Posting this guide here from my reddit post just in case there's anyone out there that this interests and benefits from it!

So Im not sure how many people noticed, but in the PS3 version of the game, due to its limitations, the sand was different from its future port on the PS4 (and eventually PC), and while it is more detailed, it ended up losing a lot of its "sparklyness" that it had on PS3. I think its because in PS4 and onnward, the sparkles are a lot smaller and finer, but end up less visible in the long run!

But now with PC, if you lower the sand detail and only that to the lowest it can go, it makes the sand sparkly again just like the PS3! For those who prefer it, try it! The shape of the sand still looks great!

For comparison (Open them fully and switch back and forth for easy differences):

Ultra Sand:

Low Sand:

More pictures that show the differences, with Ultra shown first for each pair:



Again this is all personal taste, so pick whichever you prefer!

Update: Been playing a bit more switching back and forth, so have some more comparisons, the bridge level is a big difference!

Low:


High:

The comment:

Go to %AppData% \Local\Annapurna Interactive\Journey\Steam Journey.cfg open it with notepad and select replace. Find VelvetSpecularCorrection="0.25" and replace it with VelvetSpecularCorrection="0.15" and select replace all. Now it is full quality sand, and has the same sparkles from the original release on PS3 :)