942 réponses à ce sujet

[Xhyn]

You should try it out, Xhyn. It might extend your play time by about 100 hours but it's worth it ^^

 

Followed your advice, the fact that there is good tips and encouragements in here is great!

But... yeah, I had 2 game sessions and I managed to close 1 rift, found 1 grey warden cache, and claim 2 camps, I'm rather proud of myself I'm in my nightmare playtrough, it's gonna take forever ! ^^ (not that I'm complaining)

 

As for the screens :

 

 

[Sarielle]

 

 I really need to learn how to use SRWE.

 

Serious question, how is this different from just cropping afterward?

 

Lornan's Exile is one of my favorite areas in the game, especially this cave.  Probably doesn't do it justice, but eh.

 

 

Spoiler

 

 

[catabuca]

Xhyn - those pictures are really lovely. You have a good eye. I'm looking forward to seeing more

 

Sarielle - the main difference is hotsampling, the next is that setting a custom aspect ratio (AR) lets you compose in-game rather than cropping to whatever might look best after the fact.

 

1) hotsampling - this is an offshoot of downsampling, but done slightly differently. With downsampling, you are rendering the game at resolutions greater than that of your monitor's native resolution and then 'downsampling' so that it fits on your monitor. The reason for doing this is most often as a very good form of anti-aliasing (aliasing is caused when there aren't enough pixels to create smooth lines - each pixel is a square, and squares can't be made to look like curved lines unless there are so many of them that the eye can't distinguish between them; the various types of AA you find in games usually 'fill in the blanks' with varying degrees of success. Supersampling anti-aliasing and things like downsampling increase the amount of pixels available to render scene, making lines appear smoother, and less jagged). Downsampling is very performance intensive, and while it would be nice to be able to run games during normal gameplay downsampled it's often beyond most people's capabilities. Cue hotsampling: tools like SRWE let you increase the resolution of the image on the fly, so you can take a picture at a very large resolution. When displayed normally at a smaller size, the effect is the same as had it been downsampled -- more pixels compressed into the smaller image size, meaning for less aliasing. Additionally, downsampling/hotsampling can increase the fidelity of colours, shadows, lighting -- and when taken together with the improvements to anti-aliasing it makes for an altogether cleaner picture.

 

2) custom ARs - without a tool like SRWE that allows hot-switching of aspect ratios, if you wanted to play in, for example, an anamorphic ratio like 21:9 (akin to the widescreen you see at the cinema) you'd have to force it through your driver beforehand, and it's often cumbersome to set up, and not everyone's drivers allow for it. SRWE lets you set up multiple profiles and switch between them easily, meaning you can play in the regular game AR, and switch it to a different one when you want to compose a shot. As with photography, there's nothing wrong with cropping, but it's a good idea to be able to compose for the frame, and it's better to be able to see what something will look like in a particular AR as you're composing, rather than waiting until afterwards to crop. If I'm composing a shot I might have an idea that it would work better in a 1:1 AR, but I won't truly know until I get into PS afterwards and crop it. Being able to set the AR beforehand, while you're composing, means you make the best of the space on offer and can set up shots in a more meaningful and successful way.

 

Both of these work in tandem, because if you're taking a shot at 1920x1080 and you want to crop it into a portrait AR, say 3:4, you're going to end up with a smaller image. You're throwing away pixels. Being able to set your AR, and then hotsample to a larger resolution, means your end picture could be something like 2430x3240, which gives you lots of room for resizing down or displaying on larger monitors and not losing any of that fidelity.

 

Is any of this necessary? Of course not. It all depends what you want to get out of the pictures you take. Some of my favourite DA:I pictures so far were taken before I started using SRWE. But after having seen a significant jump in quality in the images of screenshotters I greatly admire, I've started looking at how I can get the absolute best out of the pictures I take. In the totally arbitrary and probably imaginary 'screenshot community', theirs is the standard to aspire to, and while as I said in earlier posts about composition 'rules are made to be broken' I've found it useful to at least try to understand what things make a difference in image quality and fidelity, even if I can't manage those things in all the games I take pictures of (not all games support hotsampling - we lucked out with DA:I).

 

[going to x-post this in screenshot tips too]

[catabuca]

Oh, and in all of that I forgot to say, Sarielle those are beautiful pictures. I love the light coming in through the roof/ceiling. I like that area as well.

[catabuca]

I just remembered I created this comparison for someone else. It's a decent example to show what difference downsampling/hotsampling can make.

 

810x1080

 

2430x3240

 

[both resized to the same size]

 

Flip back and forth between both pictures, paying attention to things like foliage, the shadows under the tree through the arch, etc.

 

One of the biggest differences is in the foliage: in the 1080 shot individual leaves/fronds on the far palm appear compressed together, with little space in between them to give them definition. Contrast that to the 3240 version, where fronds are now clearly separated and defined. The whole thing looks much cleaner. Same goes for all the grass and ferns in the foreground, the ivy on the arch, the red stuff on the far tree, etc. You'll see the same effect on hair, on anything that has texture where lines run close together (perhaps a distant fence, or the weave of a wicker basket). It also enriches shadows, makes colours pop, sorts out the worst excesses of rogue aliasing, and just generally gives the picture more depth.

 

The reason is because while the gaps between fronds, for example, actually exists on the models, at 1080 there simply aren't enough pixels to be able to render them properly, so the information is lost as the pixels that are there take on the colour of whatever is closest to it. When I give the image more pixels to play with, it can assign more pixels with more colour information and more accurately render what is there.

 

With the Frostbite engine, hotsampling can have its drawbacks. Bloom doesn't scale so if, for example, you have an area of bloom that covers approximately 3 inches of your screen, when I hotsample by x3 the bloom doesn't scale to cover 9 inches of the screen, it stays the same size. This has the effect of making shadows even darker than they would be normally because wide bloom in the image might have been artificially lightening them. Sometimes that can look just fine. Other times, when strong, wide bloom is a part of the aesthetic you're going for, it can be better to stay at lower resolutions. In this image the bloom filled almost the entire image before I hotsampled. On the whole, I was happy with the tighter effect hotsampling produced, with the exception of where it doesn't carry on all the way up 'out' of the top of the picture -- that's because the spell effect isn't as bright at the top, but because of the hotsampling the constraints of the bloom width become more obvious.

 

[I'll x-post this too]

[FenPhile]

Emerald Graves.

  The Watcher

*

The Greater Mistral.

 

She is so pretty, I will not be killing her no matter what Bull says.

Dragon Hunter achievement will have to wait for another play-thru.

[catabuca]

Lovely pictures, FenPhile. She is very pretty. I've felt pretty awful about killing all of the dragons so far. I've only got the HIssing Waste's dragon to go (haven't found her yet), but all of them have had unique personalities and I've felt guilty each time!

 

I mean, the last one in Eprise is snoring! And I go and wake her up just to kill her?

 

The one in the Exalted Plains splashes in the water. She enjoys playing! So what do I do? Kill her.

 

The one in the Storm Coast kills giants for us, and then goes and plays with the trees on her little island. She's just enjoying herself! And I go and kill her.

 

The one in the Western Approach isn't even around. I bait her just so I can kill her.

 

I'm a monster.

[Ashoken]

@catabuca, you are taking all the mystery out of these tools for me. Thank you! I may even get brave enough to try them. And thank you everyone in this thread for sharing your fantastic shots and welcomes and general niceness. This seems like a great place just to hang out and look at beautiful art.

 

@xhyn, I am in the same boat. I'm using my nightmare play through as my screen shot play through. It's made nightmare surprisingly okay (I'm a baby!) and lengthy. lol

 

Spoiler

Solas

 

Solas w/o the hex and blurred background (my first attempt)

 

My Nightmare Archer

 

 

 

[Rannah]

Catabuca, thank you for all the help and advice you give  us. I try to follow them as best as I could, but I have to admit that I am a complete beginner taking pictures (including family birthday shots, too) although I enjoy it too much. 

 

It's good to see how everyone can catch a theme a little differently,  I can see so many different aspects and beautiful pictures

 

Currently I am fighting with black and white pictures. I simply can not make a decent one where I am content with the lighting and shadows as well, so I think I will stick with the colours for now and try harder..

 

My latest addition:

(I don't know why I love this picture so much, but this is one of my favourites. Maybe because of the theme)

 

 

 

[catabuca]

Rannah, for a complete beginner you have a wonderful eye. I can see why you like that shot so much - I love the framing - it's really interesting seeing it low down and from the side like that. And the picture of the statue is great. You know, I don't think I've ever noticed that statue before!

 

And no need to thank me. I'm always trying to learn more, and I like to share what I've learned, even though I'm making most of it up as I go along. I am by no means any kind of expert, just someone who takes an interest in it. I'm just quite good at making myself sound knowledgeable about things I have very little clue ^^

[Sarielle]

I could probably have used DoF on either the fore or background for greater effect, but I liked them both so much that I didn't xD Birdie!

 

 

Spoiler

And because I have a thing for doors:

 

 

[catabuca]

Lovely, Sarielle. Great idea - a proper bird's eye view. The lighting in that room is lovely. I wish Val Royeaux had been larger with more to do. It was very pretty.

[catabuca]

I'm far more fond of this picture than I probably should be...

 

 

 

[click picture for hq @ flickr; flickr oversharpens the versions it resizes, but they don't touch the original]

[MelissaGT]

Got some great shots of the Vinsomer and giant tonight. I've always loved shooting in black & white and I'm now starting to incorporate that into the game. DAI Cinematic Tools has lovely tweaks so you can get different monochromatic looks by boosting contrast or brightness on different colors. 

 

 

 

 

 

[MelissaGT]

Also got a great "classic" shot of Valammar last night. Alas, the rope on the bridge just tweaks my gourd:

 

 

[catabuca]

Melissa - your use of dof is interesting in the dragon pictures - makes them look like posed toy models ^^

[MelissaGT]

Melissa - your use of dof is interesting in the dragon pictures - makes them look like posed toy models ^^

 

Should I be going for more or less blurring in the background?

[MelissaGT]

I love me portraits:

 

 

 

 

 

[catabuca]

Should I be going for more or less blurring in the background?

 

Well that depends on what effect you want. I think it looks fine if you're going for that toy model look - which can be really nice. If I'm taking wider shots I tend to go softer on the dof, and have it fall off gradually into the distance, so there's a gentler transition. I generally reserve strong dof blur for close shots, portraits, that sort of thing. It's very situational, and of course subjective, though.

 

Lovely portraits, btw. I hadn't got the hang of the various tools when I met Alistair, so I didn't manage to get many decent shots of him.

[MelissaGT]

 

Lovely portraits, btw. I hadn't got the hang of the various tools when I met Alistair, so I didn't manage to get many decent shots of him.

 

Yeah, he's actually one that gives some great opportunities:

 

 

[catabuca]

I've been enjoying The Hissing Wastes. The nighttime lighting makes for a welcome change of tone (of course I've altered it further using various tools).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[catabuca]

And I'm really enjoying taking advantage of the various distortion effects during fights. You can let them ruin a picture, or you can make them part of the picture. I think I'm going to make this 'my thing'. (One of many, anyway.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Ashoken]

I can't seem to get Sweetfx to work in my game. I have it installed in the proper directory but I get no user interface to mess with settings. Am I supposed to have one or is it all done in .txt files? So, for now, I am stuck with DAItools. I'm having fun.

In Hushed Whispers and In Your Hear Shall Burn spoilers ahead.

And one Storm Coast.

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edit to get rid of stray tag.

[Rannah]

I can't seem to get Sweetfx to work in my game. I have it installed in the proper directory but I get no user interface to mess with settings. Am I supposed to have one or is it all done in .txt files? So, for now, I am stuck with DAItools. I'm having fun.

 

You might need to use RadeonPro to get SweetFX work properly.

I have found a quite good step-by-step guide here

 

http://www.overclock...-in-windows-8-1:

 

(despite the guide states it is intended for Win8.1/64bit, the steps are the same if you use Win7/32bit/64bit.)

I am currently using RadeoPro on Win7/64bit and Win8.1/64bit with NVidia cards without any issue.

 

Hope it helps

 

Edit: can not leave this thread without sharing more pictures:

 

 

Modifié par Rannah, 02 février 2015 - 06:27 .