7.2 Lighting is hurting my eyes.

[Perella]

Hi, I went and made a post in the Dawntrail character graphics update thread, but I wanted to make a thread specifically because 7.2 environmental lighting is hurting my eyes with no way to turn it down, or off. Even in 7.0, some areas like The Quicksands in Ul'dah felt way too dark. And now the lighting is even more aggressive in these already dark areas, which makes seeing things even more difficult.

The lighting was fine enough in 7.0 itself, but now passing by any Dawntrail Aetheryte kind of makes my eyes twitch. I hope these images show just how bright this all comes off as. I am currently playing on 50 for gamma correction, but neither 0 nor 100 really corrects how intense the brightness comes off as.







So I'm begging, because it's starting to hurt my eyes and not in a ha-ha toxic kind of hurting my eyes way, in a potential health concerning kind of way... Please undo the lighting changes, or please make the lighting a toggle or something the player can tone down, since I only see options for shadows, and turning my Graphics down from Maximum to Standard (Desktop) does not change how immensely aggressive the lighting is now.

When not looking at the aggressive lighting itself, it's so prevalent that even while staring at my Viera, the lighting has to rear its obtuse head through my ears. For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about for Viera ears, I'll post the images I put in the character graphics update thread. I don't like it at all and wish my ears wouldn't do that, like they didn't in Endwalker. But some people may like it, so make it optional.





In short, the new lighting is so aggressive that I've had to stop playing after running Vanguard to write this post and my migraine still isn't gone because I've skimmed around to take a few screenshots. Not every source of light needs to radiate intensity two feet away from it. I do not play this game for realism.

[USAFJerrySo]

If it's hurting your eyes, please seek an eye doctor.

[ServerCollaps]

reading this also hurts my eyes

i think theres eyewear for gamers, if that troubles you thaat much?

[Daralii]

reading this also hurts my eyes

i think theres eyewear for gamers, if that troubles you thaat much?

Those are just blue light filters, and there are dozens of programs that do the same thing for free. Lighting can still be too intense and penetrate anything like that.

[HawkeScream]

The shadows are jittery and flickering and look terrible (a good example is on Sphene and Krile in Backroom cutscenes around their head and shoulders). It literally looks like "marching ants" on some textures or along edges where shadow meets bright light.

You can see lighting/shadows blinking on and off on the Goblet West marketboard during certain lighting as another example.

The glow/bloom on things are insanely bright and has been awful since the graphics update with no way to adjust it down. It looks like they increased the contrast during 7.2 and it legitimately makes looking at the game make my eyes hurt (and I already see an eye doctor regularly, thanks). Adjusting gamma does not appear to help and there's dark shadows now that are still pitch black even if I max it and I legitimately cannot see what is going on in those areas.

I know multiple people who used to be able to play for hours with no issues and are now getting eyestrain, headaches, or migraines and have to be much more careful when they play and it's already been worse since 7.2

You're right and don't let snotty comments convince you you're not.

[zipkin]

It's been an issue for some of us for a WHILE now. Feel free to peruse some well-meaning (and less well meaning :/) suggestions that were made over in the Eye Strain Thread, but it's likely the only consolation will be knowing you're not the only one. I WISH it were a problem with my machine, or my eyes, but it's not. FFXIV is the only game I have issues with, on any device I use to play it, and I've only had issues since the DT update. I'm sorry you're suffering from this, it's really crummy.

[HawkeScream]

I FINALLY FOUND AN EXAMPLE I CAN SCREENIE. I return with evidence.





Shadows are doing this all over the game.

[Gokki]

Hi, I went and made a post in the Dawntrail character graphics update thread, but I wanted to make a thread specifically because 7.2 environmental lighting is hurting my eyes with no way to turn it down, or off. Even in 7.0, some areas like The Quicksands in Ul'dah felt way too dark. And now the lighting is even more aggressive in these already dark areas, which makes seeing things even more difficult.

The lighting was fine enough in 7.0 itself, but now passing by any Dawntrail Aetheryte kind of makes my eyes twitch. I hope these images show just how bright this all comes off as. I am currently playing on 50 for gamma correction, but neither 0 nor 100 really corrects how intense the brightness comes off as.

In short, the new lighting is so aggressive that I've had to stop playing after running Vanguard to write this post and my migraine still isn't gone because I've skimmed around to take a few screenshots. Not every source of light needs to radiate intensity two feet away from it. I do not play this game for realism.

I don't have any issues with lighting, you seem to be having one or several of the following:

• Light sensitivity - seek a doctor, this is not normal. May be due to stress or neurological disorder, including a minor case of epilepsy.
• Incorrect room light balance - bright lights in a dark room cause issues, do not do this
• Bad monitor calibration - having brightness set to maximum with high contrast - please calibrate your monitor, desktop and game settings
• Incorrect HDR setting, including "fake HDR" and shaders - please exercise proper color calibration

I have never experienced your issues, and neither have anyone i know of. This is definitely some issue on your end. FF14 is, in fact, quite muted and drab compared to many other games.
The lighting has, in fact, improved and became more accurate this patch. I think you just haven't felt anything until now and your issues are just now surfacing. Please look into your condition.

I FINALLY FOUND AN EXAMPLE I CAN SCREENIE. I return with evidence.

This is just bad shadow programming and nothing to do with OP's lighting issues i think. It IS an issue and i also dislike it, but i gave up on developers ever fixing it without raytracing.

[Windfire]

Ah yes, the problem is our end when before the graphics "update" there was no problem and XIV is the ONLY game now causing problems for more then a few . When it's a single game causing problems, it ain't us that has something wrong, it's the game.

[Daralii]

Ah yes, the problem is our end when before the graphics "update" there was no problem and XIV is the ONLY game now causing problems for more then a few . When it's a single game causing problems, it ain't us that has something wrong, it's the game.

Clearly we're just rubes that can't handle the unmatched level of quality that CS3 is capable of.