Texture filtering default discussion

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Chris
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Re: Texture filtering default discussion

Post by Chris »

edward850 wrote: Tue Oct 28, 2025 10:17 pm
Chris wrote: Tue Oct 28, 2025 9:13 pm If I'm being honest, it really feels like the sheer amount of fervor over the default setting is born from an anti-Graf sentiment.
Nah it's because the setting is wrong for the art, this has been well explained.
A better term would be "not as intended for the art" or "not as the artist intended", as something being "wrong for the art" is a value judgement. If someone likes what any given thing does to the art, then its right for that person, and what's right for one person can be wrong for another. Texture filtering isn't "wrong for the art" to me, but it is to you, and that's fine, we can have different opinions on what looks best.

It's also been explained that there's more the hardware renderer does that is "not as the artist intended" than just the texture filtering, including true-color rendering, smooth shading and clearer translucency effects. The hardware renderer has never been about accurately replicating the original artist intent, even if more options to get it closer have been added over time. But rather than focusing on the software renderer not being the default (which never had texture filtering and other features, and would bring it much more in line with what was intended), it's just the texture filtering that keeps coming up. Something most if not all hardware Doom renderers had on by default and was one of many selling points of such renderers, but seems to have only became such a hot issue after Graf's insistence it stays on. In comparison, it does occasionally get brought up how the light amp goggles' default setting looks nothing like vanilla, and it does occasionally get brought up how the fuzz effect isn't like vanilla, things which are significantly different from vanilla, but those combined don't come close to the topic of the default texture filtering mode.

Don't get me wrong, I'm certainly not saying you don't like it off because it fits better with the original intent, nor am I saying you can't be okay with the other features of the hardware renderer and just want the filtering off, nor am I saying you don't have a right to voice that preference. I'm just saying the amount of fervor, how much and how often people bring it up as The Worst Thing That Needs Fixing ASAP, seems as if it was sparked by a relative few regularly bringing it up derisively because it's what Graf wants. And with it regularly made a topic of discussion, more people would harp on not liking it rather than silently accept it as just one more option to change on the rare occasion after resetting all options to default, and at some point it hit critical mass where it just keeps coming up on its own.
edward850 wrote: Tue Oct 28, 2025 10:17 pm Nobody hated the texture filtering default just because Graf existed, that would be absurd and frankly un-provable as a position because it requires everyone else to prove a negative which you cannot do as evidence.
I'm sorry if I gave the impression that someone doesn't like it just because Graf existed. I'm more trying to get across the idea that how vocal and impassioned people get about it, people who prefer it off but would just silently accept as something they need to turn off after resetting all options, have become more vocal because of a general anti-Graf sentiment in the some sections of the community combined with them not agreeing on this thing, and it just became a kind of meme. I'm not saying it definitely is because of that, just that it seems like that from my perspective having been around when GL renderers first became a thing, and seeing the general sentiment the community has toward Graf along with his response to some wanting it off by default.
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Enjay
 
 
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Re: Texture filtering default discussion

Post by Enjay »

I think Chris has encapsulated what I had observed and was asking about really quite well. There is something more about this issue than the direct implications of this particular option. People are far more passionate about it than other issues. That's all I was asking about from the start: why is this one so special. We've had several answers, and some seem very close to an explanation and I suspect the truth is a combination of all of them in some kind of mix.

I can also see that the Graf angle that Chris raised is probably relevant. I was forming a similar thought myself last night after I logged off.

I can very easily see someone asking Graf to change the default and getting a [No].
The [No] may have come with an explanation (I certainly remember Graf explaining his logic at least once, a very long time ago) but it could equally have been a very terse [No] that riled up the asker.
But then people kept asking. They asked over and over. They made digs about it in unrelated conversations, the started a poll, etc. etc. They made it, as Chris said, a meme.
And always they received a no (no doubt increasingly terse - which is actually understandable, if you've been told no but keep asking over and over).
The positions became entrenched.
So, when the news broke that UZDoom had happened and Graf was not a contributor, that was it. A release of victory passion by those who'd been asking about it. Maybe.
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Enjay
 
 
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Re: Texture filtering default discussion

Post by Enjay »

All that being said, the question has been asked and I think more-or-less answered.

The points are now becoming very circular and repeated.

I've received several reports and complaints relating to the nature of some of the replies that have been made to this thread. That, in itself, is interesting because in a thread that essentially asked "why are people so passionate about this" some answers were given where the passion spilled over into what some considered to be attacks and/or unnecessary aggressiveness.

So, I think it's time for the thread to close.

Thank you to all who contributed. The thread did tackle the question that I want to ask. There was always a risk that it could spill over into something more emotional, but for the most part it didn't.

/thread
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