Quoting crimsongekko, reply 2@OP: you're right of course. the game applies a blur on the whole rendered scene which unfortunately includes the text ( not a smart choice here by devs ) . check the modding section for "lighting fix" , grab version 1.01, and only use the post_hdr file . change brighness/contrast ratio in options menu to 50/50. this will remove the blur effect
The game is not blurring the text used on UI elements and brightness / contrast appear to have no impact on them what so ever. Only text such as city labels and tile labels that are part of the world vs the UI would be impacted by those settings.
It sounds like the original poster is either using the special nvidia AA modes which blur everything (FXAA - a known side effect of that type of antialiasing), is running their monitor at a non native resolution, or has a font rendering issue with the specific fonts used in game.
The best thing to do would be to post a screenshot showing the problem so we have more information to go on.
Not using any special NVidia AA modes... Running at 1680x1050, my monitor's default resolution. Tried every resolution in game, tried "Desktop" resolution, no changes... No clue why I'd have a font rendering issue, that just boggles my mind.
Like I said it's just "in game" that the font is blurry, or the brightness blends into the background. The main menu, the main menu options, race/character selection screen/editing screen, all are perfectly clear and visible.
Just in game, the UI text, the city text, basically all game text is blurred or hazy... It's not clear.
I'll post a screenshot when I get a chance to play the game in a few hours...