Hello, Dear Respawn Team,

I would like to provide some feedback regarding the material and lighting changes introduced with the recent update.

Since the Season 29 material and lighting update, I have noticed a significant change in the visual experience of Apex Legends compared with the previous version of the game. Unfortunately, this change has affected not only how the game looks, but also how comfortable and consistent it feels to play.

1. Olympus has become excessively bright and visually harsh

On Olympus, many bright outdoor areas and illuminated surfaces now feel significantly more intense than before.

When moving between different lighting conditions, the contrast can feel very strong. Bright areas can become visually overwhelming, especially during fights, and I often find myself being distracted by the lighting rather than being able to focus entirely on the enemy.

The problem is not simply that Olympus looks brighter.

The overall image feels much more visually aggressive and tiring than it did before the material update.

2. The updated World's Edge has the opposite problem

The newer version of World's Edge seems to have almost the opposite issue.

Many darker areas feel significantly darker than before, creating a very strong contrast between bright and dark environments.

As a result, the two maps can feel visually very different:

• Olympus: excessively bright and visually harsh
• World's Edge: excessively dark
• Transitions between lighting conditions: much more noticeable and distracting

I personally found the previous material and lighting presentation much more balanced and comfortable.

3. The biggest problem occurs during gunfights

The most serious issue for me is not simply the static appearance of the maps.

During actual gunfights, especially while aiming down sights, firing weapons, or taking damage, I experience a noticeably stronger sense of visual shaking, flashing, and visual discomfort compared with the version of the game before the material update.

This becomes particularly noticeable when I am trying to track a moving enemy.

Instead of being able to maintain a stable visual focus on the target, the combination of lighting, weapon effects, damage effects, and the new visual presentation can make the image feel much more visually stimulating and unstable.

As a result, it directly affects:

• Enemy target acquisition
• Visual focus
• ADS tracking
• Smooth target tracking
• Aim consistency during gunfights

I am not asking for the game to make aiming easier.

The problem is that the visual presentation itself seems to be interfering with my ability to use the aiming skills I already had before the update.

4. My experience after the update

There is also a more personal reason why I feel strongly about this issue.

After the Season 29 material and lighting update, I genuinely felt that my aiming performance had changed.

My ability to acquire, track, and stay focused on targets during fights no longer felt as consistent as it had before the update.

At first, I assumed the problem was entirely my own.

I thought that perhaps I had simply become rusty or had not been practicing enough. Because of that, I actually increased my practice intensity and spent more time working on my aim than I did before.

I kept telling myself:

"If my aim has become worse, I just need to practice harder."

But after spending a considerable amount of time practicing, I found that the improvement was very limited.

That was when I started questioning everything else.

I became increasingly focused on my settings and started changing my sensitivity, resolution, brightness, monitor settings, NVIDIA settings, graphics settings, and even the game's configuration files.

I kept trying different combinations because I wanted to find the settings that would allow me to regain the same visual consistency and aiming experience I had before the update.

Unfortunately, none of these changes meaningfully solved the problem.

Eventually, I started comparing my experience before and after the material update more carefully.

The more I played, the more I began to suspect that the problem was not simply my mechanical skill or my settings.

I started to feel that the new lighting and visual effects themselves were affecting how my eyes process and track targets during fights.

When there is a large amount of contrast between bright and dark areas, combined with the visual effects from firing and taking damage, I find it much harder to visually lock onto an enemy and maintain smooth tracking.

At the same time, my eyes become noticeably fatigued much faster than they did before the update.

This has honestly been quite frustrating.

I spent a lot of time blaming myself, thinking that I had simply become worse at the game, and trying to compensate by practicing more and constantly changing my settings.

Only after exhausting these possibilities did I seriously begin to suspect that the visual changes introduced by the update might be contributing to the problem.

I don't expect the game to make aiming easier for me. I simply want the visual environment to be consistent enough that my performance is determined by my own aim rather than by how much visual strain I experience during a fight.

5. My hardware and settings

For reference, my current setup is:

• GPU: NVIDIA RTX 4060
• Monitor: SANC N50Pro6
• Resolution: 1920×1080
• Refresh rate: 240 Hz
• HDR: Disabled
• In-game brightness: 50

I have also tried changing:

• In-game graphics settings
• Brightness
• Monitor settings
• Windows HDR settings
• NVIDIA settings
• Resolution
• Sensitivity
• videoconfig.txt configuration

I have specifically tried disabling or reducing various visual effects, including shadows, volumetric lighting, volumetric fog, ambient occlusion and other graphics settings.

Unfortunately, these changes have not meaningfully resolved the problem.

This makes me wonder whether the issue may be related to the new material system, lighting, exposure, reflections, post-processing, or combat visual effects themselves, rather than simply being caused by my hardware or individual settings.

6. Possible solutions

If possible, I would really like to see the previous material and lighting presentation restored.

I understand that the development team has invested significant effort into improving the game's visual quality, and I am not suggesting that every graphical improvement should simply be removed.

However, from a gameplay and visual-comfort perspective, I personally found the previous material presentation much more comfortable and consistent.

If completely reverting the new material system is not feasible, I would like to suggest another possible solution:

Could Respawn consider adding an option that allows players to choose between the new and previous material packs?

For example:

New Material Pack

or

Legacy / Previous Material Pack

Players who enjoy the new visual presentation could continue using it, while players who experience visual discomfort or simply prefer the previous presentation could choose the older material system.

I believe this could be a reasonable compromise.

It would allow Respawn to continue improving the game's graphics while giving players some control over a visual change that can have a very different impact on different people.

At the very least, I hope the team can investigate and optimize:

• Excessive brightness on Olympus
• Excessive darkness on the updated World's Edge
• Strong brightness/contrast transitions
• Visual effects during firing
• Visual effects when taking damage
• Visual stimulation while aiming down sights
• Target tracking during visually intense fights
• Increased eye fatigue during extended gameplay

Conclusion

I really enjoy Apex Legends, and that is precisely why I am taking the time to write this feedback.

I have spent a lot of time trying to adapt to the new visual presentation rather than immediately assuming that the update was the problem. I practiced more, changed my settings, changed my sensitivity, changed my resolution, adjusted my monitor and NVIDIA settings, and even experimented with the game's configuration files.

But eventually, I had to consider the possibility that something fundamental had changed in the visual experience itself.

I don't want an easier game. I don't want a competitive advantage. I just want to be able to look at the game comfortably and focus on the enemy the way I could before the material update.

I sincerely hope the Respawn team can investigate this issue and consider whether the new material and lighting system can be further optimized.

And if the previous material presentation cannot be restored globally, I really hope a New Material / Legacy Material option could be considered in the future.

Thank you for taking the time to read this feedback and for continuing to work on Apex Legends.

Best regards,
An Apex Legends player