Dawntrail Graphics Update - Eye Strain

Probably not the place to be making jokes, sorry. Just generally referring to people talking about the super bright lighting in 7.4 Arcadion. I'm still a ways off unfortunately so I can't collect screenshots for the thread.

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Originally Posted by KihyiFelhede

Probably not the place to be making jokes, sorry. Just generally referring to people talking about the super bright lighting in 7.4 Arcadion. I'm still a ways off unfortunately so I can't collect screenshots for the thread.

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Nah, you're fine. That's how the Arcadion experience has been for the eye strain squad!

Going to bump this.

After playing the new FL mode, the ground feels really bad because it flickers alot when moving/stopping. Please tell me someone else experiences this? I see it mildly in armor details, but it's way worse on leaves/foilage. I wish things would stay either sharp or blurry. Other FL modes don't have this issue...

In the end this has been something that has caused me headache since the graphical update, at this point I wish it was optional.

I tried everything, reshade, FSR/DLSS, etc..

There may yet be hope for people with issues with the glare setting

https://youtu.be/5t3pFcJwiwU?si=aM9VW0tIG_Ta3j2d&t=347

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Originally Posted by TransgressorPterodactyl

There may yet be hope for people with issues with the glare setting

https://youtu.be/5t3pFcJwiwU?si=aM9VW0tIG_Ta3j2d&t=347

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Finally some hope! I miss the days when I had glare turned off and it removed the shiny lights in the game (it's called 'bloom' in other games). I hope the setting will work just like before DT!

And after that, I only want an option to disable that horrible graphics upscaling. I have that crap turned off in every game, Idk why it's forced in XIV.

Still gunna send this up until issues are actually addressed

All this time and still no answer. :(

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Originally Posted by Kinho

All this time and still no answer. :(

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Honestly that's the most disappointing thing for me - after years of playing this game I'd believed the devs were open to feedback and something like this would've been if not corrected, then at least acknowledged in all the time this thread has been open. Aside from the response to a Korean player's comment, the devs haven't said anything about this. 7.4 introduced a few settings to help colorblind players so I do wonder if it's being looked at, but as ever we're only left with speculation.

I've been researching and collecting player experiences with eye strain (plus seizures and migraines etc) for a report I compiling about this problem to try and raise awareness through other channels. If anyone wants to report their experiences or anything I've missed, I encourage them to do so here:

https://straintrail.carrd.co/

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Originally Posted by Vesplume

Honestly that's the most disappointing thing for me - after years of playing this game I'd believed the devs were open to feedback and something like this would've been if not corrected, then at least acknowledged in all the time this thread has been open. Aside from the response to a Korean player's comment, the devs haven't said anything about this. 7.4 introduced a few settings to help colorblind players so I do wonder if it's being looked at, but as ever we're only left with speculation.

I've been researching and collecting player experiences with eye strain (plus seizures and migraines etc) for a report I compiling about this problem to try and raise awareness through other channels. If anyone wants to report their experiences or anything I've missed, I encourage them to do so here:

https://straintrail.carrd.co/

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So far there was zero reaction to player feedback. For SE to improve something, it almost always needs to be some scandal involving third party tools.

It really is regrettable. I just ran into heavy migraine triggers again today in the new Variant dungeon from eye strain and the excessive lights. I was okay with the third round of Arcadion and briefly had some hope that they were learning to tone things down a bit, but that was too hasty. I simply have to severely limit my involvement with this game, especially its battle content, on a long-term basis. This was so unnecessary.

Just thought I'd pop in to say that even with the contrast turned all the way down on my TV, the new variant dungeon contrast is really awful and makes me dizzy, so if stuff has been bothering you definitely do not go into the new variant dungeon.

Also wanting to second that the new variant dungeon, while very pretty, is genuinely painful on the eyes after a few runs. Makes me yearn for them to bring back the 2009 era yellow filter games had because it would help diffuse some the over saturation.

I'd like to note that this is while playing with good distance between myself and the screen, with ample lighting to diffuse screen light and my TV settings already tweaked to handle my needs for games to not set off photosensitvity.

(No, I cannot use reshade, I am on PS5, I appreciate people trying to be helpful in the thread saying this but it is not an accessible option for a large chunk of the playerbase.)

If they had basic graphic functions like full brightness and contrast control instead of just a gamma slider then it, along with all general content, would likely be tolerable even with the extreme amount of chromatic aberration they're putting in everything now. FFXIV is the only game that is giving me this issue, and Yoshida's blanket off-hand mention in an interview that things like bloom toggle is going to (allegedly, because it's Yoshida, and I trust anything he says about as well as I can throw a horse) return sometime nebulously just feels like a total cop-out. Toggles like that have existed in most industry releases as standard for decades—they're not even technically considered an accessibility feature, it's just a normal goddamn feature to make sure a game-look functions and is playable for a person.

I shouldn't have to have a damn cheat-sheet written out for my TV settings whenever I have to adjust them ~Specially For FFXIV Because It's A Diva~ so I don't try to gouge my astigmatisms out, to then have to put them back to my own normal settings for everything else. That's just stupid. And beyond backwards. And even in doing that unless I basically have my screen so dark I can barely see it it still causes issues, including bursting blood vessels repeatedly.

Again, this is only an issue playing XIV.

Despite my astigmatism not being triggered I hope square Enix and led headlight manufacturers pay more attention to us

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Originally Posted by faiarrow

Again, this is only an issue playing XIV.

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Yep, same for me, it's only FFXIV, and it has only turned this bad with Dawntrail. I aready use my monitor's eye-saving mode, everything is warmer mode, blue light reduction, I've set the game to as little flashing as I could, but it's just way way too much.
(Not sure if we can mention other games here so) I've also been playing another big MMO that got a big expansion recently, and I can roam around the light-themed regions, stand right next to the light-magic-themed sacred place and such that's basically a big lamp in the floor, and I'm just fine because the colours are a lot more muted and there's not the same insistence on flashbang and laser tag. Placing both games next to each other on the same monitor for a laugh only makes it clear just how brightly tuned FFXIV is, and the variant dungeon is one of the extreme cases.
I was actually looking forward to it and was going to run all the routes with my friend, but I just can't do it. I had to look away during the boss fights and focus on the few dark spots in the scenery that I could find, and had to give up after one run. This is really frustrating. I'd like something as simple as knowing I can play any content I want without a migraine, and enter any roulette I want without having to remember, "oh right, this has this in there now, and it's likely to come up these days, better not". That should not be too much to ask.

I unironically think old faces were better. I think texture quality was massively improved for the game world but some other things changed with it that I am not a fan of.

But yes +1 on some eye strain. Not sure why but I feel it most in ARR.

There being no mention of something to do with this during FF is very disappointing!

Hard to believe we're going to be waiting for 8.0 before anything in here might get addressed

"the players really complain about red mages lb3 flashbang"....

"As an apology, here's a 3 headed red fire bird, within a burning red arena, with an orange red filter".

"Wow, you all really hated that, our apology is extremely flashy boss attacks and arenas, please look forward to it".