A look at Color Correction

[CSN NewsBot]

Having been snuck into one of the latest updates this past week (for those running the Friends BETA), a new feature called "Color Correction" has made an appearance in the advanced video options for CS: Source. I decided to take a quick look at the effects it has on the quality of your image in game.



Contrary to its name, it doesn't seem to enhance colors at all. It produces more of a blurring effect on the entire scene, becoming more pronounced the greater the object's distance is from the player's eyes. I wouldn't call it a depth of field effect, as there is no real focal point being changed.



Look below to see what I mean. The first image in each series will have Color Correction enabled, and the second will have it disabled for comparion sake. All images are 4x AA, 8x AF. Updated: The first images below are using the "colorcorrectionui" console command (must have sv_cheats 1 in use). It's just a VERY minor example of what you can do. The rest of the images are with no tweaks done in the UI.

[break="view the full image gallery" type="viewnews"]

I didn't really check to see if there was a change in the number of FPS I was getting, so I can't say if there was any performance hit or not. I hadn't noticed any changes, but I may have had I been looking for them. Surely, this is just something to be used for the machinima crowd and not to be used during normal gameplay. That is, unless you really, really want to.

[.Sn0w.]

Hmmm I dont know if I like it :\ it makes it look weird :S

[_Shorty]

actually it looks like the stuff you're reporting is actually due to a different AA mode being inadvertently enabled. In the first set of shots if you look at the horizontal lines of the garage doors you can see how much better they are antialiased in the shot with the colour correction enabled. You can see it very well in the third set in the thin bars up in the roof area. It looks like good old 3dfx voodoo5 super-sampling rotated grid AA in the colour correction shots, and it looks like crappy nvidia AA in the shots without colour correction.



As for the colour correction feature itself, well, I'd say its effects are being overlooked because you're distracted by the differing AA methods in each shot. Seems to be a somewhat subtle effect anyway. But the two sets are most definitely using different AA methods, and this is what you are describing as blur in the CC shots.



I remember going from my voodoo5 to a geforce3, and thinking that the AA sucked hardcore in the gf3, but other things did look a lot sharper. But, all these years I've been bitching about missing the better 3dfx AA, as it takes care of so many anomalies that nvidia's AA to this very day does not get rid of. Actually, that's not entirely true. I don't have an nvidia SLI rig yet, but I've played with one, and the SLI AA mode looks quite similar to 3dfx's 2x AA mode on the voodoo5 card. Was nice to finally see half-decent AA from an nvidia card, heh. The v5's 4x mode still beats it, but it's better than nothing. Just too bad an SLI rig isn't exactly cheap, heh.

[borsdy]

It might be because it's 330am but I don't notice a difference at all...

[InFeRn0]

your not the only 1 that thinks that, i see NO differance it looks the damn same

[FireXian]

In the third pair of pictures, look at the traincars that are in the sunlight in the northeast part of the picture. If you click on the left picture, you can see that it's a bit blurry. If you click on the right picture, you can see that it's sharper.

[Jobbeh]

COLOUR!

[downloadwhoresk]

Just thought I would mention this, you need to use the "colorcorrection" console command to properly use this tool.



^Ben



P.S. I can't remember the exact command but it will probably autocomplete for you once you get halfway into the command.

[Johnny-5]

cant use this feature with my geforce 5.

[tspoon1066]

I only see a slight difference on the shutter doors, apart from that naff all.

Johnny-5 wrote..

cant use this feature with my geforce 5200

amirite???

[downloadwhoresk]

http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/3079/csgreen2hs.jpg



http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/7539/cspurple6zh.jpg



Also filmgrain is in, but there is no material for it.



http://img486.imageshack.us/img486/1691...broken6xu.jpg



Imagine this animated and the dark suares being scratches on the film.

[3unknown3]

Oh yeah it DOES look like crappy AA and good AA.

[Zips]

_Shorty wrote..

actually it looks like the stuff you're reporting is actually due to a different AA mode being inadvertently enabled.

It only appeared as a different AA mode was being used due to the blurring effect. It smoothed all edges (blurred them rather) and textures. Nothing was a vibrant or pronounced because of it.

downloadwhoresk wrote..

Just thought I would mention this, you need to use the "colorcorrection" console command to properly use this tool.



^Ben



P.S. I can't remember the exact command but it will probably autocomplete for you once you get halfway into the command.

Ah, see I possed that question to the forum goers at SP last night. Sure enough people found the console command while I was sleeping. I'll have to take another look at it later today.

[kerosine99]

I don't have CS:S right now so I can't go in game, but does the softness of the image look better in motion? Because to be honest from the screenshots I'd prefer the sharper image.

[downloadwhoresk]

Here are some more subtle examples.



Normal office:

http://img357.imageshack.us/img357/9481...normal6cz.jpg

"Sad" office:

http://img235.imageshack.us/img235/8053/coloursad6wx.jpg



You can see I have only shifted the colour slightly, but it completly shifts the mood of the scene.