I normally really dislike traditional motion blur in video games. There, I said it. Some folks absolutely swear by this in-game effect, claiming it makes titles look smoother and more filmic in action. Not for me, though. Motion blur is a tremendously polarizing visual effect, and it’s one my eyes simply cannot stand.
Well, maybe I don’t loathe all forms of motion blur. Perspective in this particular, super-geeky gaming debate is crucial. Traditional camera-based motion blur is something I’ll always turn off in PC games. When done correctly, though, this visual effect can convincingly convey a real sense of speed, particularly in racing titles.
Let me try to explain the pitfalls and virtues of using blur settings in modern video games, while also digging into the per-object vs. traditional motion blur debate.
Per-object vs. camera blur
Know your tech before you pile in with vitriol
I’ll break this down in the most Luddite fashion I can, if you’ll bear with me. Traditional camera-based motion blur is bad. More modern, per-object blur is good. Understand? Neither did I at first. Yet eventually my eyeballs could tell the difference.
Standard motion blur (also known as screen-space) applies a fullscreen blur to a game after each frame is rendered. As it’s not terribly accurate, this often leads to in-game action looking smeary; something that’s particularly evident when looking at screenshots. In defense of screen space blur, it’s a lot cheaper from a rendering standpoint than its per-object counterpart, and thus is better suited for games running on less powerful GPUs.
Per-object blur, meanwhile, is a lot more sophisticated, looking more accurate to the eye. While you can still see traces of smearing when viewing screenshots you’ve taken, in motion, it’s generally pretty darn smooth. This is because it blurs objects on an individual level, rather than the entire screen, with objects often being rendered on several occasions as they move through the frame. And to experience the smoothest gameplay possible, you should buy a TV with VRR.
In short, per-object motion blur is a lot more precise than its screen-space cousin. The only real drawback is that it’s far more demanding than the older version of this effect from a computing standpoint. That’s probably one of the main reasons developers have elected to stick with screen-space blur in the past.
Reasons to pass on motion blur
Smearing can look horrible in screenshots
Like taking screenshots? This isn’t the effect for you, especially with old-school motion blur.
Unlike per-object blur, with the traditional form of this effect, the camera is key. The faster the camera relates to the position of your on-screen character, the blurrier the resulting action is likely to be. This may not always prove to be an issue in moment-to-moment gameplay, but in an era where PS5’s UI features have made taking screenshots super easy, blurry screens are most definitely an issue.
The primary reason I grit my teeth when it comes to motion blur absolutely revolves around screenshots. Unless a title supports an in-game photo mode, any snaps you take, whether on console or PC, can often be ruined by motion blur. I’ve been replaying the semi-recent remaster of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty on my rig of late, and well, the screenshot above captures the ugly side of traditional blur pretty well.
My Steam account currently has 1478 saved screenshots. Of all those in-game snaps, I really should delete around a fifth of said images, due to aggressive, per-camera motion blur ruining shots on those occasions I’d forgotten to turn the feature off.
I’ve also been playing a lot of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 on PC recently. At launch, this high-profile PS5 port was a bit of a disaster on PC. Yet 18 months later, it’s an “Andy hugging Red on the beaches of Zihuatanejo at the climax of The Shawshank Redemption” triumph … at least on high-end rigs. It’s also a pretty good poster-child for per-object blur, and this superhero sandbox also plays great on a gaming laptop that’s a surprisingly good workstation.
In action, motion blur should make fast-paced gameplay look extra smooth, and in the case of Peter and Miles’ web-swinging sequel, it does. Yet even with its relatively assured per-object motion blur, a good deal of my in-game snaps have suffered from keeping this effect on.
When motion blur works it can be great
The case for motion blur
I’ve had both good and disastrous experiences with motion blur. On the latter, the most vexed I’ve ever been over blur was way back in ye olden times of 2009 while reviewing Uncharted 2: Among Thieves on PS3. With camera-based blur you couldn’t turn off, it was almost impossible to get clear review screenshots during Drake’s frantic firefights.
Thankfully, technology tech has progressed a lot since then. When this effect does work smoothly, I can commend motion blur … although not without reservations as an obsessive screenshot snapper.
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Probably the best example of per-object blur I can currently think of? That would have to be Forza Horizon 5. Playground Games’ breezy and beautiful open-world racer nails blur. When enabled, it helps convey an exhilarating sense of in-game speed as you’re bombing around verdant Mexican plains in all manner of supercars.
The good and the bad of motion blur
When it works well, per-object motion blur can create an immersive cinematic quality that can truly be compelling. Yet with the older style of camera-based blur, the results can often devolve into a smeary mess. Whatever version a game you’re playing is using, motion blur will almost always have a detrimental effect on any screenshots you take (as you can see throughout this article).
Just look at that main headline shot of Cyberpunk 2077. Despite being one of the most graphically advanced video games ever created, which supports path tracing that looks so good I don’t mind it tanking my frame rate, CD Projekt RED decided to use a blend of per-object and camera-based blur in its open-world, and it’s the former inferior version that wins out.
For the time being, I’m going to disable all types of motion blur, mainly because looking back at high-quality, ultra-defined screenshots means more to me than occasional cinematic flair.