Washed-out colours/bad lighting?

So, I've been playing XIV for a few days now after playing XI for many years. I've been pleasantly surprised by how much I'm enjoying the game, despite the problems upon release - though I guess I've joined at a time that these things are now being fixed.

One thing that is really bugging me while I'm playing, however, is that everything looks either dark, dull or washed-out. Particularly when I'm running around field areas in the day, it's like there's some constant dawn mist, like a white filter over the game world. And at night or when walking around certain parts of Ul'dah, everything is just a little too dark. In the field at night everything is just blue, including my character. I guess this is a lighting effect but it's starting to get a little annoying and eye-straining looking at my character, like sitting in a badly lit room trying to read words on a page.

Is this something to do with my video settings or has anyone else experienced this? Maybe I need to change contrast settings?

http://i56.tinypic.com/rtg8lg.jpg

I can post some screenshots soon once the sun comes up in-game.

Honestly, nothing you said seems to be in my game personally. o.o

Nothing looks dark, dull, or washed out. And there's plenty of color, too. The lighting is what impressed me the most about the game. I still sometimes just stare at various areas if they have great lighting and take screenshots. :3

Maybe mess with your monitor settings, I'm not sure. :(

I have a HD4600 (ya it sucks, sobuy me a new one) and I guess it not being DX11, or the fact that I play on 42" LCD TV in a sunny living room, I can't see shit for half the day. Like good old Levinshower, I'd have to run into the wall or just follow someone, and hope i didnt lag or clip a corner too long.

The game is crazy dark at night and nowhere can I adjust the contrast etc. I've dealt with it, but it sucks and its really annoying to be in caves at night. REALLY annoying.

From what I see in the picture... your text is coming out as brightly as mine does, but your screen is like, quite a bit darker than mine.

You could try turning off shadows to see if that helps make things a little less black *options > configuration > system > shadows on/off*

As for the washed out colours, some of it may be accountable to weather, Thanalan has dust storms during the day which makes seeing anything quite difficult, La Noscea has wind and fog effects, and Black Shroud.... it always rains in Black Shroud. When it's nice and sunny though the game is very bright and colourfull. :D

Thanks for the replies guys.

I tried changing shadows but it didn't seem to help unfortunately.

I did actually turn up my screen brightness and it seemed to help during daytime.

Night is still an issue however. I think the problem is that character models are subject to the same lighting effects as the game environment. This may sound pretty obvious and logical, however shouldn't characters be slightly more lit up than the rest of the game environment? It may not be realistic but it would help a lot considering they're the main things we look at.

I find at night, characters as well as the enviroment tends to be light up by the moonlight:

Like this

If your character isn't being illuminated by natural night-lighting then there may be the possibility (only a possibility, i'm not saying is or isn't :3) that your graphics card may have a problem with the pixel shading.

I definitely get the same effect on my game, but it still seems a little dark. Perhaps this is just personal preference or I need to get used to the lighting in the game maybe. I just find the colours aren't vibrant enough at certain times of the day.

I tend to keep my camera behind my character so that her feet are just above the HP bar, this seems to be close enough to give colour and detail at night without being too close to not see my surroundings, perhaps moving your camera closer may help too? I dunno :3

I know what you mean about the vibrancy though, during Thanalan dust storms it's as if everything turns yellow, and I just bought a full set of pink mage clothes and most of the time I can barely tell it's pink XD Still, it's better than looking at the now horribly dated graphics most other mmo's have.

This games color is washed out bigtime. It is not you it's the game. (I love the game but the color not so much)

It's this, or Super Mario 64 colour. Which would you prefer? XD