Blurry Text In Game...

from Elemental Forums

Is it just me or does the ingame text(not main menu options) seem blurred or compacted?

 

It's really hard for me to read it, basically I have to squint.

 

Tried changing my resolutions, no noticeable change...

 

Can't figure out why... Is the game not meant to be run on 1680x1050 resolution?

 

Text is perfect in the options menu, or the main game menu... But in game, it's distorted sorta and blurred. Like it's being cramped into a box it's not supposed to fit.

 

Anyone else having this issue, and if so, any options which can alleviate it? It's giving me a headache trying to read it.

30,286 views 17 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

More info would be necessary to determine the problem - I assume your monitor's native resolution matches the one you use in the game (since options screen is okay).

Check your drivers settings, and try to switch off the postprocessing AA types like MLAA, FXAA, since they can blur 3d rendered text if the game is not specifically designed to use them.

Maybe try to run "dxdiag" in your command console, and save the output to a file, and post it here, so that we can know more about your hardware and drivers.

Other than that, the usual drill - update video drivers, DirectX, and the redistributables the game uses (but that should happen during the installation).

 

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top
@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 :)
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Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top

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
End of crimsongekko's quote

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.

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Neil, reply 3

 Only text such as city labels and tile labels that are part of the world vs the UI would be impacted by those settings.
End of Neil's quote

 

Oh, this is so annoying. Tile yields are quite unreadable to me except for almost the closest zoom.

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top
Quoting Neil, reply 3

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.
End of Neil's quote
 
yeah, city labels and tile labels are the UI elements I was talking about. brightness/contrast ratio change is to offset the removal of the blur that mod applies ( somehow it makes the scene darker ) . I know I used to have blurry city labels and I no longer do after that tweak, so hopefully that's the issue the OP is experiencing.
 
good point about FXAA, MLAA and the other post-processing AA techniques, they don't work well for this kind of game with lots of UI exactly for this reason. I usually inject SMAA, which solves the common issues associated with these AA techniques. unfortunately FE crashes if I try it :/
Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Neil, reply 3

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.
End of Neil's quote

 

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...

Reply #7 from Elemental Forums Top

Here's the game settings, the text in these menus for the most part is clear...

 Here's some game screenshots... The city text is blurry. The build text is more legible but is not clear and seems blockly/blurry/blendy(i can't describe it).

Reply #8 from Elemental Forums Top

yeah, ingame there's blur. that's intended, to give the feel of a fairy tale world ;)

 

did you try the mod I mentioned earlier? the post_hdr file removes the blur. https://forums.elementalgame.com/435723

Reply #9 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting crimsongekko, reply 9
https://forums.elementalgame.com/435723
End of crimsongekko's quote

 

I'll give it a whirl...

Reply #10 from Elemental Forums Top

if you check that thread there should actually be a couple screenshots showing the difference

Reply #11 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting crimsongekko, reply 11
if you check that thread there should actually be a couple screenshots showing the difference
End of crimsongekko's quote

 

Ya just tired it... I mean it's "better" but the blur is still noticeable just not as prevalent.

I'll keep using this mod, because the default gives me a headache squinting to read half the text... But I mean this isn't exactly a "fix" this just seems more like a "touch up".

Still think something more in-depth needs to be changed... Because I don't get how the text can't be clear, I mean why is it blending into everything and why does it seem compacted in other areas and also blending.


The construction/queue under the city is the best example... It's White Text on a Black background... So why the heck is it blending into each other? You put white on black to make it clear, not white on black and have the white so bright it blends into the black.

Anyhoo... Thanks for the help.

If anyone needs anymore information or screenshots, let me know...

Reply #12 from Elemental Forums Top

I was having similar bluriness with the city name and production text, I found that setting the anti aliasing in the games main display options menu to none made a significant difference, from your screenshot you seem to have it set at 2x.

Reply #14 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Wolfe1759, reply 13
I was having similar bluriness with the city name and production text, I found that setting the anti aliasing in the games main display options menu to none made a significant difference, from your screenshot you seem to have it set at 2x.
End of Wolfe1759's quote

Ya I messed with that as well, it makes no difference in the blur... At least for me.

I messed with literally every option possible in-game, and every applicable option in my Nvidia control panel as well... I have yet to find a setting that correlates with this blur in text.

Anyhoo... Thanks anyway :)

Reply #15 from Elemental Forums Top

As far as I can tell the blur should almost be completely removed where it matters most, with the exception of the city name boxes on the tiles, which I think might be because of some atmospheric lighting effect.

The game's actually quite detailed especially when you zoom in, but the blur was hiding all of that. They should add in sliders to adjust the bloom and blur in the options... from what I saw in the code it looked like they were starting to do it actually, so maybe it'll be in a later update.

Reply #16 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting crimsongekko, reply 6
I usually inject SMAA, which solves the common issues associated with these AA techniques. unfortunately FE crashes if I try it :/
End of crimsongekko's quote

I tried doing this too with SweetFX but yup no go -_- But now with the latest update it seems to be running way smoother so I just run 8x MSAA without much framerate complaints.

Reply #17 from Elemental Forums Top

Just tried the post_hdr file mentioned in post #2 and #9 and that seems to have fixed it for me even at 2X AA and 4X AA