Dishonored, it hurts.

[gaspah]

Just started playing it and the story is somewhat awesome. The real problem? IT HURTS TERRIBLY. I got a 21" screen and I play from a distance of 50cms screen->eyes and still after 10 minutes of playing my head just blows off and my eyes gets red like I just did a gaming night shift! This game is really great for casual gamers who got tired of Skyrim's lack of story (waiting 5 years for best mods to come out, than Ill play it again) but ffs, its unplayable! Maybe XBOX360 players can do better with the TV cause of the higher distance but for PC, its just bad.

 

That's my share or 50 cents or w\e! Now talk! XD

 

I don't see how Dishonored differs from other games in a way that would hurt your eyes? If anything, I've found it to be less straining on my eyes because of the silky smoothness of the Unreal 3 engine. In comparison to Skyrim where at times you get a drop in FPS that makes the animation jerky, Dishonored is really pleasant on the eyes in terms of eye strain. I sit about the same distance from my screen as you do (closer if things get intense lol) and I'm running a much larger 50" screen. I think perhaps other people are right, you should get a larger screen if your eyes are straining.

[Aegrus]

Hmm. . . maybe he forgot to change the resolution from whatever it defaulted to? I once started playing a game (I think it was Kotor 2: TSL) at about 480p because that's what my awful laptop could run it at, and the pixels shifting everywhere gave me a headache.

 

. . .He doesn't seem to be replying to his own post, though.

[ub3rman123]

Is it a FOV problem? I've played a few FPS games where the Field of View is set so far in it looks like you're viewing the world through binoculars. Hurts after a few minutes.

[dalsio]

I think, if he's sincere, his problem is that when playing Dishonored on PC specifically, his eyes hurt faster than usual. This can be caused by many reasons, not the least of which are FOV problems. Dishonored defaults to a relatively low FoV, about 60. Normally, for console gamers who usually sit farther away from the screen, this isn't a problem. But when sitting 50cm away, the FoV can kill your eyes and give a nasty headache. Try bumping up your FoV, the max in-game is 85, but you can modify the .ini file (www.gamefront.com) to get something higher.

 

Another problem can be your monitor settings. If you only get a headache during a specific game, it might be the game settings conflicting with the defaults, or that the game itself just happens to do stuff that makes a normally faulty monitor setting that much more unbearable. Check that your resolution is correct for your monitor both in-game and out, and that the screen is oriented correctly. Color correction might be an issue, but unlikely. What could be a major factor is refresh rate. If the game sets your monitor to an unusual refresh rate, your monitor doesn't display right and items on the screen look slightly blurry or even double vision, depending on how bad it is. Check that the game sets the refresh rate to whatever your monitor's refresh rate is, and mess with vertical sync settings.

 

Of course, gamma and brightness can be a factor. Playing a game in the dark shouldn't have an effect, but just in case try changing your room's lighting. Change your gamma and brightness to make sure that you can see the light parts, but not see through dark areas, and that there is proper contrast between the two. Having either too bright a screen or too dark can cause eye strain.

 

And finally, make sure that every so often you look away from the screen a sec. You wouldn't believe how well just peeling your eyes off to look at your keyboard or maybe a blank wall can help with eye stamina.

Edited October 27, 2012 by dalsio

[clark10]

I'm guessing your settings are too dark, making you squint to see anything.