So for the past few days my eyes have been bothering me alot since I started playing.

[ACowPretendingToBeHuman]

UPDATE: My fix for this issue - This tool GOTTEN HERE: CLICK ME (https://1drv.ms/u/s!Ap4StmYpnaQqlMkS0k2krKHlpwGPAg) is reshade with a custom shader I threw together really quick that seeks to and in my opinions does indeed alleviate the eyestrain caused by the games rendering engine that myself and others are talking about lately, if you have been having pain in your eyes or your eyes feel dry and tired when you play / after playing, please give this tool a try, it should stop the eyestrain by changing how the game displays its graphical information on the screen, it does this in three ways, soft gentle fogging- warmer colors- and more detailed onscreen drawing of graphical assets without negatively impacting game performance


here is a demo image - note: full resolution is not displayed here

https://image.ibb.co/kV9dKc/Example.png

I just realized what was causing it, its your grass and foliage... its literally hurting my eyes, turned it off and no more eyestrain, please considering changing your grass or changing the renderer or something?

Update: To elaborate, its a similar visual effect to what happens in final fantasy XIV a realm reborn when your refresh rate is sub 30.. the foliage flickers and it causes eye strain, however, your foliage oddly is not flickering, but it is incredibly eyestrain inducing, so much so that I have had to take breaks and naps to refresh my eyes after playing for an hour or so, and my eyes are still hurting, like... alot, i feel pretty bad pain in the center region if both eyes, and it takes a very long time to dissipate, I tried with glasses and it just magnified the effect making my eyes become fatigued even faster, i'm playing at 1080p and have tried other resolutions to no avail, it seems like the lower the resolution you play in the more brutal the effect becomes, only thing I have found that helps me play longer and hurts less is to wear fishing polarized sunglasses it seems to filter out? the effect, to explain more, there is a very sort of... set in stone static sort of hyperfast nigh undetectable flicker on foliage / leaves / grass, i do not know what else to say, your flora hurt the eyes, alot >.< its been 7 hours since i last played and my eyes have still not stopped hurting since my last session, and the effect seems to happen again faster then the last time i played each time I try to play


it's almost as if the flora assets are being drawn at a lower or higher refresh rate then the rest of the game world and animals

also even if you fix this and I hope you can, the grass from the moment I started playing was hard to look at because its so dense and it looks really out of place with the terrain beneath it, the art styles feel really off between the two , maybe its just a color pallet issue? i can not put my hoof on it but it feels foreign to the rest of the scene, the only other visual things that bug me are, spindly extremely high detail narrow shadows for animals regardless of my shadow settings, weirdly reflective dirt patches that look like your dirt is actually just a bunch of decals and not part of the land texture, and floating buildings and rocks that are not flush with the terrain

and for the record my hardware is bios updated and flashed to the latest revisions , drivers are all updated, windows 10 x64 pro is Redstone 3 and I have also tried RS 5 En US in both cases, Im running off Gtx 1070 Reference card with 64 gigs ddr4 memory and a Ryzen 7 1800x no overclocks, latest direct x sdk, no weird third party stuff, tried completely fresh windows install on a fresh drive, no difference, my guess is that its your rendering engine thats causing it

here is a screenie I just took , I circled the areas that best illustrate the effect, its more extensive then i thought upon further examination it also extends to some rocks , I recognize the pixelation, that is not the issue I am referring to.,.. the best way I can describe this effect is .. have you ever tried to look through bubble blowing solution that kids play with? it has a weird hodgepodge mutated rainbow haze look to it, that effect is part of the issue , it is partially responsible for the eyestrain, it looks like metal fatigue on a spectra-graph in the circled areas

https://image.ibb.co/j3x15H/Ex.png

[Citan]

... what area are you in? The foliage looks different in every area. Is there a particular graphical element you find upsetting? I obviously can't just change all foliage, and I really don't know what you're referring to.

I'd love to get your specific feedback, but I can't really work on generalizations like "your foliage is bad".

[Khaylara]

I noticed others mentioning this, including myself a while ago. Idk what exactly is causing it (sorry, wish i did) but for months I haven't been able to play for longer than an hour or such. Bad eye strain and dizziness. I thought it was because of my eyesight (it's faulty lol) but I saw other people mentioning it in steam comments as well.
Is there a way to run some tests and find out what might be causing it? Not complaining, I appreciate how much work you guys put in in the last few months to improve the graphics, for that reason we should try to find out what it is that's causing it.

[ACowPretendingToBeHuman]

n/a see below

[ACowPretendingToBeHuman]

... what area are you in? The foliage looks different in every area. Is there a particular graphical element you find upsetting? I obviously can't just change all foliage, and I really don't know what you're referring to.

I'd love to get your specific feedback, but I can't really work on generalizations like "your foliage is bad".

I just realized what was causing it, its your grass and foliage... its literally hurting my eyes, turned it off and no more eyestrain, please considering changing your grass or changing the renderer or something?

Update: To elaborate, its a similar visual effect to what happens in final fantasy XIV a realm reborn when your refresh rate is sub 30.. the foliage flickers and it causes eye strain, however, your foliage oddly is not flickering, but it is incredibly eyestrain inducing, so much so that I have had to take breaks and naps to refresh my eyes after playing for an hour or so, and my eyes are still hurting, like... alot, i feel pretty bad pain in the center region if both eyes, and it takes a very long time to dissipate, I tried with glasses and it just magnified the effect making my eyes become fatigued even faster, i'm playing at 1080p and have tried other resolutions to no avail, it seems like the lower the resolution you play in the more brutal the effect becomes, only thing I have found that helps me play longer and hurts less is to wear fishing polarized sunglasses it seems to filter out? the effect, to explain more, there is a very sort of... set in stone static sort of hyperfast nigh undetectable flicker on foliage / leaves / grass, i do not know what else to say, your flora hurt the eyes, alot >.< its been 7 hours since i last played and my eyes have still not stopped hurting since my last session, and the effect seems to happen again faster then the last time i played each time I try to play


it's almost as if the flora assets are being drawn at a lower or higher refresh rate then the rest of the game world and animals

also even if you fix this and I hope you can, the grass from the moment I started playing was hard to look at because its so dense and it looks really out of place with the terrain beneath it, the art styles feel really off between the two , maybe its just a color pallet issue? i can not put my hoof on it but it feels foreign to the rest of the scene, the only other visual things that bug me are, spindly extremely high detail narrow shadows for animals regardless of my shadow settings, weirdly reflective dirt patches that look like your dirt is actually just a bunch of decals and not part of the land texture, and floating buildings and rocks that are not flush with the terrain

and for the record my hardware is bios updated and flashed to the latest revisions , drivers are all updated, windows 10 x64 pro is Redstone 3 and I have also tried RS 5 En US in both cases, Im running off Gtx 1070 Reference card with 64 gigs ddr4 memory and a Ryzen 7 1800x no overclocks, latest direct x sdk, no weird third party stuff, tried completely fresh windows install on a fresh drive, no difference, my guess is that its your rendering engine thats causing it

here is a screenie I just took , I circled the areas that best illustrate the effect, its more extensive then i thought upon further examination it also extends to some rocks , I recognize the pixelation, that is not the issue I am referring to.,.. the best way I can describe this effect is .. have you ever tried to look through bubble blowing solution that kids play with? it has a weird hodgepodge mutated rainbow haze look to it, that effect is part of the issue , it is partially responsible for the eyestrain, it looks like metal fatigue on a spectra-graph in the circled areas

https://image.ibb.co/j3x15H/Ex.png

[ACowPretendingToBeHuman]

... what area are you in? The foliage looks different in every area. Is there a particular graphical element you find upsetting? I obviously can't just change all foliage, and I really don't know what you're referring to.

I'd love to get your specific feedback, but I can't really work on generalizations like "your foliage is bad".

as for what area im in it does not matter, the effect is the same on any flora asset anywhere

[ACowPretendingToBeHuman]

here is a screenie I just took , I circled the areas that best illustrate the effect, its more extensive then i thought upon further examination it also extends to some rocks , I recognize the pixelation, that is not the issue I am referring to.,.. the best way I can describe this effect is .. have you ever tried to look through bubble blowing solution that kids play with? it has a weird hodgepodge mutated rainbow haze look to it, that effect is part of the issue , it is partially responsible for the eyestrain, it looks like metal fatigue on a spectra-graph in the circled areas

https://image.ibb.co/j3x15H/Ex.png

[Citan]

I don't really see anything there, except that the trees are lower-resolution textures used for the lower graphics modes. Which graphics level are you running in? And what framerate are you getting? (You can turn on "enable FPS display" in the graphics options.)

Since you circled the rock as well, I'm guessing it's nothing to do with foliage specifically, but maybe something about the outdoors. It might be one of the lens effects used by the outdoor camera, but if you're running in a lower-level mode those would all be disabled anyway. So... I really don't know!

[Crissa]

I don't think this effect even displays on either of my computers; objects that far away are usually not drawn. It could be an interference effect from some backface culling flickering along the edges of some objects?

Since they use different sources of objects in different zones, that's why they were asking if you found different things in different places. Different sources of objects will have different ways of having their edges modeled, and hence, create different patterns of interference. I know it's hard to tell which ones are actually causing the bother and which ones are just annoying... But it's important to work with to know what can happen so the most people can use games ^-^

It's not like they intentionally coded objects to flicker in the background.

I know on the project I'm working on, we've been having trouble with the way Unity handles some objects, as it recolors grass-classed objects to add diversity but it ends up creating weird moire patterns which just ruin the effect of having grass at all. (and if you try to use the random distribution for rocks and debris it paints them green, too). I doubt that's the issue here, but it is an example of an unintended effect.

-Crissa

[ACowPretendingToBeHuman]

I don't really see anything there, except that the trees are lower-resolution textures used for the lower graphics modes. Which graphics level are you running in? And what framerate are you getting? (You can turn on "enable FPS display" in the graphics options.)

Since you circled the rock as well, I'm guessing it's nothing to do with foliage specifically, but maybe something about the outdoors. It might be one of the lens effects used by the outdoor camera, but if you're running in a lower-level mode those would all be disabled anyway. So... I really don't know!

well, whatever this is I threw together a shader that make it easier to look at >,...,< so hopefully this will help

This tool GOTTEN HERE: CLICK ME (https://1drv.ms/u/s!Ap4StmYpnaQqlMkS0k2krKHlpwGPAg) is reshade with a custom shader I threw together really quick that seeks to and in my opinions does indeed alleviate the eyestrain caused by the games rendering engine that myself and others are talking about lately, if you have been having pain in your eyes or your eyes feel dry and tired when you play / after playing, please give this tool a try, it should stop the eyestrain by changing how the game displays its graphical information on the screen, it does this in three ways, soft gentle fogging- warmer colors- and more detailed onscreen drawing of graphical assets without negatively impacting game performance


here is a demo image - note: full resolution is not displayed here

https://image.ibb.co/kV9dKc/Example.png

[Crissa]

...And that looks like it would drive my astigmatism wild and give me a headache. o-o Still, more options for more people is better. Hopefully you can figure out which exact level changes the eyestrain for you.

[Stardog765]

Wanted to post on this thread this morning just to offer some info.
I can kinda see what the OP is talking about as the graphics being hard on eye strain and I honestly think it has to do with the blurry textures and the eyes trying to focus on them maybe.

I actually installed ReShade last night and it does work with the game in case there was any question on that.
I just turned on a few things like Clarify and some color correction items. It really makes a nice difference and maybe its just me but when I turned on Clarify it immediately made the game less blurry and easier on my eyes. Again this might just be me and my perception but its worth a try for anyone having the issue.

I also use the ReShade FXAA as it seems to work better with less FPS hit then add in some sharpening and the game looks a ton better now for me at least.

I do not have screenshots at the moment but can make some later tonight after work if it would be helpful and even my ReSahde config file if anyone would like it.

Just wanted to help here if I could.

[Madmatx]

I've only ever seen blurry text when I experimented with resolutions below my native 1080p

[PezOfDoom]

I've only ever seen blurry text when I experimented with resolutions below my native 1080p

and when you sampled your brewing.

[Stardog765]

Haha nothing better than a game that allows brewing :)

Actually I was speaking of blurry textures sorry, I should have been more clear.

[INXS]

I also find it hard on the eyes but only the Serbule and Serbule Hills outdoor there's like a haze on everything. All the other areas i've got no issues at all they look beautiful and the lines are sharp, got the game running on ultra.

[Mikhaila]

This isn't an overall effect for all people. Obviously it may be for some. That said, I imagine it's hard as hell to pin down. Maybe with a test of 1000 people with the same hardware, studies of their eye condition, equal playtime, age, etc. So many variables to take into account that we can't just go from "I play this game" to "I'm having trouble with my eyes." My eyes are tired after playing the game too, but that's when I play for way too many hours and way to late :) Same thing would happen no matter what game I played.

It's not an overall problem for everyone, so I don't see the solution being to just change graphics. If a shader or turning down graphics fixes it for folk, then that's a good way to go.

[Crissa]

INXS Haze? That's more likely one of the graphical settings. Every different graphics card will render things slightly different. You might be able to play around with the settings and see what one is annoying you. Bloom, perhaps?