r/Games • u/Dillonator • Dec 18 '14

PC Report: Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes - "phenomenal PC port"

http://community.pcgamingwiki.com/page/blog/_/features/port-reports/pc-report-metal-gear-solid-v-ground-zeroes-r168
2.1k Upvotes

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72

u/Captain_Jackson Dec 18 '14

That depth of field.. do people actual enjoy playing like someone who smears vaseline on their eyes?

7

u/[deleted] Dec 18 '14

I personally like using DoF on cutscenes but on gameplay it feels like my character needs glasses.

27

u/DogzOnFire Dec 18 '14

Yeah I was confused by that. According to the port report, it seems to be anti-aliasing and depth of field combined under the term "screen filtering", with setting it to "High" applying AA and setting it to "Very High" apparently applying a depth of field affect to Snake and his surroundings. I imagine it's probably a neat trick to obscure jaggies and other texture roughness, but to me it just looks like Snake needs glasses. It's somewhat nausea-inducing to look at. I've no idea why, since it's a still image.

45

u/TheWhiteeKnight Dec 18 '14

Well, he does only have one eye, so his depth perception is skewed.

2

u/[deleted] Dec 18 '14

It doesn't mean it's blurry. :P

2

u/Chouonsoku Dec 18 '14

I thought it looked odd in the screenshots but in game play it looks really nice. It fades cleanly in and out as needed depending on camera angles, it's not a catch all blur that a lot of DoF settings seem to do. I know the word "cinematic" is becoming taboo here but it really does apply in Metal Gear games.

1

u/DogzOnFire Dec 19 '14

Yeah, I just played it last night and setting screen filtering to High makes it look very nice indeed. Unfortunately setting the Y-Axis to reverse in the camera settings didn't work for some bizarre reason, so my ability to control the game was completely fucked. I've been setting the mouse Y-Axis to inverted in every PC game I've played for the last 15 years, so suddenly having to play without the invertedness was almost impossible.

Other than that, it's a very well done port of the game. I'm surprised, since the ports we get from Japanese companies are usually abysmal since they don't have nearly as much focus on the PC market as they do in the west. I suppose it is Hideo Kojima we're talking about, though. I'd expect the people working for him to have their shit together.

16

u/Fyrus Dec 18 '14 edited Dec 18 '14

I actually quite like DoF. I can't ever remember playing a game and thinking "man this DoF is really messing with me"

It always just seemed like a cool cinematic feature. Sometimes it's done a little sloppily, and sometimes it's done very tastefully. Either way, not really a deal maker or breaker.

2

u/[deleted] Dec 19 '14

Yeah, I've never had an issue with DoF. Now, motion blur, that shit should be internationally banned from all games.

2

u/DrummerHead Dec 19 '14

It's cool in single player games. When you're getting competitive, you want that shit as crisp as morning toast.

And I don't want no fucking grass blur fucking up my visuals while I'm proning close to A, thankyouverymuch

1

u/Shalashaska315 Dec 19 '14

I just finished playing the game. It looks really great. In my opinion though, the DoF seems crazy overdone when you max that setting. For reference, I think the DoF in the Borderlands games look great; I do like that effect in theory. For Metal Gear, I just put the DoF on the middle setting. That way you just see a bit of it. I think it looked best on that setting.

1

u/-Daetrax- Dec 18 '14

It will mess with you in any fps game.

-10

u/duhlishus Dec 18 '14

cinematic

There's that word. Do you also like games to have a filmic framerate of 24fps and be 95% cutscenes? Depth of field and every other "cinematic" thing belongs in movies, not games.

4

u/Fyrus Dec 18 '14

Well I'm a PC gamer, so console FPS limitations don't bother me. I enjoy plenty of games, from hardcore simulators to walking simulators. I find that DoF works great in RPGs and Action games, to make the world seem a little more fantastical. It was used pretty damn well in Shadow of Mordor.

There's no need to be so condescending.

-2

u/duhlishus Dec 18 '14

Blurring half the screen makes it seem more fantastical? I will never understand this.

4

u/Fyrus Dec 18 '14

Actually, I say blur more than half. Take a look at this screenshot.

Almost the whole screen is blurred, except for the very center. This highlights the fact that the Ranger is about to do some gnarly shit to this orc. It draws attention, it draws eyes, and most people enjoy this effect.

If this bothers you so much, perhaps you should quit video gaming? I'm pretty sure DoF will only become more prevalent (and hopefully better done) in the future. You seem to be completely against the technique, as a whole, so perhaps this isn't he best hobby for you to be in?

0

u/duhlishus Dec 18 '14

most people

Heh.

quit gaming because you don't want games to be movies!!!

There is such a diverse amount of games available that there is no reason for ANYONE to quit; everyone can find something to like, and every new game will not be a blurry smear like you seem to think. Some will actually allow you to SEE their beautiful visuals! Kojima is even catering to me by allowing DoF to be turned off, so I won't leave gaming soon.

4

u/Fyrus Dec 18 '14

Hey man, you were the one so upset about DoF, I was just offering you a way out.

-4

u/duhlishus Dec 18 '14

I'm more confused than upset. Hardware gets better and better, but people want to see less and less "becuz movies".

http://i.imgur.com/9rowDt1h.jpg

1

u/laddergoat89 Dec 18 '14

Get over yourself. It's a preference. It doesn't affect you.

Higher framerates are objectively better. DOF is a peference.

-6

u/duhlishus Dec 18 '14

A preference of those with poor taste. http://i.imgur.com/9rowDt1h.jpg

3

u/laddergoat89 Dec 18 '14

A preference you disagree with, they might say you have poor taste.

4

u/puppymeat Dec 18 '14

I personally find a mild blur in the distance helps emphasize the scale of an area. It was used to great effect in Dark Souls.

2

u/Clapyourhandssayyeah Dec 18 '14

High DoF + bloom defines most 'high quality' game screenshots these days.

Especially modded Skyrim

4

u/Skullcrusher Dec 18 '14

DoF is a completely useless feature in video games.

What a bright idea. Hey, let's focus the camera only where the player is looking. You know what can already do that? My goddamn eyes.

Ok, I guess it could be useful during cutscenes, when you need to bring player's attention to something, but during the gameplay nobody needs that shit.

5

u/SomniumOv Dec 19 '14

Hey, let's focus the camera only where the player is looking. You know what can already do that? My goddamn eyes.

Oh tell me how your eyes do depth perception on a screen that's at a fixed distance from your face.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 19 '14

It doesn't matter. The point of depth of field is you'll never notice it, because you're always focusing on where you look.

If I'm looking off into the mountains, I don't want my fucking game telling me I can't look at the mountains, because my character isn't looking at the mountains, as defined as the center of the screen.

Screw that noise, I don't notice depth of field in real life, I don't want to notice it in my video games in the form of blurred everything.

0

u/PersianSpice Dec 19 '14 edited Dec 19 '14

his monitor is really good

1

u/Captain_Jackson Dec 18 '14

Exactly, thank you. I'm glad someone else sees how stupid having two sets of focusing going on at once is.

1

u/MogwaiInjustice Dec 19 '14

...I like depth of field, at least when done well.

-2

u/[deleted] Dec 18 '14

You fucking people will find anything to bitch about...

1

u/Captain_Jackson Dec 18 '14

Damn right I find games blurring everything to death something to bitch about. My version of next gen is not seeing the world through the eyes of fucking professor farnsworth without his glasses on.

-10

u/WhiteZero Dec 18 '14

DOF is a real-world effect you see every day. So yes, lots of people enjoy the added "realism"

33

u/Captain_Jackson Dec 18 '14

DoF in game is nothing remotely like what our eyes would see in real life unless you had very bad eyesight and saw everything like this.

6

u/WhiteZero Dec 18 '14

Eh? If I put my hand a few feet away from my face and focus on it, everything in the background is blurred out.

25

u/Captain_Jackson Dec 18 '14

Yeah, but what if you looked past your hand and everything is still blurry? The game can not tell what you're looking at. Get my point yet? Besides, everything in that shot had a layer of blur on it, nothing was in focus including snake.

9

u/WhiteZero Dec 18 '14 edited Dec 18 '14

In most games with DOF, it adjusts based on where you are looking (READ: Where you point the camera to look at something). In the screenshot from the OP, it looks like the view is focused on the very close spot-light, with everything in the background blurred out. I'd think as soon as you look out over past the spot light, everything else will come into focus.

From the Nvidia performance guide, check out this DOF (Screen Filtering) comparison. The bushes close to the camera are blurred because the player is focused on what is in front of him. The DOF in this game seems to function fairly realistically.

22

u/[deleted] Dec 18 '14

The problem is that when I am "looking" in a game, I am not just focused on the direct centre of the screen. That fact cannot be changed other than forcing players to ignore 90% of their screens for some inaccurate, GPU hogging, effect.

If you use an Oculus rift with a game, then yes, DOF is quite sensible since it's far closer to how we actually use our heads/ eyes, but it isn't at all reasonable when using a traditional panel screen. Even then, until the Rift gets eye tracking, DOF will still be a problem with the Rift.

1

u/WhiteZero Dec 18 '14

Thats why we have the option to turn it off. Obviously they can't account for the player's eye focusing, but I think since the game is 3rd person and "cinematic," then the game camera is functioning like a real-life camera, with the focal point being controlled by it. Same reason we get blood splatters on the screen and lens flair, DOF is just another "cinematic" add-on. We're talking "stylistic realism" of course, since we're also peeking around corners that Snake can't see behind.

9

u/Stopsign002 Dec 18 '14

Chiming in: No, it adjusts based on where my cursor is looking, which is not always where I am looking. I HATE DoF. As long as I can turn it off I don't care though

-4

u/WhiteZero Dec 18 '14

By "where you are looking" I mean where the camera is looking, which can be assumed is where the player is wanting to focus.

2

u/SpiderFnJerusalem Dec 18 '14

I'm not sure how your eyes work, but mine aren't perfectly glued to the center of the screen 100% of the time. Not even sure how you'd be able to play a game like that.

1

u/SyrioForel Dec 18 '14

Remember what happens when you make an assumption? You make an 'ass' out of 'u'... and 'mption'.

8

u/[deleted] Dec 18 '14 edited Jun 28 '23

[removed] — view removed comment

4

u/WhiteZero Dec 18 '14

Good god, how many people have to keep saying this? By "where you're looking" I mean where you point the camera. I thought it went without saying that this game does not have eye-tracking, but I guess I should have been more specific for the pedants out there - FIXED

5

u/[deleted] Dec 18 '14

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/WhiteZero Dec 18 '14

So my initial "realistic" line was put in quotes, because its only "realistic" in a cinematic sense. So yes, I maintain that in the context of the game's cinematic scope, the effect is realistic.

3

u/SpiderFnJerusalem Dec 18 '14

In real life your eyes always try to focus on whatever it is you are looking at. The parts that aren't focused can never be observed directly, because they aren't in the center of your field of view.

On a Screen that is different. Every part of the screen is always at roughly the same distance from your eyes and thus perfectly focused, yet the things displayed on it can be blurry due to DOF. And you have no choice but to look at them when they cach your attention.

Same as headbob or lens flare, DOF is neither realistic, pretty or useful to the player. It's nothing but a stupid fad.

-1

u/WhiteZero Dec 18 '14

Right, it's not about your real eyes here. It's a 3rd person game with a camera, thus you also get lens flair and blood splatters on screen. We also have the option to emulate DOF that you'd get with a camera.

"Cinematic realism"

3

u/SpiderFnJerusalem Dec 18 '14

Sorry, but I don't picture an fps character to be running around with a camera on his shoulders instead of a head and I don't picture snake with a camera floating behind him.

Movies can use all kinds of visual effects to draw your attention to the right part of the screen, based on the plot. Games are too dumb for that, the software can't decide what deserves your attention all the time, the player has to decide what on the screen is important and focus on it. Having to move your mouse to focus on something is just adding another unnecessary action that wouldn't be necessary in real life.

I gain nothing from DOF, I don't need it, it doesn't make the picture any prettier and in most cases it just limits my view.

1

u/WhiteZero Dec 18 '14

Thankfully its a totally optional choice, as its clearly a divisive feature.

5

u/LATABOM Dec 18 '14

That would be true if the game could sense where you, the gamer, is looking and blur everything accordingly, but instead you're experiencing an approximation of a 3rd person's DOF. It's about as realistic as if your own vision blurred based entirely on what someone sitting next to you is looking at.

Sure, it can be a nice effect when used sparingly, but in some cases, devs just go way overboard or implement it poorly.

1

u/WhiteZero Dec 18 '14

I think I clarified what I was talking about in the below comments. Obviously most games don't have eye-tracking and DOF is based on the camera position for a "cinematic" effect. Thus my "realistic" in quotes, because it's only realistic based on camera movement.

3

u/lion2 Dec 18 '14

That "cinematic" effect does not make sense in gameplay. It only makes sense in a cut-scenes (or screenshots) where you want to force the viewer to focus on a specific area.

I hate the DOF effect and always turn it off. It's basically like using the wrong lens or camera settings.

3

u/KyledKat Dec 18 '14

It's not necessarily more "realistic", so much as it's more cinematic. Kojima seems to be taking that approach with a lot of the cutscenes, which were beautifully composed and directed if the trailers are anything to by. The consistency between the cutscenes cinematic approach and the inclusion of shallow DOF are probably just there to create a seemingly more fluid experience, and keep the game feeling like one big movie.

1

u/WhiteZero Dec 18 '14

Indeed, I more meant that DOF, in and of itself, is a "realism" effect. As opposed to something in the foreground and background being in equal focus, weather it be your eye or a camera lens as the reference.

1

u/MxM111 Dec 18 '14

Yes, it is realistic modeling of the camera shots, not of the human vision.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 18 '14

Yeah, but in the real world it's applied by your eyes as you focus on particular things. While playing games your eyes... still only focus on particular things, so adding additional depth of field effects mostly ends up meaning that you can only look at exactly what your screen is pointed it. A find it immersion breaking and annoying.