hopkins: This hasn't been an issue for a very long time. The technical issue that has affected colour use in the current generation (particularly with the PS2) is limited texture memory. A lot of PS2 games use a fairly limited colour range to reduce the size of textures (and as a result, they increase how many textures they can use in game).

Dont color images require more data than shades of black and white?
i alwyas Thought one of the benefits of using same shades of color is it saves on processing resource.Less colors, less for the chip to think about.

Pince: Thanks for clearing that stuff up about the single pixel thing. It all makes sense now!


SomaXD: The R6: Vegas shot (in the previous post) is from inside a casino.


Wow. I appreciate the constructive criticism of our readers. It's good to see well thought-out paragraphs rather than replies like "Gears R0x0r!"

I agree with Pince and Soma.

I would also like to add something from the perspective of an amateur photographer. Someone mentioned "bloom" lighting and how its so 'en vogue" right now. Well, I agree with that and there are some issues that forces in games development. If you understand light and photography, you'll know that bloom is most common when you have a dark foreground and a bright source of backlighting. In nature, this is most common at dusk and at dawn. thats because the sun is low in the sky and in our direct line of vision. Anyone who commutes on an east/west street will tell you how bad bloom on a windshield is (also known as glare). Anyway, the dev want alot of bloom and they want it to look natural so lots of games designers are setting the light sources near the horizon, (therefore it must be early morning or late evening). This give lots of bloom possibilities. The other thing is does is washes out color. If you take pictures and dawn and dusk, you'll notice your pictures have very few blues and green with most colors taking on a golden hue. Its very pretty but it does cause you to lose the color. Long story short, I think the dev are going for lots of bloom lighting effects which causes them to immitate nature at dawn and dusk and if you look at it, there isn't alot of color on the earth at sunset/sunrise that isn't some sort of golden brown.

Also, with regard to the comments about the beautiful greens and yellows of kansas, I'll agree , they are beautiful. Not much is more beautiful than driving through a bright sea of yellow sun flowers as far as the eye can see, but I don't think it would be very believable if you were having a shoot out in a sunflower field. Although it sure would be pretty!
:)

"really is bright blue when it's not filled with smog, exhuast, and other pollutants."

I just want to point out that a majority of the games shown are around "post apocolyptic" or "desolate future" locales. If youve ever seen a warzone.. you cannot see the Blue Sky through the plumes of smoke and ash.

The R6:Vegas Screen cap is from the Mexico Border location and gives the gungy back alley feel, the desert dust and smog that is definitely part of those areas.

I do think that the use of those colors are played out, but on the flip side, it plays very WELL. Just Casue, Farcry, all hae a VERY troical feel due to the colors used... i think the topic shouldnt be about the colortones of these games but rather the "setting" of the game (like i said above, cliche' "post apocolyptic" or "desolate future" set games that require the use of gloomy colors.)

Nick-
I think the reason people were tlaking about averaging the colors of your pictures is that other blogs that have linked to your article have done so (see Joystiq.com , etc.). That is their mistake, if at all, not yours.

Also, I think the real issue here cannot be boiled down just to color choice. These color choices are based on 2 things that are now predominant in video games.
1) Attempted photorealism.

This is pretty obvious. Developers are kind of ditching the whole idea of distinct artisitc styles (not completely, but to a degree) to strive for ever-more-photorealistic images.
However, as many have pointed out, the world is not all grey and brown. That is true, which leads to the second issue.

2)The "desolate" "barren" "war-torn" setting. If I could name one video game cliche' today, it would not be save the princess (definitely not anymore), kill the terrorist, or collect the gold coin/ring, rupee, gem, etc. The biggest cliche' in gaming today is the setting of a post-apocolyptic/war-ravaged world. It seems that most games (nearly all action of FPS games) are being set in this stereotypical world, where the building are covered in dust and soot and look ready to topple over, and the ground is rubble-strewn concrete or dry dirt devoid of vegetation.
(Just look at the pictures above and notice not just the colors, but the setting, almost every single one features stone, metal, and concrete architecture that looks like it has been layered with grime, dirt, and rust. I'm not saying that the real world is squeaky clean, but almost every setting shown seems to be in a near-unlivable state of disrepair.)
It is the popular usage of this setting combined with the attempt to make this setting "come to life" (to make it seem like a "really for reals" destroyed city/ barren wasteland) that produce the overabundance of greys and browns in current games.
Combined with the trend towards console FPSs and action games, this saturates the entire video game market with games like this.

With that said, I think this is a really good article, and the pictures are very telling of just how similar the artisitc styles of these games are becoming.

Where are the shots of Viva Pinata! I do agree that games have muted color schemes but if the developer does things right it will make the game more immersive rather then make it look dull.

James:

Have you ever seen the beaches of Mexico? Water that is crystal blue, sky a brilliant cerulean, green palm trees, white beach sand...etc.

The rolling hills of Kansas have lush greens and yellows blanketing the plains.

This may come as a surprise to you metropolitan jacks, but the sky really is bright blue when it's not filled with smog, exhuast, and other pollutants.

Sorry, but reality goes beyond your backyard. The world is filled with color. For too long Western games have been fixated on greys and browns to look ultra-realistic. Well, grey skies are realistic if you live in New York, Chicago, Los Angelas...etc., but not in my backyard.

Sorry Nick, but in New York, the streets aren't painted pink and the walls to my office aren't florescent orange. Those pictures look pretty damn realistic to me.