If you've logged in after the update and the world seems a little brighter, maybe too bright, please check your Bloom settings in the Options Panel (press ESC and select the second tab).
I did that Prof. Greyrose. I turned off bloom and played with the brightness. I still can't see certain details through the harsh glow. One such item is the fire place. It looks all white and I can't see the faint outline of bricks as i did before.
Also, during my experimenting of trying to lessen the glare, I went to adjust texture and got a message asking if i wanted to install advanced texture and it may be awhile. Can you please explain what this is? I would really appreciate it. I clicked no because i was not sure what it would do to my computer or if it was a download. (I have a daily download limit so must be careful about that sort of thing.) Thanks for all the help you have given on these message boards.
I too have been experiencing problems since the upgrade. There are flashes of colored light across the screen. I adjusted the boom as suggested and it hasn't helped. Sometimes the flashes of color blocks out the screen.
I took several screen shots of these issues (color blocking out, black areas, etc), let me know if emailing them to you would be of any help, Professor.
Mine is a related problem but it is the oppisite.... When I first logged in on the day of the pets advanced system I noticed everything was a little darker. I tried to set the brightness to the max but very little changed. Lucas Drakebloom Level 40 Ice wizard Oni slayer
If you've logged in after the update and the world seems a little brighter, maybe too bright, please check your Bloom settings in the Options Panel (press ESC and select the second tab).
i think the bloom was on after i was checking the options out and every time i cast a thunder snake it blares in my eyes it was so bright and the brightness was low and the bloom was off
Zachary LegendHeart lvl 29 nice ice master pet hunter
everything is super vibrant. I avoid ice spells because it brightens the entire screen to the point that it hurts my eyes. I've tried to adjust everything I can think of to dampen it but nothing seems to help. I turned the bloom settings off and on and it takes the glowiness away, but it's still so bright. Also, the water is just plain white....
I am experiencing flashes and streaks of light all over the screen. It looks like there is a thunderstorm in the woods outside Kishibe Village. Things are also very choppy in movements. I have changed several of the monitor settings and it is still happening. Areas have also been completely black, especially teleporting to Wizard City from Drogonspyre. Very distracting and irritating to the eyes.
i have had problems in game with brightness too, proffesor. entire areas of ravenwood are occasionally transformed into black patches on screen. and when fightning jade oni the fire around his sword and the explosion it causes are transformed into blocks of white light. note: this has only started since the latest update. i hope a fix will come out with celestia.
I agree. At first, I thought that the color of the water had been altered, but then I was informed of the glitch. Wizard101 needs to step it up a notch on the game planning and on correcting glitches more quickly.
The worlds always look to dark to me, I even up my brightness level and that really doesn't help much and makes it incredibly too bright in the brighter worlds. The brighter worlds looked just fine, but then some of the darker worlds make you have to brighten up the settings. Now I feel like my character is always playing in darkened shadows. So if the game darkened stuff due to this thread complaint, I'd rather everything be put back how it was and for the game to tell people to adjust their brightness levels in the game control section. I hate how dark it is.
entire areas of ravenwood are occasionally transformed into black patches on screen. 
some one else noticed that too? THANK NOCTORNAL