Strange Apex Legends Graphical Bug Turning Everything Blue

An Apex Legends player encounters a strange graphical bug where the world is transformed into a surreal, shimmering piece of abstract art.

As with any modern live service game, Apex Legends has seen its share of strange bugs, with many of the issues being shared online. Recently, a particularly strange glitch has appeared that involves shaders, and it turns the game into a surreal, difficult to play mess.

Apex Legends remains one of the most popular battle royale games, and for the most part those that play it can expect a relatively stable experience whenever they log in. The game also features more close-quarters competitive modes for those who prefer a more structured play style, though it seems like fans of all modes are in danger of running into the latest glitch.

Recent Apex Legends bugs have, for the most part, been more gameplay-focused than visual. However, a clip uploaded by Reddit user Bighusky89 that centers around the beginning of an Apex Legends match provides a small look into the visual side of game issues. The graphics have a highly unusual effect, with everything rendered in shades of blue and purple. The issue gives every wall and floor a shimmering recoloring that would be visually stunning if it did not also make the game more difficult to play. The effect is even visible behind the transparent elements of the UI, meaning it is unlikely that the video is edited.

The title indicates that the problem occurred when downloading shaders for the game, which possibly helps identify the issue. Shaders used in games are usually either precompiled by the developer or compiled on first run to optimize performance. Custom shaders can also be used in games with mod support like Minecraft. However, if the official compiled shaders corrupt or the player decides to use an unsupported third-party shader download, problems similar to the blue world seen here can occur. It is unclear which source Bighusky89 acquired the shaders from, but the issue is strange nonetheless.

The usual fix for shader issues is to simply recompile or redownload the shaders, or the entire game if there is no recompile option and shaders are not available on their own. However, in a competitive game like Apex Legends, the problem quickly shifts from a minor annoyance to an unfair disadvantage. Apex Legends thrives on careful balancing despite fan backlash, and to lose a match due to an unexpected issue would be understandably frustrating.

Hopefully, a redownload is enough to fix the issue. However, with the massive size of a recent Apex Legends update on certain platforms, redownloading may be easier said than done. While the game is not necessarily unplayable in this state, and it is interesting to see for those that are not dealing with it, the shader bug is troublesome nonetheless.