Eye strain, dizziness, headache from WoW still/again v2.0

Hi,

as the title says, i already had these issues with WoW before, then since nothing happened i left. Now back again to see if anything changed, but no luck.
Basically i’m suffering from some kind of mild illness, where the pupils in my eyes are not correctly or just slowly adopting to light changes; Mydriasis, pupil dilation, photophobia, or even Adie syndrome, you name it, noone knows mine for sure, but! I’m just OK generally with everything around. For example i can use my old TN Panel monitor with dithering in it, or play some other games for a day when i want.
Things however like WoW and nowadays’ monitors(!) as well are making it impossible to look at for longer, actually i can see the difference immediately. The only exception from newer devices i found so far is an OLED TV, that one i can watch all the time, but i don’t know whether all OLEDs are such, or not.

It doesn’t matter what i do, i tried already everything, you cannot name a single thing i didn’t, but now that i know i have this kind of illness, makes it near-clear what and why just happens.

It is about a rendering technique used, in WoW just like in these monitors i mentioned. I witnessed this in other games as well already, but now its about WoW.

The story adds up only this way, because how can i then play other games without problem? I see/sense the very same issue in the second i look at WoW, or at a monitor mentioned before, thus the technique used is exactly the same on HW and SW too. The best combo is WoW on a monitor with the same screen producing technique together… Now there, for whom on earth can this be still considered totally harmless for people out there? Just asking.

Technically, since my pupils are a bit “lazy”, it means some kind of high level, even strobing “intensity” they absorb much more, because they cannot protect my eyes from such correctly. This is still somehow theorethical, but it can also happen just outside in life too, so its more than that. The key is, things with high contrasts, or even bright environment to look at, but these are a “bit” different than a game, or a monitor, which fry eyes for hours long.
Normally this intensity is not existing, hence i can use my old monitor and if it would consist of a constant intensity, noone could comfortly look at such a bright screen, but WoW (and these monitors) are looking totally “normal” just like any other games (or monitors).
Itensity and normal-looking so far i can imagine exists when the intensity is “strobed”, or impulsed, or such, for a short period of time. Something like that should also happen then with WoW. Even on my old issueless monitor, because i can sense it when i start WoW. The same happens when i pop WoW on my OLED TV as well.

Now then, why do we have this and why is it not possible to be turned off? Not even mentioning why i don’t get a single(!) answer here from support, or the support of the monitor manufacturers i already tried. GMs kindly answered taht they will forward the issue however, but also asked me to post all this here on the forums.

What i can imagine, why this technique so important is, comes again from the monitors; nowadays they cannot produce such panels, which have better/higher screen intensity, like e.g. the OLED ones. This technique is then quite handy, because things look then more shiny.
Why we cannot turn it off? Now why would one then buy a monitor with lower overall intensity, over one with higher? Well me, but that’s just me. Anyway this is just my 2 cents.

Lastly, as i wrote in the tickets, since colorblindness is supported with three different options, this should(!) also be supported ingame, with which one could turn off(down?) this feature. If you look around, there are quite some topics about the issue and let’s now imagine the people out there, who have no idea about the whole thing, but do stuff to them maybe. Who knows, but this will not make me and them playing more or longer, however this “would” be the goal, or not?

Thank you and Best Regards.

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Hey not sure if this will help or not but whats the refresh rate on your monitor?
I was using a 60hz monitor until last year I have been having a lot of problems with my eyes over the last few years my eyes are fine but i have other health problems that can effect your eyesight… eye strain, double vision, after images, star bursts, headaches ect which used to make gaming a pain in the ar** at times.
But after switching from a 60hz monitor to a 144hz curved monitor my eyes have been a lot better I have found gaming a lot easier and my eyes don’t get as tired and i’m getting much less eyestrain than i did before I still get problems but nowhere near as bad as on my old monitor, and if your current monitor has a low blue light option try turning that on your picture will look a bit strange but you will get used to it.

Edit: Gahh, Fishkraft here, just logged on some other place which picked another toon.

Hi,
thanx for your input, but i’m already through all these things. My old TN monitor is also a 144Hz one.
Also tried actually with three different 144Hz monitors, with many different low blue option as well, it doesn’t matter. You can also read about this thing, where people are complaining about too low frequencies, but there are also people with problems at too high as well. In my case it doesn’t matter. Maybe it would wash this technique away at some impossible high frequencies, but we don’t have that.
I’m just bringing back another monitor these days and give it back as it is. I’ll stick to my old one and to my OLED TV, or maybe i’ll just buy a stupid dumb business monitor which i have at work, at least they don’t have this thing in it. Surprisely, there you also don’t need the shiny fancy screen, thus they (which here we have) don’t need the eye killing thing in it.
As for WoW, let’s see what they say, but actually as you say “getting used to it” would i not really recommend. One’s eyes should getting used to reality and natural lighting and not to some magic technology noone knows and tells about.

Not sure there’s anything support can help you with in this case since they don’t handle anything related to development (including feedback), and not entirely sure I understand the exact nature of the problem you described, but there’s a thing in WoW that used to give me severe eyestrain. The problem is the setting itself was removed from the ingame options a long time ago and the only way to turn it off is through the Config.wtf file (which you can modify, it’s allowed as it’s just a text file).
I can’t guarantee it’ll work, but I don’t know if you’ve tried it or not. Go to the WoW folder and find the retail/WTF/ folder path from there, then open the file called Config.wtf with a text editor (like notepad). Look for this line:
SET ffxGlow
and if it’s not there at all add this:
SET ffxGlow “0”
Keep in mind it’ll also turn off some full screen effects like the drunk haze effect, but that cannot be avoided I’m afraid.

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Thanx for your help. I tried before ffxGlow too somewhere in Legion and there it was working, however didn’t make any changes regarding the problem. I tried it also some days ago, but as you wrote too, it was not working. I’ll try it then via the cfg file, but since it didn’t help before, probably won’t here either, but let’s see.
The issue is not a simple one indeed, but since also HW is affecting me, i tried already to contact other organizations/manufacturers as well.
I was just experimenting with the issue WoW-wise and i’m right now trying to have simply all the lights on in the room, to have some sort of compensation of the intensity boost coming from the screen. For this i need some more time to test, but i have the feeling, it is only minor/partial solution and meanwhile my room looks like full of frigging christmas trees. Maybe i’ll also direct some spotlights right at the screen to get that thing away.
As for devs vs forum, well i cannot do much more i think, especially that i never got any answer from anyone out there.

Update:
Well, the lighting was helping only little, obviously one cannot compensate it in such level that it’d completely go away.

I was also suggesting in a ticket, if possible, make all these special things off for example at account level, if requested by someone. This would only help with the game itself, but i can live with my old monitor.
Not to mention, that on an OLED TV all these shininess is utterly not needed, OLED is something different, especially with HDR. Probably it’d be not easy to filter out OLED displays and act on them accordingly but who knows…

I don’t want to revive a dead thread, but I never met anyone with EXACTLY the same symptoms as me. Unfortunately the game is unplayable for me and its been like that for years.

I have come to the same conclusion that it is indeed the rendering in the game.