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TV setup anyone?

moo_2021
moo_2021
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I guess this is more common with ps5 or xbox players, but playing with PC and a controller on sofa, my performance in PvP has been comparably very awkward. Skill issue aside, there are problems identifying everything clearly on screen (as opposed to e.g. playing FPS in front of a monitor), including buffs indicated by addons, and aiming is always very difficult.

So, could anyone share their setup?

Mine is:
  • Xbox elite controller with 2 buttons at back (4 removed as I always hit them accidentally) plus chatpad for extra keys, mapped with reWSAD.
  • 55" TV, 120-150cm in front, cinema mode with max brightness/contrast/saturation/color range.
  • resolution 1920x1080 (4k is available). ESO Fantasy Reshade preset.
  • UI: gamepad mode. Addons: Advanced UI, Global Cooldown bar.
  • wheeled kb/mouse stand for use with sofa

It's pretty convenient and relaxed for overland content, and dungeons too though I mostly follow others and can't tell what they're doing (just healing them or hitting whatever they're hitting).

Obviously, the visuals are too shiny, I can barely see myself when boundless storm is on, and enemies are just bunches of flashy lights, and there also are troubles sprinting + jumping at the same time, though I just noticed with a keyboard I can't even fire abilities while sprinting.

What would be the fix? I can overtuned graphics and start using keyboard + mouse, but not the TV. Would it help if I change to a Tartarus Gaming Keypad plus MMO mouse with 12 buttons on one side? (quite costly investment..)
Edited by ZOS_Hadeostry on 16 December 2023 04:11
  • Danikat
    Danikat
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    moo_2021 wrote: »
    55" TV, 120-150cm in front, cinema mode with max brightness/contrast/saturation/color range.

    Obviously, the visuals are too shiny, I can barely see myself when boundless storm is on, and enemies are just bunches of flashy lights,

    I think you've answered yourself here: of course everything is going to be too shiny and difficult to see if you've turned the brightness, contrast and saturation up to maximum.

    Maximum isn't the same as best, you'd probably be better off with them somewhere in the middle, although ideally you want to get an image on screen you can use for reference and then tweak each setting individually. I just checked my TV and I've got the brightness on 27/50, contrast on 80/100 (I'm surprised it's so high), and colour balance on 'neutral'.
    PC EU player | She/her/hers | PAWS (Positively Against Wrip-off Stuff) - Say No to Crown Crates!

    "Remember in this game we call life that no one said it's fair"
  • Tenthirty2
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    moo_2021 wrote: »
    I guess this is more common with ps5 or xbox players, but playing with PC and a controller on sofa, my performance in PvP has been comparably very awkward. Skill issue aside, there are problems identifying everything clearly on screen (as opposed to e.g. playing FPS in front of a monitor), including buffs indicated by addons, and aiming is always very difficult.

    So, could anyone share their setup?

    Mine is:
    • Xbox elite controller with 2 buttons at back (4 removed as I always hit them accidentally) plus chatpad for extra keys, mapped with reWSAD.
    • 55" TV, 120-150cm in front, cinema mode with max brightness/contrast/saturation/color range.
    • resolution 1920x1080 (4k is available). ESO Fantasy Reshade preset.
    • UI: gamepad mode. Addons: Advanced UI, Global Cooldown bar.
    • wheeled kb/mouse stand for use with sofa

    It's pretty convenient and relaxed for overland content, and dungeons too though I mostly follow others and can't tell what they're doing (just healing them or hitting whatever they're hitting).

    Obviously, the visuals are too shiny, I can barely see myself when boundless storm is on, and enemies are just bunches of flashy lights, and there also are troubles sprinting + jumping at the same time, though I just noticed with a keyboard I can't even fire abilities while sprinting.

    What would be the fix? I can overtuned graphics and start using keyboard + mouse, but not the TV. Would it help if I change to a Tartarus Gaming Keypad plus MMO mouse with 12 buttons on one side? (quite costly investment..)


    "Obviously, the visuals are too shiny, I can barely see myself when boundless storm is on, and enemies are just bunches of flashy lights, and there also are troubles sprinting + jumping at the same time, though I just noticed with a keyboard I can't even fire abilities while sprinting."

    With jumping and sprinting that sounds like input lag, maybe your controller?
    Sprinting and firing abilities will not work, you'd have to briefly slow to a jog, fire ability, then sprint again.

    For washout, etc I think this statement would be a good starting point---> "...with max brightness/contrast/saturation/color range."
    IDK about the reshade, I don't use them. But unless I misunderstood, having all colour tuning settings at MAX would cause a lot of washout and over saturation, at least on my LCD it would?

    I'm actually shopping around for a TV upgrade myself and saw your thread just now LOL. My old LG can only handle 60FPS which I always thought was good enough.
    But then I recently had a chance to play ESO on a newer TV, got around 120FPS and it was like a whole new game, now I'm hooked heh.

    But if it were me I would disable the reshade, put the tuning sliders to mid-range and slowly adjust from there.

    Other thing to consider is what your ESO graphics settings are at. Perhaps things like bloom and god rays are also too much with your TV sliders at max.
    • "Some enjoy bringing grief to others. They remind M'aiq of mudcrabs - horrible creatures, with no redeeming qualities."
    • "When my time comes, I will smile. And that will be all." -Sir Nathain Galien
    • IGN: TenThirty2 (PC/PS: NA, PC/PS: EU)
  • ghost_bg_ESO
    ghost_bg_ESO
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    55" tv with laptop (kept at 1080p), distance from tv around 1.8m - 2m
    colors are tuned the same for tv/ xsx/ shield/ pc
    tweaked scaling on the laptop in display settings (100 or 125 ?), hdr off
    elite 2 + separate mini keyboard(google - ebay/amazon),
    no rewasd
    gamepad ui (auto)
    most of the particle and lighting tweaks are at minimum at eso settings
    Edited by ghost_bg_ESO on 15 December 2023 14:30
  • gariondavey
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    65 inch 4k tv across the room on the wall (maybe 12 feet away)
    Eso on gaming pc, wireless keyboard and mouse on couch
    Graphics on max, 100 fps

    I play sweaty premade bgs, small to medium scale ic/open world, some large scale cyro as well.

    Usually pretty playable but sometimes game performance is bad (server problems not on my end).
    Edited by gariondavey on 15 December 2023 15:09
    PC NA @gariondavey, BG, IC & Cyrodiil Focused Since October 2017 Stamplar (main), Magplar, Magsorc, Stamsorc, StamDK, MagDK, Stamblade, Magblade, Magden, Stamden
  • moo_2021
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    Tenthirty2 wrote: »
    I'm actually shopping around for a TV upgrade myself and saw your thread just now LOL. My old LG can only handle 60FPS which I always thought was good enough.
    But then I recently had a chance to play ESO on a newer TV, got around 120FPS and it was like a whole new game, now I'm hooked heh.

    thanks, I just tried it but didn't feel any difference. Maybe it's because my old card can only reach 80 fps?
  • YetAnotherLinuxUser
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    i have a sff office pc with a gtx 1650 connected to a 40 inch 1080p tv and i use ps4 gamepads. Also i play exclusively in 1st person view. If you think you have challenges in seeing what is going on playing in 3rd person view, trying getting zaan gear in 1st person view. i guarantee you will learn the mechanics quickly or die trying. Better yet, if you think you have problems seeing what's going on switch to 1st person view and play some dungeons with arcanists casting that green swirlie nonsense and tell me how well you can see anything else. Yah. See. You need to adjust your tv settings properly and not max all the settings like that.
  • h9dlb
    h9dlb
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    Pc 4070ti / 4k max settings 55inch 120hz oled for those hi rez load screens
  • YetAnotherLinuxUser
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    moo_2021 wrote: »
    Tenthirty2 wrote: »
    I'm actually shopping around for a TV upgrade myself and saw your thread just now LOL. My old LG can only handle 60FPS which I always thought was good enough.
    But then I recently had a chance to play ESO on a newer TV, got around 120FPS and it was like a whole new game, now I'm hooked heh.

    thanks, I just tried it but didn't feel any difference. Maybe it's because my old card can only reach 80 fps?

    if you adjusted your tv settings and cant see a difference then you should consider buying a new tv

    (or you could stop making blantanly false troll posts to find out everyone else's equipment if that's what you're doing)
  • Freilauftomate
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    1.) Turn on "game mode" in your tv settings. Turn off all the picture quality enhancement stuff, motion enhancement and all that crap, to minimize input lag. Cinema mode for playing PvP is just wrong. Especially if you have an older tv.

    2.) You are way too close to a 55" TV with 1080p resolution game. This will look bad and hurt your eyes, no matter what you do. Get a smaller tv or move your sofa back a little.

    3.) Like others have already mentioned, "max brightness/contrast/saturation/color range" is just wrong and makes me wonder if you are being serious here. Turn it down please. My eyes hurt just thinking about it. If the game is too dark or too bright with 60-90% brightness on your tv, you can adjust the brightness in the ESO settings, ingame.

    4.) Some people say their Xbox elite controller has very high input lag. Maybe you can fix this by adjusting the settings in your controller app. I would test another controller (like the original Xbox controller) to be sure.

    5.) If all this doesn't help, buy a new tv or gaming monitor.

    I don't know what "ESO Fantasy Reshade" is, but it sounds like you don't need it.
    I don't know about your addons.
    Activating abilities will stop you from sprinting, that's normal. Same with jumping.
    Not seeing your sorc very well with activated boundless storm is normal.
    Don't buy a mouse with 12 buttons on the side, you might hurt your hand.
    Good luck.
  • Malprave
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    I used to play on a 65” tv. It had excellent “black levels”. If you really want a good picture, you need good blacks. I’ve never owned one but they say OLED tv’s are excellent in this respect. Make sure you’ve got that thing in game mode as well.
  • katanagirl1
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    Malprave wrote: »
    I used to play on a 65” tv. It had excellent “black levels”. If you really want a good picture, you need good blacks. I’ve never owned one but they say OLED tv’s are excellent in this respect. Make sure you’ve got that thing in game mode as well.

    When I was shopping for a new 4K TV a couple years ago OLED was supposedly bad for burn-in of the UI stuff like the compass and ability bars. Unless they have changed that recently I would not recommend it.
    Khajiit Stamblade main
    Dark Elf Magsorc
    Redguard Stamina Dragonknight
    Orc Stamplar PVP
    Breton Magsorc PVP
    Dark Elf Magden
    Khajiit Stamblade
    Khajiit Stamina Arcanist

    PS5 NA
  • ZOS_Hadeostry
    Greetings,

    After further review we have decided to move this thread to a category we think is more appropriate for this topic, as it's asking the community for assistance.

    Thank you for your understanding
    Staff Post
  • fred4
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    Samsung QN90B 50" (4K, ~100Hz in practice with my PC), TEX Shinobi mechanical keyboard with pointing stick on my lap:

    https://tex.com.tw/cdn/shop/products/49718966438_3992a52ec6_k_1200x800.jpg

    This keyboard might suit you, if you are used to business laptops with a pointing stick. Otherwise probably not. In case you get one, I recommend an angled USB-C cable and tape that along the back of the keyboard. It's very easy to accidentally rip off the cable and damage the socket otherwise. There is also a Bluetooth module available, should you prefer that.

    That said, anything but a desktop mouse makes you objectively uncompetitive, if not in PvE, then in PvP. A desktop mouse is just quicker and more precise. However for me that's not so much of an issue anymore, since I gave up on aspirations of being a good dueller long ago. My setup is still good enough to farm Tel Var and not die to a gank:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBdLIeihspY

    I deliberately chose a non-OLED TV. With the amount of ESO I'm playing, I'm convinced that burn in would be an issue in my case. The Samsung, honestly, looks great in game. I've had a JVC projector in the past, renowned for it's 30,000:1, native contrast ratio, which far exceeds what LCD panels can do natively. JVC D-ILA projectors are the OLEDs of the projector world, so to speak. The Samsung has local dimming. For the most part that works great and looks as good as the projector did. There is depth to the image and there are basically zero issues in ESO. Where you notice local dimming artefacts is with YouTube, such as when you move the mouse and YouTube displays the progress bar on top of a dark scene. Yes, I'm running the TV in game mode for the low latency, which means the local dimming doesn't technically perform optimally, but it still looks great in game and 99% of the time otherwise as well.

    I think a steady 1080p/60 already looks very good and is enough for ESO. What you get with 4K is basically the almost complete absence of anti-aliasing / stair-stepping artefacts and a cleaner picture when you look closely or you take screenshots that you want to crop. I'm using an RTX3070, power-limited to 70% for quietness, with DLSS Quality and almost every graphical setting cranked to maximum. This yields ~100 FPS.

    For buff management I use a very old addon called BuffTimers, because it allows configuration of simple coloured bars that are easy to tell apart from a distance. I have ZOS' own buff / debuff display configured to only show short-term self debuffs above the health bar. This basically tells me when someone DOTs me up in PvP and I should heal or purge. Works for Endless Archive as well. I don't need to decipher the icons. I can basically just see they're there, and how many, to let me know I should be careful.
    PC EU: Magblade (PvP main), DK (PvE Tank), Sorc (PvP and PvE), Magden (PvE Healer), Magplar (PvP and PvE DD), Arcanist (PvE DD)
    PC NA: Magblade (PvP and PvE every role)
  • fred4
    fred4
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    PC EU: Magblade (PvP main), DK (PvE Tank), Sorc (PvP and PvE), Magden (PvE Healer), Magplar (PvP and PvE DD), Arcanist (PvE DD)
    PC NA: Magblade (PvP and PvE every role)
  • fred4
    fred4
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    moo_2021 wrote: »
    though I just noticed with a keyboard I can't even fire abilities while sprinting.
    Abilities are locked out while you're sprinting. This is an intentional feature of ESO combat.

    On the other hand, if you're using a normal, non-gaming, membrane-type keyboard, those are typically only guaranteed to process two keys held down at the same time. If you need to hold down more than two keys simultaneously for some reason, let's say because you are running, but not sprinting, diagonally and want to do something else at the same time, the third keypress may not register. This is a limitation of almost all laptop and many cheap (membrane) desktop keyboards and one of the reasons why many gaming keyboards have mechanical switches instead. The nature of mechanical switches, the way those are processed, means that those keyboards feature so-called "n-key rollover", which means you can hold down as many keys as you want simultaneously and they all register correctly. When that doesn't happen, e.g. when you use a membrane keyboard, it can be very insidious. You may be cursing at the game for being unresponsive, or you may be thinking it's lag, when the real reason is you're gaming with an unsuitable keyboard.
    PC EU: Magblade (PvP main), DK (PvE Tank), Sorc (PvP and PvE), Magden (PvE Healer), Magplar (PvP and PvE DD), Arcanist (PvE DD)
    PC NA: Magblade (PvP and PvE every role)
  • fred4
    fred4
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    Here's how I set up my TV. This is likely very Samsung specific and specific to my model, or even my sample, so I don't know how useful this is, but for what it's worth I prefer a natural look, slightly undersaturated relative to out of the box. I don't like highlights clipping nor detail being lost in shadow. I like contrast and low black levels, but I don't like artifically enhanced contrast nor sharpness. I also discovered I don't like HDR. I'm not sure whether ESO supports it, but I tried it in Horizon Zero Dawn. It basically lets shadow areas disappear completely in black, if not technically then to your eyes, when you have bright highlights in the picture. I don't find that conducive to (competitive) gaming. I prefer a more filmic look in games and movies alike, which means I prefer finely graduated colours and a flatter picture. Yes, bright highlights and dark shadows when the scene calls for it, but not overly contrasty all the time.

    I adjusted my TV based on some of the darker tunnels in Imperial City on the one hand, making it so I can just see detail on the dark walls, and some dark alien / sky movie footage on the other hand. This is when I discovered that ESO always has some light in the image, whereas the movie footage was harder to get good black levels in. This is possibly among the reasons why ESO always looks good. It's not actually that demanding on the TV. It's the movie footage that benefitted from cranking Local Dimming to the High setting the most. Funnily enough, also, I found the TV has settings to "enhance" shadows that actually flatten the image. Settings labelled as "gaming" or "shadow detail" raise and destroy black levels in the name of providing better visibility while gaming. On the one hand TVs encourage you to use their, nowadays, either high brightness (LCD) or low black levels (OLED), on the other hand they provide options to destroy the resulting contrast in the name of better shadow detail. What gives? It may be because TVs (still) don't track dark content well, or it may be because the marketing machine and the shop floor demand contrast that isn't actually very comfortable in real life. I should add that I really like high contrast and the resulting picture depth historically. I just think we're now at a point where you don't have to crank that on a top of the line TV above all else anymore, albeit the firmware in these TVs is shared with the whole range and allows such options.

    With that said, here are my settings:

    Game mode: ON (low latency, a must)
    Game mode Dynamic Black Equalizer: OFF / zero (don't want raised shadows for "better enemy visibility")
    HDR: OFF (I don't like it, see above)

    Brightness: 40 out of 50
    Contrast: 21 out of 50 (picture is already contrasty with Local Dimming set to High)
    Sharpness: 6 out of 20 (don't want sharpening nor softening / not sure where the neutral setting is)
    Colour: 21 out of 50 (25 is normal, but I prefer slight desaturation)
    Tint: 0 (center position, no color tint adjustment)
    Local Dimming: High (see above, the only way to get good black levels and highlights both)
    Contrast Enhancer: OFF (see comments below)
    Colour Tone: Warm1 (I think this may be 7800K, e.g. slightly cool, which I prefer, but see next point)
    White Balance: 2-Point Blue Gain -8 (makes the picture a little warmer, e.g. between 6500K and 7800K)
    Gamma: 2.2 (looks more natural to me than other offered settings)
    Shadow Detail: -2 (to get the black level where I want it)
    Colour Space: Native

    The Contrast Enhancer is a big no no, because it clips highlights and drowns shadows. Yes, depending on the scene, it makes dark scenes / starfields more contrasty with better highlights, but I tested it with various content. It's relatively innocuous at the Low setting, but it causes clipping in both Low and High modes. This is IMO exactly the kind of thing you do not want to do if your TV is good enough, e.g. it has good enough native or local-dimming-enhanced contrast. I basically chose to sacrifice highlights in very dark scenes by turning this off and, instead, setting Shadow Detail to -2 for a similar black level. I think it's better overall.
    PC EU: Magblade (PvP main), DK (PvE Tank), Sorc (PvP and PvE), Magden (PvE Healer), Magplar (PvP and PvE DD), Arcanist (PvE DD)
    PC NA: Magblade (PvP and PvE every role)
  • moo_2021
    moo_2021
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    Thanks you all.

    I turned off reshade and all the effects and it looks better, though still map/area dependent. Perhaps it'd be nice if there is something to turn off all translucent effects.

    keyboard + gaming mouse didn't work out. It improves weaving and aiming but the mouse requires very delicate touch to handle all those buttons (even 5 is challenging), which is difficult when situation get hot.
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