Dawntrail Graphics Update - Eye Strain

[Vesplume]

Lots of flashing lights and big bright assets in the new Arcadion raid, so more of the things we've been complaining about this entire time.

Really not expecting any comments regarding additional settings at any point.

[Vesplume]

Now that another Live Letter is over and we've gone yet again without any acknowledgment of this issue or possible adjustments, I wanted to offer a bit of a timeline and some background on the closest we've gotten to a dev response.

This thread was started on 6/28, during the early access period of DT. The official launch was on 7/2, but nothing was said on graphics until 7/5, where this post was made about issues with lighting with regards to housing settings. It goes into some detail about the changes made to how lighting is processed and specifies that the old lighting can't be recreated but they will make adjustments to it in the future. Though it's specific to lighting in housing, there's some insight here into some of the new graphical changes. There's a lot more of it than there was before.

The next related dev post was this one from 9/6 regarding the feedback on playable character models. There's plenty of fan pushback on that here and elsewhere. Rather than go into that, I'm going to talk about the what little info we have to go on as to whether the devs even consider this problem an issue.

The first point of note is that this post describes this as the first phase of the graphical update. I don't know what phase we're on now, as dev transparency has been extremely limited since the release of DT. This isn't like EW where we got live letters roadmapping the future of the game. Early into EW's release the players were told of the intent to update the graphics and how significant dev focus was going into that, well before any of that would be implemented in 7.0. This post is the closest we get to that level of transparency, as YoshiP goes into significant detail about certain issues that were raised. He even notes that some of these fixes involve programming updates and won't be implemented until 7.2 at the earliest.

What are those fixes? Are they coming in 7.2? Tune in on 3/25 to find out!

The new lighting and the issues raised by it aren't mentioned in the post beyond how the models are highlighted in a certain way. It's part of what's considered spec - as in the new graphics working as intended. The devs will not change those things. There's a vague handwavy comment about additional issues that weren't be addressed in the post while asking for patience and understanding from the players. They might even look at things considered spec and reevaluate them in the future.

So what does that have to do with the eye strain/migraines/etc? Either it tells us absolutely nothing or worse - that the issues reported in this thread are the game working as intended and will not be addressed at this time. Given the devs' silence and the patches implemented since then, it's most likely the latter.

[Vesplume]

Though some players have stuck around and are still trying to keep this thread fresh in people's minds, reports have mostly dried up. Most of the players affected have dropped the game because their money clearly isn't welcome here. When this issue came up with the last Nier raid in SHB, some adjustments were made to that raid in the patches immediately following its release, but it wasn't enough. DT has done even less than that.

I watched some of the live letter this morning and had to stop after seeing some of the Arcadion demo. It was through a completely different device than what I play FFXIV on, but I still got a migraine from specifically looking at FFXIV gameplay. In the absence of an official dev response, the game speaks for itself. The effects look neat, I guess.

So many people in this thread just want a way to mitigate the effects that are causing them problems. That could be solved by adding back the settings that were removed or adding new ones so players can adjust as needed. It doesn't have to be a complete graphics overhaul. We don't know how big of an ask this might be for the devs because again, they won't even clearly acknowledge the issues we've reported. They ask for our patience and understanding but offer next to nothing in return.

The thread is still going because not everyone has given up on the game, and some still sub for reasons other than MSQ. It's a lot quieter in here these days because so many have dropped their subs for a game they cannot play. This thread may not be as active as it used to be but don't be mistaken.

There is a huge problem here and nothing is being done about it. Make of that as you will.

[Kinho]

Dawntrail, especially Raid, is messing with my eyes. Playing for more than an hour is already quite uncomfortable.

Because of all the problems that this game has been presenting and this one, I have stopped playing for months, and even when I come back I play very little, obviously stopping with my sub. But I am almost at the point of stopping completely.

Sorry for any english mistakes

[zipkin]

That the primary place to give feedback regarding issues REQUIRES a subscription feels crummy when the feedback is 'the game is now injuring us so we can't play' and it's been MONTHS of this :/

Not even an honorary mention either, again. Welp. My resub ends soon, but for now... back to the front page I guess.

Reminder, since it's off the latest page again, that in addition to 'forum feedback', we've been advised to contact the Accessibility team at contact-accessibility@eu.square-enix.com in regards to this issue. If you're having similar issues and have the energy for it, please consider sending an additional message their way. Most folks haven't gotten any reply, but it's what we were told to do sooooooo...

[Vesplume]

That the primary place to give feedback regarding issues REQUIRES a subscription feels crummy when the feedback is 'the game is now injuring us so we can't play' and it's been MONTHS of this :/

Not even an honorary mention either, again. Welp. My resub ends soon, but for now... back to the front page I guess.

Reminder, since it's off the latest page again, that in addition to 'forum feedback', we've been advised to contact the Accessibility team at contact-accessibility@eu.square-enix.com in regards to this issue. If you're having similar issues and have the energy for it, please consider sending an additional message their way. Most folks haven't gotten any reply, but it's what we were told to do sooooooo...

Bumping and quoting this for emphasis. If anyone manages to get a response, please let the thread know!

[zipkin]

Back up to the front page again while I still can.

[zipkin]

Up we go, back to the front page for more visibility.

[FlamboyantAsBurningInferno]

Back up to the front page again.

[Vesplume]

This thread was started on 6/28, during the early access period of DT. The official launch was on 7/2, but nothing was said on graphics until 7/5, where this post was made about issues with lighting with regards to housing settings. It goes into some detail about the changes made to how lighting is processed and specifies that the old lighting can't be recreated but they will make adjustments to it in the future. Though it's specific to lighting in housing, there's some insight here into some of the new graphical changes. There's a lot more of it than there was before.

The next related dev post was this one from 9/6 regarding the feedback on playable character models. There's plenty of fan pushback on that here and elsewhere. Rather than go into that, I'm going to talk about the what little info we have to go on as to whether the devs even consider this problem an issue.

Quoting a previous post of mine that contains links to the two dev posts on the Lodestone, since the patch 7.2 notes confirm that the issues brought up in those dev posts have been addressed. Only one new setting has been added based on the preliminary patch notes, but it's for the previously described housing issue.

Tuesday is a make it or break it day for this thread. It's noted several times that adjustments have been made to how shadows are rendered, which means changes have been made to the lighting. It seems like the current philosophy is more lighting = better graphics, and if that's the case we're SOL. I'd like to believe some of the changes made will be for the better but my optimism is at an all time low right now.