Odyssey causing... eye strain (and eventually headache)?

[Evangelion Angel]

Something has been bothering me ever since I started spending more time in my ship since Odyssey released;
While until now I pretty much only did on-foot stuff and I was pretty fine, but now I decided to go on an exploration trip and noticed that after playing for an hour or two my eyes start to hurt. The headache might come with it, but it doesn't happen every time, while eye strain is a given after playing for an hour or more.

This is the general rule of the thumb since I started this trip, I log and start playing, then after an hour or two I just can't play it anymore. Now I would just brush it off (or think it's a me issue), but I never have it happen in any other game that I play or have played in the past, and even now when I play something else for hours nothing happens. So it's safe to assume that it's exclusive to Odyssey.

Now I did a fair share of exploration in Horizons (150k+ LYs) and neither ever happened to me, not even after playing the whole day in some occasions. To test this, I again spent some time in Horizons while on this trip and everything was fine - I played for like 4 hours or so. Then the next day I went back to Odyssey and guess what... eyes started to hurt pretty fast. Even going back to Horizons and flying for a bit reduces it and it eventually stops.

I'm suspecting that it has to do with the way current lightning system works (or fails?) - I did notice that the space and everything outside of the ship is WAY too dark (I often literally don't even see the nose of my Anaconda because it gets as dark as the space and it "merges" together), while cockpit and stars are WAY too bright. The way too bright also includes some planets after landing on them, as in they're literally glowing.

Wondering if anyone else has had this issue that's exclusive to Odyssey?

 

[Vardaugas]

The only time I got my eyes strained was when I went crystal hunting on geologically active planets. That takes a lot of squinting at pixels to detect where the next nodes are and with not the best fps. Xenobiology can go similar but its usually not as much of a strain for me.

Other than that, headaches are from the weather.

 

[Frankymole]

As well as the ridiculous "too dark / glowing" contrast issues, I've noticed that the night-vision for ships/space objects is also much clunkier (almost jagged as if anti-aliasing is off or reduced) in Odyssey than the smooth Horizons version using the same settings. They seem to have rewritten from the ground up how some or all of the rendering works.

 

[Vandaahl]

For me its the pretty obvious micro stutters update 5 introduced.

 

[Frop]

Yes, very much so. The contrast is killing it.

 

[Pigletslastand]

Light is too contrasty and has turned overall to a more white/blue hue over the previous warmer orangey tone. If you ever use the nightime function on windows to help with eyestrain you can see the difference in white balance quite clearly and to me at least, Odyssey has shifted way more into the harsher SC realm where every light source is more glaring and white/blue.

 

[CMDR Ylion]

i have this because of the super blurry image(bad Antialiasing) - my eyes tried to produce a sharp image from a blurry source.
that amd-sharpening-thingy made this a bit better.

but i used to play horizons at 1080p ultra with 1.5 supersampling (60fps)
for odyssey i dropped the supersampling to 1.0 to stay above 30fps.
so i can´t directly compare these two

 

[Evangelion Angel]

The only time I got my eyes strained was when I went crystal hunting on geologically active planets. That takes a lot of squinting at pixels to detect where the next nodes are and with not the best fps. Xenobiology can go similar but its usually not as much of a strain for me.

Other than that, headaches are from the weather.

I didn't bother with Xenobiology thankfully, but some planets that I landed on are glowing so I also avoid landing too much if it seems weird from the space lol

For me its the pretty obvious micro stutters update 5 introduced.

Yikes, this sucks! Thankfully I didn't have that but I feel for you lol

Yes, very much so. The contrast is killing it.

i have this because of the super blurry image(bad Antialiasing) - my eyes tried to produce a sharp image from a blurry source.
that amd-sharpening-thingy made this a bit better.

but i used to play horizons at 1080p ultra with 1.5 supersampling (60fps)
for odyssey i dropped the supersampling to 1.0 to stay above 30fps.
so i can´t directly compare these two

You might be onto something as well, I didn't think of that. I play at 1080p x1 supersample when doing ship stuff on Ultra, but it does have something weird going on. I still think that it's mainly from the huge difference of everything being way over the top lightning wise.

Really hope they sort this out.. I mean... they have a literal reference as how it should be one click down in the launcher lol

 

[vladnil]

Observed eye pressure and nausea.
After spending two hours on the planet in search of materials.
The problem exists.
Frontiers do, anything?

 

[gooddoc]

I'v not played anywhere near as much since update 5, mainly due to broken Salvage Missions.

I did go on a brief, mini trip out of the bubble, a few weeks back, but I was doing multiple things & not just flying in space.

So I'v yet to notice any eyestrain issues that the OP experiences, sorry OP.

 

[Elfener]

Do you have your upscaler set to use contrast adaptive sharpening? If yes, try using Frontier's normal upscaler. (This setting can be found in Graphics>Quality>Upscaling)

 

[Sinhuit]

Try doing a CZ at night time its like a disco.

 

[CMDR Von Abrahart]

I have had the same issue - if you have bad contrast and lighting your eyes muscles and brow muscles try to compensate. Over time its like not wearing glasses you try to focus on things that cannot be resolved. I had the same thing when watching 3D movies - i love looking at the backgrounds - you try to squint to resolve the depth of field but it will never resolve - thus headache again. I also find that the tone mapping when in and out of shadow and light also can play with your eyes. FPS drops also mess with your eye.

 

[Para Handy]

I found the default Orange was a real pain, right from my first days I got eye strain quickly. I also asked them to remove the drop shadow on the yellow text (makes it fuzzy) but they wouldn't as it is needed to see against bright backgrounds (Nav Beacon hunting for example).

In the end I found a HUD colour matrix that just removes the neon of the orange and leaves it a nice light coffee-colour - hence its creator called it "Mocha". It makes the yellow text easier on the eye too.

It works in Oddity also.


Mocha Scheme

Spoiler

Mocha Scheme

<LocalisationName>Standard</LocalisationName>
<MatrixRed>0.7, 0.08, -0.08</MatrixRed>
<MatrixGreen> 0, 1, 1 </MatrixGreen>
<MatrixBlue> 0.15, -0.15, 1</MatrixBlue>

 

[Evangelion Angel]

Do you have your upscaler set to use contrast adaptive sharpening? If yes, try using Frontier's normal upscaler. (This setting can be found in Graphics>Quality>Upscaling)

I'm playing at 1080p, 1x SS. I tried switching from normal to AMD Fidelity, but neither solved it. I had the same issue after an hour or so.

Try doing a CZ at night time its like a disco.

Yeah, that could get intense sometimes, but it never made my eyes hurt. And I can't say that I didn't spend A LOT of time in CZs.

I found the default Orange was a real pain, right from my first days I got eye strain quickly. I also asked them to remove the drop shadow on the yellow text (makes it fuzzy) but they wouldn't as it is needed to see against bright backgrounds (Nav Beacon hunting for example).

In the end I found a HUD colour matrix that just removes the neon of the orange and leaves it a nice light coffee-colour - hence its creator called it "Mocha". It makes the yellow text easier on the eye too.

It works in Oddity also.


Mocha Scheme

Spoiler

Mocha Scheme

<LocalisationName>Standard</LocalisationName>
<MatrixRed>0.7, 0.08, -0.08</MatrixRed>
<MatrixGreen> 0, 1, 1 </MatrixGreen>
<MatrixBlue> 0.15, -0.15, 1</MatrixBlue>

I have a different color scheme that always worked fine in Horizons (and it also is nice in Odyssey), so it's not that. Even the orange never bothered me.

 

[Crank Larson]

In VR it is all wrong. I either can't see due to darkness, or due to being blinded by too much light. Hence I'm still in Horizons.

 

[tomalus]

its really bad if you downscale the game below 1.0 x . The blur effect constantly pops up for a fraction of a second while you move. AMD sharpening helps but its still visible and irritates the brain.