Visuals- Please help improve our game experience.

[Swagger.1459]

Edited to avoid “call out”...

 

I know everyone at Anet is extremely busy with a thousand things, but I feel this is a very important topic to bring up for consideration and discussion.

 

https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/7195/mounts-and-motion-sickness

 

https://massivelyop.com/2017/08/12/psa-guild-wars-2s-mounts-may-be-causing-motion-sickness-issues/

 

https://massivelyop.com/2018/06/26/flameseeker-chronicles-our-preview-of-guild-wars-2s-long-live-the-lich-launching-today/

 

“The roller beetle: Excellent mechanics, but watch for motion sickness”, and the writer goes on to explain their motion sickness experience.

 

There is a pretty big list of effect designs that are causing eye discomfort, nausea, headaches, dizziness, triggers for seizures... and here are but a few examples...

 

- Death-Branded Shatterer fight.

- Jahai Bluffs Derv light-up spinning attack.

- Volatile Magic light burst when touched.

- Distortion areas.

- Groups of players firing off skills on the same target and area.

- Many event/npc enemy effects, combined with player effects, create an overload on the eyes.

 

There are more, but I think I’ve made the point. And the topic of extreme visual effects has been around since game launch, so it’s not new.

 

...There are a few events that pan/zoom-out the camera in the game, like the Effigy event in Grothmar Valley, and I can say from experience that it makes a HUGE and positive difference for me visually. When the camera is zoomed-out it almost instantly reduces eye strain and makes looking at the screen 10x more comfortable. And I can guarantee that a zoomed-out camera would also help reduce the motion sickness that some of us feel while using mounts.

 

With all that said, I would sincerely like to request that the team allow players the option to pan the camera back, just like you see for the new Effigy event. I understand that WvW was a consideration when it came to camera zoom, but I feel something can be resolved for that mode to make it possible while offering such an option in all areas of the game.

 

Player health and well-being should be a greater priority when considering changes, and I can guarantee that players would welcome an option to help make the game less visually oppressive and unhealthy at times.

 

Thank you for reading!

[starlinvf.1358]

As much as I'm all for accommodation...... there are limits to how far this can go before the whole design of the game has to be co-opted to further that goal. And I'm getting worn out having to point out that any change has to consider all use cases, not just the ones you yourself consider. And its been argued up and down, with so much better research backing it, that you really need to look into those; because just saying "something needs to be done", when there is a wealth of information and discussion about what can and should be done, feels like it adds nothing to the conversation.

 

Which segues into a recommendation that you read up on TPV and FOV, and its impact on level design, and the drivers on motion sickness..... because you only mention things that have an effect, but don't convey the underlying causes nor why that makes a difference. Cuz if you did, you could had just cut to the chase. :p

[Rasimir.6239]

There already are a lot of video options that help with this. Personally setting my Field of View to maximum and fiddling with some graphics settings to both make things look less real and improve framerate (choppy graphics are a guaranteed way to bring on my motion sickness) have helped me a lot.

 

ANet has already put in a lot of tools to configure the game's visuals to reduce motion sickness. If it's not enough for you, can you describe more detailed what you already have tried (both in-game settings and out-of-game stuff like making sure that your room is well lit and your monitor is far enough away to not cover your whole view) to make it easier to pin-point if there is anything beyond personal control that ANet can change without impacting the visual experience of the players that aren't impacted by motion sickness?

[deffy.1320]

hmmm never suffered motion sickness in this game and i'm very susceptible to it and i've been playing 7 years and rolling ace :) I'm also high functioning aspie which has issues with visual details meaning i see everything yet i'm not gonna blame the game for that inconvenience, were talking visual clutter and ppls personal preferences and i'm certain anet does consider these issues you have, but visual effects are part of the game i mean where does it stop and it has to stop somewhere because you can't please all of the ppl all of the time.

 

As for rollerbeetle u need to learn to drift :p :)

[arielwind.8921]

> @"Rasimir.6239" said:

> There already are a lot of video options that help with this.

> ANet has already put in a lot of tools to configure the game's visuals to reduce motion sickness.

I think there aren't enough compared to other MMO. Need more skill effect cut off of outside members of squad/party. Flashy mount, glider, gather effect, infusion, legendary effect as well.

GW2 meta event is fun, but on the other hand makes me tired because of them these years.

 

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

> @"BlueJin.4127" said:

> S4 episode 1, the very first mission is a motion sickness hell. Gaile responded that AbandonNet would fix it... years ago... and nothing came of it.

>

> As for flashing effects, Holosmith skills, air elementalist skills, Soulbeast leaving beast mode (happens every time player mounts), jackal engage skill, springer engage skill, and triggering vistas are some of the many, many, many flashing effects that hurt some players’ eyes and is unhealthy to everybody.

>

> Unfortunately, AbandonNet has shown that it doesn’t give a kitten. And no, none of the poor video options this game provides does much.

 

> @"BlueJin.4127" said:

> S4 episode 1, the very first mission is a motion sickness hell. Gaile responded that AbandonNet would fix it... years ago... and nothing came of it.

>

> As for flashing effects, Holosmith skills, air elementalist skills, Soulbeast leaving beast mode (happens every time player mounts), jackal engage skill, springer engage skill, and triggering vistas are some of the many, many, many flashing effects that hurt some players’ eyes and is unhealthy to everybody.

>

> Unfortunately, AbandonNet has shown that it doesn’t give a kitten. And no, none of the poor video options this game provides does much.

 

Actually, _ArenaNet_ responded and addressed the motion sickness issue:

 

question about

motion sickness what some of the custom

cameras we do have new options for the

camera to turn off some things like

camera roll and a few other things

control blur a bit and stuff like that

so we do have ways to toggle those on or

off

we did a lot of them work on the cameras

to really just like push the experience

of feeling what it's like mounted but

it's not for everyone

people have different tolerances that

stuff so there are so you can toggle

some of those off and that should help

with the motion sickness yeah yeah I

remember when Roy was adding those and

they were obviously tuned way higher

than they would be really and it was

pretty wild I mean it was very cool

right because you know when you'd run

certain ways whenever you would see your

camera affected or the screen effect you

know and it felt really cool but it was

very obvious as a cool it feels pretty

cool was even like rough for me since I

was like saying up all the cameras for

that so I had to go through all the

settings and like tone it down low by oh

yeah for sure yeah because we had like

the cameras allow you to do whatever you

want like it's all custom variables so I

defined like a starting place and kind

of just play around with everything

until it felt good thank you for it in

and they're like what five percent or

less of what you could have yeah so

really they're very low

 

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Guild_Chat_-_Episode_53

[BlueJin.4127]

> @"Inculpatus cedo.9234" said:

> Snip

 

What I’m talking about has nothing to do with the camera or mount movements and, again, none of the issues that I mentioned can be fixed using any of the in-game options. For example, the motion sickness I’m talking about in S4E1 has nothing to do with the camera and the swirl effect cannot be removed by turning off PP or changing any option provided in the game. Same for the bright flashing effects... turning off PP, limiting spell effects, etc. does next to nothing to make them hurt less.

 

Many players already know about these “options” and we already spent hours fiddling around with them enough to know they do not work for us.

[Ol Nik.2518]

I would love to have more options for controlling visuals. I am one of those people who get nausea, migraines, and motion sickness due to the visual effects used in GW2. An option to turn off elaborate models and replace everyone with simple ones would vastly improve the game experience for people like myself. I think that this is possible to do since at the lowest graphic settings only a few nearby characters are shown in their full and flashy glory.

 

It would be also nice to have an option to reduce or completely remove flashing effects, for example, flashing when a character gains a level (and at maximum level, complete shard or mastery XP requirements). It might not be bothering for the majority of people, but it causes terrible migraines in some. Similar effects can also trigger a seizure.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

And yet, the Devs did respond, even if it wasn't to one's liking.

[BlueJin.4127]

> @"Inculpatus cedo.9234" said:

> And yet, the Devs did respond, even if it wasn't to one's liking.

 

Respond to what? Something I wasn't even talking about? Again, the stuff you quoted is regarding motion sickness due to camera movement, something I was not even talking about. Swagger is the one who mentioned camera/mount motion sickness, not me. And even if your quote refers to what I was talking about, and Anet responded "to my liking" and said they were going to fix the issues, words alone mean nothing without actual proper action and none of the issues I listed are addressed.

 

The motion sickness issue I'm talking about in Daybreak is due to the swirl effects, not the camera/mount. It is not addressed.

 

The painful and harmful bright flashing effects from Holosmith skills, air elementalist skills, Soulbeast leaving Beastmode (happens often since it happens every time player mounts), jackal engage skill, springer engage skill, and triggering vistas are the ones I specifically listed. None of these are addressed.

 

And while I wasn't talking about camera/mount causing motion sickness, if you don't suffer motion sickness from the camera/mount movement, great for you, but clearly, this issue is not addressed because there are still other players suffering.

 

> @"Ol Nik.2518" said:

>An option to turn off elaborate models and replace everyone with simple ones would vastly improve the game experience for people like myself.

 

Setting Character Model Quality to lowest turns other players to generic models, though I'm not sure this is what you're looking for.

 

[Ol Nik.2518]

> @"BlueJin.4127" said:

> > @"Ol Nik.2518" said:

> >An option to turn off elaborate models and replace everyone with simple ones would vastly improve the game experience for people like myself.

 

> Setting Character Model Quality to lowest turns other players to generic models, though I'm not sure this is what you're looking for.

 

I play at the lowest settings. Unfortunately, generic models are replaced with flashy models when you come close to someone or if you join a group/squad.

There is also a problem that while lowest graphic settings alleviate headaches and motion sickness, they significantly reduce the overall enjoyment of the game. Moreover, in some cases, they make some actions impossible or close to impossible, e.g. it is very hard to see daily codes for the secret PoI in Grothmar Valley if your settings are lower than medium.

 

It would be nice to have a greater degree of control over different visual aspects of the game.

[arielwind.8921]

I still have to avert my eyes from screen when someone use flashy mining tool next to me. That's kinda annoying.