CONCluSION
Howthesesettingsaffectvisualqualitywillvaryfromgametogame,andhow
theyaffectperformancewillvaryfromsystemtosystem.Thesebenchmarks
areanecdotal,buttheycangiveusanideaofwhichprocessesaregenerally
moretaxingthanothers.
Wheneveragraphicsintensivegamereleases,especiallyifit’sonanew
engineorusesnewtech,youcanbetwe’reworkingonaperformanceand
settingsguideforPCGamer.com.PC Graphics Options Explained
HARDWARE
High dynamic range was all the rage in
photography a few years ago. The
range it refers to is the range of
luminosity in an image – that is, how
dark and bright it can be. The goal is for
the darkest areas to be as detailed as
the brightest areas. A low-dynamic-
range image may show lots of detail in
the light part of a room, but lose it all in
the shadows, or vice versa.
In the past, the range of dark to
light in games was limited to 8 bits
(only 256 values), but as of DirectX
10 128-bit HDRR is possible. HDR is
still limited by the contrast ratio of
displays, though. There’s no standard
method for measuring this, but LED
displays generally advertise a contrast
ratio of 1000:1.Bloom
The famously overused bloom effect
attempts to simulate the way bright
light can appear to spill over edges, a
visual cue that makes light sources
seem brighter than they are (your
display can only get so bright). It can
work, but too often it’s applied with a
thick brush, making distant oil lamps
look like nuclear detonations. Most
games offer the option to turn it off. The
screenshot above is from Syndicate,
which probably includes the most
hilarious overuse of the effect.Motion blur
Motion blur is pretty self-explanatory:
it’s a post-processing filter which
simulates the film effect caused when
motion occurs while a frame is being
captured. Many gamers I’ve seen in
forums or spoken to prefer to turn it off.
Not only because it affects
performance, but because it just isn’t
desirable. I’ve seen motion blur used
effectively in some racing games, but
I’m also in the camp that usually turns it
off. It doesn’t add enough for me to
bother with any performance decrease.Inphotography,depthoffieldrefersto
the distance between the closest and
furthest points which appear in focus. If
I’m taking a portrait with a small DOF,
for instance, my subject’s face might be
sharp while the back of her hair begins
to blur, and everything behind her is
very blurred. In a high DOF photo, on the
other hand, her nose might be as sharp
as the buildings behind her.
In games, DOF generally just refers
to the effect of blurring things in the
background. Like motion blur, it
pretends our ‘eyes’ in the game are
cameras, and creates a film-like quality.
It can also affect performance
significantly depending on how it’s
implemented. On the LPC, the
difference was negligible, but on the
more modest PC at my desk (Core i7 @
3.47 GHz, 12GB RAM, Radeon HD 5970)
my average framerate in BioShock
Infinite dropped by 21 when going from
regular depth of field to Infinite’s DX11
‘Diffusion Depth of Field.’Depth of field (DOF)
High dynamic range rendering (HDRR)
HDR No HDR