POE2 Eye Strain: Am I the Only One?

Hey Exiles!

I’ve been playing POE2 for 2 weeks now, and every single day I’ve been going to bed with eyes that feel like a Terminator's — completely red and burning. I decided to take a break for a day and played other games. My eyes felt fine again.

But then I went back to POE2 and... "Ah sht, here we go again." Just half an hour in, and my eyes are on fire.

It’s odd because visually, POE2 looks amazing, and I don’t see any blinking frames or frame drops. I’m running at a solid 120fps the whole time. But something about it feels off just for my eyes, and I cannot tell what.

I’ve tried tweaking everything I can think of:

  • VSync On/Off
  • Turning off the Screen Shaking
  • Turning down Bloom as much as possible
  • Playing around with Upscaling settings (On/Off, changing types, and sharpness levels)

All that, and no success.

I’ve been gaming for years and have played a variety of games without ever having issues like this. I’ve put over 2k hours into POE1 and never had any problems with eye strain or discomfort, even when playing builds that turned my monitor into a stroboscope with all the crazy effects.

What do you think could be causing this? Is anyone else dealing with the same issue?