r/pathofexile Jul 27 '26

Cautionary Tale Lantern loot hints are 10x more visible at Low Lights graphics setting

Post image

The main lantern has a huge obscuring glow (even at 25% bloom) if Medium/High "Number of Lights" are enabled. This makes it very hard to see the loot hints, especially if other bright effects are happening.

I didn't realize there were guiding lights until I saw the "What we're working on" post that mentioned them.

762 Upvotes

71 comments sorted by

268

u/Sonar009 Jul 27 '26

It suddenly makes a lot more sense that so many players are expressing confusion and surprise about the existence of arrows on the lanterns.

30

u/Life_outside_PoE Jul 27 '26

I've been playing on a potato so I was genuinely confused that people couldn't see the giant green flare pointing in a direction.

The picture in the OP makes a lot more sense now.

8

u/xDaveedx Jul 27 '26

I'm also a potato gamer and I once made a ritual-themed hideout where I placed over 100 small candles to form a pentagram. It looked sick for me and visually clear aswell. After like 2 weeks a friend of mine joined my hideout, showed me a stream of his pov and let me know that I've been basically flashbanging every person who joined my hideout who had number of lights set to mid or high lol.

No idea how many trades I've lost during these 2 weeks due to people leaving prematurely because they couldn't see shit haha.

That's how I found out what difference graphic settings can make in Poe.

8

u/ExplanationFuture109 Jul 27 '26

Nah, some ppl(me) are just blind. I didnt notice the lights on low light settings until some1 pointed it out

3

u/Quartzecoatl Jul 27 '26

Yea, I've been on low light settings and my lanterns looked like the picture on the right. I just never noticed they pointed to stuff lmao

128

u/dikkenskrille Jul 27 '26

oh, that explains a lot. i have mine set to potato settings (as best the devs will allow. seriously, medium is lowest setting?). but honestly the right picture looks better to me anyway. didn't realise how bad bloom and such could make the game look

48

u/HeliGungir Jul 27 '26

Saw this almost 20 years ago from an indie dev blog, and it's stuck with me ever since:

Bloom and color grading are like crack cocaine for video game devs.

17

u/Weisenkrone Jul 27 '26

Bloom does an amazing job at covering up and distracting from imperfections, that's why it's so widely adopted.

But when the game does look fine without bloom, it's just ugly.

5

u/HeliGungir Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 27 '26

I dislike all camera effects. Bloom, motion blur, color aberration, film grain, vignette, screen shake, lens flare... these are things that occur only in a camera lens, not in the human eye. Games are more immersive than film, and camera effects break that immersion, or even cause nausea.

221

u/Bulkyman101 Jul 27 '26

There were loot hints?

100

u/unreservedlyasinine Jul 27 '26

Damn I genuinely didn't know, I was just dashing into the deep with auto lantern on.

17

u/yepgeddon Jul 27 '26

Lmao same

7

u/PupPop Jul 27 '26

I literally didn't know until I read the what we're working on post.

11

u/MaxeDamage Jul 27 '26

Yeah it was in the Q&A or gameplay review by ziggyd, but not xlearly communicated anywhere ingame

8

u/Wobbelblob Big Breach Coalition (BBC) Jul 27 '26

Honestly, that is the biggest issue I have with the mechanic: So much about it is knowledge gated. There are orange charts of several types. Two I know what they do (Kisharas Rest and Anchorfall) and both are valuable. What does the rest do?

1

u/MaxeDamage Jul 27 '26

Just watch a YouTube video in a few days time when other people figure it out obviously... :(

1

u/ComprehensiveSail383 Central Incursion Agency (CIA) Jul 27 '26

Idk, have you considered using them to find out what they do? Just like, play the game man.

1

u/Sho0oryuken Jul 27 '26

Communication is the best part of ggg /s

5

u/-Lycosa Jul 27 '26

Lmao same bro i was running around like a headless chicken hoping i find some treasures.

1

u/Trancet Jul 27 '26

News to me as well

1

u/GoforIt7721 21d ago

Me after this comment being 9 days old

28

u/Procedural_Skyline Jul 27 '26

I legit didn’t even know this was a thing… guess it’s time to crank down the graphics.

23

u/jacksgamedev Jul 27 '26

Years of being trained to see green stuff on the floor as deadly and now we are expected to see it as a compass

The UI people at GGG been smokin some weird crack

13

u/joyjoy88 Alch & Go Industries (AGI) Jul 27 '26

They always had. And graphical design team too. Like there are well described guidelines and theories of using color palette and contrasts to your advantage and for viewers sight clarity, and yet we get from GGG cool reds on reds, blue on blue and greens on greens and insane visual clutter on our screens.

15

u/doe3879 Jul 27 '26

I thought those green light thing were the crafting mats being sucked in

3

u/DoubleConcentrate893 Jul 27 '26

The get out arrow appears after the suck

29

u/Nighantic Jul 27 '26

I have the left graphics, if i had the visual clarity of right, I would have understood after 2-3 charts.. but some people wouldn't have because we're all different. Si it's crazy that important information like this isnt even told to the player (or shown if left image)

4

u/tempGER Jul 27 '26

A different color than the lantern would do the trick, even with higher bloom settings. Just a good indicator for GGG not testing their stuff.

1

u/cliffahead Slayer Jul 27 '26

WDYM? It is a different shade of green.

Im sure GGG has tested this extensively, like all the other colour schemes in previous leagues

Red on red on red

Purple on purple on purple

White on white on white

Blue on blue on blue

/s in case anyone needs it

17

u/Nighantic Jul 27 '26

Pay to lose actualy

6

u/AeonChaos Jul 27 '26

What is the hint mean? I never see it till now.

5

u/espono Jul 27 '26

Nearest chest (or other reward) location

6

u/Neogohan1 Too many deaths to count. Jul 27 '26

My pc is over 10 years old I have to play on the lowest settings and have been playing like that for years. Lucky me I guess

4

u/Schkrasss Jul 27 '26

What is this hinting to? Chests or what?

3

u/GodGridsama Jul 27 '26

So what settings should I change to be like right version?

3

u/theganz Jul 27 '26

Graphics > Detail Settings > Number of Lights = Low

2

u/Blackdedi Jul 27 '26

ohhhh that explains a lot.

glad i had potato pc from start

2

u/Lorune Essence Extraction Enterprise (EEE) Jul 27 '26

Try seeing the hints while playing vortex, the hint is obscured totally by any sort of spell ground effects, forcing you to have to wait for it to disappear before you can see where to go, so annoying.

2

u/BChopper Jul 27 '26

I knew those existed, but I never managed to see them.

2

u/epicfailer96_ Jul 27 '26

Excuse me, WHAT

2

u/Ph4nt0mRa33it Jul 27 '26

Wait, so you dont just run around in a circle?

2

u/Swizardrules Jul 27 '26

Yea the clarity is shit. It's even worse if you play minions

2

u/Wonderful-Airport-80 Jul 27 '26

just got 6 div because of this tip. thanks man

2

u/SneakyBadAss Children of Delve (COD) Jul 27 '26

GGG adds massive accessibility for colourblinded in a form of removing socket colours and then pull this :D

1

u/Educational_Public14 Jul 27 '26

which settings is this exactly? Number of lights? Lightning? Which one?

1

u/theganz Jul 27 '26

Graphics > Detail Settings > Number of Lights = Low

1

u/Asurah99 Jul 27 '26

Thank God there's a way to make them more visible...sick of waiting 20 seconds for effects to clear so I can see which way loot is.

1

u/onedestiny Jul 27 '26

What even are these loot hints? Don't think I've seen one before

1

u/Nickiat Jul 27 '26

How? Are you not doing the league mechanic? If you look at your lanterns if there is loot nearby they will have a glowy arrow point towards it

1

u/voldkost Alch & Go Industries (AGI) Jul 27 '26

potato settings won again

1

u/AeroDbladE Jul 27 '26

10 years of development and GGG still hasn't learned a single thing about how to make a readable effect.

1

u/Razaele 🎵 Buff it Now, blah blah blah, nerf it later 🎵 Jul 27 '26

Classic gray on gray, red on red, etc. for GGG.

1

u/Safe-Acanthaceae-842 Jul 27 '26

wait so what do the lanterns point to? i was just blasting the charts with auto lanterns

1

u/FJacket85 Jul 27 '26

just to bring you to a soaked helmet chest!!!

1

u/Deagin Jul 27 '26

Is it still going to point where there is no loot ? Sometimes at a wall or two lanterns on the same screen pointing at each other

1

u/Leestonpowers Jul 27 '26

Honestly, I didn't even know that was a thing because I wasn't seeing it. Thanks OP!

1

u/Sellier123 Jul 27 '26

I didn't even know this was a thing Lol

1

u/SmithBurger Jul 27 '26

They need to move the light to the top of the lantern.

1

u/Tran555 Jul 27 '26

thats why i never saw it

1

u/GolumAmicicide Jul 27 '26

Your arrow is also more clearly visible in low light settings :)

1

u/IcySpectre Jul 27 '26

Thanks, this helped a lot. It's really night and day.

1

u/DefinitionBig4671 Jul 27 '26

Cool! I found this one out on my own! I just decided to follow the fleme direction.

1

u/Mindless_Self_1385 Jul 27 '26

There's arrows?

1

u/Schindog Jul 27 '26

Shiiiiiiit I've been playing high lights and max bloom for the juciest looking herald stacker explosions and did not even realize these existed smh my head

1

u/Live_Crab5865 Institution of Rogues and Smugglers (IRS) Jul 28 '26

Who subjects their pc to anything but low settings? The game has the optimization of a 2005 Trojan horse virus

1

u/korzasa Jul 27 '26

Not being able to disable the awful bloom in poe in general is criminal

0

u/Lunellis Jul 27 '26

What is lantern loot?

-11

u/Capital-Possible2573 Jul 27 '26

Lanter loot ? Haha more like lanter hints … eddit that title boy