Dawntrail Graphics Update - Eye Strain

[Anarnee]

I'm just seeing this thread for the first time, and while I don't have the time to read through 63 pages of comments, I'm curious if someone familiar with this thread/issue can tell me if folks have uncovered any details as to what is causing the issue and what factors determine who it impacts?

I personally haven't experienced any eye strain issues from Dawntrail, but I'm incredibly familiar with the fact that different stimuli impact different people in different ways. I'm always curious to learn more about anything that has to do with accessibility.

For me personally the biggest thing that I've been able to figure out is the contrast. Shadows are darker and the lights are brighter. I've never had light sensitivity before and have not had it with any other game. South shroud at night during thunderstorms felt like needles in the eyes, it's like white noise but mostly black. A lot of this I've been able to deal with by wearing sun glasses.

I also have motion sickness, I've gotten faint in the 95 dungeon, the 97 dungeon, the 93 trial, 100 trial and all the new raid fights. I've also now started having the issue in old raids that I use to have not trouble in like the Nier raid. I am not sure what is triggering it exactly, but my guess is that it's something about movement that is now bothering me. I've seen a lot of people mentioning a motion blur but I've not really noticed any blurring, I however do notice a frame stutter during high particle intense moments that might be the culprit. Even watching people progging the last fight of the raid was making me ill.

I've also gotten head aches just walking around the second to last zone, and the second hub. I think this might be cause by the lights and maybe the purple light?

It's really hard to put my finger on it because I never had this issue before from any game, from other FF games, to Genshin Impact, with all its movement and similarly bright particle effects.

A friend of mine gets headaches just walking around the cities, day or night, and lots of folks have taken their time to clearly get pictures of the issues they're experiencing, some similar, some completely different, from PC to PS, and the only fix I've seen for the contrast and bloom is GSHADE, which unfortunately none of us PS players can use. (and shouldn't have to anyways.)

[Astronis]

I'm just seeing this thread for the first time, and while I don't have the time to read through 63 pages of comments, I'm curious if someone familiar with this thread/issue can tell me if folks have uncovered any details as to what is causing the issue and what factors determine who it impacts?

I personally haven't experienced any eye strain issues from Dawntrail, but I'm incredibly familiar with the fact that different stimuli impact different people in different ways. I'm always curious to learn more about anything that has to do with accessibility.

I was able to mitigate (though not quite fix) the issues I had by switching to FSR and FXAA; DLSS and TSCMAA made it so the picture was fine if I wasn't moving but blurry in motion, and I'm pretty sure that tricked my eyes into constantly trying to refocus. It's not perfect now, but it's much better. for me.

[gllt]

It's a variety of issues for each person. For me it feels like it's mainly bloom, contrast ratio, reflective surfaces, and wet effects creating what feels like a lot of visual noise on the screen.

For others, new technology implementations like DLSS are causing graphical artifacts that are unpleasant to deal with from what I've seen in the thread.

I'll let others chime in with their issues but many of them may already have given up by now. Hopefully not.

[Vesplume]

I wish I had a better way to describe it, but I think visual noise covers it pretty well. I don't know enough about the various technologies used that are causing this (i'm a pretty casual gamer), but there have been some really good examples throughout the thread. Several pages back someone posted a gif of how the game runs for them that hurt to look at.

All I can speak to is how it affects my light sensitivity - which wasn't much of a problem until the graphics update and 7.0. Lightning being such a prominent element in the storyline means a lot of flickering graphics. The 97 dungeon was so bad it made me physically ill playing through it. I blundered my way through the rest of MSQ, but I've been warned off of one of the current expert dungeons because of the graphics. Only made it through one of the Arcadion raids but it was bad enough that I haven't bothered with the rest.

I still check the thread regularly in hopes that the devs are listening and boost the posts of others as best I can. I'm holding out until the next live letter at least.

[Erinellza]

I've been busy playing other games that don't make me sick. Just came back for the weekly Tome farm in this bright, blurry hell. :')

DO IT, TITAN! END MY MISERY!

[gllt]

It took me so long to realize that there were players in that screenshot.
Like I'm on my phone so I would've spotted it on a monitor but.. the glow.. so much glow...

[gllt]

Bump to the front, gotta stay visible.. lol that's good one

[Merton9999]

I'm just seeing this thread for the first time, and while I don't have the time to read through 63 pages of comments, I'm curious if someone familiar with this thread/issue can tell me if folks have uncovered any details as to what is causing the issue and what factors determine who it impacts?

I personally haven't experienced any eye strain issues from Dawntrail, but I'm incredibly familiar with the fact that different stimuli impact different people in different ways. I'm always curious to learn more about anything that has to do with accessibility.

I'll echo the contrast complaint stated by others, especially how it affects pre-DT zones.

In reading the forum since 7.0, I gathered that shadow intensity was criticized in the game prior to Dawntrail. It seems like the lighting changes in response to this resulted in gross overcorrection to older zones.

I don't know enough about computer graphics to explain why, but shadows seem so comically extreme in these zones to me that the light variation obscures details, looks unnatural and ugly, and is overall extremely unpleasant to look at for long periods of time.

I don't have negative physical reactions to the changes, but most of the old areas I use to enjoy going to I just to try to avoid or ignore now because they no longer look appealing.

In some areas, especially player housing, it's not just the extremity of shadows that are the problem. Several furnishing shadows are actually blocky, sharp or jagged instead of smooth. Shadows also draw badly, creaping in a pixelated way as you move the camera. That's as close as I've come to being sickened by the visuals.

[Erinellza]

Weren't we supposed to get some kind of announcement about graphics issues "at the end of August"? Or was that only a dream?? lol

[Blubblum]

They postponed it. It should arrive next week.