I can hardly enjoy GW2 anymore because it literally causes eye damage

[Moradorin.6217]

I feel like GW2 effects have cause me severe eye damage. Anyone else?

[Despot.3048]

Please consult a medical professional for a proper assessment. 

[Danikat.8537]

If you're serious and not just being overly dramatic then yes you should stop playing, at least tempoarily, and get your eyes tested.

There's also a lot of things you can do to fix the problem: search for 'computer hurts my eyes' and you'll get a lot of results explaining that this is a common problem and how to fix it. The simplest things are to turn the screen brightness down and make sure you're playing in a well lit room. Backlighting the screen can help too but depending on where your PC is that might be more complicated.

When I got a 'gaming' monitor the first thing I had to do was turn the brightness right down because it was painful to look at, even on the blue Windows startup screen. Apparently that's a common trend at the moment - selling overly bright monitors that default to 100% brightness. (The contrast and some other settings were also messed up at first, it was like they were trying to make everything look like an acid trip.)

[Fueki.4753]

There is one part of the game that causes my eyes to hurt as well. It's the frosty screen border in Bjora Marches during the snow storm and the Fraenir fight.

Back when the episode released, I've told Arenanet they might want to remove it since it's literally hurting players, but Arenanet didn't even care to acknowledge the issue.

They don't even put up a seizure warning when starting the game or onto the launcher, which they should do due to the needlessly high amounts of far too shiny particle spam, so I doubt your issue will get addressed.

Edited May 11, 2022 by Fueki.4753

[Farohna.6247]

Consult a medical professional for an eye appointment.  Also, adjust your monitor's brightness, put it on night mode to take off the blue light, do some eye exercises where you look away from the monitor for a while, limit your play time. 

But to answer OP's question...nope, my eyes feel fine.

[Ashantara.8731]

5 hours ago, Fueki.4753 said:

There is one part of the game that causes my eyes to hurt as well. It's the frosty screen border in Bjora Marches during the snow storm and the Fraenir fight.

Back when the episode released, I've told Arenanet they might want to remove it since it's literally hurting players, [...]

Uhm, how exactly is it hurting one's eyes? If it is too bright for you, then you should consult a calibration guide for your monitor as brightness and gamma might be completely off.

[Linken.6345]

1 hour ago, Ashantara.8731 said:

Uhm, how exactly is it hurting one's eyes? If it is too bright for you, then you should consult a calibration guide for your monitor as brightness and gamma might be completely off.

I think OP is just hyperboling over all the visual clutter on screen.

[Goettel.4389]

Drop your graphics settings as low as you can stand.

[Farohna.6247]

1 hour ago, Ashantara.8731 said:

Uhm, how exactly is it hurting one's eyes? If it is too bright for you, then you should consult a calibration guide for your monitor as brightness and gamma might be completely off.

I feel like it's sarcastic about the sparkles and glitter that erupt from some characters (personally I like most).  But I'm also treating it as hey this is truly an issue for OP, and gamma would be good to look at 💜

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

I used to get this, too.  Turn off post-processing.  It makes the game much more tolerable.  

[kokocabana.8153]

I recommend turning on the LOD effects graphic setting as it turns down the particle effects on skills that you and others players cast.

[Hashberry.4510]

Ya I keep post processing off to avoid the searing afterimages.

[Bilgato.8034]

I'm prone to getting carsick and eye strain, I do spend as little time as possible in a few zones and prefer the Skimmer over any other mount, and I only play ranged, because you don't have to jump around as quickly ...I also can't play a Charr or Asura because they bounce too much when they run (Sylvari are the smoothest). Sometimes when it hits me hard, I sit around a in a zone where there's active chat and just watch and participate in that. 
Those are my personal workarounds, not technical but practical and all you can do after you've got the settings as good as you can. Maybe this will help someone, good luck.

[TheQuickFox.3826]

Take a break.

Lower effects settings.

Turn on Effect LOD.

Seek medical advise if nothing helped.

 

[kokocabana.8153]

Maybe zooming out farther and maxing out the field of view setting will help with getting nauseous.

[Moradorin.6217]

Yea I am serious. I play in 1440p Ultra mode on a Gsync certified monitor and avg about 100 fps. I even use the Nvidia filter overlay to lower the brightness from particle effects and things, but I really cannot be near people who use certain infusions or too many people with things like celestial dye once the fight starts I am blinded by the light in the center of the screen and its not possible adjust the brightness in such a way to see and have the effects dark enough to not interfere with my ability to see which causes allot of eye pain and its one of the reasons I have pretty much stopped playing.

[Moradorin.6217]

I also have had issues with eye strain and pain from environmental effects sorta like this person is describing.

On 5/11/2022 at 7:39 AM, Fueki.4753 said:

There is one part of the game that causes my eyes to hurt as well. It's the frosty screen border in Bjora Marches during the snow storm and the Fraenir fight.

Back when the episode released, I've told Arenanet they might want to remove it since it's literally hurting players, but Arenanet didn't even care to acknowledge the issue.

They don't even put up a seizure warning when starting the game or onto the launcher, which they should do due to the needlessly high amounts of far too shiny particle spam, so I doubt your issue will get addressed.

That is, in Bloodstone fen the red particles in the air and the background intensity causes my eyes to get red and water and hurt and have since release during lw3, similarly snowstorm effects, brand storms, etc all have that impact on my eyes.

[Moradorin.6217]

The particles could have a way to tone them down or turn them off. Or they could get less bright depending upon the ambient light level of the game area to lessen the intensity of the contrast to make it less sever, but I dont think Anet cares about those kinda things. I just wanted to express what happens to me to see who else has similar issues.

[Moradorin.6217]

I find it pretty strange and laughable that people question that this game can cause eye damage considering how common the complaints are about its infusion and skill effects on things like world boss and raid targets.

[Jukhy.2431]

I don't have issues with the effects but I do have a desk lamp behind my monitor for lighting balance (which helped a lot with eye strain) and the ingame postprocessing option turned off. At 40 years old my visual acuity score is still near perfect. Quite possible that these things are related since I do try to preserve my vision. I've learned that usually it's up to me to find a solution to my problems.

[Danikat.8537]

3 hours ago, Moradorin.6217 said:

I find it pretty strange and laughable that people question that this game can cause eye damage considering how common the complaints are about its infusion and skill effects on things like world boss and raid targets.

There's a big difference between saying "I don't like this effect" and "looking at this is literally damaging my eyes".

I don't like repetitive, flickering movements and find them annoying to look at so things like a hovering skyscale are annoying to me (especially if they're low enough to kick up dust). I move away from them if I can and avoid hovering on my own skyscale unless I need to (then I try to be high enough up that I'm out the way of other people).

But it doesn't hurt me, it's just annoying. I'm not worried it's going to do me any kind of harm and I can look at it, I just don't want to.

Also a lot of people really do have problems with their eyes and screens and don't realise it's avoidable. Including me. I used to get headaches and feel dizzy not while using the computer but an hour or so after, usually when I went to bed (yes I'd often be on the computer right before bed). I didn't think it was related because I could see the screen perfectly well, but when I had an eye test they told me I'm slightly long-sighted so looking at a screen for extended periods of time strains my eyes and I need glasses. I still don't notice any difference in what I see when I'm wearing them (and this is about a year after getting them) and can use a computer without them, but the headaches and dizzyness have almost completely stopped, so I wear them.

I've also had several coworkers who say they've got sore eyes or a headache and blame it on stress or not sleeping, then I turn the brightness down on their monitor and adjust the contrast and other settings so it's not too dull and the dark parts aren't too dark to see and the problem goes away.

[Farohna.6247]

9 hours ago, Moradorin.6217 said:

I find it pretty strange and laughable that people question that this game can cause eye damage considering how common the complaints are about its infusion and skill effects on things like world boss and raid targets.

The majority just find the effects annoying and visual clutter, not actually painful.  I would agree with The Quick Fox's recommendation list.  Thank you for clarifying that you are actually having discomfort, not just mocking the flashy things.  

I will also add, my mother-in-law had been playing games on her phone a lot.  Her eye basically ruptured, horribly bloodshot.  She went to the doctor who one of the first questions he asked was have you been playing on your phone a lot.  Quit doing it.  It healed up just fine, looked nasty though.  Kind of like severe eye strain. 

So you may need to take a break, get your eyes checked out.  If you have already adjusted everything like the number of character models, gamma, etc then might sincerely consider it.  I do hope it gets better for you so you can play a game and enjoy it ❤️

 

[SlayerXX.7138]

On 5/11/2022 at 6:55 AM, Moradorin.6217 said:

I feel like GW2 effects have cause me severe eye damage. Anyone else?

I would check the in game Setting and your monitor. If your eye get serve damage from gw 2 your normal monitor/pc settings are probably not good for your either. GW 2 being so "busy" just makes it noticeable.

[Rogue.8235]

Video imagery cannot cause retinal or corneal damage.  However, it can aggravate neurological deficits, such as epilepsy.  Consult a neuro-ophthalmologist or neurologist.  An optometrist won't be able to help.  Also, be aware of central vertigo which is a neurologic condition rather than a purely vestibular condition.  Again, consult a neurologist rather than an otolaryngologistan.