Off-screen captures and their benefits

[Kasersky]

So i've noticed that out of a sheer lack of being able to do a direct feed sometimes people/journalists have to resort to recording footage off-screen from a tv... but there is an odd thing that occurs which make the footage look better than it's original output.

so what exactly is happening to the color values when things are shot off screen.

heres an example of pgr4 being shot off screen and there are moments if not for the hud look pretty much like real life

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RIsPjoIPxk

some off screen gt5 shots:

http://images.gamersyde.com/image_gran_turismo_5-11403-1865_0001.jpg
http://static.pici.se/pictures/qYtVsbRmT.jpg

 

[AlNom]

I suppose you might consider what happens in a camera lens and what's happening with the sensor. For one thing, you're taking shutter speed into account and how much light is captured, which will affect the output of the sensor. In the end, you do end up clamping the dynamic range, so you can end up with super contrasty images blowing out whites or crushing blacks. It's not unlike an improperly calibrated TV with poor contrast ratio.

Add to that a slower shutter speed and any subtle movement in the camera producing a slight temporal blur that can have that anti-aliasing effect.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I think the main feature is in the contrast and saturation, contrast going up and saturation coming down. There is something gained in the IQ but I can't put my finger on it; I don't know if some of that is psychological, the brain filling in missing information. I'm sure lens optics (and their limitations) has a lot to do with it. Someone (Naughty dog, given their Uncharted additions) should open up their post-processing parameters and enable us to tweak everything from contrast, saturation, chromatic abberation, distortion etc. If I have a spare minute I may even play around on a screenshot and see what I can do.

 

[Neb]

I think the main feature is in the contrast and saturation, contrast going up and saturation coming down. There is something gained in the IQ but I can't put my finger on it; I don't know if some of that is psychological, the brain filling in missing information. I'm sure lens optics (and their limitations) has a lot to do with it.

Makes it look like games are ray-traced doing GI. Then the distance from camera to screen and blur makes it look perfectly jaggy free and detail per pixel much higher than for real with textures looking like high-res textures yet being average. Ofcourse this is for stills and clips as it otherwise is undesired for actually enjoying the game as it would make the eyes bleed. I think it is a case as how we have no problems with watching movies that have lots of bloom, oversaturation, extreme contrast etc but for a game it would be ridicolous.

Someone (Naughty dog, given their Uncharted additions) should open up their post-processing parameters and enable us to tweak everything from contrast, saturation, chromatic abberation, distortion etc. If I have a spare minute I may even play around on a screenshot and see what I can do.

Download the Crysis demo with the free editor and do it there. Looks nice in pics simulating offscreen but a pita to endure it when playing.

In another note BFBC2 has some of that offscreen video effect with it's post processing. Quite nice there though I still wear "sunglasses" when I play the desert maps.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Download the Crysis demo with the free editor and do it there.

On my laptop's little integrated graphics chipset? I don't think so! Do you have any you cooked up earlier?

 

[Neb]

I assume your IGP is Intel based...

Sadly I dont have the material with me anymore. Though I made a Crysis video sometime ago with a custom map where I changed TOD and it got sort of the offscreen look but that was never the intention. It was from the time I played with 4:3 resolution so YT never made it 720p res so it's 480p but it kinda shows of the offscreen effect in some ways. It's a direct capture like all my other videos with FRAPs.

Imagine it is in the cinema with the black borders.

 

[kagemaru]

The way I've always looked at it is off screen captures basically hide the game's flaws, thus allowing it to look better.

 

[Laa-Yosh]

In the end, you do end up clamping the dynamic range, so you can end up with super contrasty images blowing out whites or crushing blacks.

And incidentally, most games still haven't mastered HDR rendering and proper tone mapping well enough, so their output is lacking in terms of contrast. You could say that the camera covers up for that, and for the lack of AA.

If what you see on your own TV while playing would look like these shots, you'd probably be complaining though

 

[AlNom]

If what you see on your own TV while playing would look like these shots, you'd probably be complaining though

Tell that to your stores like Best Buy with those demo modes for TVs on display.