First and foremost, thank you to the entire community for supporting us. To ensure you have the best experience possible, we highly recommend reading the following settings guide and known issues before you start playing:
Motion Sickness & Comfort Settings
Subliminal has many visual effects enabled by default. If you feel dizzy or nauseous while playing, we recommend changing the following settings:
Camera Shake: By default, this is set to 0.8x. If you experience discomfort it is suggested to lower the value to 0.3x, or disable completely (0.0x).
Motion Blur and Depth of Field: While these settings greatly add to the cinematic feel, they can cause motion sickness for some users. Lowering or disabling them makes the image sharper and significantly reduces dizziness.
Photosensitivity Warning: The game contains specific flashing effects. If you have a history of photosensitivity, please ensure you play in a well-lit room and stop immediately if you feel unwell.
Display and Resolution Settings
Unusually High Resolution in Fullscreen (e.g., 1440p monitor showing 3620x2036)?
Cause: This is a known Unreal Engine bug related to NVIDIA's Dynamic Super Resolution (DSR) feature. Even if DSR is disabled in your GPU settings, the engine may still force-read and apply these resolutions. As this is an engine-level mechanism, we cannot block these options on our end.
Solution: Manually adjust the resolution to your monitor's native resolution from the drop-down menu in Video Settings. To prevent black screens caused by selecting an unsupported resolution, the game features a 15-second confirmation timer. If applying a resolution causes a black screen, do not click anything. Just wait 15 seconds and the game will automatically revert to the previous working setting.
Screen Tearing / VSync or FPS Limiter Not Working?
Cause: This is a known Unreal Engine rendering issue in Borderless mode. VSync performance can be very hit-or-miss, and this is not isolated to specific devices.
Solution: If you experience screen tearing, please switch your Display Mode to Exclusive Fullscreen in the settings, which usually resolves the VSync failure.
Unique Dual-Track Achievement System
The game currently uses a dual-track system of "Global" and "Local" achievements:
Global Achievements: The achievements you see on your Steam profile, tracking your progress across your entire account.
Local Achievements: Tied to your save file. You can check your local achievement progress at any time through the dedicated Achievement UI in-game. If a save file is reset via memory load, the local achievements for that save will also reset.
Full Controller Support & PlayStation Button Prompts
Subliminal features full controller support!
Notice for PlayStation Controller Users: Subliminal displays Xbox layout UI icons by default when using a controller. When prompted to press X to interact (the blue button on the left of the Xbox controller), PlayStation controller users might mistake this for the Cross button (X button at the bottom right of the controller), making interaction confusing.
Solution: If you are using a PlayStation controller, please be sure to go to the Controls menu and switch the controller layout prompt to PlayStation to set it to the correct layout.
Language, Voice Over, and Localization
The UI/Text language and Narrator Voice in the game are separated. We support English and Chinese voiceovers, which can be mixed with the text (e.g. English VO with Chinese UI).
If you notice any text overflowing, sizing issues, or incorrect line breaks in certain languages while playing, please feel free to let us know. We will quickly make minor adjustments in future patches.
Stuck on a Puzzle?
We completely understand that the perspective-shifting mechanics can be quite challenging for some players. If you find yourself completely stuck after trying your best, please don't get discouraged! Here are a few ways to get past a tricky section:
- Enable Puzzle Hints: Double-check your gameplay settings and ensure that "Puzzle Hints" and "Tutorials" are turned on. These settings provide subtle visual cues in the environment to help guide you in the right direction.
- Join our Discord Server: We have a dedicated #puzzle-help channel on our official Discord. There are many experienced and friendly players there who are more than happy to give you a nudge in the right direction without spoiling the solution.
- Check Steam Guides: The Steam Community Hub is a great resource where players often share helpful walkthroughs, tips, and hints.
Bug Report Channels
Launch versions are inevitably not perfect. If you encounter bugs that affect your progression, please post in the Bug Report subforum on Steam Discussions, or join our official Discord. The development team is closely monitoring every comment and will push out hotfixes as soon as possible.
A Note From The Team
Lastly, as a team we are beyond grateful for the support from such an amazing community. Creating Subliminal has been a dream come true for all of us, and an effort undergone by many passionate people. This is years in the making, and wouldn't have been possible without each and every one of you. So, thank you to every single person who stuck with us through issues and delays, as we crafted this experience for you.