Hello TW fans and CA!

Like most others I am excited for the release of Rome 2. The pics and vids look awesome, but they also raise a potential issue for the community: color filters. This is an unfortunate trend in gaming, with many popular games using it. For those of you who are unfamiliar, using a color filter makes everything in a scene have the same shade/ color. It can look good sometimes, and it's heavily used in movies. So here's my plea:

1. If a color filter is used, please, please consider a box in the graphics section to enable/disable it. The absolute worst example of color filter is Battlefield 3. It's way too strong and really warps most maps and makes them really monotone and ugly. Blue grass, blue dirt, blue concrete, blue... well, everything.

2. I don't know why color filters bother me so much. To me things look best when they're the color they are supposed to be... grass is green, concrete is grey, sky is blue, etc. So please consider making it an option on/off. I understand why it's there in the first place. What I don't understand is why it's mandatory when it's a post process. (AKA easily turned on/off).

Thanks! Good luck in development and sales, and please do NOT take the mandatory filter route that EA forces on the Battlefield series.

**GussieFinkNottle** · July 17, 2013, 04:39 PM

You make a good point. This picture released:

would imply they are putting too dark a filter on the battlemaps at the moment: look at the one where the sun is shining, it still looks like an eclipse is happening!
Plus there are all these brown ones from carthage:

and greeny/blue ones from Teutoberg. They have talked about their new lighting system, and it is good that lighting quality and special effects are getting better, however at the moment all the screenshots seem to be simply too dark. Since the campaign map is fairly light:

It shouldn't be too hard to adjust this, battle maps and the campaign are rendered the same way now
I'm sure filters will be less heavy by release

**Mr. Bundy** · July 17, 2013, 04:42 PM

Agree as well,

Number one problem a.t.m?

**GussieFinkNottle** · July 17, 2013, 04:45 PM

Originally Posted by Shrod

Agree as well,

Number one problem a.t.m?

Well all problems that can be solved before release now are minor... for the big ones it would take too long for the time left, and involve changing/making new big features
So now is the time to point out all the little things that can be smoothed out to make the game better come September 3rd

**Travisfv** · July 17, 2013, 04:45 PM

I have to say I agree. I'm not one to complain, but this is something I would like to see changed. I play my games on a big screen HDTV. It can bring out all the colors and richness of an image, but blackening out eveyrthing makes it really hard to enjoy. I bet hidden under those filters are some really popping and eye catching colors that would make every scene come alive right in front of us.

**Rodent24** · July 17, 2013, 04:53 PM

I actually like the fact that they use color grading to set the mood for the different seasons and climates. However it does seem a little excessive at the moment.

**Mr. Bundy** · July 17, 2013, 04:59 PM

CA should most definitely be more active on this forum, and comment along our topics imo

**StealthFox** · July 17, 2013, 08:04 PM

Yeah, I do not like the colors in the majority of what we've seen. Not everything is bad though. Teutoberg forest looked good.

**CTD_or_Bust** · July 17, 2013, 08:13 PM

Agreed. I hope that they are just showing us "Artistic" images that have been through photoshop and not in game screens. FotS was great except they tried so hard to make it feel industrial-era-ish that it ended up being this grim and dirty mess.

There's no need to get all 'stylistic'. We're not here for how the game looks. We're here for how the game plays. Please don't overwhelm us with filters so that we cannot appreciate the game.

**Hadro** · July 17, 2013, 08:53 PM

I agree with OP. Whilst I appreciate the use of visual effects to enhance the feel of a battlefield, the colour filters I have seen on RTW2 pictures thus far are too much!

Although I must admit - I havew played 200 hrs of battlefield 3 and never really notices the blue filter that people complain about :S

**talljoe** · July 18, 2013, 04:17 PM

Originally Posted by Hadro

I agree with OP. Whilst I appreciate the use of visual effects to enhance the feel of a battlefield, the colour filters I have seen on RTW2 pictures thus far are too much!

Although I must admit - I havew played 200 hrs of battlefield 3 and never really notices the blue filter that people complain about :S

Well, here you go. Be warned: once you see this, you can't un-see it and it's crazy to say but this ruined BF3 for me. The frustrating thing is that is looks so GOOD without it, and it could very easily be made a graphics option with a simple check-box.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJU-JKFPsTo

**Lord Dakier** · July 17, 2013, 09:13 PM

Not keen on it, bothered by it? Not really. I do somewhat like the idea of all my battles being dark and dingy, would look pretty awesome with a blood pack too.

Again this is something which if not changed will most likely be modded anyhow.

**kronpas** · July 17, 2013, 09:48 PM

it looks as bad as Battlefield 3 with its terribly ugly color filter .... In certain maps it looks like everyone is terminally ill, that plunging forwards unto death is their only salvation -_-"

**daelin4** · July 17, 2013, 10:25 PM

Yeah I find color filters rather annoying. It's almost like they want us to view the game with rose-tinted glasses.

see what I did there?

**hrissker** · July 17, 2013, 10:57 PM

I somewhat agree with my fellow forum go-ers here, but I also think the day screenshot may be darker because of the cloud that is near the sun, maybe that could be the reason of it, a simple fix could be on day one if you guys band together and mod it, needless to say it would have to be mod friendly though XD

**Sandraker** · July 18, 2013, 04:55 PM

I don't understand it when game devs take all the life and colour out of a game and call it improved lighting/realistic/artistic/atmospheric/bullcrapmarketingterm. It happens so damn often and it always makes the game look like it was left in either a sewer or a bucket of bleach.
BF3 for example is so washed out that it has less colour than Arma 3 at night, in the fog.
No, really.

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