Image effect order

I tried a little Google about this but nothing came up. If my google-fu is weak please tell me.

When you guys/girls stack image effects, do you keep to a certain order? As far as I have read/watched/tested so far bloom needs to before tone-mapping and anti-aliasing is probably last. But apart from that I am not sure. Is there even a preferred order? for performance or technical reasons? Or is it all purely artistic?

For example I have an issue where I am using a LUT (look up texture) to change the feel of my game, I also have tonemaping and I cant decide which order to put them in or if I even need tonemapping.

 

Hi, I would usually use the LUT after tonemapping as LUT would be the final touch up in my case. I'd use it to change the ambience, soften/harden the contrasts, touch up levels, balance, etc... Think of LUT as if you take your final shot(meaning after all HDR related effects have been applied as well as bloom, dof, etc...) and bring into photoshop for final tuning.
Of course, the choice is up to you and whatever gives the best results in your game.

 

Some post process are going to simulate part of the lighting on the scene (SSAO, SSR), some post process will simulate how a camera or human eye perceive the scene lighting (DOF, motion blut) and some post process will modify how the camera perceive colors (color correction, color grading).

To be "physically correct" you first need to compute the scene lighting to be used as an input for how the camera perceive the scene. Then, you compute how the camera perceive the scene and you finalize with colors manipulation.

1- Scene lighting post process (SSR, SSAO, ....)
2- Camera/lens/eye Perception post process (Depth of field, motion blur, Bloom, ...)
3- Color Correction/ Color grading (Tonemapping, LUT, ...)
4- Antialiasing

Globally, something like this:
-SSR
-SSAO
-DoF
-Motion Blur
-Bloom
-Tonemapping
-LUT/color grading
-Antialiasing

Tonemapping is used to map HDR color range to LDR color range. Most LUT/Color grading tools only works in LDR, this is why you need to put tonemapping before color grading.

 

I'd put the antialiasing first, so it can pick up jagged edges before bloom or SSAO hides it.

 

Thanks everyone. Some great advice here.

 

Also, if you use post process antialiasing, I recommend SMAA. It's free, and looks better than FXAA.