Dawntrail Graphics Update - Eye Strain

[Daralii]

As you wrote, lowering the brightness only does so much: it may make some of the bright stuff bearable, but in turn it turns the other parts so dark that you can't see any details. I'd like to unlock and play through the Arcadion raids, but I've heard they're really flashy and no brightness setting can conquer that.

Parts of it feel like P3 all over again. It isn't seizure-inducing like Tower at Paradigm's Breach, but I imagine it'd be unbearable for anyone with bad photosensitivity.

[Ainariel]

In the hope of all of us being able to play through Arcadion & the latest MSQ dungeons/trials, and playing with our battle effects on again -> back to the front page.

[zipkin]

Up we go, back to the front page again.

[zipkin]

Bumping the thread back to the front page. Still not so much as an acknowledgement of the accessibility issues created by the 'graphics update' last June. As Ainariel shared back on page 30, we've been advised to contact the Accessibility team at contact-accessibility@eu.square-enix.com in regards to this issue, as well as communicate via the forums, which this thread is for.

If you've got a spare moment, consider leaving a like on the thread in support. If you're experiencing similar issues, and have the energy for it, consider contacting the Accessibility team as well. We just want to play the game we've played for years, without pain, without eyestrain, without headaches, without nausea and motion sickness.

It'd be nice if they'd at least SAY something, instead of apparently hoping we'll all just stop asking them to fix it. Fixes might take time, but any acknowledgement of the issue would be a lot better than the continued silence :/

[Anarnee]

Lucy Pyre mentioned this thread in a video and I'm very thankful for that, because there is only one other content creator that has and his take was "Well, I don't know what they want the devs to do, they're not going to undo the graphics update." even though he'd taken the time to read a bunch of other threads, he didn't take the time to look at any of the suggestions people have left here in the thread, and it was really heartbreaking.

Don't really care much for the opinions of "content creators" but it is sort of cathartic to see someone talk about this, even if it's just to point out the double standard of people saying that FFXIV is dumbed down for accessibility, when clearly the devs do not care about people having accessibility issues when we have been ignored completely for nine months now.

[glitteringcosmos]

I have extremely low hopes of Dawntrail graphics problems getting fixed in patch 7.2 when it's being around 8 months now and none of the problems with graphics haven't being fixed.[...]Ever since release of Dawntrail, i always wished them to revert graphics back to 6.0 graphics and spend at least 1-3 years more to improving and fixing the graphics update when current graphics update is clearly unfinished and rushed.

I'm right there with you. I really, really wish they'd go back to the old graphics and save these "new" graphics for a new mmo in the future. These are just so poorly implemented...

[CuteBucket]

My static has just been doing old content or farming EXs during the wait for the next raid tier. But that has even been impeded by this issue. Because then stuff like this happens:

DRK: Would anyone be up to run Zoraal'ja?
RPR: That fight makes me really motionsick, can we do a different fight?
DRK: Hm, well we've already done a lot of Valigarmanda, so how about Sphene?
WHM: I can maybe manage one or two clears, but that fight really makes my eyes hurt.

So we ended up just farming Endwalker and older fights to get people mounts because 2 of the 3 current EX trials are nearly unplayable for two of our members. It's never been an issue until 7.0.

[glitteringcosmos]

My static has just been doing old content or farming EXs during the wait for the next raid tier. But that has even been impeded by this issue. Because then stuff like this happens:

DRK: Would anyone be up to run Zoraal'ja?
RPR: That fight makes me really motionsick, can we do a different fight?
DRK: Hm, well we've already done a lot of Valigarmanda, so how about Sphene?
WHM: I can maybe manage one or two clears, but that fight really makes my eyes hurt.

So we ended up just farming Endwalker and older fights to get people mounts because 2 of the 3 current EX trials are nearly unplayable for two of our members. It's never been an issue until 7.0.

And that's completely unacceptable! People shouldn't have to miss out on fights because the game physically makes them ill...

[Sekundessounet]

My static has just been doing old content or farming EXs during the wait for the next raid tier. But that has even been impeded by this issue. Because then stuff like this happens:

DRK: Would anyone be up to run Zoraal'ja?
RPR: That fight makes me really motionsick, can we do a different fight?
DRK: Hm, well we've already done a lot of Valigarmanda, so how about Sphene?
WHM: I can maybe manage one or two clears, but that fight really makes my eyes hurt.

So we ended up just farming Endwalker and older fights to get people mounts because 2 of the 3 current EX trials are nearly unplayable for two of our members. It's never been an issue until 7.0.

Can you develop on what specifically makes them motionsick in the fight ?
Usually specific elements are to be targeted, and maybe there are accessibility tools that could be developed around those.

[zipkin]

Can you develop on what specifically makes them motionsick in the fight ?
Usually specific elements are to be targeted, and maybe there are accessibility tools that could be developed around those.

If you're wanting details, folks have shared different things they've noticed throughout this thread. Some of the issues mentioned around motionsickness seem to be potentially something to do with the blur/sharpen around movement, background motions (like plants/shadows), and a bit of the character movement itself. There were a lot of folks dealing with motionsickness with the mount tilt feature as well, which was fortunately given a toggle, but some of what they described in that thread might be related to the current motionsickness issues if you're looking for additional details.

I wasn't really having much motionsickness or nausea back in June, mostly because the eyestrain pain got to be too bad before I got sick (learned that the fun way trying to push through whoops). One of the updates since then seems to have changed SOMETHING with the movement, even after turning off the character tilt options I still get queasy after a short while playing the game. I wish I could offer something more specific, but, for me, it's hard to look at the game for very long and I'm struggling to pinpoint the exact problem (kinda feels like a combo of things tbh). I just know I never had the issue before the graphics update, and the motionsickness is worse since a more recent update. I stopped playing for a while on account of the 'not being able to play without pain' thing, so I'm not 100% on which patch it was, but my guess is the one where they added the character tilt toggle.

A friend of mine gets vertigo in certain dungeons, which could also be something translating to motionsickness in other people, but I'm not familiar enough with those dungeons to speak on it.

I'm not sure what's making CuteBucket's friend sick during the fight, but I get sick just walking around. I definitely feel sick faster if I'm doing combat-type things, but, for me, it's not caused by something in the combat stuff, just exacerbated by it. The eyestrain/pain is still a more significant issue for me, but I've thrown up a few times trying to get through MSQ so :x