7.2 Lighting is hurting my eyes.

[HawkeScream]

I FINALLY FOUND AN EXAMPLE I CAN SCREENIE. I return with evidence.





Shadows are doing this all over the game.

[Gokki]

Hi, I went and made a post in the Dawntrail character graphics update thread, but I wanted to make a thread specifically because 7.2 environmental lighting is hurting my eyes with no way to turn it down, or off. Even in 7.0, some areas like The Quicksands in Ul'dah felt way too dark. And now the lighting is even more aggressive in these already dark areas, which makes seeing things even more difficult.

The lighting was fine enough in 7.0 itself, but now passing by any Dawntrail Aetheryte kind of makes my eyes twitch. I hope these images show just how bright this all comes off as. I am currently playing on 50 for gamma correction, but neither 0 nor 100 really corrects how intense the brightness comes off as.

In short, the new lighting is so aggressive that I've had to stop playing after running Vanguard to write this post and my migraine still isn't gone because I've skimmed around to take a few screenshots. Not every source of light needs to radiate intensity two feet away from it. I do not play this game for realism.

I don't have any issues with lighting, you seem to be having one or several of the following:

• Light sensitivity - seek a doctor, this is not normal. May be due to stress or neurological disorder, including a minor case of epilepsy.
• Incorrect room light balance - bright lights in a dark room cause issues, do not do this
• Bad monitor calibration - having brightness set to maximum with high contrast - please calibrate your monitor, desktop and game settings
• Incorrect HDR setting, including "fake HDR" and shaders - please exercise proper color calibration

I have never experienced your issues, and neither have anyone i know of. This is definitely some issue on your end. FF14 is, in fact, quite muted and drab compared to many other games.
The lighting has, in fact, improved and became more accurate this patch. I think you just haven't felt anything until now and your issues are just now surfacing. Please look into your condition.

I FINALLY FOUND AN EXAMPLE I CAN SCREENIE. I return with evidence.

This is just bad shadow programming and nothing to do with OP's lighting issues i think. It IS an issue and i also dislike it, but i gave up on developers ever fixing it without raytracing.

[Windfire]

Ah yes, the problem is our end when before the graphics "update" there was no problem and XIV is the ONLY game now causing problems for more then a few . When it's a single game causing problems, it ain't us that has something wrong, it's the game.

[Daralii]

Ah yes, the problem is our end when before the graphics "update" there was no problem and XIV is the ONLY game now causing problems for more then a few . When it's a single game causing problems, it ain't us that has something wrong, it's the game.

Clearly we're just rubes that can't handle the unmatched level of quality that CS3 is capable of.

[HawkeScream]

Ah yes, the problem is our end when before the graphics "update" there was no problem and XIV is the ONLY game now causing problems for more then a few . When it's a single game causing problems, it ain't us that has something wrong, it's the game.

Seconding this. Before the update, zero issues. None. Not one. Photography is a hobby of mine and I edit photos. My screen is calibrated, the lighting in my room is fine, and I can SEE with my EYES when there is a change in lighting/contrast/colors because I have personal experience making tiny adjustments to photos that make a big difference to the final outcome. I am on the same computer, with the same settings, that I have always been on while playing FFXIV. I do not have this problem with other games. I do not have this problem with other programs or websites. It is not me or my PC or my settings, it has been specifically ONLY FFXIV since the graphics update. Lol. Lmao even.

edit: was not trying to imply people who don't have experience with editing can't or won't notice anything and realized it could be taken that way and wanted to clarify. I was just talking about my personal experience, not trying to invalidate anyone <3

[SchwarzwaelderTorte]

I don't have any issues with lighting, you seem to be having one or several of the following:

• Light sensitivity - seek a doctor, this is not normal. May be due to stress or neurological disorder, including a minor case of epilepsy.
• Incorrect room light balance - bright lights in a dark room cause issues, do not do this
• Bad monitor calibration - having brightness set to maximum with high contrast - please calibrate your monitor, desktop and game settings
• Incorrect HDR setting, including "fake HDR" and shaders - please exercise proper color calibration

I have never experienced your issues, and neither have anyone i know of. This is definitely some issue on your end. FF14 is, in fact, quite muted and drab compared to many other games.

Can confirm that on my end I've had (relatively mild compared to other reports) eye strain only with FFXIV and the FFXVI demo. Nothing during the Monster Hunter Wilds beta test, nothing with other AAA games released in the past 12 months.
Already checked my monitor, which is already on the lowest brightness setting anyway.
So why would I suddenly have eye strain in FFXIV starting from July 2024 with the exact same setup as before, when this was never an issue prior to 7.0?

I'm also puzzled that you qualify it as "quite muted and drab" when on my end it's the oversaturated colors that tend to be the problem (Vanguard and second half of Euphrosyne in FFXIV, the Ifrit vs Phoenix fight in FFXVI), as well as the heightened contrast between light and dark areas (all drop shadows in FFXIV are a lot more black than they used to be, the final phase of M4n is just... flashing pure white light directly at the camera).
(again, this doesn't happen with other games, and it didn't happen with FFXIV in 6.X)

It's still a mystery to me that the other thread is being ignored, but I'm also wondering if it's a question of GPU, and that's why some players seem to have completely different experiences, and why SE is not doing anything?
(I haven't read the thread in detail, so maybe that was already discussed at some point, or maybe 2 PS5 users have diverging opinions, idk)