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Killing Floor makes my head hurt

ItsJono

Grizzled Veteran
Jun 8, 2009
62
40
I'm pretty sure it has to do with the Brightness / Contrast / Gamma settings.

When they're on default, everything is too dark and grainy. Sure, I can mess around to see what works, but you see the current settings that I have them at now, make the lense flare or whatever that are near light sources blindingly bright.

What settings work for you guys?

Another thing that I dislike is after messing around with these settings, when you shift+caps to switch to the STEAM overlay, the overlay itself is affected by these settings, even messaging my friends in-game hurts.
 
I can validate this.

When I play on my server too much, I get a headache, or more like a headache in the back of the head, which is the place for the eye sensoric stuff of the brain.
There's only one map on the server..and it's pretty bright and yellowish because of the after-effects by Killing Floor.

When I play the map in UT2004 (MW)...there is no bloom/color overlay/motion blur and I get no headaches at all... I can play that map alone 4 hours straight.

It's the combination of bloom + color overlay + perhaps the motion blur that causes this.
I'm usually really tough when it comes to this..I can (and did) easily play a game 12hours straight without a problem at all.

I'm a gamer xP
 
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I can validate this.

When I play on my server too much, I get a headache, or more like a headache in the back of the head, which is the place for the eye sensoric stuff of the brain.
There's only one map on the server..and it's pretty bright and yellowish because of the after-effects by Killing Floor.

When I play the map in UT2004 (MW)...there is no bloom/color overlay/motion blur and I get no headaches at all... I can play that map alone 4 hours straight.

It's the combination of bloom + color overlay + perhaps the motion blur that causes this.
I'm usually really tough when it comes to this..I can (and did) easily play a game 12hours straight without a problem at all.

I'm a gamer xP
Just watched the Deathmatch server video on your Xfire profile. Looks nice. Always have bad luck connecting to your server, but I wish I could. I am no modder at all and it looks difficult, but anyway of adding typical deathmatch HUD information, such as a points system, assisted kills, ___ killed ____ with ____ etc?
 
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would you say your eyes are hurting or the back of your head?


if your eyes are hurting you have been playing too long. And who knows, for you that could be a half an hour.

if the back of your head hurts it is most likely the brightness.

A few easy steps can help. Try each one and see if it works for you:

-Play with the lights on in the room. Having the monitor be the only light source in a dark room causes pretty nasty eyestrain and thus, headaches

-Tweak the brightness/contrast. A lot of times, people have these cranked WAY too high...

-Check your monitor's refresh rate. Make sure it's set (Within what the monitor can handle, of course!) at 60Hz or higher. Higher is better. I have mine at 85hz, but many of the newer 'Plasma' monitors can go up to 95+. A higher refresh makes the screen 'flicker' less (Not detectable by your eyes at higher than 60hz, but your brain will notice it and get headaches!). 70-75hz will usually be fine.

-Try playing with Motion blur off. See if it helps. If not, you can always turn it back on. It helped me a lot!

-Sit further back from your monitor if possible.

If all else fails, you might wanna look into changing the game's resolution to something lower or higher. I've seen that mess with some people. A lot of my friends get motion sickness at high resolutions, but not lower and vice-versa.
 
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-Play with the lights on in the room. Having the monitor be the only light source in a dark room causes pretty nasty eyestrain and thus, headaches

This can be counter-productive if the lights put glare on your screen. The ideal lighting is to have an indirect light behind your monitor or TV or whatever, so it doesn't create glare on the screen, but it alleviates any eye-strain. What can cause strain is a rectangle of light surrounded by darkness.

I have a desk-lamp that shines light on the wall behind my monitor for when I need light while on the computer. This is much easier on the eyes than having overhead lights on. If you look at the offices of professionals who use computers all day, many will have a similar setup.

However, I play games (PC and consoles) and watch movies in the dark most of the time and it doesn't bother me. Maybe I'm just used to it or maybe it just doesn't affect some people. I play lots of horror games and I refuse to play them in anything other than complete darkness with the sound cranked up and I do the same thing with any game designed to be immersive.
 
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I can marathon games from anywhere from half an hour to up to 4ish hours before I feel fatigued and will take a break.

I doubt it has anything to do whether the lights are on or off in my case since i'm more comfortable with the lights off, but will turn on lights I feel that it will lessen the strain.
 
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I play with the lights off and the monitor as the only source of light and I can play for more then 7+ hours without having any problem I think it depends on the person that is playing the game. If you're not use to playing games for more then a few hours then you can get headaches from it. Iv been playing games since I was born so Im use to sitting in front of anything for a long period of time that goes for the no light. I find that If I play games with the lights on it makes me really pissy cause I can't see something/ game is to dark with lights on that kinda thing.

I suggest that you turn down the lights if you can or try not to see so close to the monitor. If you're also using an old style monitor /like I use/ try not to play on it to long take a break ever half hour or wave to give yourself time. Practice on solo so you have time to do what ever without being attacked because your idle.

Try to keep something with you that helps with stress also I find that being stressed in a game will cause you to get headaches too because you are thinking to hard on it.

If I can think of anything else Ill bring it up.
 
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