What Is Chromatic Aberration In Games?

What is Chromatic Aberration in games? Chromatic Aberration is a term you are likely to come across as a new gamer but what exactly does it mean? This article will provide an answer to the question.

Chromatic Aberration is a color distortion that creates an outline of colors usually red and blue around the edges of objects in images or videos. Many people don’t like this effect because it makes images and motions blurry.

However, over the past years, game developers are seen implementing this effect in their games.

In this article, you will learn more about the chromatic aberration in games and why game developers use it as well as other important things you must know about it.

What Is Chromatic Aberration In Games?

Chromatic Aberration which is also known as color fringing is an unpleasant color distortion gamers experience around the edges of photographs while playing video games. 

This visual effect is included to make the gameplay look like it is been viewed from the camera and also look blurry when screenshotted. 

You will find it in games like Dying Light, GTA V, Alien-Isolation, and Blood Borne.

Naturally, this effect appears when there is high contrast between light and dark objects. For instance, when the blue sky reflects on a black wall.

In photography, it is an optical problem that happens when light traveling at different speeds passes through a lens but the lens is unable to bring the color wavelengths to the same focal plane.

Why Causes Chromatic Aberration In Games?

Chromatic Aberration in games can be perceived as an artistic direction in games to make them look like they are being viewed from the camera just as you would see in movies.

This is done to make games look photorealistic rather than for you to be seeing images with sharp edges. 

However, most developers are unsure if to continue using this effect because the whole stuff still looks like an experiment right now.

You will find other similar effects in games when close attention is paid and some of these effects include;

• Ambient occlusion
• Bloom
• Lens flares
• HDR
• Noise/grain
• Depth of field
• Glossy normal mapped surfaces
• Motion blur
• Bump mapping (which was later replaced with normal mapping)
• Dynamic cloth/jiggle bones
• God rays
• Glowy bits on characters

These effects are all results of artistic experiments. So, let’s keep our fingers crossed and see what happens with this glitch in the coming years.

I hope it doesn’t become the norm because most gamers don’t seem to buy this concept.

Meanwhile, I’m glad some game developers provide the option to toggle on/off this feature in case you don’t like the effect.

Should I Turn On/Off Chromatic Aberration In Games? Is It Worth It?

If you were given the chance to toggle on/off the chromatic aberration in games, would you turn it off?

The truth is that it all boils down to personal preference.

In case you are a person who is a big fan of high-quality graphics, I bet you would hate seeing chromatic aberration in games.

However, if you don’t mind seeing images in motion like it is been viewed directly from the cameras, then chromatic aberration is your thing.

Conclusion

Chromatic Aberration is a visual effect that appears while playing video games that is intentionally created to make it look like you are viewing directly from the camera lens.

A lot of gamers don’t seem to like this effect because there have been a lot of complaints in gaming forums.

So ensure you share this article so that it gets to others who might be searching for an answer to the question ‘what is chromatic aberration in games?’

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