So you’re playing Hogwarts Legacy and initial impressions are somewhat mixed. The game plays fine and it’s got a fantastic story, especially if you’re a Harry Potter fan. But visually, the game doesn’t look or quite feel all that impressive. So what’s the catch? Here are a few reasons why Hogwarts Legacy looks terrible.
If Hogwarts Legacy looks terrible, then it’s probably because DLSS is dipping the render resolution. If pop-in is bothering you, then turn Depth of Field On. Your hardware might be limiting your visual experience. And if it still falls short, your expectations might be a bit too high, considering this is Avalanche’s first AAA title.
When Do You Get A Mount in Hogwarts Legacy?
DLSS is On
The game looks stunning on consoles but if you’re a PC player, running an Nvidia RTX GPU, chances are the game looks a bit muddy, blurry, or pixelated.
Now, that’s not a way to enjoy Hogwarts Legacy, is it? It’s not a design choice or anything for PC players. Don’t worry. If you checked the Graphics Settings and still can’t find out why the game is blurry, then that’s because the render resolution scale is somewhere else.
Make your way to the Display Options and check the render resolution and DLSS settings. It’s probably not anywhere near 100%. In that case, just turn DLSS off, set it to a quality preset, or scale the render resolution to 100%.
And that pretty much solves your blurriness issue. Now go ahead and enjoy the eye candy.
Avalanche’s First AAA Title
Hogwarts Legacy looks pretty good on its own. It’s a step in the right direction from Avalanche Software, a studio that had been working on smaller-scale titles for the better part of its tenure. Take the example of games like Disney Infinity, Dragon Ball Z Sagas, or Nickelodeon Games.
This was Avalanche’s first AAA Title released across all platforms. So, that’s a pretty big step up from their previous niche, to say the least.
While the game isn’t The Last of Us or Horizon Zero Dawn-level in terms of graphical fidelity, it’s quite polished albeit not in the performance aspect.
But what do you expect? In terms of world-building and world design, Hogwarts Legacy doesn’t fail to disappoint.
Though it does suffer from the same problems that every AAA game does like shoddy camera work and some stiff mocap scenes and animations.
Depth of Field is OFF
If you’re playing Hogwarts Legacy for the visual experience. Then, chances are you’ve noticed a few texture and object pop-in issues. This is particularly common in almost all games out there, especially open-world AAA titles.
If the pop-in issue is seriously getting on your nerves, then head on over to the Graphics Settings and enable Depth of Field.
Depth of Field will blur out objects, assets, and textures farther into the environment, allowing them to load at their pace.
Pop-in won’t be noticeable anymore. You can’t quite really fix a pop-in issue. Just add a touch of Bokeh and DOF so it’s easier on the eyes.
You’re Not Playing It On Ultra
If the game looks unimpressive by default, then it’s probably because the game automatically adjusted the visual fidelity for you. If you’re not happy with what you see on-screen, then you can manually tinker with the graphics settings in the pause menu.
But beware, Hogwarts Legacy suffers from some serious optimization issues on PC and if you’re PC is barely chugging and managing to run the game, then you should focus your priorities elsewhere. Hogwarts Legacy is currently notorious for its incredibly demanding memory issue.
If you’re looking for better visual fidelity, upgrade your PC. Get a better GPU, more Ram, and a beefier CPU. Do that and you just might get to scratch your itch.
Conclusion
If you’re being critical of Hogwarts Legacy’s visual fidelity, then believe me. There might be an issue with your installation. You could do a fresh install or check the file’s integrity. If you still think the game looks shoddy or awful, then I guess you’ve set your expectations a bit too high, my friend!