Why my eyes are tired after looking at 0AD screen (playing, observing, lobby reading, etc.)

[Deicide4u]

@BeTe

I'm bit biased here, as it is my mod and all, but you could try installing the Imperia Vetera mod for alpha 9. Just to see if that old "look" will suit your eyes. It's there in my signature, or here if you aren't logged in. You'd need the Alpha 9 exe in order to install it. I'm assuming you have Wine installed if you're playing Brood War on Linux.
https://releases.wildfiregames.com/0ad-r11339-alpha-win32.exe
 

Of course, there is no Multiplayer, and the features are pretty bare-bones. Nevertheless, the game did look different at one point in time.

[vladislavbelov]

6 hours ago, BeTe said:

there's no some "clean graphics"/low-performance mod.

It depends on a platform so generally we just provide options to control quality.

About the first screenshots you could do the following:

• Disable Post-processing
• Disable Shadows
• Disable Unit silhouettes
• Disable Particles
• Set Model quality to Low
• Move the Shader rffects slider to the left
• Disable Water effects
• Set Texture quality to Low
• Set Texture anisotropic filter to 1x

Also you could try to test different combinations of OpenGL/Vulkan (Renderer backend) + GPU skinning on/off

[BeTe]

1 hour ago, vladislavbelov said:

It depends on a platform so generally we just provide options to control quality.

About the first screenshots you could do the following:

• Disable Post-processing
• Disable Shadows
• Disable Unit silhouettes
• Disable Particles
• Set Model quality to Low
• Move the Shader rffects slider to the left
• Disable Water effects
• Set Texture quality to Low
• Set Texture anisotropic filter to 1x

Also you could try to test different combinations of OpenGL/Vulkan (Renderer backend) + GPU skinning on/off

Tried all that. Silhouttes is only way to see my units on this chaos of graphics - so I must have it turned on.

I tried to install ModernGui mod , maybe texts are weird (and I think they are, especially when UI zoom to 125%). Will see and experiment with everything a bit more. But I kinda lost motivation. I am struggling with this game for few years, comming, going away and returning.

Thanks to all one more time. If anyone has ideas, feel free to post. And if someone can develop mod, it'd be great too  

Edited 18 hours ago by BeTe

[Seleucids]

I need to update the mod, thanks for the reminder 

Btw I'm not physic, he is here @MetaPhyZic

I made the mod for him

[BeTe]

Small update: I just figured out that my eyes are already tired when sitting in lobby for 2 mins. Idk if it's font size or something else...

edit: I can't increase UI to 125%, then it's supper blurry and/or weird. 

Edited 3 hours ago by BeTe

[Deicide4u]

1 hour ago, BeTe said:

can't increase UI to 125%, then it's supper blurry and/or weird. 

Hasn't this blur been fixed in R28?

It's one of the new features of the latest release. 

[guerringuerrin]

1 hour ago, BeTe said:

Small update: I just figured out that my eyes are already tired when sitting in lobby for 2 mins. Idk if it's font size or something else...

edit: I can't increase UI to 125%, then it's supper blurry and/or weird. 

Regarding blurry fonts. I've noticed the same as you and @trompetin17 is already working on this for the next release.
Here are some issues and PR related to this:
Issue: #8759
PR: #8793

Using the GUI at 100% shouldn’t result in blurry fonts. One idea that comes to mind is that, in the meantime, you could use a lower resolution when playing so you’re not forced to increase the GUI scale. That way, you wouldn’t have the blurry font issue.

[guerringuerrin]

9 minutes ago, Deicide4u said:

Hasn't this blur been fixed in R28?

Yes, but when the GUI scale is increased to fractional (non-integer) values, the issue still occurs due to "subpixel misalignment and texture filtering."

Check this comment of #8759

Edited 2 hours ago by guerringuerrin

[Boudica]

I can confirm from experience that people often set the screen brightness too high. I keep it in the lower range so that it kind of matches the surroundings and I never have eye strain. But it could also be the opposite and I'd believe that the red or grey color on the black background in the lobby can be harder to read, especially if there is bright light around. Also what comes to mind is that the screen could be flickering. Not sure how to diagnose that. I have a software blue light filter on permanently and I think I'd recommend that one too.

I am used to a lot of lag, but I'd believe that when the scrolling is not smooth, or if there is a delay with the UI, it can be pretty tiring. I don't know about the new alpha but some UI reactions used to be delayed as if until the next game turn. I'd probably pick faster response over any kind of graphical effects until the returns diminish.

Maybe try taking some vitamin D, many people don't get enough.

10 hours ago, Seleucids said:

I need to update the mod, thanks for the reminder 

Btw I'm not physic, he is here @MetaPhyZic

I made the mod for him

That's too nice. Nobody has ever made a mod for me.

And I confirm. Quite recently I saw PhyZic come by the using his original name.

[Seleucids]

Perhaps staying away from sunlight but do keep decently bright room light on while gaming is a good move. You can set system theme to dark mode. Also there are physical matt blue filters on sale that makes the screen more gentle. 

Vitamin D indeed helps. When I first moved to this new country, my eyes hurt all the time because the sun is too bright. But after 2 months of exposure, I got used to it.