Bloom

 

Cool lighting effect in this image right?  Ever wonder how the game developers get such amazing effects into their games? Well they use a little thing called Bloom (which I mentioned in my Image Processing Techniques blog located HERE), which is a type of computer graphics effect that creates something similar to a glow in a scene or image. The basic idea is that bloom creates feathers of light extending from the edges of bright areas in an image. This then contributes to the illusion that the is a extremely bright light overpowering the camera or eye that is capturing the scene. The below images demonstrates bloom in the game world:

 

 The Bloom effect is used in games to create a sense of realism in the world of gaming as well as obscuring fine details that could be distracting in particular instances.  This effect is used to enhance the look of a scene or image which you can see in the image below:

 BASIC THEORY OF BLOOM

The basic idea that Bloom is based off of is that, in the real world, no lens can ever focus perfectly (I mean until they finally make one but that's besides the point). Even perfect lenses will pick up imperfections, which normally are not noticeable however these imperfections become visible when there is an extremely bright light source. This results in the image of light bleeding into actual scene or image beyond its boarders. This effect can be simulated in HDR images by applying a Glaussian blur, before converting it to fixed range pixels and by drawing it into the actual object texture.

Bloom Effects

 Bloom is an interesting effect that can create a more realistic setting for games as well all prevent objects and environments from looking fake and bland. Bloom gives an interesting aspect to games and (like in the Zelda games)helps keep the player focus on the important task at hand rather than beings distracted while gaining,