Guild Wars 2

This happened to me last BWE as well. Within 5 minutes of entering the playable beta map of this section of Verdant Brink, I started getting a headache, starting with eye strain, and just getting worse from there. Is anyone else having issues with headaches in the Beta map? I did not have this problem BWE #1 as far as I can remember, but I definitely had it last BWE, and this is the same map.
The brighter areas seem to hurt the most, especially if it’s both sun and smoke in the air.
That’s a little too realistic, lol.

you can adjust the brightness in the game options. also you can manually change it on your monitor.

This usually isn’t so much a brightness problem as a glare problem. Even if you dull the brightness of it significantly it will still effect you. Those who have the right (or wrong) connections with their eye will still experience this. It is a combination of effects that create it but they usually call it a glare headache and it is an atmosphere problem.
I had this problem with the light reflecting off the water in Aion on certain maps.

If your monitor has a light sensitivity mode (I know most ACER monitors do) use it and the filtering will break up those effects some to ease your eyes.

Note: it isn’t perfect and won’t make it totally go away.

Yes, it’s not the brightness setting, but I am getting a headache as well. Especially at night, there are just too many unusually bright ‘foggy’ areas.

Light Adaptation, Ambient Occlusion, and the other new AA graphics options were not implemented for the first BWE and stress tests, but were for the previous BWE2 and this BWE3.

As you did not experience this problem in VB during the first BWE, and only in VB during BWE2 and 3, it is possible that one or both of these graphics options is the cause for the lighting in Verdant Brink to appear differently and painfully for you now.

Try to disable Light Adaptation and/or Ambient Occlusion and see if it helps.

It’s actually even bad during the day. the way that the sunlight constantly flashes extremely brightly.

That sounds like the Light Adaptation setting. Try turning it off and see how it goes.

gamerinachair.4057:

That sounds like the Light Adaptation setting. Try turning it off and see how it goes.

tried that. It’s just too much pulsating brightness. It’s the worst in Noble Ledges. It’s blinding. If they don’t tone it down by launch then I guarantee I won’t be spending any more time in this portion of Verdant Brink than absolutely necessary.
I can’t say I care much for this part of the map, as a whole, anyway.

It’s like the kitten Outback. EVERYTHING wants to kitten kill ya, lol. There’s zero downtime for exploration or simply enjoying the scenery.

The ambient lighting effect that pulses throughout the air, something like a bright fog, is causing visual discomfort for many.

I was able to make that effect stop when I turned Shaders to Low. This is only a workaround, as I don’t want Shaders on Low.

Really hope ANet can tweak this lighting effect as to not be so visually discomforting.

Yes, pulsating brightness is the best way to describe it. I’ll try out that setting later.

What graphics card does everyone have? I have an 860m

In BWE1 I got a headache from traversing through the Pocket Raptors, but we are not talking about the same thing are we? I didn’t stay long enough in VB to experience any issues like this, but I’l plus one for you.

For a game that caters to the masses, they certainly don’t have enough in place to prevent things like this. I also think they completely ignore the color blind for instance.

I’ve never had a problem with any game before. Forget about the headaches, there is clearly a graphics issue that some of us are experiencing. I’ll upload a screenshot tonight, you will see that it is not subjective.

I’ve never had it before, either, but after following Faren up the slope and into the wyvern fight, I just had to leave. That pulsing bright sunlight hurt so much, especially as you’re leaning in to try and follow the battle.

Here is a screenshot I captured. I hope it is OK to post this.

http://imgur.com/9EgoJ8h

That brightness just pulses every few seconds.

The issue seems to be the over reliance on special effects in the zone. I fed this back on both betas and stress test, but it seems to be worsening with each subsequent beta. It could be a lovely looking zone, but pulsing light streams, intense steam and smoke and lots of other effects detract from the scenery so, so much. Its like an alien disco in the jungle!!

Having said that, there feels like improved optimisation in place. The new area felt smoother than before and much smoother than LA or SW. Possibly due to the severe reduction in mobs, but likely ongoing back end improvements.

The Great Al.2546:

Here is a screenshot I captured. I hope it is OK to post this.

http://imgur.com/9EgoJ8h

That brightness just pulses every few seconds.

Yup, that’s it. The light pulses, and then my eyes start to hurt from the glare, and then my head starts to pound in sync with the light pulsing.

This may be silly, but assuming the devs play the game before it gets sent to us, and they are not experiencing this (as also others seem to be fine with it all, while many do have problems); but perhaps age has something to do with it, and they’re all under 40?

Like those mosquito noises they broad cast around shops, during the days, to discourage kids from loitering. They can hear it, and be annoyed by it, but those over a certain age can’t hear it.

Maybe it’s got something to do with older people being more sensitive to certain lighting, like how I used to be able to play stuff like Wolfenstein (circa 1992) for hours on end, and now just the thought of it makes me sickish.

If anyone cares to show hands:

I find the Verdant Brink lighting to be painful. Age 48.

First one with light adaptation ON, and postprocessing to high. Need sunglasses to fight the Wyvern

Second one with light adaptation OFF, and postprocessing to none. Still light fog/sand pulsing

Last one with light adaptation OFF, postprocessing to none, ambient occlusion OFF. Still light fog/sand pulsing in the dusk time …….

It’s not a lighting effect.

It’s a fog effect that is poorly lit.

It’s why you don’t notice it during the night cycle.

Hopefully Anet does something about it because it’s a fps hog as well as unsightly.

Can also confirm that putting shaders on low fixes this, although it’s far from an ideal solution.

Can the subject of this be changed? This has nothing to do with headaches, it’s just an effect that isn’t working properly on some pcs.

Kitty La Boom Boom.4065:

gamerinachair.4057:

That sounds like the Light Adaptation setting. Try turning it off and see how it goes.

tried that. It’s just too much pulsating brightness. It’s the worst in Noble Ledges.

Set your Shaders setting to Off.

Nilix.2170:

Kitty La Boom Boom.4065:

gamerinachair.4057:

That sounds like the Light Adaptation setting. Try turning it off and see how it goes.

tried that. It’s just too much pulsating brightness. It’s the worst in Noble Ledges.

Set your Shaders setting to Off.

I’ll try that, but then my game is ugly, so I’ll, again, only be playing in that area for as little time as possible to get through it and move on.
I hope they fix this soon.

The Great Al.2546:

Can also confirm that putting shaders on low fixes this, although it’s far from an ideal solution.

Can the subject of this be changed? This has nothing to do with headaches, it’s just an effect that isn’t working properly on some pcs.

It does have to do with headaches, as it’s the effect that is causing them. I don’t have this problem in any other area of the game, and I play with graphics, set at max, everywhere else.

Kitty La Boom Boom.4065:

Nilix.2170:

Kitty La Boom Boom.4065:

gamerinachair.4057:

That sounds like the Light Adaptation setting. Try turning it off and see how it goes.

tried that. It’s just too much pulsating brightness. It’s the worst in Noble Ledges.

Set your Shaders setting to Off.

I’ll try that, but then my game is ugly, so I’ll, again, only be playing in that area for as little time as possible to get through it and move on.
I hope they fix this soon.

Personally, I don’t find Shaders Off to be a terrible thing, I actually like it better in some situations. Shaders can sometimes give off some nicer lighting, but with higher detail character and environment textures and the Ambient Occlusion, things already look pretty nice and the shaders stop being annoying.

OK, turning off shaders definitely stops the pulsing, and the game doesn’t look terrible if everything else is at max. I still hope they fix it.

Really hoping the devs see this!

Yes! the pulsing rays of light were giving me a massive headache, as others said had to set shaders to off to get it to stop pulsing.
I like having my settings turned up

Could be shaders or post processing. You have to turn both off on mac anyway else it crashes all the time.

For me at least it was the shaders. I am on a Windows PC.

+1, still relevant, these ambient particles need to be way more subtle, in some areas it’s really disturbing to have these pop up in your face.

I am having headaches and eye strain from GW2 since lauch….the worst are fps drops…somehow if the game isn’t 100% smooth, i start getting eye strain, then headache….the same is happening with Elite Dangerous, though i think it is because every time you travel between star systems, gigantic sphere of fire pops up on your screen xD