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Alien Swarm: Reactive Drop >  Workshop > Duke M's Workshop > No Grain/White Noise/Static > Discussions
No Grain/White Noise/Static
Description Discussions1 Comments12 Change Notes
 This topic has been pinned, so it's probably important
Duke M  [developer] 31 May, 2017 @ 8:15pm
Why 'No Grain' should be default
The grain effect is something which bugs me personally since the first AS.
So I did this mod. But what it does should be directly in the base game.
I would vote (if i could) for having 'mat_grain_enable' set to 0 by default.

But why?
  • It is an whole-screen overlay-effect which does not take into account the underlying graphics (which motion-blur or bloom for an example do), thus it's not actively changing according to what the gamer is doing/seeing, it's just making the whole screens 'information' randomly blurrier.

  • Such effects are commonly used where resources are sparse and low-res-contents need to be hidden. Or maaaybe in a special immersive scene like when you take over rydberg reactors remote-controlled turret. But we are not going there ...
    Alien Swarm's graphics aren't performance-hungry through the natural fact that its contents are long-standing (12 years already). Todays machines will render these textures/objects just beautifully, no wannabe more-immersive effect needed.
    It looks good as it IS below this grain.

  • This stuff will degrade/ruin the next decade of static community content (JPG-screenshots and streamed videos) in a technical/artistic way.
    AS's maps naturally contain big black areas on which the grain is often uselessly visible and problematic for both mentioned forms of media. JPGs create artefacts around small details like grain. Compression in images/videos works better with more 1-colored areas.

  • I cannot imagine a theming-driven reason why there is noise everywhere.
    Don't get puzzled now with the engine drawing grainy shadows on purpose to represent radiation in some room. I mean noise just everywhere, to represent ... dunno what.
    Maybe radiation which compromises a cameras view which the gamer sees through? The gamer himself can see through roofs! Has for sure no problems with radiation.

  • Did I mention grain is one cheap ugly effect which doesn't change anything?
    It cannot even make the game harder or more immersive, just uglier :(

tl;dr
grain hides stuff, is useless, is problematic in future, has no reasoning, looks meh
Last edited by Duke M; 13 Jun, 2022 @ 2:25pm
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Showing 1-5 of 5 comments
Red Spot 3 Jun, 2017 @ 9:10am 
tl;dr;tl;dr
grain, meh
:D
#1
Duke M  [developer] 4 Jun, 2017 @ 8:27pm 
Originally posted by Red Spot:
tl;dr;tl;dr
grain, meh
:D
That hit the spot.
#2
Captain Pentium 18 Jun, 2017 @ 7:13am 
I love the idea. Not only does it make the game look better over all but considering I don't have the best PC in the world I love using as a bit of a frame saver so I can get the higher graphics within reasonable performance. I took a lot of in-game screenshots for my guide "The Swarm" using it so I was hoping you wouldn't mind me using your mod in them. I am giving you credit, including name and link to the mod, in the "Credits" section.
#3
Duke M  [developer] 18 Jun, 2017 @ 10:30am 
Originally posted by Doc:
I love the idea. Not only does it make the game look better over all but considering I don't have the best PC in the world I love using as a bit of a frame saver so I can get the higher graphics within reasonable performance. I took a lot of in-game screenshots for my guide "The Swarm" using it so I was hoping you wouldn't mind me using your mod in them. I am giving you credit, including name and link to the mod, in the "Credits" section.
I feel very honored, thank you, please post a link here when the guide is published :)
#4
Captain Pentium 18 Jun, 2017 @ 10:54am 
Originally posted by Duke Duke'em:
I feel very honored, thank you, please post a link here when the guide is published :)
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=913335861 It's been out a while but when I first released it, it had numerous mods and low graphic options making the images ugly (imo) so I decided to redo them. Now there is no UI through console commands and your mod was the only one that was left over for the images so they look better now. If you have anything to add I would happily accept it for I am a 100 hour noob :D
Last edited by Captain Pentium; 18 Jun, 2017 @ 1:29pm
#5
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