POE2 Eye Strain: Am I the Only One?

Hey Exiles!

I’ve been playing POE2 for 2 weeks now, and every single day I’ve been going to bed with eyes that feel like a Terminator's — completely red and burning. I decided to take a break for a day and played other games. My eyes felt fine again.

But then I went back to POE2 and... "Ah sht, here we go again". Just half an hour in, and my eyes are on fire.

It’s odd because visually, POE2 looks amazing, and I don’t see any blinking frames or frame drops. I’m running at a solid 120fps the whole time. But something about it feels off just for my eyes and I cannot tell what.

I’ve been gaming for years and have played a variety of games without ever having issues like this. I’ve put over 2k hours into POE1 and never had any problems with eye strain or discomfort, even when playing builds that turned my monitor into a stroboscope with all the crazy effects.

Is anyone else dealing with this? What do you think could be causing it?
I’m curious to hear if others have had a similar experience.

It's partially the graphics. While they look much crisper and more detailed compared to POE1, they are also much more stressful to the eyes. Especially in movememt.

I would nevertheless also check your settings. VSync off?

It is very dark in general. A little more contrast would make things easier to distinquish.
This is not the same as as making it lighter. But more like highlight that would acentuate the shapes better.
I try sometimes watching a stream at night on a 13 inch ipad but it is tiring to look at because it is so hard to see.

I found the resolution scaling thingy was making my eyes hurt, with that off I have no issues. Might be worth looking into.

you are prob using some version of a yellow/orange screen mask/glasses already but i will still mention F.lux- solved the eye strain issue for me years ago.

also removing the up scaling tends to produce much nicer/easy on the eyes graphics for me. but yeah i'm still chuggin on a very old rig before upgrades come in and im doing ok in sub 30fps world

Try tempering with the graphics settings. For example, try lowering the bloom % and check the difference.

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Arunderan#4678 wrote:

It's partially the graphics. While they look much crisper and more detailed compared to POE1, they are also much more stressful to the eyes. Especially in movememt.

I would nevertheless also check your settings. VSync off?

I tried VSync On/Off, but it didn't change the thing. Also, I turned off the screen shaking and turned down the bloom % as much as possible. I tried different settings on upscaling (On/Off), changing types, and sharpness levels.
All that and no success.

You are definitely not the only one.
I have been playing PoE for years without any issues, but after digging into PoE II for a few sessions of a couple of hours, my eyes have been bloodshot and it has been accompanied by headache the next day.

Whether the cause is i am straining more for the visuals in PoE II than I did for PoE, getting oldman eyes or a combination of both, the result is I currently cant play PoE II for max an hour at most.

I have tears rolling down my cheeks when I play, then I remember I need to blink. All part of the fun. I'd love to have a staring contest with doriyani and see who wins.

It's good to know that I'm not the only one struggling with that. I thought I was going crazy - it's literally the first game that's given me such a hard time.
I completely stopped playing because of that and will not risk my eyes for a game. I have plenty of others that don't cause such issues.

Let's see if GGG will address that issue at some point.