There’s an interesting aspect of this issue that I think the post summary really dismisses. Photos coming from phones these days sort of are AI, and in an annoyingly pervasive way.
I’ve actually gone back from using my phone to using a proper camera again over the last year or so because I’m getting so irritated by the amount of ML-based post-processing my phone does. It results in a lot of photos looking bad, and there’s no easy way to bypass it besides setting the phone to save raw which sort of defeats the point of using the phone in a lot of ways (ability to go from taking the photo to posting on the device). A really common situation for me is when I take a photo with my phone that is blurry because of bad focus/shake/low light/some combination. The phone does really aggressive ML “sharpening” of the image that makes it look extremely artificial and, frankly, a lot worse than if the postprocessing had been omitted. I’ve had sets of photos I took totally ruined by this kind of “helpfulness.”
It’s a tricky issue, there absolutely are benefits to cameras using the best technology available to create the best photograph available. I’m not meaning to appeal to some sense of artistic integrity or “real photography” here. I just hate the lack of control over the product. I used to be really into photography as a hobby and had a lot of opinions about lenses and mostly set up exposures manually. Nowadays I use my Sony Alpha with the kit lens and rarely take it off of its “smart” auto mode, which does have some ML-driven features like subject detection. But it feels like I have so much more control over the output than I do with my phone, because the Sony doesn’t run the image through ten layers of AI processing that’s not a whole lot better than the state of the art in Instagram filters before saving it. If I don’t hold the camera steady it’ll just come out motion blurred, not like someone new to photoshop has just discovered the posterize button.
As I understand Apple is better than most of the Android vendors about this kind of thing and the iPhone processing probably produces better output - but it’s still frustrating to me feeling like photos are changing from “capturing the scene” to “recreating the scene.” I did graduate work on forensics of digital images, learned a lot of theory and methods for analyzing and reversing in-camera processing. I did some research on the “auto HDR” feature that was starting to appear in Android devices at the time and whether or not it defeated some known forensic methods for device fingerprinting (mostly, not totally). But that was the tip of the iceberg… it used to be that cameras only did a bit of processing, debayering for example, the kind of things that really need to be done to turn sensor data into a useful image because of the properties of the sensor and readout pipeline. But phones, the dominant photographic tool today, are taking it to this whole new level where they do what would have been very complex postprocessing on every image, as it’s taken.
As with so many things, I guess it’s good when it works, but endlessly frustrating when it doesn’t. At least it feels like the phone vendors are doing their part to preserve “traditional” photographic technology, if that’s what you’d call a Sony mirrorless, by really nerfing phones as tools for people who want much control over the result. I do understand there are third-party apps for iPhone that expose a lot more user control but it seems like they also have some limitations with how much of the camera stack they can control/bypass.
I agree so much with this comment. Including feeling like I need to switch back to carrying around a proper camera.
When I switched to the Google Pixel 2, the post processing truely was revolutionary compared to other phone cameras and I stopped using anything other than the phone to take pictures. Even back then, iPhone had post processing turned up to a level that most pictures looked a bit “off” to me in the background details, but most people didn’t seem to notice it, even if I tried to point it out. Google’s flagship camera seemed to avoid that over processing and the results were really good. Unfortunately, Google seemed to get cocky about it and just kept increasing the level of processing as the years passed.
Now I’m on a Pixel 7 Pro that I got specifically for the 5x zoom camera and I’ve been consistently pissed off by every zoom picture. Even though it’s an optical zoom, the processing gets turned up so high that I feel like it’s worse than early days low resolution digital zoom. The picture basically looks a pretty decent prompt generated picture vs. a camera shot. It’s kind of ridiculous how bad details get just made up with the pictures out of the 5x zoom lens. The 2x and 1x lenses are substantially better, but still frustrating.
The annoying thing is every photo looks pretty good in the preview thumbnail and even usually looks pretty good in the phone gallery. But if you zoom in or view on a monitor, the digital slurry in the background becomes to apparent. I haven’t tried to print a photo from this phone, but I imagine they would generally look pretty poor.
They’ve optimized so incredibly heavily for the common use case (browsing pictures on your phone) that they’ve forgotten everything else.
Excited, but also a little disappointed they didn’t allow co-op. One of my favorite games ever and i’d like it even more if I could experience it with a friend. Hoping they can add onto what made it great in a meaningful way
They’re also not supposed to make laws either, but the whole “qualified immunity” thing where cops are allowed to do anything and not be held accountable was a court decision.
They only care about the rules when it agrees with what they want.
It’s weird seeing the SC destroyed by SC judges in my lifetime. When I was a kid everyone had such a high opinion of them
When I was a kid everyone had such a high opinion of them
That depends on when you grew up. It seems from this data that the golden age of being a SCOTUS judge just was the late 80s, but any other time in recent history (prior or subsequently) the SCOTUS struggled to get even half the country to approve of them.
I don’t get why they weren’t monitoring the cheetahs before one died. Seems negligent AF to import an animal and then watch it die. They literally let one die before deciding to do anything. These cheetahs aren’t pure, wild animals if they are imported. WTF India, maybe treat people and animals with more respect. Instead they’re response is, “Oopsies, I guess it was too hot while we watched them die. ” Morons.
When I started playing VS, I was struck by how much the chest opening animation FELT like a slot machine - it was weird to encounter what normally feels like a predatory experience and have it NOT be trying to take your money.
I’m torn on whether it’d be good for more games to do this (mimic gambling without the predatory pricing associated with it) - on the one hand, it would provide alternatives to actual predatory games, like Gacha games, that won’t leave people poor, but on the other hand it also normalizes the concept as a legitimate gaming mechanic. This not only opens the door for more publishers to utilize the mechanic maliciously, but I also worry about what it might do to our brains to be constantly exposed to slot machine equivalents (moreso than they already are with gaming).
It’s amazing how addictive VS is without being predatory or manipulative. The feedback loop to play one more game is solid, in the best way.
So it’s just refreshing that Galante actually has principles enough to stay away from micro transactions. I hope we’re at the point where more developers move away from that - I feel like after the 2000s and 2010s, where game monetization went full nihilistic capitalism, we’re all ready for a change.
Nice read and very happy for Galante! He is clearly a fan of gaming who made something awesome for fans of gaming. It’s not exactly a game I got addicted to (played maybe 10 or 15 hours total?) but it truly is such a refreshing treat. If you haven’t tried it, give it a go. It’s super nostalgic and super easy to pick up immediately. Mostly, I’m excited to see what other things Galante and his team can do! But as long as they are happy continuing to make Vampire Survivors as good as they can, I’m happy for them.
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