NIGHT TIME!!

[Andrien]

that looks pretty good. thanks lol

[Skies]

I already complained a little so I didnt want to provoke the knights.. But now that you brought it up - Gridania's sky looks like it has light pollution. I see more in the city then they are seeing there lol.

I think they design a 'slightly' light polluted night because they think their players have never seen the real night sky :P

Just to give FFXIV a fair shake:

http://xkcd.com/331/ <- This
Sometimes, we somehow don't believe reality because it doesn't seems real. If you try to simulate it in a game or something then people won't feel like it's real either!
It's the case with the night sky there, I think, they probably tried to do something similar to what a city person would see (I can say that there is still far more stars in the LL screenshot than I ever saw even the middle-of-nowhere city I spent two years at!).

Also hidden somewhere there might also be the "Let's not put a far too complex/high quality backdrop in the sky because of performance issues" situation, there's a reason we got FoV and sadly a really realistic sky would kind of push things in my opinion

[Shougun]

http://xkcd.com/331/ <- This
Sometimes, we somehow don't believe reality because it doesn't seems real. If you try to simulate it in a game or something then people won't feel like it's real either!
It's the case with the night sky there, I think, they probably tried to do something similar to what a city person would see (I can say that there is still far more stars in the LL screenshot than I ever saw even the middle-of-nowhere city I spent two years at!).

Also hidden somewhere there might also be the "Let's not put a far too complex/high quality backdrop in the sky because of performance issues" situation, there's a reason we got FoV and sadly a really realistic sky would kind of push things in my opinion

well I did link that limsa image and say 'to give them them a fair shake' - because the photo did have some stars (very low res imo, but there was a number).

If you've really got away from all the light pollution on a clear night you'd see more. That or I was just really lucky.

There may be a point to the computer specs though. Its hard for me to say because I've never had that problem... lol

Whenever I load up skyrim or oblivion I make sure to HD the crap out of my stars (right click view image or open in new tab to see it at a better scale)

Oblivion:


Pretty cool clouds


http://youtu.be/V0E-GWtpWEo

[Coombah]

I think the night pics look awesome. can't wait to see more and the xi reference is genius!

[Duuude007]

I had this idea of, since dalamud shattered in the sky, that gravity would have rendered thousands of chunks of the former moon to coalesce into a ring around the planet.

Like this:



That way weather effects could include the Aurora Borealis lighting effects that we saw in 7th umbral, and on occasion, meteor showers, or a vision of the ring in the night sky, like this example.

I know this concept is sort of late to consider... but a guy can dream, right? lol

[Punainen]

This looks excellent! In 1.0, it all sorta just looked like daytime but darker. Now it actually looks like night! I love it!

[Mikita]

you guys might be right, maybe the tress are in the way, or maybe its just that particular region. I'm satisfied with what I'm seeing, but I really hope we can get a night sky like this.

Nice photo. Maybe something in between that and what we had in 1.0 would be good. Here are some images of 1.0's night sky, which IMO was already very nice but perhaps a little on the bright side.








General comments about the new photos...

I'm relieved to see that some of these key locations in Gridania have survived Bahamut's bombardment (Leatherworker and Adventurer's Guilds in those images). The tree canopy is not as dense (can't call it the "Black Shroud" anymore, maybe?) and there is a lot more atmospheric lighting effects. Very nice! ^^

1.0 version of the Leatherworker's Guild. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a nice nightime image in my collection...

[KaMuiSouZou]

I had this idea of, since dalamud shattered in the sky, that gravity would have rendered thousands of chunks of the former moon to coalesce into a ring around the planet.

Like this:



That way weather effects could include the Aurora Borealis lighting effects that we saw in 7th umbral, and on occasion, meteor showers, or a vision of the ring in the night sky, like this example.

I know this concept is sort of late to consider... but a guy can dream, right? lol

That's a cool idea too: having remnants of Dalamud in the sky. I've been trying out Aion the last few days while I wait for beta and this reminded me of the moon there. Having a mini red version of this as a remnant of Dalamud complete with floating rock chunks swirling around would be sweet.

It could also be cool to have different Deity/Primal constellations depending on what elemental day or month it is. Occasionally bringing back things like auroras or meteor showers is also great.

In the end, I think what it needs is something I'd never be able to see in real life - something fantasy. Having a starrier sky with some nebulas is definitely a good start as many can't go out and see that since they live in cities. But even something as simple as two moons is something none of us can ever see outside our own windows. Not having something fantastical in the sky seems like a waste of potential.

[Matsume]

that looks pretty good. thanks lol

I think this one came out even better lol:



except for the fact that limsa is now in coerthas

[Undrentide]

Its looks great, id forgotten about the Eorzean days!!