Dawntrail Graphics Update - Eye Strain

[Rueby]

I'm not very prone to motion sickness, but even I feel uneasy when traversing through forest terrain when it's raining. Tree branches, grass, shadows from branches and grass, and new bright raindrops are moving constantly, and sometimes I can't see anything at all and have to do my ARR tribal dailies almost blind.

(There are two examples below. The pictures are not animated, so they are safe to see.)

This is not very good (Outer La Noscea)



But this is much worse. Sylflands at night when it's raining are very difficult for the eyes.

Also, I've noticed that the increased brightness and contrast of the world put strain on the eyes, and my eyes are getting tired quickly. I'm used to taking a break every 40 minutes or one hour, but even this habit can't help me not get headaches after 3–4 hours.

(minuscule HW spoilers)

Every NPC is slightly illuminated when clicked on, but Lucia is indeed burning brightly.

They messed up the rain entirely, I noticed it in Garlemald as well and had to leave the area despite Garlemald being one of my favorite areas to be in.

[Kuro_Matsu]

Bumping to keep this relevant.

Not sure if the harsher lighting is intended. (I understand there were years of complaints of this game having muted colors and lighting, so maybe they over corrected. But those people can just still use ReShade/ NVIDIA filters...) If so, I would like options to turn them off. Bloom is a terrible, terrible thing. So much so that I avoid the Gold Saucer because the light panels against the darker contrast has caused eye strain. I'm naturally sensitive to light, so I've changed my monitor settings and added filters through NVIDIA to help me play the game previously. However, I've had to change these settings after years of no problems. Though, it doesn't make a difference now. If I darken the game further, I can't see anything.

On top of this, there is a baked in motion blur/ edge smoothing during movement (including camera zoom). Foliage is especially bad with this. It also effects characters/ enemies. With structures, for whatever reason, it doesn't bother me as much. But please, please allow us to turn this off. I don't use DLSS or AMD as my PC is too old to use any of those upscalers. I've seen videos of them in use and my game isn't nearly as bad, yet it's enough to causes issues. I've tried changing 3D Resolution Scaling to 99, but it makes the game very sharp and the foliage flickers even when you are standing still (it's worse if you move).

Pretty much all of my graphic settings are set to Off or Normal, with the exception of textures being the highest it can go. I'm not asking them to completely revert the graphic update. This game was beautiful to me before 7.0, and now it has a little glow up even with my low settings. I just want them to give us options. The sole reason I moved from console to PC was because console only has half of the graphic settings as PC.

Edit:
Be warned, the SS below showcases the bloom effect in the Gold Saucer.

[DynnDiablos]

The main thing I need them to correct is the horrific motion blur they implemented with the 7.0 update that didn't exist before. They have the same issues in FF7 Rebirth and FFXVI as I mentioned previously. The camera turns and ghosting is just atrocious.

[Kuro_Matsu]

Wet surfaces make me sad.

Mind you, I turned off my dimming setting so I can see what it looks like for others. It was a bad idea. This is probably minor for some. With better graphics, wet surfaces have an even stronger reflective sheen than what you see here.

[Erinellza]

Wet surfaces make me sad.

Mind you, I turned off my dimming setting so I can see what it looks like for others. It was a bad idea. This is probably minor for some. With better graphics, wet surfaces have an even stronger reflective sheen than what you see here.

Right?? I still don't understand why they decided to remove the on/off options for wet surface effects. They made the rain shinier too and most surfaces look plastic when it rains because of it.
So many bad decisions in this so-called graphics "update"... I've been calling it graphics downgrade, lol.

[Daralii]

Right?? I still don't understand why they decided to remove the on/off options for wet surface effects. They made the rain shinier too and most surfaces look plastic when it rains because of it.
So many bad decisions in this so-called graphics "update"... I've been calling it graphics downgrade, lol.

Wet surfaces also reflect light sources that don't exist in several places, or reflect light sources on the other side of terrain and structures.

[Kuro_Matsu]

Right?? I still don't understand why they decided to remove the on/off options for wet surface effects. They made the rain shinier too and most surfaces look plastic when it rains because of it.
So many bad decisions in this so-called graphics "update"... I've been calling it graphics downgrade, lol.

There are some questionable things they did. I guess since most of SQE games are now on the realistic side they thought to try and bring FFXIV up to that standard. But it just clashes with the style. Details look really good when isolated, but seeing the big picture makes it look like they were trying to make a whole different game.

Wet surfaces also reflect light sources that don't exist in several places, or reflect light sources on the other side of terrain and structures.

And it doubles the problem for me. When it rains, I can't look at my character. Instead, I look way above her to the sky because the reflected lights physically hurt my eyes. Even rocks are extra shiny now when wet. Like why? The only other time this was a problem was with spells... and well, you can turn those off...

[gllt]

Everyone is really touching on the stuff that's driving me out of my mind.. bump

[Ceridwenae]

Back to the front page, my dear thread! **BUMP!!**

[Erinellza]

Yak T'el would be one of the coolest new zones in the game IF I COULD TURN OFF BLOOM. The "fog" around light sources is nausiating. I hate gathering mats in this area because I get dizzy in minutes.

Eye-wrecking screenshot under the spoiler tag: