Help my eyes!

[Deband]

Hiya,

I got a new 22" monitor and i just can't get FFXI running right. I have it 1900 x 1080 right now and it fills the screen but the text and menus is so small it's killing my eyes. I've tried lowering the res but it makes the graphics look really bad. Hope someone can help me with this.

[Isiolia]

I'm not aware of a way to really fix that. The only way to get the text larger is to set the foreground resolution lower, which in turn scales the background (3D) to fit behind it.

Just yet another oversight on SE's part. They kinda failed to account for HD resolutions down the road.

That being said, unless you're sitting -really- far back from it, the text isn't really smaller than what typical OS/web/etc text displays at. So if you're sitting a "normal" distance from your monitor, it may just be a matter of getting used to it.

Otherwise, your only real recourse is to run it at a lower resolution.

[Mabubeezareel]

If your desire is to be able to play in a fullscreen window, but with larger/readable text, then you're going to have to lower your desktop resolution. It sounds as if your monitor's native resolution is 1920x1080, and it should be able to support lower resolutions in the same 16:9 aspect ratio. Try this:

1. Change desktop resolution to 1280x720
2. Change FFXI overlay resolution to 1280x720
3. Change FFXI background resolution to a multiple of 1280x720, such as 2560x1440 (x2 multiplier). Could also try 1920x1080 as well (x1.5 multiplier).

[Deband]

Thanks for the replies. Above didn't work, text was even smaller. Guess I'll have to invest in some binoculars

[Mabubeezareel]

The size of the text and menus is all controlled by the overlay/foregound resolution. The higher the resolution, the smaller the text. So, lowering this resolution will increase the size of the text.

However, if you're using windower, then lowering the overlay/foreground resolution will result in a window of that size. If you leave your desktop resolution at 1920x1080 and set the FFXI overlay/foregound resolution at 1280x720, then the window will occupy only a portion of your desktop, and not really help you at all. That's why you need to decrease the size of your desktop resolution to match that of the FFXI overlay/foreground resolution. Doing so would result in a window occupying your entire desktop.

The FFXI background resolution is what controls the graphical quality of the game, and is something you'll want to bump up as high as you can without producing a noticeable loss in frame rate. For the background resolution, you'll want to use a multiple of whatever your foreground is.

I'm somehow thinking that you didn't change your settings properly, as I don't think there's anyway that lowering both your dekstop AND overlay/foregound resolution could result in smaller text. This is all assuming that you're using windower.