Dawntrail Graphics Update - Eye Strain

[Aniya_Estlihn]

I pored through this thread quite a bit to see if anyone mentioned people suffering from issues calibrating their monitors properly using a dedicated resource like: http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/ or the like?
I don't doubt people are having eye strain issues, I've had some with the game myself over the years; even before the update, and the first line of defense, for me at least, is always making sure my displays are properly calibrated.

I actually played all of Heavensward through the middle of Shadowbringers with excessively bright, overly saturated colors via Nvidia Control Panel and Reshade as my monitor calibration was terrible.
So in the hopes that others may find some relief through ways other than the developers assisting; at least as far as saturation is concerned, I'd suggest going in depth on properly calibrating your displays.

Not the solution people want, but it can help.

[zipkin]

I am happy with my display settings for everything I do BESIDES the post-DT graphics in FFXIV. Actually wound up wasting a lot of time trying to set everything back to the way it was after my initial attempts to make FFXIV playable again in the first month following the graphics change. I make digital art, and play a lot of games, all of which look as they should and don't bother my eyes even though I probably exceed the average recommended screen-time when I get caught up ^^;

Folks have said they've tried adjusting their displays, or tested out using different screens/devices. Perhaps the link you shared might help someone who hasn't already checked for that issue to have an additional thing to try, but, unfortunately, it doesn't seem likely as the solution for a bunch of us. Especially the folks on consoles who have fewer options to attempt adjustments, though my TV-tech knowledge is admittedly limited.

The eyestrain issues for the majority in this thread appear to be only caused by FFXIV and only since the DT graphics change. That's why we're asking for the developers to do something about it, if it could be fixed with another tool I'm sure most of us would happily have fixed it after... what is it now, nine months? x.x

(though, reminder just in case, mods are officially not allowed, and are inaccessible for console-users regardless)

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.

[NascentDeft]

Console player here! After the latest update, I had to up the game's gamma and change my TV brightness settings just to play FFXIV. I do not have this issue with any other game. I still get mild headaches if I'm in the Gold Saucer for too long or if I get Mt. Gulg. I'm too scared to do alliance raids incase I get any of the Nier raids, as they have given me migraines in the past. I was fine with the adjustments they made in 7.1x as the strain seemed mild compared to 7.0. Now it almost feels like the game has added bloom to everything, and that is a setting I cannot change or turn off. I hope they continue to read these threads and allow us the option to have more control over certain aspects of these graphical updates.

[Mirikh]

If they could add a toggle on/off for some of these overly bright or high contrast instances it would go a long way towards easing peoples' problems. And the rest of us would benefit. Some of the new instances are really flashy.

[Anarnee]

https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...need-of-update

There's a accessibility thread that got posted today and I just thought I'd link it here too for any that are checking for updates on the eye strain problem that wanna throw a like over there and some feedback.

[Vesplume]

Commented over there and liked several posts in hopes of boosting awareness. It sucks how many different players this is impacting in different ways.

I was surprised to hop on today and see several new threads about eye strain after the new patch. There was even a thread on the JP forums about it, which makes me wonder if maybe this will be the time they start to listen. One of the new threads also linked this EW-era interview with YoshiP about accessibility training which kinda puts a damper on that hope though. There's a 90+ page thread on the forums suggesting they should probably look into that again.

[PaleYonder]

Coming over from the other thread in return to add to this one, I really hope this finally gets noticed by someone and not put aside again.
The flashing lights have caused such issues since DT, and it's frustrating because it used to be so much better. As someone afflicted by migraines, I used to have to exercise some common sense on migraine days because 14 has always had its bright lights, but it was never this bad, and didn't use to outright trigger a new one out of the blue; now it does.
And I praised 16's accessibiliy features before; they did some good things there that enabled me to play the game I'd been looking forward to for years at a time in which I was severely injured and couldn't have gotten through it without those features at the time. I still appreciate that a lot. Now if only they could bring that kind of consideration and innovation over to 14, that'd be great.

[Ziri_O]

Jumping in here and in the accessibility thread to add my agreement, I've had to turn off most of the battle effects since Shadowbringers just so I could get through raids without having to suffer a migraine for the rest of the day. The Nier raids were bad, but Aglaia and the Arcadion? I love them but I WILL be down for the count afterwards with the worst migraines known to man if I don't stare at my hotbars the entire fight, which isn't great when I'm trying to get into Savage raiding!

[Windfire]

Bump but also ran cruiserweight 1 recently, omg NEVER AGAIN, my eyes have never hurt so bad since that one spring I nearly went snowblind due to not owning sunglasses at the time and my eyeglasses weren't transitions. If your game is causing pain equivalent to actual UV damage, you dun effed up, BIG TIME!

[Daralii]

Out of curiosity, how hard on peoples' eyes is M8? The raidwide making the screen dark blue with very bright, light blue slashes and back to normal seems like it'd cause issues.