Why are lens flares disruptive/disliked?

Alright, so this might be a stupid question to even ask, but I'm serious - Why do people not like lens flares? Why should you be discrete about your usage of them in your game, videos or any other kind of art?
I actually didn't think lens flares were too big of a deal in games, but when I gave my (Sci-Fi/futuristic) game to some (6, to be exact) testers, three of them said that the lens flares in the game were disruptive. One of them even said, that "The lens flares made be want to shut down my computer". (There were about 7 small flares in the scene)

Why are lens flares disruptive? Annoying? Not taken seriously?

 

Because it's been used, overused, misused, and abused so much that it became a visual cliche.

As to a tester wanting "to shut down [his or her] computer" because of a lens flare effect, well, that's either a lens flare exaggerated to thermonuclear levels or a tester on a hyperbolic power trip, or most probably a combination of the the two with more of the former and less of the latter.

Why don't you share a screenshot of the effect in action?

 

Here's a screenshot of a part of the map:



I'm trying to be subtle with my flares, but I still want them to be visible.
And no, I don't have a single super-bright, huge, screen covering lens flare within the scene.

Thanks for the reply.

 

That's not even lens flare, it's just glow. Lens flares are an artifact of camera lenses (see JJ Abrams' directing), so to be accurate you wouldn't have them in a game (unless you're looking through a camera in the game, of course). The thing that looks odd about that screenshot is that there's glow with the blue lights, but not the red beams, which is visually inconsistent.

--Eric

 

I am actually using lens flares for the glow effects, they are just really dim (around 0.15 brightness), because I don't want them to produce the artifacts on screen. Also, I am familiar with JJ Abrams' directing. And yes, the beams don't have any kind of glow yet, as I haven't figured out the best way to do a glow effect with Unity Free.

 

When I was in college (late 90s) this was the sentiment from most of the game companies who were advertising job openings.
No lens flares, no aliens space ships!
The reason is because bad/novice artists were attempting to cover up the shortcomings of there art with lens flares and crappy fx, or saying "hey I know it has odd anatomy - that's how it's supposed to look, it's an alien species".

It's not as big a deal today as it used to be. If a team or individual is using effects to cover up bad art it's pretty obvious and dismissed pretty quickly. The new lens flare of today is called bloom effects and overly vibrant lighting setups most commonly found on environment pieces.

I'd say your tester was the latter description @shaderop used based on the image you provided. There isn't any lens flares in the scene you shared. The effect may be called lens flare but the only effect in the image above is a subtle glow - which is used quite liberally.

 

Lens flare is caused both by bad (cheap) optics and careless camera crews. It's never desirable in real life, and it's not something you see through your own eyes (since it's a result of scattered light through multiple lenses). If I were to write numeric reviews of games, I'd use a 1-5 scale and subtract 1 for each lens flare I saw.

 

I really like them a lot lol

 

I don't really agree with artists trying to cover up their bad quality art, I think sometimes lens flares can actually enhance some effects (a Titan getting destroyed in Titanfall or a really bright light, for example), though that might sometimes be the case, as lens flares can draw the user's attention away from what they're not supposed to see or focus on.

You're not the only one

But that doesn't really explain why lens flares wouldn't be acceptable in games, as games aren't (usually) trying to replicate real life 100%, and can to do pretty much anything with their artistic side. Also, isn't it quite harsh to judge a game by it's usage of lens flares?


Thanks for the replies, guys.

 

Eyes. Numerous games have lens flares in first-person perspective for no reason at all, and not even a multi-layered helmet to explain it. I don't recall having the problem in a motorcycle helmet (but I live in the frozen north), and I'm pretty sure standard NASA helmets' gold coating helps against it

Aren't you glad I leave reviewing to game journalists?

 

I certainly am

Okay, that's a good point. I guess you just don't randomly stop and think why you're seeing the lens flares. A helmet or a piece of glass would make sense. ...but I still stand behind my point, that games don't always have to obey the constraints and laws of realism, or make 100% sense.

 

If you're flaring the game up, let it be an option. I see that from time to time.

 

You're authoring a game. The word "author" derives from "authority." You asked for feedback and you got your feedback. There's no use debating what is essentially a matter of taste. If you still believe that the effect you have there adds to your game, then by all means demonstrate that authority and stick with it.

 

I remember lens flares appearing in rendering software many years ago, for the first time... maybe it was in Lightwave or something, like on the Amiga or the earlier PC's... everyone started just using it all over the place because it was cool, but often also it was a sign of bad taste because it was so poorly thought out or didn't fit with any kind of artistic styling. Flashy stuff like that can get used 'just because' and not fit with the rest of the design.