PS5 Owners Are Trying to Work Out Why Crimson Desert Can Look Blurry — and They May Have Found a Solution

If you’re playing Crimson Desert on PlayStation 5, you might have noticed blurry visuals no matter which mode you’re playing on. Well, you’re not alone. But the good news is that players believe they have found a fix.

This blurry visuals problem on PS5 is being reported across social media, on subreddits, and in Discords.

https://twitter.com/pereiravanilso1/status/2034800261869318576?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Players believe it is to do with Crimson Desert having trouble with the PS5’s “120hz mode,” where the TV does not properly support 4K120. They’re reporting that they’re able to fix this blurriness by going into the PS5 settings, and, in Video Output, setting “Enable 120Hz Output” to off. Will Powers, PR and marketing director at Crimson Desert publisher and developer Pearl Abyss, has also spent time on social media recommending this settings change.

According to Digital Foundry’s John Linneman, this problem only occurs if your TV does not properly support 4K120. If it does, then you get full 4K. “This is a problem specific to displays that support 120hz input but only at lower resolutions,” Linneman explained. “It engages 120hz support due to 40 fps mode but across the board.”

However, this blurry visuals problem looks like it’s also an issue on PC, where a reliable solution is harder to pin down. Some PC gamers are getting so upset by the blurry visuals that they’re asking Steam for a refund.

“I’ve had the same problem and asked for a refund,” said one disgruntled player. “The game is incredibly blurry, as if it were playing at 720p on a 4K monitor. The lights flicker horribly; it’s by far the worst visual experience I’ve ever installed on my PC (I have a 4080 super).”

“Same, everything’s weirdly blurry but over sharpened too, it’s giving me a headache and I’ve never had a game do that,” said another. Some have found that after changing settings, restarting the game seems to improve matters. This potential solution rekindles memories of Borderlands 4’s technical issues, which saw a gradual worsening of framerate with continuous playtime, even on PlayStation 5 Pro and Xbox Series X.

We’ve got plenty more on Crimson Desert, including a report on the controls, which not everyone is a fan of. We’ve got the patch notes for Crimson Desert’s day one update, IGN’s Crimson Desert Review So Far, and our launch interview with Will Powers. We’ve also got a Crimson Desert PC performance review.

And if you’re jumping into Crimson Desert’s huge open world, we recommend you take a look at our guide to Things to Do First in Crimson Desert, plus Things Crimson Desert Doesn’t Tell You (we’ve got 28 and counting!). We’ve also got a guide to the Best Early Weapons we recommend picking up, the Best Skills to Get First (including a handy explainer of the skills system), and 34 Essential Tips and Tricks to help you succeed in Pywel.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.