Color Filters + Resistance (PS3)

Welcome

to this week's blog. This week I'll be going over what we did for our color filter program using HSL a few weeks ago. Using this knowledge I'll apply it to a favorite of series of mine, the Resistance series, a Scifi FPS on the PS3. If you wish see that section skip to the end, or you can just read through the whole

 

USING HSL 

This week we had to use HSL/HSV (HUE-SATURATION- LIGHTNESS/VALUE) which was used with our shader program to simulate the RGB(Red Green Blue) color scale. 

Hue

Hue is the value representing what color we are currently using with a value. This value(hue) in the case of circle, would be which degree we are currently using.

Saturation 

Saturation is how "pure" a color is, the less saturated the color becomes, the more grey,or white ( depending on your model) it is. Saturation in this case could be how far we are on the radius of the circle from its center. The closer we are the center, the more grey the color is becoming, but the farther we are, the more apparent the color is. 

Lightness

Lightness, as we can predict, is based on how much light will be put into the color. Too little, and the color will be black, too much and it'll be white. This is shown to the graph to the right, with the amount of lightness affecting the y direction (up and down). The hue is affected, going from left to right.

Applying it to our program

Orginal scene

Prior to using the shader, we made sure that it our program used the file containing the conversion from RGB to HSL. Now we simply pass through our scene with our shader, and apply what ever color filter we want to it. Somes our color filter may use a simple formula to change the colors around. However sometimes we may want to use an external image to change the hue map, so we can modify it more artistically. Here we apply this chrome map, on the bottom left 

Applying this knowledge to The Resistance series (PS3)

The resistance series, on the PS3, has been personal favorite of mine, for many reasons. One reason could be because I was fond of the developer: Insomniac Games, from it Ratchet and Clank series. Not just from the unique wacky weapons I find, but the mysterious atmosphere of this alternate 1950's which the game creates. To help with this alternate 1950's feeling the color filters of the game have been tweaked to help achieve this tone/atmosphere. 

Resistance: Fall of Man

Resistance: Fall of man was released in Nov 11, 2006 along with the PS3 when it launched. It takes place in an alternate 1951, where World war 2 never happened, and instead humanity is facing the threat of an alien invasion. However despite the fact the game takes place in an alternate universe, looking at the cover, the game is trying to go for a dark  and old world war 2 film feeling.

We can tell this from the from the blurry black and white pictures, which we see throughout the game, and the color pallet of the game.  This color palet was the similar for many films in the 1930's-1950's, but it would just be generally black and white. As you can see in the game screen shot below, and above, the game is generally presented in a colorless world, filled with some hints of Red, and Yellow. With the color filter, they must have generally put a dark sepia filter over everything,  giving everything darker a shade of grey. Also the fact that game artists/modellers didn't give objects colors other than brown, black, white, and yellow.

 Playing through the game, the dark sepia filter, with the "old school pictures" and narrator voice over gives the game an outdated, historic documentary. However the dark sepia filter, combined with the fact humanity is outgunned in this bleak alternate universe, also gives the game a grim feeling.

Resistance 2

  

 Release 2 year later, on November 4, 2008, and taking place 2 years later (in 1953) Resistance 2 took the series to a bold new direction. The game was grander and larger in scope, with larger background vistas, and large boss encounters.

However with this new direction, the color scheme and filters also changed, as the game decided to be more "modern". Below was an ad for Resistance 2, and one which should've had the similar color feel/color palet for the game.

Unfortunately, as you can see with the screen shots, the team couldn't achieve the level of authenticity which the game. There were no "old school artifacts" on the screen, nor did the game come with a hint of sepia. The color pallet was much brighter, despite the more darker threat America faced, but it was also more clearer without the sepia interfering. This gave the game a more "modern military shooter" felling, leaving its roots which it had firmly created in Resistance:Fall of man.

Though this aliened much of the fan base, I personally was most impressed with the game. The reason being the scale which the game managed to achieve, all in a time of about a year and a few months to develop the game. Had Resistance 2 been given more time in development, it could have been so much more of a game.

Resistance 3

Released about 3 years later, Resistance 3 came out on Sept 6, 2011, and Insomniac games decided to take some fan criticisms to heart. Resistance 3 decided to take the series back to the authenticity that Resistance:Fall of Man was trying to reproduce.

One thing you can notice immediately is our good old sepia filter is back and being used. Though not as heavy as in RFOM, we can still see sepia with a much diverse color pallet. This brings the grim look back to into the game, as the game is about humanities struggle to survive.

Throughout the whole series I've had a great time playing each game not because of similar they felt, but how different each were. The effects through out each game was noticablitly different from each other, giving each their own atmosphere, and a different experience. Though the series maybe over now I look forward to seeing what Insomniac games makes the in future.