The Removal of the Hated Xbox One Sharpening Filter Comes at the Price of Texture Detail

When the Xbox One February update removed the much reviled sharpening filter that interfered with antialiasing and created jaggies and artifacts on games upscaled to 1080p from a lower resolution was welcomed by many as a very positive change, and it definitely is, yet it comes at a price.

[ShugaCane]

I could say a lot of bad things about Microsoft, but honestly those are details I wouldn't even have noticed lol. Games still look a lot better now that before the update, imo.

[DeathOfTheFanBoy]

I honestly can't tell the difference, I have a 40" Samsung, it looked fine before as it does now.

Might fire up Ryse and see if I notice anything but I'm pretty sure I wont.

[Baka-akaB]

You would never notice a change in Ryse . Crytek already disabled the MS filter to apply their own .

Basically it was never there for Ryse

[medman]

"Might fire up Ryse"...you do that. If you had any sense whatsoever, you'd throw that hunk of garbage they call a game into a fireplace...that would fire it up nicely.

[dsswoosh]

A new low from n4g and neogaf liars.

99% of xb1 owners know nothing about this. The picture was great before and it is great now.

I cant see any difference in any of my games. Whatever people are talking about in this article it wasn't hated or even a slight problem.

[die_fiend]

Graphics looked really jaggy before and now look slightly less laggy. If this is xbone's exclusive graphics, I'm glad I jumped ship. All of my ps3 games look better than this

[medman]

People keep on making excuses for the xbone, and that makes me chuckle. If you have to explain away all the problems that system is having, you're part of the problem. Dat bone takes one step forward, and two steps back. Only the deaf, dumb, and/or blind would pay good money for an inferior, overpriced, lackluster xbone. Dat bone will be behind this entire generation. Enjoy.

[Chaostar]

I'm not sure which is worse :S

I love high texture details but hate too many jaggies, somewhere in between these two would have been better imo.

[Bathyj]

Yeah, seems like they just cant get the balance right.

[s8anicslayer]

Although the game play is there, the graphics engine is so last gen, I pre ordered the game bought the Titanfall XBOX One controller and I'm playing the beta and enjoying it all, However I can't wait to see this year's iteration of MW since the devs are building it with next gen graphics enhancements with hopefully new features maybe vehicular combat implemented like BY and Titanfall.

[hkgamer]

@s8anicslayer

MW? as mean modern warfare? I don't think there will be anymore MW, infinity ward(or whats left of it) made Ghost. A new team will make the new COD and then treyarch will make Black Ops. COD turned into a 3 team francihse. Think the extra year of dev time could help the COD series.

[CharlesSwann]

There is no in-between. You always have to sacrifice when up-scaling to in indivisible resolution. That is why 1:1 in resolution is so damn important.

[XiSasukeUchiha]

Like i thought this was going to happen (losing detail, less power all for $500)

[Mexxan]

Simple, just give us the option.

[MegaRay]

We have a genius here.... we dont have much on n4g

OT "kinda": its a bad time to be an xbox fanboy and a good time to be a PS fanboy lol (no offence intended)

[hduce]

Its never a good time to be a fanboy.

[kickerz]

Well why are you in this Titanfall article then. Go play knack already

[Baka-akaB]

The option is literally on most TV settings .

[Mexxan]

Of course. But it seems to be do or die on most X1 stories lately. I on a Ps4 but considering an X1 too

[OrangePowerz]

There is always a tradeoff when a picture is upscalled. I think it was the better decision to remove the sharpening because it sharpened too much or they could have reduced the effect to have it somewhere between the two.

[shivvy24]

Either somewhere between the 2 or they could just give us an option to turn it on/off or scale it

[Baka-akaB]

I dont see the point of adding it as an option . It's already there on any HDTV . Those wanting it can fiddle with the default sharpness of their screen and usually always have access to some fancy named BS post processing effect affecting sharpness and contrast

[djplonker]

Lol the amount of times I have heard the excuse 720p doesnt matter it is all about the textures... Well then whats the new excuse to buy an xbone over a ps4?

:3

[B-radical]

Some people might just prefer the x1 exclusives.

[djplonker]

I guess...

But the Forza > halo > gears of war > fable cycle is getting old and halo 4 and gears of war judgement were terrible all they seem to do is make new mp maps and add one new gun to each side and say its a new game with a new season pass and its pathetic!

Oh and dont get me started on the microtransactions in forza and ryse...

[alexkoepp]

And the uncharted > god of war > gran Turismo > killzone cycle isn't getting old?

Afterall, if you look into it you'd know the x360 had 500 more games released on it, and more games sold per console.

[B-radical]

Hence MS reasons for bringing in new franchises whilst keeping older ones go....but anyway gran turismo>killzone >uncharted rah rah rah both companies are gonna keep building on franchises they know will make money and both are bringing new ones with each console release the way it goes mang

[djplonker]

Yeah while ms is bringing in some franchises and sony has used some of its ips alot sony proved with the ps3 that it is always going to win the exclusives battle!

While the xbox had gow judgement and nothing else ps3 had

the last of us

The puppateer

ni no kuni

tales of xillia

beyond two souls ect....

And the ps3 is far from dead unlike the 360 there is atleast 10 AAA exclusives coming out on ps3 this year!

[Rainstorm81]

Gran turismo spans three gens (PS1,2,3) and its on its 6th....Killzone 4 games in 3 gens (ps2,3,4).....if anything only Uncharted has gotten more releases in a relative short period of time but instead of being predictable with Uncharted 4, we got TLoU....nonetheless Sony releases many more games than any one cycle could predict

Besides Ratchet and Clank has been milked more than any Sony franchise IMO

[scott182]

^

I really hope they make a proper Ratchet and Clank for the PS4.. I know they have made a lot, but for me it always great... Like Mario always is.

[BX81]

@djplonker you just used your 3 bubbles on a pointless argument.

[HappyWithOneBubble]

I don't get it. Why remove the sharpening filter in the 1st place? I don't have a XB1 so is this what the XB1 fans wanted.

[Tctczach]

It's not what they wanted. That's why they are changing it.....

[Blaze929]

I dont know who these xbox fans are because of all the things the Xbox One CANT do right now, a filter no one knew about couldn't have been a priority.

[Baka-akaB]

You and many people around n4g didnt know about it . Enough people complained about it from day one , hence the change .

Even resident XB fanboys noticed , as they tried to use the extra sharpening , as an argument for games like COD looking better on XB1 "with details popping out" , back in the comparison craze .

Of course it was BS then , and they are even switching their stance on the matter , as usual

[ThanatosDMC]

Max your sharpness settings on your monitor or tv... then you'll understand why people are complaining.

[HappyWithOneBubble]

I always put my sharpness on max. It looks better to me.

[Shakengandulf]

@ nowayout

What!! You truly are evil.
If tv's didn't have sharpness control, it would be 0 by default.
Its your tv but seriously you're screwing up the picture bigtime.

[rainslacker]

@noway

Do yourself a favor and go download AVCHD. It's free. Use it to calibrate your TV or monitor, and possibly even go so far as buying a blue filter glasses from thx.com for $5 to adjust the color.

The difference overall from what most people feel looks good compared to the way it's supposed(as best as your TV can support at least) to look is pretty substantial. The default settings on most TV's are way off, and maxing out any setting usually is not a good thing except in some rare cases on sub-par TV's or monitors where you sometimes just have to.

However, even calibrating a crappy TV can change the picture quality dramatically.

No offense intended, and I do realize it is subjective, but frankly, your missing out on a lot of the picture by just doing what you feel looks good. I used to be the same way until I actually gave in and tried it.

[ExitToExisT]

I hope significant improvements will be made before i buy a xone. I want to play DR3 at 1080p + locked to 30 fps:(

[Bathyj]

I think your best chance it petitioning for a PC version.

[bigspleen]

GEt a PS4 instead it is the only choice. 1080p is not happening on x1 with dr3 lol.

[SmielmaN]

It will come out on ps4. Just wait for the exclusivity contract to drop off after the 2014 holiday

[mogwaii]

Oh xbone just die already

[ObiWanaTokie]

hey man! ill buy one when they are 200 bucks trololol. sorry M$ but its true.

but seriously it cant die. its.........the one?

[Bathyj]

Seriously, I didnt even know this was a thing.

Its one thing to zoom in on a picture and say it looks worse. Yeah, it does in those pics for sure. But can any Xbone owners here actually comment on whether its an improvement over all or not?

[Blaze929]

I personally didn't notice anything after the update. Pixel counters maybe did.

[Baka-akaB]

It's not just a "pixel counters" thing . Obviously it didnt affect everyone , and some didnt even notice , but for those sub 1080p games , the filter would destroy details actually .

A game like Killer Instinct would see jaggies "smoothed out" , but at the expense of most characters details being erased too .

Here's a little example , and while it's zoomed for demo , it was still apparent for enough people at it's original size .

http://www.extremetech.com/...

[air1]

Yea I get it's an improvement, I'm not taking any credit away from it at all.. It's just when I'm playing ki.... I'm not exactly looking for sabre wolfs nipples, again we will get great looking games and already have great looking games and don't think that a lil extra dark shadows is going to effect it all that much.. Maybe it does when your looking at a picture... But not while you are playing.

[air1]

I'm having trouble knowing if I downloaded the update! Lol... I thought we had to do it manually but couldn't find anything to update any where, I did notice a green bar in the middle of my tv when I turned it on as if something was loading but my tv turned on a lil late after the xbox on command so I don't know.. I would thing I had to ok an agreement no?

But to answer your question, I haven't noticed a thing and I've been playing fora ac and ki.. I think ppl take this pixel counting thing too serious and far IMO this gen is going to have dome sick games from both corners this gen.

I get that the ps4 has more power but some ppl make it seem as if the xb1 I's a wiiu lol.. It will deliver great looking and playing games..

[Baka-akaB]

It's not a ps4 issue , pixel counting or just Sony fanboys complaining .

An IMPROVEMENT happened because the issue was actually there , and enough customers highlighted it , that's all .

Dont forget that the results varied even more depending on everyone's personal tv and screens sets . probably making it even worse to a few . If some didnt notice , cool , they were even more happy then , cool for them ... but others did , and it's cool MS stepped up and fixed it

[sak500]

Since you ps4onies have hijacked this and every other news about xbox you wont' find many of us here. We're busy with our 360s/xboxones enjoying the updates which have improved the console's interface a lot and gave features which gamers had been asking for, while you guys just keep waiting and crying over the other sides consoles. Guess your $ony God haven't graced you with enough material to keep you occupied.

[Bathyj]

Well thanks for taking time out from your busy schedule to give a crying, whining ,self pitying, overly defensive fanboy answer to what was an honest, legitimate question.

[rafaman]

Ryse ir still the best looking game of all. Sony boys are angry because of it

[iMaim]

And what does have to do with anything?

[Baka-akaB]

Lol you're a fool ... Ryse isnt even affected by the filter or its removal . So yeah nothing to do with the subject

[Rockstar]

Old cheddar is my preferred type of cheese!

See, I can be off topic too!

OT: I agree that there should be a choice to turn the filter on and off in the settings. I also think it is definitely an improvement when it's off.

[Bathyj]

Cheddar?

Thats no Gouda.

[Rockstar]

I can see that Cheddar is Nacho kind of cheese, my apologies.

[Bathyj]

I do like nachos. I edam when I can.

[LordHiggens]

C-C-C-C-Combo Breaker

[Hyper_Tension140]

Wow you guys dont get it do you.

The sharpening filter is what made games look worse on xbox one even digital foundary said that, it just made the games look more like sub hd than it should.

Now the games look better and is less noticeable to tell if is sub hd thanks to the reduction of jaggies, so this is actually a good thing and it WILL make games look better.

I dont even own an xbox one, I have a ps4 but you guys have to know this.

@ShugaCane you notice too I see.

[S2Killinit]

Thatsux

[christocolus]

i play killer instinct alot and i havent noticed the drop in textures, same with ryse and dr3. with the overdone sharpness gone things now look more smooth especially around the edges. its very noticeable in cod:ghosts. and whats with the titanall image? zoomed in x 100?

[Cyb3r]

So do we have to manually update the latest update or does it update automatically?

[mr233]

It's automatic. You will know you have it when you see your controller battery power indicator at the bottom right of the screen. Also when you go into "My Games and Apps" you will see games and apps separated into two categories.

[RexLex]

Lol at the article,..

Both have same textures,.. Sharpening crushes blacks and make 720p games look even less than 720,.. and all the problems that causes to AA.

Sharpening may look like the textures 'pop' more,.. but they don't ,.. It just gets rid of all the details in coloration because everything is over-saturated,..

So kudos to MS to get rid of this.

[gamingisnotacrime]

The xbox seems to be full of patches here and there to compensate the lower specs of the hardware. Xbox is not for me, I dont like to pay $499 for a console that trades texture for resolution. I prefer to have both at a high quality level, that is on PC for maximum or PS4 for medium (but great value)

[Father__Merrin]

Ryse is a well cool game

game of the generation so far, he'll yeah

it's the best ever!!!!!!

[RexLex]

It is probably the worse game on the system (excluding Lococycle (19.99) and Fighter within ,.. )

But whatever floats your boat.

Abd this is offtopic

[SilentGuard]

Looks to me like the filter improved image quality which is probobly why it was there in the first place. Where exactly are all the jaggies in the before shots that the filter caused becuase I can't find them. To get rid of jaggies, that I can't even see, the image is washed out and bluured. Looks worse now and I'd say a bad trade off. Why not just put an option in the system controls of the One to turn off the filter if your'e one that prefers a blurry image.

[UnHoly_One]

This article is ignorant.

Sharpness and blurriness are exact opposites of each other.

Of course if you reduce one of them, the other increases.

It's stupid that anyone even has to say that.

[Mkai28]

Why does N4g even care?

[kewlkat007]

I'm still confused about this filter stuff..I never noticed any sharpening...I think, I just play games to enjoy myself and have fun. I wonder if the average gamer cares? Whatever it is, if most that care thinks it's better then sure.

[creid2352]

I love how PS4 owners love to jump on an Xbox One post and complain and troll. PS network multiplayer sucks. The games no good at 1080p sitting in the lobby.

[ObiWanaTokie]

ACTION BASTARD! BASTARD BEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAM!!
*beam fires up and nails Xbox one*

Guys i fixed your sharpness problem.
youre welcome

[Dark_king]

crap now I want to watch shin chin ,thanks now where can I find it?

[Bowzabub]

Great name dude. xD

[iliimaster]

this is what i dont get the xbox1 took massive shortcuts just like the wiiU but they are charging over 500 for their console and have all 3rd party support.... insane

[TrollBusterPro]

What shortcuts would those be? Care to elaborate?

[iliimaster]

charging 500 for a system that is less powerful than its direct competition ? didint think i needed to list that... not being able to go full 1080p 60fps ? is what i mean the wii u has games already at 1080p 60fps games and more to come the last i heard xbox was not or could not

[LordHiggens]

I am Sony all the way...but it really grinds my gears when someone says the least positive thing about the XB1 and they get downvoted to oblivion...I mean really folks?

[hduce]

If you are all Sony all the way. Why are you posting in a Xbox article? If I couldn't stand one company's products, I wouldn't even waste my time reading or posting about them.

[kewlkat007]

The same reasons he is complaining..

[Bdub2000]

I think I read that the sharpening filter would affect current games, but it was more tailored to developers for future games and that is where the biggest impact would be. Is that true?

[Iamnemesis4880]

Love the xbox one just the small nit picking people say about the console why all the hate tell me. it is only the small minority that have nothing better to do and just wine about the X1,PS4 PC what is the point just leave people to enjoy the consoles that they paid for and stop trying to bring people down.

[mmj]

The idea that sharpening adds texture detail (or any other detail) is just plain wrong, what it actually does is take away detail in order to make certain things stand out more.

The fact that Xbox One now looks 'blurry' is a result of the source material output by the console being unmolested and Xbox One's lack of 1080P in most games.

[bligmerk]

Good thing for a videogame console to provide choices:

jaggy or blurry

720p@60fps or 900p@30fps

Netflix w/ gold or Facebook w/ gold

Man, the PS4 gives no choices, just sharp, amazing 1080p@30fps and multiplayer and apps with no paywall.

[TrollBusterPro]

I just rolled my eyes hard.

Multiplayer with no paywall, huh? You must be the only one that's able to play on PSN without paying.

[Harmy666]

Wait, there was an article, just yesterday, saying how much better games looks, specially the Titanfall Beta, and now the update makes games look worse?

Fuck off!

[TheGrimReaper]

You've got that wrong.
Image Quality has improved, but without the oversharpening of the upscaler everything looks "blurrier" (well upscaling has tradeoffs...).
This article is a reaction to people who have been vocal about their impression that with that filter the games have looked better.

They don't say it is worse, but state what people claim to have been lost (e.g. texture "detail").

My comment below is mentioning this.

[bornsinner]

i have bf4 & ghosts on both consoles (my brother's is the xbone), while ps4 has better visuals in both games the differences are small, its just smoother on ps4 where as xbone has a bit more jaggies, buy a system for features & games you like. n4g is full of p!$$ed off sony fanboys who rather count pixels on affordable games consoles rather than buying a high end pc's.

[TheGrimReaper]

Xbox One owners should be happy that the update removed the oversharpening!
There isn't a loss in texture-detail o.O
These are the same textures as before. Of course the textures looked "better" with oversharpening but the overall IQ was a mess imo!
You could still change your TVs settings (sharpness) to emulate what this filter had done to the image.
I wouldn't recommend it but if there are people who like it, they should give it a shot.

[GentlemenRUs]

It just gets worse!

I'm sorry but I can't help but giggle a little... Get those prioritys straighten out M$!

[TrollBusterPro]

"Get those prioritys straighten out M$!"

What?

[SwiftArsonist]

Lots of jelly ps4 fanboys here, bashing the HOTTEST game right now. Judging the game cause a beta, not knowing that the final version would be better and look better. Hey i got an idea, they just lower KILZONE to $39.99, go and buy it and play your shitty FPS

[iNFAMOUZ1]

what? Are you sony guys on drugs?
Who the hell keeps approving dual shockers crap? Probably sony fanboys.
Ban this site from article submission, the games look better, this site blurred the pics, I'm playing right now and it looks better

[DoubleM70]

Looks good everything looks beautiful. Nothing but negativity on the website. Titan fall beta looks great. KI looks nice and smooth, so does dead rising.