Map layout

[Kaych]

There is something about the map that keeps bugging me. Its nothing major, but still annoying.

When you enter the map and try and look at a position, you look first to the left or right to find the numbers, example: 1-20. Then you go go to the top of the map to find the letters, example: A-M. But the letters are always blocked my a blue line that tells where you are in the world: exmaple "Map. Abyssea - Altepa" >_>

I have gotten very used to aim the blue line right under let letters, but it takes a litle up-and-down, up-and-down "work" before I can see the letters more clearly.

It may be difficult for you to understand by reading, so if you dont understand what I am trying to explain, I suggest you enter your map and try it yourself^_-

Is there a way to move that blue line somewhere it dosent block the letters so much? Like and inch lower? XD

<3

[RAIST]

have you tried zooming the map? Never really had much trouble figuring out where I was on the map in most zones. Now, some are freakishly annoying to navigate because of screwy landscape physics and hidden, one-way, or blocked paths that don't show on a map--but otherwise it's not too hard to find just where you are to get your position.

It also gives you your position in the upper left corner (like I-7) so you can kinda eyeball which direction you need to head if you are trying to get to G-8--west and a little south in that case (compass in lower left corner). You can also just type /echo <pos> and it will spit out that position as well without ever pulling up the map.

[Bumbeen]

You must be on xbox?

[Kaych]

You must be on xbox?

I play on PC:)

[Kaych]

have you tried zooming the map? Never really had much trouble figuring out where I was on the map in most zones. Now, some are freakishly annoying to navigate because of screwy landscape physics and hidden, one-way, or blocked paths that don't show on a map--but otherwise it's not too hard to find just where you are to get your position.

It also gives you your position in the upper left corner (like I-7) so you can kinda eyeball which direction you need to head if you are trying to get to G-8--west and a little south in that case (compass in lower left corner). You can also just type /echo <pos> and it will spit out that position as well without ever pulling up the map.

Its not so much about where I am. Its about where I am going.

Example, I am at A-1. I need to get to L-6. So, I find where 6 is on the map, and then when I try to find L, there is a blue text-box blocking the letters.

If I want to see the letter totally clear, I need to look at the very bottom of the map.

Edit: The blu text box that goes all the way from the top left to the top right corner, is right over of your current position. (as you pointed out) And that text-box makes it difficult to read A-M^_-

[RAIST]

I'm on PC, and I don't see any any blue text box...that may be due to the window style you are using. I have an info "bar" there that is made up with two thin white lines, kind of like a single chat line where details on commands I pick in menus. I can clear this by hitting the select button on my PS2 controller. On the PC keyboard, it defaults to Scroll Lock--the one that turns off your GUI window. Forget how diffrerent windows are done...could be a DAT mod or something in POL/FFXI config that I haven't touched in like 6 years or more.

Also, are you familiar with all the map controls? Right analog stick on my PS2 controller zooms me in and out. The Page up/Page down or the 9 and 3 keys on numberpad are the default keyboard keys. I can also auto-center my map again with R1 on my PS2 controller, or * on the number pad for the keyboard equivalent.

[Bumbeen]

Hm if you're on PC you should just be able to zoom all the way out and the top of the map will line up witht eh top of your game window perfectly. You shouldn't have to fiddle with it to be able to see the letters.

[RAIST]

found the window styling settings:

While in game, go to Config/windows and go down to the bottom line of numbers. These are the different window styles.

Sounds like you may be on style 1. If you set it to 5, it makes the background color for that message bar a transparent gray and it leaves you with just the thin white borders that I have. that background applies to all the backgrounds too, so you can see thorugh your chat line and other menus better as well.

[Kaych]

found the window styling settings:

While in game, go to Config/windows and go down to the bottom line of numbers. These are the different window styles.

Sounds like you may be on style 1. If you set it to 5, it makes the background color for that message bar a transparent gray and it leaves you with just the thin white borders that I have. that background applies to all the backgrounds too, so you can see thorugh your chat line and other menus better as well.

Yeah, the style 5 helped. Thanks, but now everything is transparentXD I have had the blu textbox for years. Not sure I will ever get used to this type :P And it can be kinda difficult to see the stuff in the menu with this wondow mode.

And btw, I dont play in full screen, I play i Wondowed mode so maybe thats messing things up O.o?

[RAIST]

Yeah, windowed mode can ugly things up a bit on it's own. If you are on an LCD it can get even worse sometimes because of pixel count mismatch (depends on native resolution and dot pitch). If you don't like the idea of using the application that shall not be named because of the potential abuse from the tools you can put in it, they do offer a "Lite" version that only hooks in to allow you full screen with alt-tab capability. Otherwise, not much you can do about the rough edges in SE's windowed mode except to resize it and/or adjust the game resolution, or run in full screen with the monitor's native resolution on the foreground resolution.

[Kaych]

Yeah, windowed mode can ugly things up a bit on it's own. If you are on an LCD it can get even worse sometimes because of pixel count mismatch (depends on native resolution and dot pitch). If you don't like the idea of using the application that shall not be named because of the potential abuse from the tools you can put in it, they do offer a "Lite" version that only hooks in to allow you full screen with alt-tab capability. Otherwise, not much you can do about the rough edges in SE's windowed mode except to resize it and/or adjust the game resolution, or run in full screen with the monitor's native resolution on the foreground resolution.

Damn, that sux ><

Well, I am not gonna change to the 3rd-party-tool-that-shall-not-be-named. And I play on a LCD TV also >_> So double unluck there. o.o Having the game to crash every time I Alt-tab from fullscreen mode, is not acceptable, so I guess I will just have to live with it until SE does something about it v.v

[Tsukino_Kaji]

The game has a built in windows mode that you don't have to alt-tab anything...

[Kaych]

I need to Alt tab^_-

The game becomes significantly more difficult if I cant read the quests'n stuff that I have open on the web browser. And besides, the "NM-camping". where you have to wait hours to maybe kill 1 NM... lets just say, I need to do something else in the mean time^_-

Alt + tab is a must! :P

[Tsukino_Kaji]

Just move the mouse and click the other window.

[Kaych]

Think we might misunderstand eachother XD

I use the Windowed mode to Alt + tab. (or use mouse to click on a different window as you say). If I would play in Full screen, the game would crash if I did this.

And when you use windowd mode with a LCD screen, you get problems with the map like I have (as RAIST pointed out)
^_-

[RAIST]

Another thing you may want to try is to oversample the backgournd resolution if you aren't already doing it. Basically what you do is render the game's background at 2x the foreground, so if your game window (foreground) is at 1366/768 you would set the 3D rendering (background) to 2732/1536. The graphics card will average out neighboring pixels and you'll see a lot of rough edges disappear with that simple change. Bear in mind this will potentially dramatically increase the load on both the CPU and GPU, so may see considerable framerate drops if you go too high with these settings. The game's config generally won't let you implement this tweak becuase the values aren't in the drop menus--you have to edit the registry manually. Details here:

http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Graphics

If that doesn't do enough for you, you may need to resize the window to more match your LCD's native resolution, or lower the game's foreground resolution so it is falling in line with your monitor's dot pitch rating for the size window you are using. It can get a bit complicated, but you can check if your window size is right for the resolution you set for the game by doing a little math.

First, you'll need to know your monitor's native resolution and diagonal screen size (ie, a 22" monitor, with 1920/1080 max resolution). Then, you'll need a DPI or PPI calculator and basically just plug in the numbers. You'll also need a ruler to measure the window size you are running. Here's a link to a simple calculator:

http://members.ping.de/~sven/dpi.html

So, let's go with the 1920/1080, 22" 16:9 display example (if it's 1920/1200, it's 16:10). Plug the numbers in and you get roughly 100 pixels per inch. Now measure the width of the window you are running and multiply that by 100.13 (since that monitor is running 100.13 pixels per inch). Say you are running a 16.5 inch window--that gives you 1652.145. If your game window (foreground) resolution is lower than that, then you need to adjust either the window size down, or raise the foreground resolution accordingly until they match up to maintain 100.13 pixels per inch.

For example, ff you want to run at just that particular window size, then you need to adjust the game's foreground resolution so that it defaults to that size because of your monitor's dot pitch. You'll need to adjust the vertical so it maintains the proper aspect ratio. In this example, you would want 1652 horizontal and @929 vertical to maintain the 16:9 ratio: (1652 X 9)/16=929. That's some odd numbers...but in this example, that should default to roughly a 16.5 x 9.25 window at 16:9 ration on that particular monitor. Again...some funky numbers and your card may freak out with that--might need to fiddle a bit and go with something like 1680/945 or 1708/960 so it behaves a little better--would shift the window size slightly, but still be close.

Remember, you may also need to adjust the background resolution accordingly if you change the foreground to maintain the anti-aliasing effect as well. Note that either FFXI (or the graphics card drivers themselvs) sometimes won't like some non-standard resolutions. You may get a D3D Init error and the game crashes. Sometimes it just blinks out of 3D mode on you with no error. If you get this, it is likely because it didn't like the resolution you set. Here is a wiki page with a graphic showing some common resolutions if you need some ideas on settings to try:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_display_standard

[Kaych]

Dajum. Thank you. I will try this :D