4K/multimonitor bugs/issues

ElBiggus · October 2016

These have been niggling me for a while, so I thought it was about time I actually said something; they didn't seem worth raising as a ticket (it doesn't matter what you report as the problem, at first contact you just get the "update your drivers, log out and wait 15 minutes/etc." stock response.)

When I'm just tooling about doing my own thing I run the game in 4K -- it looks nice, and for the most part holds a steady 60FPS -- but in heavy combat or densely populated areas it can drop to sub-30 so if I'm playing in a group I'll knock it down to 1920x1080 to keep things running smoothly. This highlights two oddities:
1. The game still runs in 4K, it just renders the game at a lower resolution and then upscales it before overlaying text and UI elements (dialogue text, chat etc.), and whatever upscaling algorithm you're using is pretty weak and makes the image look really soft -- I'd much rather the game switched modes -- my monitor has much better upscaling and also gives me the option of just going for nearest neighbour which is still preferable to the soft-focus look.
2. Every now and again the game just decides to go back to 4K when I launch it regardless of what I set it at last time.
When I launch the game it appears to briefly switch to a much lower resolution before returning to native, and this causes Windows to get confused with what to do with my second monitor -- windows get resized and shuffled about, and it causes the game to lose focus so before I log in I have to routinely Alt-Tab to the launcher and then back to the game before I can type my password in. (Related query: can you add a "remember my password" option? Typing it in every time is a drag, particularly on days like today where it's been logging me out at random.) (I'm aware that this is partly a Windows issue -- the shuffling windows happens with any game if I run at non-native resolution, but the losing focus is unique to ESO, and because (as noted above) the game always actually runs at native resolution anyway the brief switch away is odd.)
The UI is really fiddly in 4K in a few places, and the mouse pointer becomes an barely visible speck.

JasonSilverSpring · October 2016

I agree with this, though I don't have a second monitor. Have you tested on PTS? Something has changed as the UI scales better especially map icons. But using Nvidia DSR is broken in PTS. There has been no patch notes that I have seen to note what has changed but they have definitely changed something.

ElBiggus · October 2016

Not tried the PTS, but I will give it a whirl later and see if it fixes/breaks anything. If nothing else, not having to use a magnifying glass to read the map is a good start!

Ashtaris · October 2016

I think ZOS is finally getting around to fixing some of the 4K UI issues. Of course, only because of the new PS4 Pro 4K edition coming out this fall

JasonSilverSpring · October 2016

It seems so, but I am still waiting for them to fix the launcher to properly scale at 4K. I have had to force it to use Windows scaling via a updated manifest for ages.

ElBiggus · October 2016

I tried PTS for a bit; if anything they've slightly overdone it with the rescaled map icons; at low zoom levels they all overlap into a confusing mess. Other than that, it doesn't appear anything has changed for 4K -- mouse pointer is still a tiny dot, it still uses a 4K framebuffer regardless of resolution settings, and it still plays merry hell with multiple monitors.

theivorykitty · October 2016

ElBiggus wrote: »

If nothing else, not having to use a magnifying glass to read the map is a good start!

This is why I returned my 4k monitor. Sounded like a good idea until I got one. Noped right out of it.

JasonSilverSpring · October 2016

theivorykitty wrote: »

ElBiggus wrote: »

If nothing else, not having to use a magnifying glass to read the map is a good start!

This is why I returned my 4k monitor. Sounded like a good idea until I got one. Noped right out of it.

Well, it might be an issue for a few games but for me most newer games handle 4K very well. Heck even Skyrim handles it better. I will agree that a high refresh rate 1440p is much more practical.

ElBiggus · October 2016

JasonSilverSpring wrote: »

Well, it might be an issue for a few games but for me most newer games handle 4K very well. Heck even Skyrim handles it better. I will agree that a high refresh rate 1440p is much more practical.

I think ESO is the only game I've come across that's given me any real problems in 4K -- a couple of older titles have needed some tweaking (the Windows DPI scaling can throw them off, and a handful don't officially offer it as an option but can be coerced into it) but generally speaking they work fine, although they can also look really ugly as the higher resolution makes low res textures and low poly models stand out like sore thumbs. Conversely, ESO looks beautiful in 4K but doesn't quite work according to plan.

(The bigger map icons in the update have taken the problem the other way: they're so big they overlap and look like a hideous and confusing mess, and the mouse pointer is still an invisible speck.)

JasonSilverSpring · October 2016

Yeah, I agree that the bigger map icons are now too big, but I still prefer that over before. And, as you note the mouse pointer is still tiny. And, of course, the launcher still does not scale properly.

@ZOS_GinaBruno, I see that you all fixed the NVIDIA DSR issue I and others reported from PTS. Any chance you all can address these other 4K issues soon? The ESO launcher could easily be band aid fixed by updating the manifest to tell Windows that the app is not high dpi aware. It is not pretty but at least it is not tiny. As it is I have had to do this on my own by creating an external manifest and changing that flag to false.

ElBiggus · October 2016

The launcher scales for me, and even copes with being dragged from a high-DPI monitor to a regular one (or vice versa) even if it can get a bit twitchy when you're near the edge (probably a result of the dragging being handled by the launcher itself due to the lack of window borders). What version of Windows are you running? I'm on Win10 with the anniversary update (which is in parts awful, but they've fixed a handful of high-DPI and dual monitor issues and there's even a clock on the taskbar on all monitors now -- it's only taken 20 years, but they got there in the end.)

JasonSilverSpring · October 2016

ElBiggus wrote: »

The launcher scales for me, and even copes with being dragged from a high-DPI monitor to a regular one (or vice versa) even if it can get a bit twitchy when you're near the edge (probably a result of the dragging being handled by the launcher itself due to the lack of window borders). What version of Windows are you running? I'm on Win10 with the anniversary update (which is in parts awful, but they've fixed a handful of high-DPI and dual monitor issues and there's even a clock on the taskbar on all monitors now -- it's only taken 20 years, but they got there in the end.)

Hmm, very strange. The launcher has not scaled for me ever since I got my 4K monitor. I just tested removing the custom manifest and it was tiny again. I have Windows set to 200%; I wonder if I set to its recommended 150% if that matters. I will test shortly. I am also running the latest anniversary update of Windows. I have the Acer XB280HK with latest NVIDIA drivers, but I would not think either should matter. I do not have a second monitor.

EDIT: Changing scale to 150% did not make a difference. Very strange.

ElBiggus · October 2016

That is weird. I'll experiment later by unplugging my other monitors and seeing if that's somehow affecting it, although I'm not quite sure why it would. I've attached a screenshot of the launcher on my 4K display, then comparison when I drag it to a regular display. I've only got scaling at 125% as my 4K screen is pretty big, but you can still see the difference, and I've done nothing special.