C13 AEGIS 2.35

C13 AEGIS 2.35

A new era dawns. The most complete visual package to date is here. Introducing C13 AEGIS 2.35. A thorough reworking aimed at bringing unprecedented color control with best in class visual effects. The search for visuals stops here. Welcome home.

At least until i find new ways of breaking and remaking every fundamental aspect of my work.

And boy do we have a lot to talk about today. I’d like to talk about the wider scope of changes since 2.28, since that is the definitive stable version (until today). They say you have to break a few eggs to make an omelette, and boy did i break a lot of eggs on my way from 2.28 to here. But also, boy do i have one heck of an omelette for you. Leaving tortured metaphors behind, let’s dive right in.

NEW IMPROVED DEAULTS

Let’s talk about some general out of the box settings changes that will be immediately obvious:

• Photo style brightness – the feature reducing brightness at daytime is now off. I feel the new balance doesn’t require it, but it’s still there for you, should you need it.

• Default tone mapping preset is now punchy. The increased pop if the image with punchy appeals to me, but C13 Filmic is still there for you, should you prefer it

• Saturation pass and boost are now on by default. The base values are reasonable but contribute to what i consider a balanced image with a strong feeling of dynamic range, while avoiding crossing over into cartoony.

GODLIKE TONEMAPPING – C13 ATOMOTIVE EXCLUSIVE

If there’s one thing that definitively elevates C13 AEGIS above all competition, it’s the tone mapping. Not only is it better, the magic is that it’s fully custom. That simple fact allows C13 AEGIS to have finer control over image particulars than any other filter. And there have been some big steps in this area.

I think you should try to learn a new thing every day. And there are a lot of fruitful days of learning behind me.

LINEAR vs. sRGB

Most tone mapping functions are made to work with a linear colors pace. But Pure pre-applies a gamma correction in order to provide a human-vision type color relationships for display. So C13 AEGIS now correctly re-linearizes the input to exact more precise color control than ever before. (This is still only linear sRGB, but i will be working with full linear RGB input in the future).

MAKING HIGHLIGHTS KNEEL

Highlight retention has been a big part of my work since 2.06, and my go to method was blending a Reinhart curve. It worked very well, but for 2.35 we’re bringing something new.
A perceptual luminance based roll off, that compensates for color loss. The end result is a highlight compression function that salvages color from the very top of the luminance spectrum.

COLOR CONTROL LIKE NEVER BEFORE

Some of you may remember the olden days of color space transforms, specifically the ACES color space. Well, i’d like to welcome ACES back to C13 AEGIS, but with a very specific goal in mind. For the time being, and until i find a better more elegant solution, the final image color is ever so slightly blended with output color from an ACES transform. The purpose of this is to deal with those pesky super saturated color blotches, particularly in the red hues. The result, a heavenly poppy image, with no oversaturation issues to speak of.

EXPOSURE EVOLVED

C13 AEGIS has always had the best exposure control in pure. Which makes sense since it’s a direct continuation of C13 Camera Obscura development which is still second only to C13 AEGIS. But with LCS there has always been the minor issue of daytime SRP tunnels just not exposing as high as i’d have liked. Well that issue can finally be put to rest. C13 AEGIS Auto exposure now samples the cubemap brightness directly, to provide additional control, and dark environment detection. Lowlight and indoor scenes are now detected correctly, and the original systems strength means we’re not sacrificing any stability.

GAMMA GAMMA GAMMA

An important new feature for tone mapping is also a custom gamma adjustment that targets luminance primarily with the effect on hue and saturation reduced. Should your display device require a bit more brightness at the low end, but you don't want to crush highlights or loose all the color, this slider is for you.

IT’S A NEW WORLD

Apart from all of the technical bits, there have also been a few reconfigurations of world lighting to go hand in hand with the new opportunities opened by the new base tech. Directional ambient light has been reoriented to serve better as a fill light, power of the sun has been made a touch less harsh, some weather specific details have been altered from the way base pure does things. Many minor things, but all serving the greater purpose of making C13 AEGIS the peak performer i know it can be.

A SPICY MEATBALL

And of course that’s not all. Fake film grain and C13 Cartoon have been successfully ported to Pure Spice. With grain being applied in HDR before any mapping, it is now visible in screenshots even without Accurate HDR sample summation. This means you no longer have to choose between sharp images and grain. You can have both. In addition i created what ‘ve dubbed C13 AI, or the overedit filter. With it you can give your image that eerie uncanny valley overprocessed look. You know how the easiest way to get “realistic visuals” is to play at 17fps and record at 420p? Yeah, that type of deal.

As always, endless thanks to my patrons, who have stuck with me so far. You’re the force that pushes me forward to bring new and better things to the AC visuals space, and i thank you from the bottom of my heart.

DEAR PATRONS

This is where you can get your hands on the goodies. Enjoy, and as always do not hesitate to reach out with any issues that may rear their ugly head.