Having fun with bloom / postprocess settings

[peter_spy]

Lately, I was searching the wiki to see if there's any way to tweak Bloom settings a bit more, and I found this page: http://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Advanced_TDM_Visuals_Tweaking

 

All the cvars described there can be put in your autoexec.cfg, so you can use them in your map, but you can also bind them to keys or paste in console to tweak settings in real time. All variables are interdependent, and apart from bloom strength and settings you can tweak things like image contrast. There's even a kind of depth of field effect, but it's not camera-dependent, i.e. you can either make lit areas or shadows blurry. It's kind of weird, but maybe it could be useful in some cases. Example settings:

 

TDS-like milky bloom:

r_postprocess_bloomIntensity 2
r_postprocess_brightPassThreshold .2
r_postprocess_brightPassOffset 2
r_postprocess_colorCurveBias .4
r_postprocess_colorCorrection 0
r_postprocess_colorCorrectBias 0

 

High-contrast image:

r_postprocess_bloomIntensity 0
r_postprocess_brightPassThreshold 0
r_postprocess_brightPassOffset 0

r_postprocess_colorCurveBias 1.4
r_postprocess_colorCorrection 10
r_postprocess_colorCorrectBias 1

 

Me playing without glasses:

r_postprocess_bloomIntensity 1
r_postprocess_brightPassThreshold 0
r_postprocess_brightPassOffset 1
r_postprocess_colorCurveBias 0
r_postprocess_colorCorrection 0
r_postprocess_colorCorrectBias 1

 

Light-based DOF:

r_postprocess_bloomIntensity 1
r_postprocess_brightPassThreshold 0
r_postprocess_brightPassOffset 1
r_postprocess_colorCurveBias 2
r_postprocess_colorCorrection 1
r_postprocess_colorCorrectBias 0

 

I hope you'll come up with some other uses as well

[Spooks]

That light-based DOF setting could well be used as a makeshift debanding filter!

[Bikerdude]

That blurred image would be cool as alive background for the main menu.....

[NeonsStyle]

That's some beautiful textures on that wood panelling. The blooms look good too, not too much, just right.

[peter_spy]

One important thing is, that these are postprocess effects, so while you can have e.g. better contrast and lights will look like they're stronger, but the lightgem won't react to it. I always design my textures, materials, and lights with postprocess effects set to off, and so should you