About update #6

[Badore90]

Some thoughts after tried the latest update:

First of all, everything seems to work without problems on both my PCs (one dual core with integrated GPU and another with quad core i5 and dedicated gpu nVIDIA MX 130).

DSOAL is one of the best improvements ever, in my opinion, finally you can really hear from were noises come. On both my PCs I get audio 7.1 in game's options. I noticed in the alsoft.ini file the item channels has no value, is it normal?

...and what if I want to change the frequency from 44100 to 48000hz. Should I change the value only at frequency item or also on default-hrtf??

About A.I. upscaled images I think the result is overally very good (some images, like the water well at the beginning are evidently more difficult to manage for the A.I. also 'cause it wasn't very well designed on the first place. But in any case, is always an improvement over the original-low-res images. Most of them are pratically perfect).

And now some honest (and constructive I hope) criticism:

1. The re-done images... I know this was a very very difficult task (SH2 design isn't easy to replicate). I read some criticism on the YT video about it, and actually I have to agree, partly at least. Let me explain:

First thing to make clear is that, definition/resolution and detail although correlated, are two completely different things, like body and soul.

Original images made by team silent had an incredible amount of detail. This is easilly noticeable even if them were originally scaled to a low resolution (like, through a emulator you can upscale SH1 ps1 to 4k, it'd become more defined than SH2 on Ps2 (720x480). The ps2 game though will remain much more detailed thanks to the actual texture detail).

Now, the new images (at least the one you showed on the YT video) sure are infinitely more defined than the original-low-res one, btw them are clearly less detailed (nay "less-well detailed"...). Generally, they give a too clearer feeling, also due to the bright/lively colors used, it seems a little cartoony, like you'd expect on a platform game. Some materials are no longer recognizable also.

Considering the original images and game's spirit/idea, I think it'd have been better a more realism-oriented/dark, dirty, cloudy (in one word, faithful) approach.

That said, no one prevents from keep using the original images, so... it's not a actual issue.

I didn't checked very carefully the maps, but them seem good. The 16:9 visualization when zooming in is also a great improvement.

2. This isn't strictly related to this update, most a general thing I noticed: this game is senselessly heavy!

I know that a optimization work on this game is as important as it is difficult to do. The problem is that it seems to scale with the PC power: I remember playing this game on a pentium with about 1ghz of cpu and a geforce MX/MX400 (32MB of RAM). Now I play on the dualcore 2.0 GHZ that's at least 10 times faster that that old PC and also on the new notebook that's again 10 times faster than the dualcore one. The game runs more or less the same on either PCs, quite choppy in many areas.

About this I noticed a good improvement on this last update. On the dualcore PC, during cut-scenes, if there were video slowdowns, it used to keep the audio running at the correct speed (so faster than the video) making audio and video to increasingly mismatch for the cut-scene duration. Now with this 6th update, the audio wait for the video if there are slowdowns. I don't know if this issue was related to indirect sound, but it seems solved now.

One last question: The "use best settings" option, also affects the noise filter perhaps disabling it as default?

[AeroWidescreen]

One last question: The "use best settings" option, also affects the noise filter perhaps disabling it as default?

It doesn't affect the noise filter at all. By default the PC version has it disabled, so we decided to leave it like that because some people hate it and some people love it. It's not really an objective improvement like the other settings.

I'll leave the other questions for @Polymega and @elishacloud.

[Polymega]

...and what if I want to change the frequency from 44100 to 48000hz. Should I change the value only at frequency item or also on default-hrtf??

Info for this can be found here.

And now some honest (and constructive I hope) criticism:

Thank you for your feedback and notes on this. I'm noting responses that are emotionally grounded for any revisions to the images.

Generally, they give a too clearer feeling, also due to the bright/lively colors used, it seems a little cartoony, like you'd expect on a platform game. Some materials are no longer recognizable also.

This is because the full screen images used TV levels (16-235) and not full range levels (0-255). We also changed this for the FMVs. When changing this, it not only makes blacks blacker and whites whiter, but also brings out the colors more. It's a good thing, as TV levels are not really desired for PC games/monitors.

For some images, I did increase the saturation further. The prison bug room is such an image. It wasn't easily noticeable that the lights were turning red on the original image.

For things such as lights that are designed to give you feedback with a puzzle, I want to make sure they're noticeable to guide the player along.

Although I will respectfully disagree that the images I had to remake are more cartoony looking and would more likely be seen in a platformer.

Considering the original images and game's spirit/idea, I think it'd have been better a more realism-oriented/dark, dirty, cloudy (in one word, faithful) approach.

Are there specific images that don't have a realistic effect or dark/dirty tone to you?

I would also ask you to have an understanding/expectation of what's involved on my end for this part of the project. Certain images just shouldn't be upscaled. For example, this looks terrible upscaled because the original image was incredibly compressed:

...so remaking it from scratch is ultimately easier than trying to fix all these artifacts. Because it's remade, it's unrealistic to think I'd have the original source assets to work from. So while the image is different, it still stays true in spirit (faithful, as you say) to the original:

And for this image, the verbiage is changed because the devs changed what James reads off the sign, but never changed the verbiage on the sign accordingly. This oversight has been corrected:

I know people won't like all the images I've worked on for this part of the project. That's fine and is something I've tried to mentally prepare for as best I can. It's a fool's errand to think this would please everyone. But I hope over time and upon reflection that, at the very least, you eventually won't consider them cartoony, unrealistic, and unfaithful from the spirit of the originals.

[Badore90]

One last question: The "use best settings" option, also affects the noise filter perhaps disabling it as default?

It doesn't affect the noise filter at all. By default the PC version has it disabled, so we decided to leave it like that because some people hate it and some people love it. It's not really an objective improvement like the other settings.

Ok thank you, it is right as it is then. I wasn't sure.

I always suggest new players to enable it on their first run. You know on both team silent-made versions (Ps2 and Xbox) you are forced to keep it enable on the first run. It is clearly an important graphic detail related to the story. A metaphor representing the turbid mental state of James reflected on the player. Then after you finish the game, you can see things more clear...

[Polymega]

I think you may be reading too much into that. You can disable it from the start for SH3 PS2 & PC (edit: SH4 as well, I believe). It's a graphical setting the devs later realized should be able to be toggled from the start.

I checked out the packages on our site; we do not include a preset settings.ini file with our project, so if the noise filter was already on/off the first time a player launches the game isn't caused from our end.

[Badore90]

Info for this can be found here.

Sorry it escaped me. Thank you.

Thank you for your feedback and notes on this. I'm noting responses that are emotionally grounded for any revisions to the images.

Generally, they give a too clearer feeling, also due to the bright/lively colors used, it seems a little cartoony, like you'd expect on a platform game. Some materials are no longer recognizable also.

This is because the full screen images used TV levels (16-235) and not full range levels (0-255). We also changed this for the FMVs. When changing this, it not only makes blacks blacker and whites whiter, but also brings out the colors more. It's a good thing, as TV levels are not really desired for PC games/monitors.

For some images, I did increase the saturation further. The prison bug room is such an image. It wasn't easily noticeable that the lights were turning red on the original image.

For things such as lights that are designed to give you feedback with a puzzle, I want to make sure they're noticeable to guide the player along.

Although I will respectfully disagree that the images I had to remake are more cartoony looking and would more likely be seen in a platformer.

Considering the original images and game's spirit/idea, I think it'd have been better a more realism-oriented/dark, dirty, cloudy (in one word, faithful) approach.

Are there specific images that don't have a realistic effect or dark/dirty tone to you?

I would also ask you to have an understanding/expectation of what's involved on my end for this part of the project. Certain images just shouldn't be upscaled. For example, this looks terrible upscaled because the original image was incredibly compressed:

...so remaking it from scratch is ultimately easier than trying to fix all these artifacts. Because it's remade, it's unrealistic to think I'd have the original source assets to work from. So while the image is different, it still stays true in spirit (faithful, as you say) to the original:

And for this image, the verbiage is changed because the devs changed what James reads off the sign, but never changed the verbiage on the sign accordingly. This oversight has been corrected:

I know people won't like all the images I've worked on for this part of the project. That's fine and is something I've tried to mentally prepare for as best I can. It's a fool's errand to think this would please everyone. But I hope over time and upon reflection that, at the very least, you eventually won't consider them cartoony, unrealistic, and unfaithful from the spirit of the originals.

First of all I feel I owe you an apology. I've been a little rude on purpose, taking the side of the skeptics for making the point as clear as possible... However I've been also too general, let's deepen:

Personally I don't think images are to throw away, I think that some could be improved with just little modification.

About saturation, it's a thorny topic. Too much saturation is one of the main things that makes colors more cartoon looking. As you know Silent Hill 2 was mastered on professional Sony monitors, I think on rec.601 color space, like DVD films. I understand your point in increasing saturation on that riddle image. It is good anyway I think.

I think that the cartoon looking is also a indirect effect. Because the low-res of the original ones, partly gives them a dirtier and less saturated/colorful aspect. Making them in high-res, saturation should be decreased for a more natural/realistic yield, maybe also some dirt should be added?

Some complaints i red on YT comments were about wood key icons. I think making them less saturated would give them to better resemble real wood.

About these images you posted. Nothing to say about the first. The second is good, just a little different. It have more contrast, so you can't see as detail as in the original. Btw I think this image is just a little too clean.

The bottom side on the original is dirtier, also the write on some parts.

I would add some more black/dark dirt on the sign, and also make the write more ruined, with some letters a little discolored/incomplete, to make it seem older and ruined as the original one, this way no one could complain... Also I realize as I say it that they're just minor details.

So probably you're right, it's just a question of habit for old players.

[elishacloud]

Btw I think this image is just a little too clean. would add some more black/dark dirt on the sign, and also make the write more ruined, with some letters a little discolored/incomplete, to make it seem older and ruined as the original one

I kind of felt the same way a little bit until I displayed the picture in 1:1 (per-pixel zooming). It is only when you zoom out that the picture seems too clean. It must be something to do with how Windows handles zooming.

[Badore90]

I think you may be reading too much into that. You can disable it from the start for SH3 PS2 & PC (edit: SH4 as well, I believe). It's a graphical setting the devs later realized should be able to be toggled from the start.

I checked out the packages on our site; we do not include a preset settings.ini file with our project, so if the noise filter was already on/off the first time a player launches the game isn't caused from our end.

AeroWidescreen already answered me. Yes, on SH3 you can disable it from the beginning. Btw only on SH2 it really fits the story meaning. It could be a wrong theory I dont know, sure it fits though.

I just showed the sign image to my unaware sister...

She said that the first (original) one is visibly more ruined and the second (re-made) is newer and the write seems fake because isn't ruined at all. In her opinion some part of the letter should be faded.

Again, I want to make clear I appreciate your hard work as always. I wasn't even sure to point these things out being afraid of offending you. I done it only because I want to help you to do the best possible job since anyone can notice things that others don't.

[Badore90]

Btw I think this image is just a little too clean. would add some more black/dark dirt on the sign, and also make the write more ruined, with some letters a little discolored/incomplete, to make it seem older and ruined as the original one

I kind of felt the same way a little bit until I displayed the picture in 1:1 (per-pixel zooming). It is only when you zoom out that the picture seems too clean. It must be something to do with how Windows handles zooming.

I watched the picture in any way. I like the fact that the light coming from the torch is more visible.

...My sister said that the original image it's more atmospheric.

We're talking about details... Btw since I work with rusty metal every day I tell you my opinion:

On the re-made picture, the rust sems a bit clear, as if someone rubbed it with a steel brush. Different color gradients of the rust are good, they all should simply be darker. Btw this is a very minor detail, I think that making the write more ruined, matching the plate state, would be enough to make the sign more authentic. The net and tubes are good.

[AeroWidescreen]

@Badore90 I think part of the problem is that the images are in much higher resolution than before. The lower resolution of the original may give it a more "grimey" appearance.

Same image, different resolutions. Notice how the dirt marks are thicker, lines look rougher than before, and the text blends into the texture more,

Does this mean there are no room for improvements? No. Maybe more dirt or corrosion could be added to the images to compensate. Maybe the brightness could be toned down in a few areas. I'll leave that for Polymega to decide. But it's important to keep this in mind when comparing.

@elishacloud

It is only when you zoom out that the picture seems too clean. It must be something to do with how Windows handles zooming.

It could be that a low resolution accentuates macro details that are easily visible at small sizes. High resolution would have more micro detail that would be lost at small sizes. I hope that makes sense.

[Polymega]

Thank you for providing specific and constructive feedback, Badore. I'll take your notes into consideration when the time comes and I revisit these images.

Some complaints i red on YT comments were about wood key icons. I think making them less saturated would give them to better resemble real wood.

Hmm, I don't think there's any keys in the game that are made of wood?

[Badore90]

@Badore90 I think part of the problem is that the images are in much higher resolution than before. The lower resolution of the original may give it a more "grimey" appearance.

Same image, different resolutions. Notice how the dirt marks are thicker, lines look rougher than before, and the text blends into the texture more,

I was going to write this XD

Yes, at higher resolution any problem/lack is easilly noticeable. Going higher with res. you have to also add detail in the correct way. For example, making the maps too grainy, it wouldn't resemble a map paper (which are generally smooth) anymore but a sort of coarse grain painting paper. On low-res this kind of detail is hide. This isn't the case, I was just making an example.

Generally you have to look at the real material you're going to replicate to be sure.

[Badore90]

Thank you for providing specific and constructive feedback, Badore. I'll take your notes into consideration when the time comes and I revisit these images.

Thank you for your kindness and for accepting the feedback.

Some complaints i red on YT comments were about wood key icons. I think making them less saturated would give them to better resemble real wood.

Hmm, I don't think there's any keys in the game that are made of wood?

Maybe I mistaken the 3 table thing (that are made of stone, not wood, sorry, probably i confused with some other comments...). I read some critics comments, the main I was referring to is the plumptree one ("This may be unpopular... ...while also trying to make sure that it fits in with the rest of the world.")

I don't agree on everything he said (i.e. the maps, I think are really good. It's possible to make them better but sure they're already beter than the originals. Also the changed rope sign text, probably he forgot that this write was an error).

[Badore90]

This morning I recorded some rusty stuff to give a visual reference to what I said yesterday. A quick introduction:

It's out of question that producers had a realistic approach about SH2 graphics. They said it in the making of video, showing the huge amount of research on the field, taking photos from real life roads, buildings, insigna, etc... This is true especially for 2D images, whereas they had virtually no limit on the amount of detail (being pre-rendered images).

I don't know if they retraced the real-life photos or even directly used them as base textures (making modifications where needed), they are really convincing.

Then they downscaled the images to the desired (low) resolution, simple job. Now you're doing the opposite, making high-res pictures starting from low-res ones from wich can be very difficult to extrapolate the detail in the correct way since it's often a blurred mess.

Imho you should always keep in mind the producers approach, realistic, lifelike.

Now about the difference between the original and the re-made sign we were talking about yesterday:

• The re-made one have many scratches on it, like if someone damaged it. Then on those scratches rust has formed and someone rubbed it with a steel brush. Also the write is too perfect.

• On the original, they take a photo of a real sign that was ruined and rusted by time. Indeed the rust doesn't make scratches, it mostly eats the metal showing like spots (mostly roundish). Also there's much more dirt on the sign and colors in general are different.

[Polymega]

Maybe I mistaken the 3 table thing (that are made of stone, not wood, sorry, probably i confused with some other comments...).

Several of that person's comments come from an uninformed place. They're metal; not wood or stone. I mention this on my Twitter page: https://twitter.com/theRatiocinator/status/1321844546074980352

the main I was referring to is the plumptree one

Sorry, but I don't know what a plumptree is, in regards to the game? Edit: Oh, I think you're referring to the YouTube username? If so, see my comment above about his comments coming from an uninformed place.

[Badore90]

Here 7 short videos of rusty things:

N.1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13QkrC3qG8U N.2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0WXRr2GBOE N.3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKlJGPaKS-0 N.4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wc-cBGcBsEg N.5 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSU_NHvNoaY N.6 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfmqZA83KgA N.7 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tW7M5qDt4U

And here a good amount of photos:

IMG_20201031_093637 IMG_20201031_093950 IMG_20201031_093958 IMG_20201031_094127 IMG_20201031_094137 IMG_20201031_094145 IMG_20201031_094151 IMG_20201031_094523 IMG_20201031_094716 IMG_20201031_094725 IMG_20201031_094740 IMG_20201031_095101 IMG_20201031_101758 IMG_20201031_104403 IMG_20201031_112925 IMG_20201031_113014 IMG_20201031_164114 IMG_20201031_164126 IMG_20201031_164242 IMG_20201031_164248 IMG_20201031_173046 IMG_20201031_173056 IMG_20201031_173113 IMG_20201031_173556 IMG_20201031_173624 IMG_20201031_175220 IMG_20201031_175233 IMG_20201031_182343 IMG_20201031_182352

[Polymega]

Thank you; I will look into the sign again in the future.

[Badore90]

Maybe I mistaken the 3 table thing (that are made of stone, not wood, sorry, probably i confused with some other comments...).

Several of that person's comments come from an uninformed place. They're metal; not wood or stone. I mention this on my Twitter page: https://twitter.com/theRatiocinator/status/1321844546074980352

Ah, ok. I didn't verified everything he said. Good to know then.

the main I was referring to is the plumptree one

Sorry, but I don't know what a plumptree is, in regards to the game?

plumptree is the youtube user that writed one of the comments I was talking about. That comment is one of the first, just scroll down a little, it has about 40 likes. I writed the first and last phrases of the comment I was reffering to in brackets to avoid confusion with eventual other comments from him.

[Polymega]

plumptree is the youtube user that writed one of the comments I was talking about

I just realized what you meant a moment ago and edited my post. I'll re-write it here:

Edit: Oh, I think you're referring to the YouTube username? If so, see my comment above about his comments coming from an uninformed place.

Most of his comments felt like knee-jerk reactions to me. As he also said the lock box was too desaturated, despite me using the PS2 version. Or that the verbiage on the sign was right, when it was wrong.

I'm sure you see how exhausting this is for me at the moment; being flooded with responses and some of them coming from incorrect or emotionally spiked places. I need to filter these out from the other responses that are well informed.

My only recommendation is to draw your own conclusions on things; otherwise you'll think a piece of metal (that says it's metal) is stone or wood, if you just take someone else's word at face value. 😋

[Badore90]

Thank you; I will look into the sign again in the future.

I think that the main thing poeple notice is the write (not only the write, also the green contour, you can see from my photos how rust eat any kind of paint), that should be more ruined/faded in some spots, also rusted, dirt, more difficult to read, as the original (more dark/black dirt on the sign in general).

Second, the colors/saturation, contrast and color temperature of the image.

Making those 2 things as the original would please most, if not all detractors I think.

Going deeper, there's the rust detail and color.

Making the image in high-res requires much more attention for keeping the realism compared to a low-res one (on wich you can hide tiny defects).

The image you done is quite good as it is. The problem is mostly the fidelity with the original, no one would have complained if you were making a your new game.

[GlitchyReal]

I think a lot of what some folks are complaining about is actually the fact that the game is in HD and highlighting some rather "cheap"-looking aspects to the design such as the bug room keypad not looking like a "real" keypad. Same with the hospital lockbox. Or the very basic font-types used in the hanged man puzzle sign.

I think what's happening is the memories of what it felt like it looked like (wood/stone vs metal placards). Seeing it all in HD now, I had this same thing happen to me, seeing it all clearly for the first time, like it is the first time I've seen these images. It's weird. It's just the uncanny nature of upscaling/redrawing something into higher resolutions than ever intended.

The new images are great, in my opinion and need little to no additional work.

I will add, however, that Silent Hill 2's aesthetic is much associated with black grime. In the case of the hanged man puzzle sign, perhaps the rust, while appropriate and well executed, could use a wash of black grime? Otherwise, I can't see any issues that aren't inherent to a higher resolution conflicting with nostalgic misremembering.

Gonna give this game a fresh new playthrough again again. Thank you all for your hard work on this!

[Badore90]

I'm sure you see how exhausting this is for me at the moment; being flooded with responses and some of them coming from incorrect or emotionally spiked places. I need to filter these out from the other responses that are well informed.

I imagine. There's no hurry btw, we are talking about details, you should take a deserved vacation :D

There's one last minor thing I want to tell you about color saturation.

Be careful in adding saturation, it seems pleasant to a inattentive first look, but it's one of the main reasons for a cartoon looking picture.

This is a simple saturation pattern for a basic (eyepiece) monitor/tv saturation adjustment.

Raising your screen saturation, you'll see that the more you raise it the more color shades you lose. They end up squashed upwards, every shade about the same color (max saturated). You're actually loosing color detail.

The correct way to adjust the monitor is indeed to set the saturation in a way that you can distinguish the most possible color shades (at least on blue and red columns) while keeping the center shade with the maximum possible saturation (obviously decreasing it too much would end up shquashing shades downwards).

This applies also when doing a realistic picture.

Now a related thing, but not about image quality, it's about gameplay. That fingerboad riddle photo you posted, I want to say my honest opinion (just a subjective opinion):

A riddle should be a riddle. I really don't like them on most new adventure games (like Uncharted) they solve by themselves, you don't have to use the brain at all.

SH2 have (at least at hard and very hard difficult, but also in normal is not bad) actual riddles. They're not complicated as in the old good graphic adventures (even Grim Fandango that's the easiest one is harder) but you can still call them riddles.

In a good riddle, clues should never be discounted, you must have the ability to find them, but searching a little.

Pratically I'd adjust the saturation on that picture in a way to distinguish very slightly the illuminated buttons. Like you notice it after you carefully look at them. So just a little more saturated than the original, also because i think that in high-res is easier to spot that difference.

Just my tastes, you don't have to take into account this. I like some challenge in games like this but it can be a subjective thing.

[Badore90]

I think a lot of what some folks are complaining about is actually the fact that the game is in HD and highlighting some rather "cheap"-looking aspects to the design such as the bug room keypad not looking like a "real" keypad. Same with the hospital lockbox. Or the very basic font-types used in the hanged man puzzle sign.

I think what's happening is the memories of what it felt like it looked like (wood/stone vs metal placards). Seeing it all in HD now, I had this same thing happen to me, seeing it all clearly for the first time, like it is the first time I've seen these images. It's weird. It's just the uncanny nature of upscaling/redrawing something into higher resolutions than ever intended.

The new images are great, in my opinion and need little to no additional work.

I will add, however, that Silent Hill 2's aesthetic is much associated with black grime. In the case of the hanged man puzzle sign, perhaps the rust, while appropriate and well executed, could use a wash of black grime? Otherwise, I can't see any issues that aren't inherent to a higher resolution conflicting with nostalgic misremembering.

Gonna give this game a fresh new playthrough again again. Thank you all for your hard work on this!

I'm trying to act as an intermediary filtering some constructive/legitimate criticism I read. Actually I mistaken some of them since I didn't checked all the new image by myself, just saw some.

I personally think that overally the new images are already a huge improvement as they are. I'll check all images when I have some time, so I'll make sure to move some eventual critics only after having insured its goodness.

[Badore90]

I know that a optimization work on this game is as important as it is difficult to do. The problem is that it seems to scale with the PC power: I remember playing this game on a pentium with about 1ghz of cpu and a geforce MX/MX400 (32MB of RAM). Now I play on the dualcore 2.0 GHZ that's at least 10 times faster that that old PC and also on the new notebook that's again 10 times faster than the dualcore one. The game runs more or less the same on either PCs, quite choppy in many areas.

About this I noticed a good improvement on this last update. On the dualcore PC, during cut-scenes, if there were video slowdowns, it used to keep the audio running at the correct speed (so faster than the video) making audio and video to increasingly mismatch for the cut-scene duration. Now with this 6th update, the audio wait for the video if there are slowdowns. I don't know if this issue was related to indirect sound, but it seems solved now.

Update: I always noticed that performance problems on this game seems kind of random. Sometimes on the same area you get stutter, other times everything is perfectly smooth. In part it could also be related on PC OS, background processes (PCs often aren't as stable as gaming consoles).

After installing this latest update, I got the usual stutter, i.e. on the observatory area (going left and right). From the second time I started the game onwards, I always got a smooth panning. My pc monitor is 1920x1080, I also connected it to the 2550x1440 monitor and also with this resolution it remains perfectly smooth.

Only thing i done was to delete the local.fix file to let the new d3d8 creating it by new, but I think it doesn't matter. Maybe something has stabilized after the first game's launch, I don't know.

I still get some random little hiccups occasionally (not related to the starting dialogues). I think the game isn't that heavy in itself, there must be some bugged/poor optimized processes that occasionally make performance to stall.

[CHNSK]

I think you may be reading too much into that. You can disable it from the start for SH3 PS2 & PC (edit: SH4 as well, I believe). It's a graphical setting the devs later realized should be able to be toggled from the start.

AeroWidescreen already answered me. Yes, on SH3 you can disable it from the beginning. Btw only on SH2 it really fits the story meaning. It could be a wrong theory I dont know, sure it fits though...

From silenthillchronicle.net:

Ito says that the use of visual noise in the game isn't constant-- it's very slight at the beginning and increases as Heather gets closer to Silent Hill.

footnote # 3: In Silent Hill 2, noise was used to express James' delusions. In Silent Hill 3, one reason there's very little noise in the early stages of the game is that Heather hasn't yet recovered her memories.

[Polymega]

Yeah, I remember reading this a while back. But some things to consider:

SH2 Xbox and SH3 PC were handled by Team Silent themselves. And in these versions, you can disable the noise filter from the start (with no prior save files), even with its significance in SH2/3.

I'm not saying Ito's statements on the noise filter are wrong (of course not), but I am saying he and the team realized it should be something that's toggled from the start after SH2/3's PS2 release.

(And for a fresh install of SH2 PC, I believe the noise filter is enabled by default anyway.)

[Badore90]

On SH3 you can disable the filter from the start in all versions (Ps2 also).

SH2 Xbox I'm pretty sure you need to beat the game for the option to appear as on Ps2 (my Xbox power pack got a problem recently, so I can't verify).

(And for a fresh install of SH2 PC, I believe the noise filter is enabled by default anyway.)

Indeed, I was just curious to know if the EE affected that setting.

[CHNSK]

Yeah. I think the noise effect is like the fog in this regard, only not as important. Started as some sort of work around, for masking something, like Takayoshi Sato would say. But then it got its context inserted into the story by the other members. Mind you I've quoted the commentary only to point out that it's not just a visual setting option. Otherwise I also don't use it for SH2 like many others as it costs that sweet contrast but definitely use it for SH3 for the exact same reason. Regardless of being able to turn it off from the start, I recommend to having it turn on at all times for SH3, since turning it off shuts off/breaks some lighting effect and the game will lost its luminous quality. The person who edited pcgamingwiki, unaware of this, urges people to crank up their brightness level to get the most contrast but that gives an utterly washed out picture as a result, as you can't compensate the good contrast and god knows what other luminosity effects with just brightness. So yeah, in the end, Noise Effect is a very strange case. Other than its 'canonical' relevance, the devs' intentions and being able to disable from the start, there is this technical/visual outcome which totally different for the two games. I'm glad to have the option to disable for SH2, tho.

Now since we are talking about PS2 version, I'd like bring up something I forgot. It's about 'PS2FlashlightBrightness'. Thanks to this fix, now the flashlight is more immersive but don't you think the enemy brightness kinda overrides it? I know that you bring this to being identical to the PS2 version but I feel sure that you'd agree if I say seeing enemies glow even outside of the flashlight circle is detrimental to the atmosphere? I strongly believe that this lighting feature was there only for playability reasons. Since the game meant to be played on relatively smaller CRTs with a considerable distance from the TV, thanks to the DS2's generous cord length :) But now we're closer to the monitors and the big TV's with high resolutions, don't you feel that this feature become unnecessary? We always compare everything with the PS2 version, rightly so, as it is(or was) the superior. But on this occasion, maybe the only instance the PC version did something better. Enemies coming out of darkness instead of telegraphing their locations and models. I also believe that Creature Labs shut off constant specularity for the same reason.

[CHNSK]

I hope these didn't feel like nitpicking or nagging, btw. I realize that when you didn't implement something like how it exactly was in the PS2 version, you got people all over you. When you did something faithful, you still have some people with contrary things to say. And there are people whose old experience with the games became blurry, their memories misleading them. We talked about this deluded people. I hope I didn't sound like them by any means. And boldened by the highly configurable nature of the fixes in the project, (as a gamepad player, I love the turn off health cross completely btw) I'd like to ask, would you ever consider to revisit the fix to giving an option of having the PS2 brightness without the glow effect?

[Badore90]

On SH3 there's also that crappy "smooth" filter many Ps2 games have (like God of War, on wich is named "anti-aliasing"...). First thing I do in every game is going to the options for disabling it. The noise filter instead I read it changes depending on distance from the enemies (I still don't have played SH3 throroughly).

On SH4 (I played it on Xbox) the filter appears even if you disabled it in certain circumstances (nearby ghosts).

About the glow effect, as long as the option is switchable I don't care. Personally I think that the less things are changed the better is, I'm only for objective improvements that nobody could complain. We don't know the intended meaning of many things, plus even some maybe unsignificant things got many explanations by the fans in the years.

However, as optional setting it could please some people. I agree with your consideration, playing with a well calibrated TV (with a actual black) you'd see mosters at the last moment. I don't know if it'd be better leaving it disabled by default though.

[Polymega]

Thank you all for your feedback.