Dawntrail Graphics Update - Eye Strain

[Zakuyia]

I'm not sure if its cause i play off ps4 or im at a distance but I'm thankful i never had this problem but i do agree vanguard a bit bright for my taste it makes it hard sometimes to see aoe and line attacks. Maybe give ur eyes a break thats about the most I can say outdide blue monitor but we've seen how disrespectful that one guy was. Take a break rub ur eyes play in well lit areas turn brightness down if not it may be ur eyes. No one in my fc mentioned this my fc is 100+ members. So yeah best of luck everyone remember no amount of gaming is worth at risk of you own health and well being.

[meredactyl]

This is my first post on the forum. There are 37 pages here and I apologize if this specific concern has already been brought up or addressed.

I have been enjoying Dawntrail overall and am blown away by most of the graphics update changes. The fog and cloud effects, especially, are breathtaking. The updates have improved my experience with the game for the most part, with one glaring (pun not intended) exception: some zones or instanced areas immediately give me headaches due to eye strain. Specifically, the problem is worst in the level 97 MSQ dungeon, the level 100 MSQ dungeon, and at times in the fifth overworld zone (with the lightning sky).

In the area of the 97 dungeon from the second boss fight (which itself is eye-strain-inducing) through to the last fight, the glare is so intense that I cannot see enemy groups or their attacks. I target blindly and follow my party members to the best of my ability. The bright, glowing floor is an enormous challenge and a serious deterrent towards my ability to replay this area. In earlier dungeons such as Vanaspati, I am able to point my camera away from the glare to minimize the detrimental effect; however, since the glow is in the floor in the level 97 dungeon, this solution is not possible.

Similarly, in the level 100 dungeon, the area with flickering lighting and camera shaking gave me a headache and caused significant eyestrain. I have only played through this instanced area one time. Its effects, as well as the flashing/flickering sky in the fifth overworld zone, remind me of the similar effects in Endwalker's Dead Ends dungeon. In both areas, the flashing/flickering (and their effects as I play) leave me reluctant to return for additional exploration, practice, and duty completion.

Is it possible to add a setting to disable flickering/flashing/strobe effects, and a slider for glare/bloom?

I understand that these visual effects add to the immersion and overall atmosphere of a given instance or overworld area. I hope that players who do not experience eye strain will be able to continue to enjoy them! But I also hope that there is some way for the accessibility settings to reflect this important adjustment so that I, and other players who experience eye strain (or other, more serious effects of photosensitivity) can continue to enjoy playing the game we love so much.

Thank you very much for your time and attention.

[ThatOneDiviner]

Logged in to comment on this as well. I can't stay in Solution Nine for too long at a time because it's too bright and it hurts my eyes to look at, no matter how I change the settings. Which is a shame, because the city itself is beautiful and lively! Very vibrant, but I wish I was able to take in how vibrant it was without getting a headache after five minutes.

Also, it's not quite visual strain, but it IS tangentially related: the questionable mechanic color choices in fights are back. EX2 has some dark blue tethers set against a dark blue background with a dark blue boss taking up half the screen. I can't see them easily and with how large the boss is/how similar the color scheme is for them, it makes reading that one mech really annoying. My eyesight isn't great - I often rely on colors and being able to see and differentiate them to help me get mechs down. This is one mech I've resorted to sheeping because I can't read it with everything going on. I appreciate the fight's design, and I think with DIFFERENT visual indicators I would have an easier time reading it, but they went the direction of P3S again and I can't say I'm pleased with it.

[Toutatis]

I found that the Vanguard dungeon is pretty bad with everything glowing pink and purple. Also wish they would stop with the blue on blue/yellow on yellow effects that rely on the eye being able to distinguish small nuances of a same color. It causes me eye strain and headaches, even ended up throwing up after a Vanguard dungeon that lasted longer than it should due to the healer constantly dying followed by at least one dps (was tanking and working to keep the dps alive - that being said, tanks are so broken with insane survivability but it’s another topic).

[gllt]

I'm glad more people are joining to voice their opinion but I'm sad the game is affecting this many people

[Wind-Krysvein]

Holy crap, we're at way over 100 likes! Let's keep this up, people.

[Vahlnir]

It might just be me, but I have a lot of issues with Dynamic Resolution as of Dawntrail. It causes the screen to become blocky and somewhat blurry. Disabling it remedies this, but that alone might cause some people a few problems.

[Lnemoh]

It might just be me, but I have a lot of issues with Dynamic Resolution as of Dawntrail. It causes the screen to become blocky and somewhat blurry. Disabling it remedies this, but that alone might cause some people a few problems.

Disable dynamic resolution, set upscaling to FSR and set screen scale to 100. That is native right now and wont cause any issues.

Hopefully the upcoming patch adds a simple "off" option.

[Wind-Krysvein]

Hopefully the upcoming patch adds a simple "off" option.

With any luck, the reason they're taking this long to address this issue is due to them working on a dedicated eye strain mode with various different options, like reducing flicker, motion blur, sharpness of textures, etc.

[Ansemaru]

I experience pretty bad eye strain to the point of nausea sometimes in Urqopacha specifically. Unless I am using every trick in the book to maximize anti-aliasing, the vast expanse of highly detailed rock and gravel textures in motion are very difficult to look at, and the graphics upgrade causing inconsistencies in my framerate hasn't helped. (I do admittedly need to upgrade my computer for better performance at some point, but it wasn't possible in time for Dawntrail.)