Phantasy Star Online 2 – How to Fix Blurry Graphics and In-Game Text (High DPI Monitors)

This guide helps players with high DPI monitors (2K, 4K, 8K, etc) avoid the game and the text on UI to look like a blurry pixelated mess and play this game with crisp clean beautiful graphics.

Guide to Fix Blurry Graphics and In-Game Text

Please note: all credit goes to Xerxes!

Overview

A lot of players with high DPI monitors (2K, 4K, 8K, etc) will usually notice when they finally get into the game that it looks blurry and pixelated. Even if you have the best GPU on the market with all graphics settings maxed out.

It’s been hard to find a guide with any real solutions that worked and it took a lot of searching the ends of the internet. So I wanted to create a one stop shop for all the solutions.

Keep in mind this guide is intended for original PSO2. Once PSO2 New Genesis arrives, with it the original PSO2 game will receive a graphics engine update to be on par with the new release.

Below are many common fixes to improve the visual fidelity of the game so that all graphics and text look great. Some of these may work in combination. For me, the first solution is what finally worked after trying the others below and not reverting them back.

Don’t believe threads and players I’ve ran across who say the game engine is so old and that it is supposed to look that way above. This is not true. You can get this game to look crisp and clean like this to the right.

I hope this guide will help you and if anything becomes outdated over time, please let me know to update.

Change High DPI Settings

This should be the first one you try because it was out of all the solutions I found the one that finally fixed it for me.

Locate the pso2.exe file in Steam. For example:

  • C:SteamsteamappscommonPHANTASYSTARONLINE2_NA_STEAMpso2_bin

  • Right-click the pso2.exe file and select Properties.
  • Select the Compatibility tab.
  • Click on Change High DPI Settings.

  • Check the box next to “Override high DPI scaling behavior. Scaling performed by:” and select Application from the drop-down menu.

  • Select Ok and then Apply.

Editing the user.pso2 File

Go to the following folder:

  • C:Users<username>DocumentsSEGAPHANTASYSTARONLINE2_NA_STEAM

Or with OneDrive if you’re using that:

  • C:Users<username>OneDriveDocumentsSEGAPHANTASYSTARONLINE2_NA_STEAM

  • Right-click on the file user.pso2 and open it in notepad.
  • Hit CTRL+F and do a text search for “Width3d”.
  • Match the Width3d and Height3d values to your desired resolution.

  • Save and close out.

Setting the pso2.exe to Run in High Performance Mode

  • In the search of your taskbar in Windows 10, type Graphics Settings and hit Enter.
  • Scroll down to Graphics Performance preference.
  • Select Desktop app from the drop down and click Browse.
  • Point it to pso2.exe in the following folder:
    C:SteamsteamappscommonPHANTASYSTARONLINE2_NA_STEAMpso2_bin
  • Once it is added, select it and click on Options.
  • Set it the High Performance and you’ll notice it will force your better GPU.

Forcing Your Main GPU to Run the Game

This solution came about during my research based on a discovery that the game sometimes prefers to prioritize your integrated graphics from your motherboard instead of your main GPU. Which required going into your GPU’s main settings, for example like Nvidia Control Panel, and forcing your main GPU to run for the game.

Another option is to go into Device Manager in Windows 10 and disable the integrated graphics display card.

This last solution worked for some, not for me. It’s why it’s offered last because it’s not likely to resolve the issue, but it was a common solution that came up through research.

Volodymyr Azimoff
About Volodymyr Azimoff 15057 Articles
I love games and I live games. Video games are my passion, my hobby and my job. My experience with games started back in 1994 with the Metal Mutant game on ZX Spectrum computer. And since then, I’ve been playing on anything from consoles, to mobile devices.

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