Dawntrail Graphics Update - Eye Strain

[gllt]

Bloom really is my number two enemy (number one is a tie between motion blur and screen shake)

[UNDEAD10000]

In this week i have found that spending few minutes in Ultima Thule area will make my eyes hurt when the whole area have both extremely bright and extremely dark lighting at the same time and i use brightness level at 2 (max brightness level is 100) on my gaming monitor.

Before Dawntrail expansion i never had problems spending lots of time in Ultima Thule when darker areas where more brighter and bright lighting was less brighter and now in Dawntrail expansion in Ultima Thule the dark lighting is now extremely dark that makes every ground areas losing all of their graphical details completely and the bright lighting is so bright that it make my eyes feel uncomfortable immediately and after spending few minutes in the area it make my eyes hurt.

Screenshots of Ultima Thule.

Screenshot 1


Screenshot 2


Sreenshot 3



Original size of the screenshots:
Screenshot 1: https://i.imgur.com/lq0HmCM.jpg
Screenshot 2: https://i.imgur.com/RZipsya.png
Screenshot 3: https://i.imgur.com/cMeoo0w.jpg

FFXIV devs really needs to start fixing the new lighting system (and many other graphical problems of the graphics update) that currently is second worst part of the graphics update while always on bloom is the worst part of the graphics update.

[Rueby]

I just came out of Labyrinth of the Ancients with a headache...I don't even think the neon aoes were this bad either but everything feels like it wants to burn my eyes out especially the lava room which forces me to look away from my screen lmao

[Merton9999]

In this week i have found that spending few minutes in Ultima Thule area will make my eyes hurt when the whole area have both extremely bright and extremely dark lighting at the same time and i use brightness level at 2 (max brightness level is 100) on my gaming monitor.

Before Dawntrail expansion i never had problems spending lots of time in Ultima Thule when darker areas where more brighter and bright lighting was less brighter and now in Dawntrail expansion in Ultima Thule the dark lighting is now extremely dark that makes every ground areas losing all of their graphical details completely and the bright lighting is so bright that it make my eyes feel uncomfortable immediately and after spending few minutes in the area it make my eyes hurt.

.

Ultima Thule looks the same for me as you describe. Areas that should be very dark but still display discernible detail are completely flat black with no visible details at all.

I play on PS5 with an OLED 4K TV. When I first got the console, a followed the recommendations I read most places that recommended setting Black Level on the tv to limited and the RGB Range on the PS5 to limited to match it. This always looked fine to me in every game, including FFXIV and looks perfect in DT zones. For completeness sake, setting both to automatic produces the exact same results as setting both to limited. Setting both to Full washes out everything that should be black, turning them an unpleasant and obviously wrong grey and overall every other games looks flat and overly bright.

Since DT, new zones look excellent with the limited/limited I've always used. However, old zones look like they are dripping with solid black ink in every place where there should just be shadows but still visible detail. It makes these zones look like they are covered in tar and extremely unpleasant to look at.

If I change the TV and PS5 to Full, the solid black shadow areas in old zones that should display detail get "fixed" to my eyes, displaying the detail I would expect to see in a shadowy area. This setting actually makes these areas look better overall for the most part. But it makes elements that should be completely black turn washed out grey, and it ruins the look of new zones (and all my other games) in the same way.

When I tried the full/full setting in Ultima Thule, details instantly appeared in areas I didn't see them at all with limited/limited (but had no problem seeing before 7.0) but everything that should be black was an ugly sheet of solid grey.

So sadly I'm left with no setting that works for everything. I either get gorgeous DT zones with dripping tar, no detail shadows in old zones, or I can fix the shadows in old zones but make everything that should be solid black bright and washed out. This is only a problem in FFXIV, no other games, and only since the DT graphic changes.

[Astronis]

For what it's worth, they haven't finished with the graphics update, and I believe that applies to updating old zones. All the vegetation has been updated, the lighting had to be, but the actual zones themselves probably haven't been fully adjusted. In any event, Ultima Thule looks the same to me as it did before, except a bit more vibrant since the entire game lost the ugly gray overlay that it had everywhere before Dawntrail.

[gllt]

If it still hurts my eyes when they finish I'll be infinitely sad lol

[Daralii]

For what it's worth, they haven't finished with the graphics update, and I believe that applies to updating old zones. All the vegetation has been updated, the lighting had to be, but the actual zones themselves probably haven't been fully adjusted. In any event, Ultima Thule looks the same to me as it did before, except a bit more vibrant since the entire game lost the ugly gray overlay that it had everywhere before Dawntrail.

ARR zones and I think EW zones were(but not to the extent that they showed, like more environmental objects), but every zone got more painful because of the bloom that can't be turned off and affects every object that emits light.

[Astronis]

ARR zones and I think EW zones were(but not to the extent that they showed, like more environmental objects), but every zone got more painful because of the bloom that can't be turned off and affects every object that emits light.

Yea the bloom is a universal issue, it's something that could definitely use an option to turn it off. I see it in DT zones too at night (and bizarrely, even around the hilts of one of my viper weapons!) and I think my eyes would thank me if I could kick it down a notch.

[Nabril]

Really? Is this every single new game on the market or just Final Fantasy? Do you get eye strain in the real world? There are no sharper graphics than in the real world. It cannot be turned down. Or is it just final fantasy?

[gllt]

Really? Is this every single new game on the market or just Final Fantasy? Do you get eye strain in the real world? There are no sharper graphics than in the real world. It cannot be turned down. Or is it just final fantasy?

"Real world graphics" aren't comparable to how things are consumed on a screen. They aren't beamed into your eyes from a flat backlit surface.

I hope I don't sound argumentative, I'm just not sure what you're getting at exactly. Do you mind clarifying?