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[jbarrios]

I've noticed quite a few Nintendo Switch games have this effect that looks like a fake lighting effect.  At least I assume it's fake.  I know a true light takes a lot of hardware resources and the Switch is not incredibly strong.

Any idea how they do this?

[qMopey]

It's likely a fullscreen bloom effect, a post-processing effect.

https://learnopengl.com/Advanced-Lighting/Bloom

[jbarrios]

Thank you qMopey.

This led me down quite a rabbit hole.  I've always had negative assumptions about bloom.  It was always that annoying setting that made the sky look too bright and I always turned it off.

Apparently I'm not alone in this feeling.  A lot of games abuse bloom.  It seems like a pretty powerful tool when used correctly.

[qMopey]

It's nice to see Nintendo take a technique that's become aged, and use it in a way that players really appreciate. They're quite good with their designs.

[1star]

Bloom traditionally looked bad in old games and in modern post-fx filters because they only operated in SDR rather than HDR. What that resulted in was over-bloom effects that can't apply bloom in tactical locations, but rather on any bright spot or light texture. In most modern 3d game engines, 'emissive' materials allow for an easy way to 'emit' color above the standard range, then a post effect bloom will vary bloom intensity depending on how much above the standard range of the material.