Comments on: Counter-Strike HDR is pointless

By: Kryptn

Kryptn — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 18:49:35 +0000

Just turn it off for play, turn it on for movies

By: Rikku

Rikku — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 10:31:46 +0000

I think that HDR do adds realism when it comes to lighting however, HDR is not required on maps either, it’s in the discretion of the user to turn that feature and get himself pawned all the time or turn it off and make the chances of evading and killing better. Whatever it is, I’d say it depends on the user.

CS:S is just for fun, go ahead don’t play it, after all it’s just a game and nobody’s either forcing you to play it or not… hehe.. peace..

By: Doolwind

Doolwind — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 01:57:37 +0000

Mr. Happy-
Thanks for your thoughts. You do bring up an interesting point that I hadn’t thought of. When I play online games I usually do so for competition rather than just the fun of watching people die. Perhaps I’m not very good so I need every advantage I can get .

I think another part of the problem comes from the fact that HDR as it’s represented in CSS isn’t really all that realistic. I mean when was the last time you walked outside and over the course of a few seconds everything became darker so you could see things? Usually you have to squint and wait up to a minute for it to happen.

PS. Sorry for the delay in accepting your post through moderation, I’ve been too busy at work and a few comments stacked up.

By: Mr. Happy

Mr. Happy — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 20:04:14 +0000

I don’t agree with you! Playing CSS I don’t want just to defeat my opponents and be n1 in the rankings (then I’d play some table based browser games); I want to see people dying and to enjoy it : in the MOST realistic way! Hell was I happy when this mod came out enabling the massive blood loss of the virtual people so everything was covered in blood. I’m still waiting for the mod which enables slow and painful death for every of my opponent. Thats why I think realistic light is a major advantage in CSS, it becomes more and more like he real life so the border more and more disappears. Maybe in a few years I even would not need to go out to see the sun when I have a much better emulation on my PC (without the nasty heat).
Maybe then I finally will find some friends on the internet who ain’t calling me freak or psycho. Until then I’ll continue killing virtual people on the internet because I’m too weak in real life.

PS: I like hiphop music!

By: Greg

Greg — Mon, 27 Mar 2006 07:47:35 +0000

HDR is totally overrated. From my forum browsing, most people don’t even know what it is, they think it is some kind of bloom effect and when a screen is overbright, with patches almost completely white, they think that is great! The whole point of HDR is to map very dark and very bright into a visible range, like a photo at the beach containing some direct sunlight and the contents of a shaded cove. Extra precision does allow for fancy effects like bloom and iris adjustment, but those are merely improved by having the extra precision in the first place. I would argue that since 1) the internal shader calculations are already floating point and 2) the output screen is only 8bit per channel, the HDR implmentations boil down to nothing more than being real time exposure control or variations of bloom effect. After playing the latest games I conclude that the future is… blury.

By: Nick

Nick — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 23:55:39 +0000

Truer words have never been spoken.

Once again, even though HDR has it’s place (and it sure does look puuuurdy ), it’s only really useful in SP games. DoD:S does HDR ok, and it’s actually not that much of a distraction. The changes are subtle most of time which makes finding your targets when entering a room just as easy as when HDR isn’t on. The good thing is, it is almost always toggable on/off, so if CS:S goes the same route we can expect the same level of HDR, which is easy on the eyes and on the “gameplay”. But they have to find a balance between HDR on and off. You shouldn’t have an advantage because of dated hardware.

But still, give me gameplay over graphics. The over simplified run and gun tactics of CS are only fun for a short amount of time, and no amount of HDR graphical niceties will change that.

By: Cliff

Cliff — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 04:56:06 +0000

I completely agree. It’s so ridiculous to reproduce something like this is a game that requires quick responses to situations. You are forcibly reducing playability all because its the next big thing.

I agree that it has its uses for Single player games and definately in Tech Demos, but to pull it over into Multiplayer games as a ‘graphics feature which makes the game more realistic’ is crazy when all it does is impede the gamer’s ability to actually play the fast action paced game they are playing.