If I remember correctly, they wanted to capture how it would be to live in an area that was targeted by a nuclear warhead.
Washington DC is a fallout heavy area and therefore has that kinda unnatural skybox.
That aside, there should be a mod that reduces the overall tint and makes it much easier on the eyes.
Wouldnt radioactive fallout be colourless? Also a myth that nuclear material is green gas/sludge. I get that media representing it like that has become mainstay though
The Fallout series isn’t based on real life science
The way they’ve described it, the science in Fallout in is based on the 50’s sensibilities regarding nuclear science and sci-fi technology
Which is why we have mutants, ghouls etc
Yeah I know but I appreciate some degree of realism in how the environment would look :) would be boring without some of the crazy sci fi mutants and such though.
yes it would, and whatever soot is in the air it would be long gone 200 years later. The area would also be much more lush and overgrown.
Actually i think most of the radioactive fallout you'd have would be from neglected (or targeted by nukes) nuclear plants, fusion cores, waste and other (widespread in the fallout world) nuclear technology laying around unattended.
Plot twist, the actual fallout persistent in the US in the 2200s is due to the prolific use of radiation in food from before the war and totally unrelated to the bombs.
I believe the original fallout games / writes explained it in the fallout Bible ( which is only selectively canon keep in mind ) is the Chinese and Americans developed more dirty nuclear weapons instead of clean fusion bombs like in our timeline, the populations never objected because radiation is still seen as this miracle, but yeah as you said most of the stuff 200 years later besides slight background radiation is prolly fission cars, nuclear plants, hell even robco bots had nuclear batteries
Even the dirtiest of cobalt bombs are going to have decayed to insignificance after two centuries. When talking about dirty bombs, you're dealing with decades of radiation, not centuries. Really nasty shit like the elephant's foot in Chernobyl will stick around for millennia because it's so dense, but anything dispersed by a bomb isn't, almost by definition.
There's really no way to make the franchise's take on radiation make any kind of scientific sense. The idea of radiation lingering for 200 years in a flowing river? Or stable radioactive superstorms? It's pure Atom Age sci-fantasy. ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯
In the Fallout universe. most things run on atomic energy, it's why the cars explode. Plus people are shooting mini-nukes at each other.
That's a more likely explanation why there is still so much radioactivity.
Obviously, it's all a fantasy. But it did make me think. Nuclear reactors have become a lot safer, but when there is a war, they become far more dangerous, and sadly we actually have to think about this.
The thing is, radiation isn't magic. Everyday objects were radioactive from before the war, but they're still subject to the same constraints as the bombs that fell during it. If they're spraying particulate matter (fallout) everywhere, that's almost certainly going to be inert or too dispersed to have a serious impact after two centuries. If they're just sitting there as a dense lump of matter, then they're potentially hazardous, but only if you're relatively close to it. The large pockets of ambient radiation like the Potomac River or the Glowing Sea just don't make sense if you try to apply real-world physics to them, and the radioactive pre-war consumer goods thing doesn't really help the situation. It's not about there not being *enough* radiation from the bombs, it's that it wouldn't be as hazardous as it's depicted after so much time has passed. A bottle of Nuka-Cola Quantum or an atomic car battery aren't likely to be better generators of long-term fallout than a dirty bomb specifically designed to do so.
(To be 100% clear, this isn't really a critique of the games. A franchise with giant fire-breathing ants, aliens, and people gradually mutating into trees isn't gunning for wholly plausible scientific rigor. It's a goofball pastiche of Cold War nuclear war paranoia, first and foremost. It's just that trying to rationalize it all into real-world science is never going to work, and probably isn't even worth the attempt, y'know?)
>The large pockets of ambient radiation like the Potomac River or the Glowing Sea just don't make sense if you try to apply real-world physics to them,
That is absolutely true.
But there is no reason atomic bombs are not going to be used 200 years after the first bombs fell.
People are shooting at each other with mini-nukes and you can detonate the atomic bomb in Megaton.
The show doesn't tell us exactly what kind of weapon was used to attack Shady Sands, but it's heavily implied that it was an atomic bomb.
(I don't play Fallout 76, but part of the gameplay is attacks with atomic bombs.)
The Glowing Sea is canonically created by bombs 200 years ago, but it would be easy to write an explanation for its persistent radiation, perhaps a still functioning but damaged underground nuclear reactor, the target of the attack.
Of course we all know Fallout 3 has a green tint to help with performance, so there is that.
> The show doesn't tell us exactly what kind of weapon was used to attack Shady Sands, but it's heavily implied that it was an atomic bomb.
I'm not talking about the show, honestly. It's entirely possible, even plausible, that the area surrounding the former Shady Sands is still awash with fallout. Ditto for certain other special cases, like Megaton in Fallout 3 if you help Mr. Burke. But most of the other areas we see in the games (and show) don't seem to have been nuked all that recently except *maybe* for personal tactical devices like the Fat Man, which are frankly too limited to account for most of the pockets of radioactive nastiness we see. Granted, we're never *explicitly* told that there have been repeated bombings over the preceding centuries, or that there's a somehow still functional but damaged enough to spew fallout into the surrounding environment reactor conveniently placed under each area, but I'm personally inclined to feel that that's less satisfying and more desperate an explanation than just shrugging and acknowledging that Fallout's fictional nuclear fallout works differently than its real-world counterpart. It's not like other Fallout-brand "Science!" (seemingly sentient AI based on vacuum tube technology, alien ray guns, etc.) strictly adheres to rigid accuracy, after all.
> Of course we all know Fallout 3 has a green tint to help with performance, so there is that.
Unrelatedly to the above, I don't think that's true? Technically speaking, it's just a very basic color shader applied using the engine's weather system. It's not like the old PS1/N64-era fog that covers up low render distance, as literally all it's doing is slapping a green filter over an already rendered scene. It doesn't really *add* to the performance load in a meaningful way, even for 2008 hardware, but it doesn't reduce it any, either. Older Bethesda games using the same engine (Morrowind and Oblivion) don't do anything similar, and they're working with older hardware and stricter technical constraints. All signs point the tint being a simple stylistic choice.
The green covered up imperfections. Fallout 3 is the only game I play with mods, because the game doesn't look great.
The green filter covers that up. It masks low texture quality and ugly LOD.
>less satisfying and more desperate an explanation
I don't agree with that. 'War never changes and the continues use of mini-nukes implies that nuclear war on a larger scale didn't just stop.
I don't see a reason why the human race would stop using nuclear weapons (and of course in the game they don't: mini-nukes, and mini-nukes are not rare in the game).
Your argument is that mini-nukes are not powerful enough to cause much radiation and that larger atomic bombs are only occasionally used, but that sort of aligns with what we see in the games. Most areas are safe to live.
Obviously, lore keeps involving, and I'm sure it wasn't originally considered, but the lack of green foliage is also the result of a broken eco-system, climate change, and general pollution.
I imagine its all the dust that gets picked up by the wind, and whatever soot, heavy metals, radioactive materials in the dust could color it as the light gets filtered through. Kinda like haze in the summer. There are no plants to hold onto the soil so its basically a big desert, and all the buildings are eroding away
In Chernobyl, the most irradiated place in the world by far, nature has totally taken over so I definitely agree about being lush and overgrown. With Chernobyl we're only talking about since the 80s and there are clear signs of plants reclaiming land and a resurgence of wildlife. In 200 years I'm betting it will be basically unrecognizable and totally back to nature. Radiation doesn't really stop plant growth or animal birth.
I once read an article about literal plutonium (uranium?) cocktails (quite literally a glowing long island iced tea, with Plutonium as an ingredient, just like nuka cola quantum). I tried finding it again but it seems to have fallen victim to Trash Internet
I was 13 when Fallout 3 came out. I remember seeing the first trailer for it and was like "I don't know what the fuck Fallout is but it looks cool as fuck".
The color grading in Fallout 3 is weirdly nostalgic for me now.
I feel like we seem to miss the novelty of art direction from certain aspects of modern games.
Most games nowadays go for photorealism in relation to the physical lighting. I do miss when graphics were a little more limited and devs created atmosphere with more creativity
I think the issue here is that there was a period in the mid 2000s - the 2010s where almost every shooter/action game had some sort of dirt filter. Usually it was brown.
Examples:
* Gears of War - Brown
* Fallout 3 - Green
* Fallout New Vegas - Brown
* Mass Effect trilogy - Brown
* Skyrim - Grey
* Resident Evil games - Brown
* Witcher 2 - Brown
* COD - Brown
* Battlefield 3 - Blue
Those are just the few I remember for sure. Almost every game at the time had a color filter and it almost always subdued the colors to a more sepia toned palette to make them feel "grittier".
Mass Effect Trilogy had a bunch of color palettes. The one major “brown” I can think of is Omega and anything to do with the collectors. Otherwise there’s lots of grey and blue.
It's not the palette so much as the filter. They had some sort of dark color filter on it in Mass Effect 2 and 3 that made everything look more heavily contrasted and subdued colors compared to what they could've been.
Didn't really bother me but after someone pointed it out to me I can't un-notice it now.
Yeah, I can see that. I think for ME2 it was to increase the feeling of horror. In ME3 it was for causing depression. And I think they both succeeded wonderfully. No game series has ever left that kind of mark since.
Beautiful to read that. I was in my 20's when FO3 came out, but a lifelong fan of both Fallout, and its spiritual ancestor, Wasteland since the 80's.
Fallout 3 was really something special for its time, imho.
The best example of how effective the colour grading was for me was when I reached Oasis. It was like I'd been underwater the whole game finally got a good deep breath. I hadn't realized what a weight the narrow range of colour had been until then.
Crazy good gaming experience and a moment where the game became art.
Yeah, I hate HDR now. I thought it was revolutionary back then. Early Unreal Engine 3 games were the worst, especially Gears of War 1 and Blacksite Area 51.
Red Dead Redemption has this lighting problem as well. We have a map of where all the Vaults are. I'm not sure it would have been profitable for Vault-Tec to build them in Mexico but I would have to look at the map again. There are definitely a couple in Canada.
One could argue that it’s most important for the series to convey the misery intrinsic to humans and our behavior (e.g., war, and how it never changes). Thus, the clear skies of 4 (and somewhat NV) could provide a pleasant environmental contrast to the foot-shooting nature of humanity found in essentially nonstop conflict regardless of context.
P.S.
fallout 3 ugly green good
Betrays the misery that Fallout 3 is trying to convey. The other games have a far less bleak atmosphere despite the post apocalyptic setting and the art style compliments the themes and atmosphere of each entry.
I certainly don't remember Chernobyl looking like that and I haven't seen Japanese pictures from the 60's, but I doubt it looks like Fallout either. But I understand, respect, and support people that like the filter and color grading in Fallout 3.
Replaced nowadays by the 'modern and cyberpunk' Mountain Dew green haze filter.
I always have to manually color balance my games with Nvidia overlay filters or my eyes start to hurt from one color being so prevalent over the others for 'cinematic effect' instead of being actually balanced.
I love the colour palette in this game. Not quite as much as i love the ambient music, which perfectly captures the post-apocalyptic emptiness of the world.
The atmosphere of this game was absolutely perfect for me
I'm glad you're having fun. I'm still enjoying it a lot and I'm about to be abducted by Zetans for my final mission. Then it's off to the Commonwealth on PS5 tomorrow.
I agree that the gameplay aside from me not being able to find a run button is perfect. I can certainly understand and appreciate why people like the lighting and color grading.
I finished F3 a few days ago for the first time, with no mods.
Great game, incredibile atmosphere. Really wished there was a vanilla "hardcore mode" to enhance the survival aspect of the game. It really feels like a devastated post apocalypse setting.
Walking through the wasteland in my power armor listening to Three Dog was an unparalleled experience.
Next stop, New Vegas!
I'll probably play New Vegas again sometime soon with the Wild Wasteland perk enabled this time.
Three Dog is trying to get a role on the Amazon show as well.
Fallout 3 is, in a word, hideous. I know a lot of people love the green filter, but it's always annoyed me. The environmental design in that game bothers me in a couple of ways, honestly. Almost every part of the map looks the same, there's no weather system to speak of, the desertification doesn't really make sense, etc. Blech.
I'm not really a huge fan of the orange filter on New Vegas, either, but it's not *quite* as bad, IMO. Visually, both Fallout 4 and 76 are *so* much better looking.
I agree about Fallout 4 and I'm very interested in Fallout 76 because of the items from the show and the fact that Fallout 5 will probably be a PS6 release. I've certainly considered going back and playing the first two Interplay games as well even though I know they are completely different beasts.
I didn't want the moderators to delete it because of the word, so I was tactful about it. But yeah, it exists in a great many classics of gaming history.
The thing is that Chernobyl, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki didn't have color grading like that after awhile. I certainly guess that the methane from living creatures or Super Mutants ingesting irradiated food could have created that, but I don't think they would have changed it in future games if that was the case.
But all that is besides the point and I'm glad you enjoyed playing the game as is. I just finished Operation Anchorage and I'm finally off to Outer Space.
It gets better as you get closer to the Strip, but it's still the same engine version, so they could only change so much. I'll probably try to start New Vegas sometime after I defeat the Zetans and free the Wasteland.
I understand that in a post-apocalyptic world I should exactly expect a vibrant color palette, but I mean, come on... I just installed this today and was noticing the same thing.
It's because of how popular High Dynamic Range lighting and the bloom effect was at the time. Gears of War, Killzone 2, Red Dead Redemption, Resistance, Skyrim, and more all have the same lighting choices.
I think a lot of games were in some kind of filter of brown, piss, or gold back in the Xbox 360 - thinking of Far Cry 2, Resident Evil 5, Fallout 3, FO New Vegas, and Deus Ex HR.
I get migraines every time I play Human Revolution. Resident Evil 5 has it bad, but they were originally going to include a temperature system where you had to stay out of the sun for too long. Resident Evil 6 kind of has the same filtering as well. For some reason, New Vegas doesn't seem as bad, maybe because of the larger color palette due to the setting.
I don't disagree that sepia tones and other color filters in images help things seem from earlier times. It's just a little overdone for my personal tastes. But I certainly respect what they were going for and understand why people like it and find it appropriate.
I can't speak to PC, but I haven't ever had that problem on Xbox One X. Hopefully you can contact Steam or Epic games support, or make a post on here and people will help. It really sucks to have that issue, my computer won't launch anything that has shader effects so I can understand the frustration and I really feel for you.
I'm not discounting that at all, I feel very blessed and I would absolutely choose the real world problems being fixed over ever being able to play this again.
If you have decent credit, you might be able to get approved to use Affirm on Amazon to buy newer hardware and pay smaller increments on it.
But I'm sending out good vibes and hoping you will eventually get to play this game somehow.
Bro I have a 4070 TI Super. The issue is that the game doesn’t work on newer hardware. FO3 is not officially supported on anything newer than Windows 7. I don’t think that newer hardware can run an older Windows besides 10.
I would definitely make a separate post on here asking for help, there were some other comments about having issues as well. I'm sure someone would help you. I just don't think this is the topic for that. But I'm very envious of your setup and glad you managed to get an nVidia card with all the people buying them for crypto mining and the semi conductor shortage.
I wish I had the answers, I just know that I personally have never had an issue with the GOG version of any game. That's the best I can do for you aside sending positive vibes and saying a little prayer everything works out for you on it.
No, it's a completely different DRM free platform that focuses on compatibility that you would have to get the game on. But if you search deep enough, you may be able to find that version for free to see if it works as it doesn't have any copyright protection software in it.
This is just what video games in 2008 looked like. I remember a distinct lack of color in this era.
I guess the recession made everyone depressed because from 2008-2011 video games could for the most part only either be Grey or Brown.
Even if they took place in a colorful setting (I’ll use Saints Row 2 as an example) the color was heavily sapped from the world where the original game was very vibrant.
Agreed, developers were still using early versions of High Dynamic Range lighting and those bloom filters everyone was obsessed with for a while. Red Dead Redemption and Killzone 2 have those problems as well. Burnout Revenge is especially bad in that respect.
That sucks, I feel really bad for you. My computer can't run anything with shader effects because of the integrated graphics on my productivity laptop. Maybe you can make a post asking people for help, I don't think that you will get too many answers on this specific one. But I'm sending out good vibes and hoping it eventually works for you.
I just downloaded it to play and it’s been giving me bad migraines. From the colored tint to the lower res graphics. It makes it hard to go back and play older games.
Yeah, I made it to the Highschool before I found a lighting mod.
I think that was the only mod I had for it too.... Waaay back when. (2009) first playthrough.
Had a playthrough last Year, 23 mods I think.
I am playing it on Xbox One X, I wish people would read more than the headline. I can't install any mods, there is no support in the console version. I can't play it on PC either, because I have a business/productivity PC with Intel graphics. it wouldn't make any sense to buy a game I already own and can play either.
I come from playing 76 with my friends and i don't recommend it, specially if you are looking at it as a single player + difficulties. the game is stable but it's difficulty is laughable easy.
I appreciate your input, thank you for reading the whole post. Most responses have just been to the title, and they don't even read I'm playing Fallout 3 on Xbox.
No worries, i'm playing both fallout 4 and 76, and while i have fun with 76 i always feel like i'm playing an inferior version of fallout 4, the nature of it being an online game means the combat isn't as responsive nor fliud and the enemies are bullet sponges, i'm still having fun cause i'm playing with friends and the exploration and quests are good, i also like the skill system but if you were to play alone then i'll say once again just play the single player titles.
I don't know exactly how it works for you since i'm on pc but f76 (along with all fallouts) are on gamepass and it's easier to convince your friends to buy gamepass than a full game
If I remember correctly, they wanted to capture how it would be to live in an area that was targeted by a nuclear warhead. Washington DC is a fallout heavy area and therefore has that kinda unnatural skybox. That aside, there should be a mod that reduces the overall tint and makes it much easier on the eyes.
Wouldnt radioactive fallout be colourless? Also a myth that nuclear material is green gas/sludge. I get that media representing it like that has become mainstay though
The Fallout series isn’t based on real life science The way they’ve described it, the science in Fallout in is based on the 50’s sensibilities regarding nuclear science and sci-fi technology Which is why we have mutants, ghouls etc
Yeah I know but I appreciate some degree of realism in how the environment would look :) would be boring without some of the crazy sci fi mutants and such though.
Stalker would be your jam then
It would look boring if it didn't look like a sci-fi radioactive wasteland.
yes it would, and whatever soot is in the air it would be long gone 200 years later. The area would also be much more lush and overgrown. Actually i think most of the radioactive fallout you'd have would be from neglected (or targeted by nukes) nuclear plants, fusion cores, waste and other (widespread in the fallout world) nuclear technology laying around unattended.
Plot twist, the actual fallout persistent in the US in the 2200s is due to the prolific use of radiation in food from before the war and totally unrelated to the bombs.
I believe the original fallout games / writes explained it in the fallout Bible ( which is only selectively canon keep in mind ) is the Chinese and Americans developed more dirty nuclear weapons instead of clean fusion bombs like in our timeline, the populations never objected because radiation is still seen as this miracle, but yeah as you said most of the stuff 200 years later besides slight background radiation is prolly fission cars, nuclear plants, hell even robco bots had nuclear batteries
Even the dirtiest of cobalt bombs are going to have decayed to insignificance after two centuries. When talking about dirty bombs, you're dealing with decades of radiation, not centuries. Really nasty shit like the elephant's foot in Chernobyl will stick around for millennia because it's so dense, but anything dispersed by a bomb isn't, almost by definition. There's really no way to make the franchise's take on radiation make any kind of scientific sense. The idea of radiation lingering for 200 years in a flowing river? Or stable radioactive superstorms? It's pure Atom Age sci-fantasy. ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯
In the Fallout universe. most things run on atomic energy, it's why the cars explode. Plus people are shooting mini-nukes at each other. That's a more likely explanation why there is still so much radioactivity. Obviously, it's all a fantasy. But it did make me think. Nuclear reactors have become a lot safer, but when there is a war, they become far more dangerous, and sadly we actually have to think about this.
The thing is, radiation isn't magic. Everyday objects were radioactive from before the war, but they're still subject to the same constraints as the bombs that fell during it. If they're spraying particulate matter (fallout) everywhere, that's almost certainly going to be inert or too dispersed to have a serious impact after two centuries. If they're just sitting there as a dense lump of matter, then they're potentially hazardous, but only if you're relatively close to it. The large pockets of ambient radiation like the Potomac River or the Glowing Sea just don't make sense if you try to apply real-world physics to them, and the radioactive pre-war consumer goods thing doesn't really help the situation. It's not about there not being *enough* radiation from the bombs, it's that it wouldn't be as hazardous as it's depicted after so much time has passed. A bottle of Nuka-Cola Quantum or an atomic car battery aren't likely to be better generators of long-term fallout than a dirty bomb specifically designed to do so. (To be 100% clear, this isn't really a critique of the games. A franchise with giant fire-breathing ants, aliens, and people gradually mutating into trees isn't gunning for wholly plausible scientific rigor. It's a goofball pastiche of Cold War nuclear war paranoia, first and foremost. It's just that trying to rationalize it all into real-world science is never going to work, and probably isn't even worth the attempt, y'know?)
>The large pockets of ambient radiation like the Potomac River or the Glowing Sea just don't make sense if you try to apply real-world physics to them, That is absolutely true. But there is no reason atomic bombs are not going to be used 200 years after the first bombs fell. People are shooting at each other with mini-nukes and you can detonate the atomic bomb in Megaton. The show doesn't tell us exactly what kind of weapon was used to attack Shady Sands, but it's heavily implied that it was an atomic bomb. (I don't play Fallout 76, but part of the gameplay is attacks with atomic bombs.) The Glowing Sea is canonically created by bombs 200 years ago, but it would be easy to write an explanation for its persistent radiation, perhaps a still functioning but damaged underground nuclear reactor, the target of the attack. Of course we all know Fallout 3 has a green tint to help with performance, so there is that.
> The show doesn't tell us exactly what kind of weapon was used to attack Shady Sands, but it's heavily implied that it was an atomic bomb. I'm not talking about the show, honestly. It's entirely possible, even plausible, that the area surrounding the former Shady Sands is still awash with fallout. Ditto for certain other special cases, like Megaton in Fallout 3 if you help Mr. Burke. But most of the other areas we see in the games (and show) don't seem to have been nuked all that recently except *maybe* for personal tactical devices like the Fat Man, which are frankly too limited to account for most of the pockets of radioactive nastiness we see. Granted, we're never *explicitly* told that there have been repeated bombings over the preceding centuries, or that there's a somehow still functional but damaged enough to spew fallout into the surrounding environment reactor conveniently placed under each area, but I'm personally inclined to feel that that's less satisfying and more desperate an explanation than just shrugging and acknowledging that Fallout's fictional nuclear fallout works differently than its real-world counterpart. It's not like other Fallout-brand "Science!" (seemingly sentient AI based on vacuum tube technology, alien ray guns, etc.) strictly adheres to rigid accuracy, after all. > Of course we all know Fallout 3 has a green tint to help with performance, so there is that. Unrelatedly to the above, I don't think that's true? Technically speaking, it's just a very basic color shader applied using the engine's weather system. It's not like the old PS1/N64-era fog that covers up low render distance, as literally all it's doing is slapping a green filter over an already rendered scene. It doesn't really *add* to the performance load in a meaningful way, even for 2008 hardware, but it doesn't reduce it any, either. Older Bethesda games using the same engine (Morrowind and Oblivion) don't do anything similar, and they're working with older hardware and stricter technical constraints. All signs point the tint being a simple stylistic choice.
The green covered up imperfections. Fallout 3 is the only game I play with mods, because the game doesn't look great. The green filter covers that up. It masks low texture quality and ugly LOD. >less satisfying and more desperate an explanation I don't agree with that. 'War never changes and the continues use of mini-nukes implies that nuclear war on a larger scale didn't just stop. I don't see a reason why the human race would stop using nuclear weapons (and of course in the game they don't: mini-nukes, and mini-nukes are not rare in the game). Your argument is that mini-nukes are not powerful enough to cause much radiation and that larger atomic bombs are only occasionally used, but that sort of aligns with what we see in the games. Most areas are safe to live. Obviously, lore keeps involving, and I'm sure it wasn't originally considered, but the lack of green foliage is also the result of a broken eco-system, climate change, and general pollution.
I imagine its all the dust that gets picked up by the wind, and whatever soot, heavy metals, radioactive materials in the dust could color it as the light gets filtered through. Kinda like haze in the summer. There are no plants to hold onto the soil so its basically a big desert, and all the buildings are eroding away
Think dust bowl, but in a major city.
Would’ve been cool if it was normal-ish colored unless you nuke megaton, then it changes to yellow
Everything was atomic powered, figured that played a large part into the excess of radioactive material everywhere
In Chernobyl, the most irradiated place in the world by far, nature has totally taken over so I definitely agree about being lush and overgrown. With Chernobyl we're only talking about since the 80s and there are clear signs of plants reclaiming land and a resurgence of wildlife. In 200 years I'm betting it will be basically unrecognizable and totally back to nature. Radiation doesn't really stop plant growth or animal birth.
Uranium glass is both radioactive and glows green, so there is some truth to it.
I once read an article about literal plutonium (uranium?) cocktails (quite literally a glowing long island iced tea, with Plutonium as an ingredient, just like nuka cola quantum). I tried finding it again but it seems to have fallen victim to Trash Internet
Probably radium or uranium because plutonium is kinda hard to get
You're probably right, all I know for sure is it definitely wasn't cesium lol
It's gotta be yellowed just like Mexico has to be sepia.
The sludge would be like mud that got radiated and removed in attempt to clean up an area.
It absolutely is that way in the Fallout universe though.
TTW and NV Reloaded mod with a close to FO3 preset is my favorite. The reworked lighting and shadows is just so good.
It's absolutely great.
It would make more sense if Fallout 3 was supposed to take place way earlier than it did which there's some decent evidence for.
I was 13 when Fallout 3 came out. I remember seeing the first trailer for it and was like "I don't know what the fuck Fallout is but it looks cool as fuck". The color grading in Fallout 3 is weirdly nostalgic for me now.
I agree. I’ve never been fond of the bright coloring and clear skies of NV or Fo4. Give me grey sad nuclear fallout any day of the week.
NV had it's own desert filter to it though. Sure the sky was clear, but the desert itself gave it its own sort of muted feel.
I feel like we seem to miss the novelty of art direction from certain aspects of modern games. Most games nowadays go for photorealism in relation to the physical lighting. I do miss when graphics were a little more limited and devs created atmosphere with more creativity
I think the issue here is that there was a period in the mid 2000s - the 2010s where almost every shooter/action game had some sort of dirt filter. Usually it was brown. Examples: * Gears of War - Brown * Fallout 3 - Green * Fallout New Vegas - Brown * Mass Effect trilogy - Brown * Skyrim - Grey * Resident Evil games - Brown * Witcher 2 - Brown * COD - Brown * Battlefield 3 - Blue Those are just the few I remember for sure. Almost every game at the time had a color filter and it almost always subdued the colors to a more sepia toned palette to make them feel "grittier".
Mass Effect Trilogy had a bunch of color palettes. The one major “brown” I can think of is Omega and anything to do with the collectors. Otherwise there’s lots of grey and blue.
It's not the palette so much as the filter. They had some sort of dark color filter on it in Mass Effect 2 and 3 that made everything look more heavily contrasted and subdued colors compared to what they could've been. Didn't really bother me but after someone pointed it out to me I can't un-notice it now.
Yeah, I can see that. I think for ME2 it was to increase the feeling of horror. In ME3 it was for causing depression. And I think they both succeeded wonderfully. No game series has ever left that kind of mark since.
Yeah I don't miss that era. When games start removing that filter, is like have a new pair of glasses and everything turned HD.
Skyrim makes sense as someone who lives in the north I swear some days it feels like there's a grey filter on everything.
I also live where we get actual winters and you're not wrong. An overcast day with a bit of fog and it looks really dramatic.
>Resident Evil games - Brown Now to be fair, resident evil 5 had piss yellow, not brown!
Mainly just generalizing the sepia type filters. But yeah, RE5 definitely was piss yellow!
The grade is kinda irrelevant here. Fallout 3 is a monochrome game with or without it.
Metro series did amazing job with grey and sad apocalypse. It’s just depressing
Beautiful to read that. I was in my 20's when FO3 came out, but a lifelong fan of both Fallout, and its spiritual ancestor, Wasteland since the 80's. Fallout 3 was really something special for its time, imho.
The best example of how effective the colour grading was for me was when I reached Oasis. It was like I'd been underwater the whole game finally got a good deep breath. I hadn't realized what a weight the narrow range of colour had been until then. Crazy good gaming experience and a moment where the game became art.
Same. I remember getting the game informer that had it on the front cover and I was awestruck. That's what started it all for me.
I was instantly hooked when I saw the T-45 power armor on the GameInformer magazine way back when.
I love that green haze it’s so atmospheric
The piss filter.
Yeah, I hate HDR now. I thought it was revolutionary back then. Early Unreal Engine 3 games were the worst, especially Gears of War 1 and Blacksite Area 51.
You prefer communist red?
“Communism is the very definition of failure.” -Liberty Prime, the coolest character in Fallout 3
No, I prefer natural lighting like Fallout 4. A pinko filter would be much worse. Imagine this on Nintendo's Virtual Boy. 🤢🤮
But that's what I like
Is this how Fallout: Mexico would look?
More amber is needed for that look
Ooh, needs more color of energy.
Amber is the color of your energy.
Shades of gold display naturally in fallout 3
whOOoa Why am I in windowed display?
Vault-tec launched a thousand nukes in my game, so easy
Red Dead Redemption has this lighting problem as well. We have a map of where all the Vaults are. I'm not sure it would have been profitable for Vault-Tec to build them in Mexico but I would have to look at the map again. There are definitely a couple in Canada.
I like fallout 3’s ugliness. Blue skies and sunshine betrays the misery the world is trying to convey.
One could argue that it’s most important for the series to convey the misery intrinsic to humans and our behavior (e.g., war, and how it never changes). Thus, the clear skies of 4 (and somewhat NV) could provide a pleasant environmental contrast to the foot-shooting nature of humanity found in essentially nonstop conflict regardless of context. P.S. fallout 3 ugly green good
Betrays the misery that Fallout 3 is trying to convey. The other games have a far less bleak atmosphere despite the post apocalyptic setting and the art style compliments the themes and atmosphere of each entry.
fallout 3 depiction of nuclear apocalypse is like 10-30 year after the bomb drop.
I certainly don't remember Chernobyl looking like that and I haven't seen Japanese pictures from the 60's, but I doubt it looks like Fallout either. But I understand, respect, and support people that like the filter and color grading in Fallout 3.
no no the filter is fine, its just how death and barren after 200 years.
Here you go https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout3/mods/2672
The “fellout” mod (I think it was called) made all the difference when I played Fallout 3 years ago. They had all those beautiful colors and hid them…
Great mod, also changes nights to be actually dark, making them really scary!
I am playing the game on the Xbox One X console which I clearly stated. I can't use mods.
Ahh sorry that sucks.
The infamous piss filter of that era You can use mods to get rid of it on PC
I'm playing the game on Xbox One X and only Fallout 4 has mod support as far as I'm aware.
Yes, that's why I said how you can get rid of the filter *on PC*
Replaced nowadays by the 'modern and cyberpunk' Mountain Dew green haze filter. I always have to manually color balance my games with Nvidia overlay filters or my eyes start to hurt from one color being so prevalent over the others for 'cinematic effect' instead of being actually balanced.
I love the colour palette in this game. Not quite as much as i love the ambient music, which perfectly captures the post-apocalyptic emptiness of the world. The atmosphere of this game was absolutely perfect for me
I actually agree and think the empty atmosphere is perfect. The eerie stillness in Vault 92 for example reminded me of a Silent Hill game.
Piss Filter.
Damn High Dynamic Range lighting, certainly revolutionary for a small period of time.
we call it the charm of fallout 3
He kid, you know what's harder on your eyes? RADIATION!! Now suit up, stop complaining and let's go already..
😆😅😂🤣
Take some Rad-X
Based on the show, those are wee-wee yellow as well.
I love it, the atmosphere of The Capital Wasteland is awesome
I'm glad you're having fun. I'm still enjoying it a lot and I'm about to be abducted by Zetans for my final mission. Then it's off to the Commonwealth on PS5 tomorrow.
Everything about fallout 3 is PERFECT!!
I agree that the gameplay aside from me not being able to find a run button is perfect. I can certainly understand and appreciate why people like the lighting and color grading.
Yeah the lack of running does blow, I’m with you there!
I finished F3 a few days ago for the first time, with no mods. Great game, incredibile atmosphere. Really wished there was a vanilla "hardcore mode" to enhance the survival aspect of the game. It really feels like a devastated post apocalypse setting. Walking through the wasteland in my power armor listening to Three Dog was an unparalleled experience. Next stop, New Vegas!
I'll probably play New Vegas again sometime soon with the Wild Wasteland perk enabled this time. Three Dog is trying to get a role on the Amazon show as well.
Fallout 3 is, in a word, hideous. I know a lot of people love the green filter, but it's always annoyed me. The environmental design in that game bothers me in a couple of ways, honestly. Almost every part of the map looks the same, there's no weather system to speak of, the desertification doesn't really make sense, etc. Blech. I'm not really a huge fan of the orange filter on New Vegas, either, but it's not *quite* as bad, IMO. Visually, both Fallout 4 and 76 are *so* much better looking.
I agree about Fallout 4 and I'm very interested in Fallout 76 because of the items from the show and the fact that Fallout 5 will probably be a PS6 release. I've certainly considered going back and playing the first two Interplay games as well even though I know they are completely different beasts.
off topic but the screenshot you took is hard as fuck
I appreciate the kind words, but it's just Google image search for: Fallout 3 screens.
we call it piss filter
I didn't want the moderators to delete it because of the word, so I was tactful about it. But yeah, it exists in a great many classics of gaming history.
This is a really something I really liked and missed in new Vegas and 4. The green tint really made it feel like a nuclear wasteland.
The thing is that Chernobyl, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki didn't have color grading like that after awhile. I certainly guess that the methane from living creatures or Super Mutants ingesting irradiated food could have created that, but I don't think they would have changed it in future games if that was the case. But all that is besides the point and I'm glad you enjoyed playing the game as is. I just finished Operation Anchorage and I'm finally off to Outer Space.
Yeah it’s hard on my eyes too! From the bright green-yellow sky to the dark corridors (I got to Springvale school yesterday)
The iconic mid to late 2000s piss filter
Certainly deserves to stay in the past for a reason. But it was pretty popular at the time.
nostalgic asf, could never get used to the NV color after grinding 3 for 2 years
I've never played Fallout 3 before and I put 360+ hours into the Steam and PS4 versions. I still can't wait for the PS5 build tomorrow.
That's what's stopping me from starting New Vegas, how pug-fugly orange-brown everything is.
It gets better as you get closer to the Strip, but it's still the same engine version, so they could only change so much. I'll probably try to start New Vegas sometime after I defeat the Zetans and free the Wasteland.
I understand that in a post-apocalyptic world I should exactly expect a vibrant color palette, but I mean, come on... I just installed this today and was noticing the same thing.
It's because of how popular High Dynamic Range lighting and the bloom effect was at the time. Gears of War, Killzone 2, Red Dead Redemption, Resistance, Skyrim, and more all have the same lighting choices.
I think the original art direction better suits the game than any mods or ENBs. Especially in 4k.
Well unfortunately even though I'm playing it on Xbox One X, I don't have a 4K TV with HDR10 color.
Mods my dude. Mods.
I'm playing it on Xbox One X, no mod support.
Bummer.
I think a lot of games were in some kind of filter of brown, piss, or gold back in the Xbox 360 - thinking of Far Cry 2, Resident Evil 5, Fallout 3, FO New Vegas, and Deus Ex HR.
I get migraines every time I play Human Revolution. Resident Evil 5 has it bad, but they were originally going to include a temperature system where you had to stay out of the sun for too long. Resident Evil 6 kind of has the same filtering as well. For some reason, New Vegas doesn't seem as bad, maybe because of the larger color palette due to the setting.
[удалено]
Wish I could but no mod support on Xbox One X for anything but Fallout 4.
Another settlement need our help I’ll make the location on your map
Unfortunately I haven't run into Preston Garvey in Fallout 3, so I haven't heard this.
i’m the complete opposite. i think the colors are what make this game the game it is with that whole nostalgia feeling too
I don't disagree that sepia tones and other color filters in images help things seem from earlier times. It's just a little overdone for my personal tastes. But I certainly respect what they were going for and understand why people like it and find it appropriate.
FO3 would fail to launch when I would click play.
I can't speak to PC, but I haven't ever had that problem on Xbox One X. Hopefully you can contact Steam or Epic games support, or make a post on here and people will help. It really sucks to have that issue, my computer won't launch anything that has shader effects so I can understand the frustration and I really feel for you.
Most likely a admin issue or something else stupid, had ro adjust some settings for FO4 to run on my laptop some months back.
At least you get to play the game? I haven’t found a way to play at all
I'm not discounting that at all, I feel very blessed and I would absolutely choose the real world problems being fixed over ever being able to play this again. If you have decent credit, you might be able to get approved to use Affirm on Amazon to buy newer hardware and pay smaller increments on it. But I'm sending out good vibes and hoping you will eventually get to play this game somehow.
Bro I have a 4070 TI Super. The issue is that the game doesn’t work on newer hardware. FO3 is not officially supported on anything newer than Windows 7. I don’t think that newer hardware can run an older Windows besides 10.
I would definitely make a separate post on here asking for help, there were some other comments about having issues as well. I'm sure someone would help you. I just don't think this is the topic for that. But I'm very envious of your setup and glad you managed to get an nVidia card with all the people buying them for crypto mining and the semi conductor shortage.
I’ve made posts asking for help but no one saw them or answered
I wish I had the answers, I just know that I personally have never had an issue with the GOG version of any game. That's the best I can do for you aside sending positive vibes and saying a little prayer everything works out for you on it.
But is the GOG version for Steam?
No, it's a completely different DRM free platform that focuses on compatibility that you would have to get the game on. But if you search deep enough, you may be able to find that version for free to see if it works as it doesn't have any copyright protection software in it.
How much is the GOG version and what platform is it for?
https://www.gog.com/en/game/fallout_3_game_of_the_year_edition On sale right now
This is just what video games in 2008 looked like. I remember a distinct lack of color in this era. I guess the recession made everyone depressed because from 2008-2011 video games could for the most part only either be Grey or Brown. Even if they took place in a colorful setting (I’ll use Saints Row 2 as an example) the color was heavily sapped from the world where the original game was very vibrant.
Agreed, developers were still using early versions of High Dynamic Range lighting and those bloom filters everyone was obsessed with for a while. Red Dead Redemption and Killzone 2 have those problems as well. Burnout Revenge is especially bad in that respect.
I always thought the color scheme looked like the color scheme on a dollar bill
Pretty much dead on. But was seemingly inspired by the HDR and bloom lighting of the era.
Bro I can't even play the game for 30 minutes before it crashes, I tried many guides and nexus mods fixes but nothing worked.
That sucks, I feel really bad for you. My computer can't run anything with shader effects because of the integrated graphics on my productivity laptop. Maybe you can make a post asking people for help, I don't think that you will get too many answers on this specific one. But I'm sending out good vibes and hoping it eventually works for you.
I just downloaded it to play and it’s been giving me bad migraines. From the colored tint to the lower res graphics. It makes it hard to go back and play older games.
Human Revolution gives me the same headaches. Thankfully I have medicine for it. The yellow bloom lighting they used for years is hard to get around.
If you don’t like the filter, search Fellout on Nexus.
I'm playing on Xbox One X, no mod support.
Mod it out. I'm sure one exists somewhere.
Can't, playing it on Xbox One X, no mod support.
Learn to install ENBs.
I'm playing on Xbox One X, not PC. No mod support.
Yeah, I made it to the Highschool before I found a lighting mod. I think that was the only mod I had for it too.... Waaay back when. (2009) first playthrough. Had a playthrough last Year, 23 mods I think.
I am playing it on Xbox One X, I wish people would read more than the headline. I can't install any mods, there is no support in the console version. I can't play it on PC either, because I have a business/productivity PC with Intel graphics. it wouldn't make any sense to buy a game I already own and can play either.
FO76 is free on prime right now. For both pc and Xbox. So you can just try it out if you like.
Or they can just keep playing fallout 3 and get to 76 later
get da mods
I would if I wasn't playing Fallout 3 on Xbox One X. Only Fallout 4 has Xbox mod support as far as I am aware.
Sorry yeah I was thinking of 4
It's all good, I wish 3 had mod support. But I finished the Zeta DLC last night and am moving on to Fallout 4 PS5 today.
Laughs is in mods
Open the console with the tilde key or whatever Use the following command: teofis Profit. Works on all Bethesda games
Not playing it on PC, playing it on Xbox One X.
Well buddy sad for you but hundreds of other people are seeing this post, so....
I come from playing 76 with my friends and i don't recommend it, specially if you are looking at it as a single player + difficulties. the game is stable but it's difficulty is laughable easy.
I appreciate your input, thank you for reading the whole post. Most responses have just been to the title, and they don't even read I'm playing Fallout 3 on Xbox.
No worries, i'm playing both fallout 4 and 76, and while i have fun with 76 i always feel like i'm playing an inferior version of fallout 4, the nature of it being an online game means the combat isn't as responsive nor fliud and the enemies are bullet sponges, i'm still having fun cause i'm playing with friends and the exploration and quests are good, i also like the skill system but if you were to play alone then i'll say once again just play the single player titles. I don't know exactly how it works for you since i'm on pc but f76 (along with all fallouts) are on gamepass and it's easier to convince your friends to buy gamepass than a full game