We’ve been running a knockout tournament that puts graphical effects in games against one another in a fierce battle of public opinion. Each round saw two effects go head to head, and only one made it out to fight another day. We whittled it down to just two effects, chromatic aberration and motion blur, and after 7,000 votes cast across the tournament, we can finally declare the effect that sucks the most with near-scientific certainty:
It’s motion blur. By an absolute landslide.
Which is worse, chromatic aberration or motion blur?
Here are the results of the poll. We received close to 2,000 entries.
Votes (%)
| Product | Value |
|---|---|
| Chromatic aberration | 20 |
| Motion blur | 80 |
Not to completely disenfranchise our engaged readers or make the past couple of weeks putting these together a complete and utter waste of time for yours truly, but it was always going to be motion blur. I knew this. You knew this. We all knew this—deep down in our heart of hearts.
Motion blur
You’ll have to take my word for it that both of these screenshots were taken as I aimed swiftly to the side in Hunt: Showdown. The difference is day and night.
In previous rounds, I left you lot to “well, actually” in the comments section, and boy, did we get a lot of discussion on these articles. I’ve seen the highs and lows of human emotion down there. Raw, unadulterated passion for game effects, that’s what I’d describe it as.
Anyways, this time, since we’re sorta picking on motion blur specifically, I will give this effect its dues.
In some cases—low frame rates, and most especially on consoles—and in some genres—racing games among them—there can be a time and a place—used sparingly—for motion blur. It is, ultimately, a means for covering up some of the imperfections of games. Moreover, for PC gamers, it is most frequently optional. These effects often are because you get to tinker with stuff on PC.
Motion blur on in Hunt: Showdown:
Motion blur off in Hunt: Showdown:
Even if I think motion blur is the devil, it doesn’t mean I want it gone from every game’s settings menu. Keep it. In fact, turn it on, see if I care (I care, stop that).
That said, it is often on by default, and it doesn’t turn off when some performance criteria is met. The first thing I do upon booting any game is go into the settings menu and uncheck the motion blur box. That’s just a habit now. That’s ingrained into my psyche like brushing my teeth or raising my eyebrows and widening my eyes when someone tells me a secret.
If developers keep turning it on, I’ll keep turning it off. So on and so forth until we all perish. This big blue ball keeps spinning anyways. This article has gotten away from me now. See ya 👋
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