Upgraded texture pack?

[RagingAvatar]

Just thought I'd gauge interest.
How many people would be interested in an HD texture pack upgrade?

Obviously, this isn't really feasible on the consoles (well, maybe premium DLC for 360?) but PC, it's totally viable.

Not interested in discussing the work involved, whether it's worth it etc. - just want to gauge opinion..

Personally, I see an optional texture pack as being only a good thing.
Perhaps they could roll it out in stages? 1 zone at a time? Start with the cities?
What do you guys think?

[Aver]

I would definitely welcome this.

[Souljacker]

I would like it, and often said when XIV was announced that they really should have just overhauled XI to HD instead. They already had a massive world that was just ripe for expansion and all they needed to do was what they have already done with updating the game, and overhauling the graphics.

Let's face it, FFXI was already a beautiful game and better than just about everything else available at the time. It still can compete, it just needs a little more loving care.

[Nianny]

Though I doubt SE will ever do this I'd very much welcome it and still have faith it'll eventually happen. :)

[Selzak]

I'd definitely like it, even if they only upgraded the cities or something.

[Olor]

I would pay money for this

[Amperage]

I would pay money for this

Another vote for this.

It's the only way I ever see it happening.. $10-15 seems fair for a HD texture overhaul. It in no way would add an unfair advantage and may be the motivation people need to willingly abandon PS2.... then again if nobody were actually playing on PS2 who would we blame for missing features? :)

[Runespider]

Loads of us would buy texture packs, upgrade packs, expansion packs...pretty much anything that adds to the world. Square just don't see it and so probably will never do it, I guess they think the costs would be greater than the sales but I doubt that honestly, they don't know how ravenous the XI playerbase is to carry on in with XI.

[Aver]

Loads of us would buy texture packs, upgrade packs, expansion packs...pretty much anything that adds to the world. Square just don't see it and so probably will never do it, I guess they think the costs would be greater than the sales but I doubt that honestly, they don't know how ravenous the XI playerbase is to carry on in with XI.

It's a hell of a drug.

[Zoner]

I would pay for Upgraded graphics

[Midorikaze]

I wouldn't mind seeing updated graphics too. FFXI is a great-looking game, just that stretching the BMPs over certain models just makes them all pixelated and some get distorted. It might not be noticeable from a distance but when you're watching the screen for an extended length of time it's just obvious.
Avatars get a blurry ghost effect (which does look cool but also sometimes pixelly).
Not to mention there's no reflective water, and no refraction. No shiny metals. Why does about 95% of other MMOs including Free-to-Play games, have this and not FFXI? (I HAVE seen it in FFXII, it's possible to an extent on PS2). Then again, maybe I should just shut my trap....

[Catsby]

people always say online petitions are bullshit since it's just people saying they will support something. I wonder how a publisher would react to a kickstarter that reaches/exceeds the goal. In other words, they don't have to worry about development costs since a fan produced subsidy is already waiting for them.

[Hexacore]

Would pay for a texture upgrade pack.

[Atomic_Skull]

Not interested in discussing the work involved, whether it's worth it etc. - just want to gauge opinion..


Most texture artists create textures in a higher resolution and then scale it down. They rarely work in a 256x256 postage stamp. Unless SE threw them away they probably have the high res originals archived.

[Midorikaze]

Even that would be awesome. Make them JPEGs so they're smaller. Not so many jagged edges. Something. ^^
Personally I would not mind completely re-installing the game since that would definitely be required.

[Atomic_Skull]

Even that would be awesome. Make them JPEGs so they're smaller. Not so many jagged edges. Something. ^^
Personally I would not mind completely re-installing the game since that would definitely be required.

No not a lossy compression like JPEG. Somthing non lossy like PNG would be better. Wouldn't make any difference in how much memory the game requires your graphics card to have though because either way the game has to decompress them into memory when it loads them.

[Merton9999]

I'd buy this in a second.

[Midorikaze]

No not a lossy compression like JPEG. Somthing non lossy like PNG would be better. Wouldn't make any difference in how much memory the game requires your graphics card to have though because either way the game has to decompress them into memory when it loads them.

I agree. The framerate could use a boost too, but that would also be difficult since other elements of the game I hear are tied to it.

[Karbuncle]

I'd not pay for it, frankly i don't think I should have to pay for every single upgrade in FFXI. (do other games charge for texture packs?)

But i would very much welcome something like this, and would not object to it. However if it did cost, I don't care enough about how pretty my pixels look enough to pay for it, I can enjoy a game just fine without it.

[Reiterpallasch]

I wouldn't pay for it. I'd just wait for someone to upload all the shiny new HQ dats somewhere.

[Runespider]

I wouldn't pay for it. I'd just wait for someone to upload all the shiny new HQ dats somewhere.

Well of course they would have to upgrade the engine to make them work and force it to verify with a code, as all other expansions have in the past.

I'd pay for upgrade player models alone, i'm not a sure full graphics upgrade would ever happen due to the work involved. Assuming they the original pictures were not done hi-res and it ported down ofc.

[Atomic_Skull]

I wouldn't pay for it. I'd just wait for someone to upload all the shiny new HQ dats somewhere.

They could easily make FFXI check to see if it's using the high res textures and report that information to the server at random intervals. And if you were using them but didn't have the HD update registered you'd get an email telling you to either buy the HD update or loose your account.

[Alhanelem]

Anything more than UI elements and such is unlikely. If you want a high res texture treatement on the entire game, go buy FFXIV.

[Atomic_Skull]

If you want a high res texture treatement on the entire game, go buy FFXIV.

FFXIV is terrible and in no way compares to FFXI.

[Alhanelem]

I actually disagree with the terribleness statement after recent and upcoming updates. They seem pretty determined to come back from the letdown. It is likely to continue to get better, but they will have to get past the barrier of the people (such as clearly yourself) who have mostly made up their minds after the initial flop. Remember that the game underwent major staff changes after the incident. The first few raids were pretty well done, though IMO the coolest thing about them was your entire party apears in cutscenes, something I've been wishing for in MMOs forever.

In all seriousness, there are various reasons, such as a drastic increase in disk space requirements (which can impact people even not on the PS2), size of the staff, possibly technical issues up to and including FPS slowdowns (due mostly to how terriblly designed the game's graphics engine is) why this will probably never happen.

[Atomic_Skull]

I actually disagree with the terribleness statement after recent and upcoming updates. They seem pretty determined to come back from the letdown. It is likely to continue to get better, but they will have to get past the barrier of the people (such as clearly yourself) who have mostly made up their minds after the initial flop.

Boring generic fantasy world populated by boring less interesting versions of Vana'diel's races.

Mithras are more visually interesting then miqo'te for example. FFXIV's art direction is a lot of shiny sparkly fashion magazine-like zaz layered over underlying blandness.

And that for me kills the game even if it ever becomes playable. I have never liked SE's beltan zipper era.

[sruon]

double standards much.

[Lushipur]

yes, please.

[Alhanelem]

Boring generic fantasy world populated by boring less interesting versions of Vana'diel's races.I don't see how FFXI's world is any less "generic" and "boring" if FFXIV's is described that way.

Both games have humans and elves and cat people. It was just as uncreative when FFXI did it.

[Teraniku]

... the coolest thing about them was your entire party apears in cutscenes, something I've been wishing for in MMOs forever.



And in FFXI we have only one Cutscene where the entire party appears.

[Atomic_Skull]

I don't see how FFXI's world is any less "generic" and "boring" if FFXIV's is described that way.

Both games have humans and elves and cat people. It was just as uncreative when FFXI did it.

FFXI's cat people are more visually interesting than the generic anime catgirl maids of FFXIV.

FFXI's world is a mix of fantasy, steampunk and renaissance, FFXIV is pretty much just generic high fantasy.

FFXIV's elves are the generic fantasy stereotype, FFXI's veer far from that stereotype.

FFXI's background story is much more interesting than FFXIV's

[Runespider]

I don't see how FFXI's world is any less "generic" and "boring" if FFXIV's is described that way.

Both games have humans and elves and cat people. It was just as uncreative when FFXI did it.

FFXI's races were designed and put into the game, lots of concept art etc. FFXIV just copy and pasted the races directly over from FFXI (if they copied the race names you could argue they were trying to carry on the world or something, but they were just being lazy). Also it's really sad how all the races have the exact same animations for casting etc, that's really lazy.

I've said it many times but the races in FFXI have vastly more character than FFXIV, all FFXIV races are human races with bits stuck on. FFXI races try to stay in character and are actually different from each other, I've played both games and although FFXIV is pretty I still prefer the how FFXI looks (which is really sad given how old XI is and they still can't better it).

[Mirage]

I would pay money for a HD texture upgrade, but probably not more than 30 bucks. Would also be nice if the same upgrade made the game run a bit more efficiently and stuff.

[Alhanelem]

And in FFXI we have only one Cutscene where the entire party appears. One? What cutscene is that? As far as I know there's still none.


FFXI's races were designed and put into the gameNot really, again, we have humans, those aren't designed as we already know what they are, and elves and catwomen, SE can't claim to have designed those either. Just because they made concept art doesn't mean its different. FFXIV had concept art and design schematics too, so they're just as "designed" and not "copied" as FFXI's.

They specifically designed FFXIV's races to be similar because they expected their main audience would be people who played FFXI and they felt that people who played that might try to recreate their character in the new game.

You can say that FFXIV ripped off FFXI, but since FFXI itself ripped off every other generic fantasy world just as much, it's isn't fair to criticize FFXIV but not FFXI for it.


I've said it many times but the races in FFXI have vastly more character than FFXIV, all FFXIV races are human races with bits stuck on. FFXI races try to stay in character and are actually different from each otherAll nonsense. they're basically the same, how can they have less "character" than before? the only substantial difference is the Roegadyn do not have tails. If anything they have more character simply because the models are much more well done, all body features look more polished in general.

[Monchat]

One? What cutscene is that? As far as I know there's still none.


In one of the WoTG final cutscenes.

[Lushipur]

the cutscene of the last wotg fight is the best ever...and the final boss is epic too ^^

[Alhanelem]

the cutscene of the last wotg fight is the best ever...and the final boss is epic too ^^
Ah, it figures. I'm stuck on one of the later missions and can't find anyone who's qualified to help, much less wants to help.

[Kimara]

I would pay for a HD texture upgrade. I think most people would. I dunno if SE would go for it though at this point...Maybe!

[Alhanelem]

I'd be concerned about heavy use of high resolution textures slowing the game down too much, since it doesn't use your video card at all and does everything on the CPU- it's not difficult to drop your frame rate even on a really high end CPU by turning up the background resolution really high.

[Atomic_Skull]

I'd be concerned about heavy use of high resolution textures slowing the game down too much, since it doesn't use your video card at all and does everything on the CPU

It doesn't do everything on the CPU, it just only uses DirectX 8 functions. If it was software rendering then it wouldn't need T&L, wouldn't use DTX1 texture compression, and it wouldn't use Shader Model 1.0 (disable any of those things and FFXI will not run) In fact it would not need a 3D card at all and could run on an old S3 VGA card.




All nonsense. they're basically the same, how can they have less "character" than before? the only substantial difference is the Roegadyn do not have tails. If anything they have more character simply because the models are much more well done, all body features look more polished in general.

No they are not the same, they do NOT have as much character as the originals. Mithras are CAT people, with black cat noses and feline markings and facial features that are reminiscent of a cat. Miqo'te are merely human women with cat ears and tails. Mithras are depicted as fierce huntresses in both the game backstory and in their animations. Miqo'te's appearance and animations are annoying moeblob bullshit.


I've said it many times but the races in FFXI have vastly more character than FFXIV, all FFXIV races are human races with bits stuck on. FFXI races try to stay in character and are actually different from each other, I've played both games and although FFXIV is pretty I still prefer the how FFXI looks.

This.

[Andrien]

I like it. adding more content and expansion packs like this would be welcomed too.

[Cybermario]

you got my vote, hd textures would be amazing

[Teraniku]

Just thought I'd gauge interest.
How many people would be interested in an HD texture pack upgrade?

Obviously, this isn't really feasible on the consoles (well, maybe premium DLC for 360?) but PC, it's totally viable.

Not interested in discussing the work involved, whether it's worth it etc. - just want to gauge opinion..

Personally, I see an optional texture pack as being only a good thing.
Perhaps they could roll it out in stages? 1 zone at a time? Start with the cities?
What do you guys think?

I'd even pay $15-20 for this.
-Actually I think SE should do a Kickstarter or IndieGoGo Campaign for this. Set a couple Price points:
-Basic $15.00 you get the upgraded Texture Pack if the goal is reached
-Deluxe $30.00 Texture Pack + Some in game Special offer item (ie tidal Talisman, Destrier Beret, Spinet etc)
-Premium $50.00 (Texture Pack + 2 Special items)
They could add up to the $1000 level and include a Fully upgraded Relic, Emp, or Mythic of your choice for that level.

-Then set stretch goals if they reach XXXX level of money they would do a full rework of the wrapper to DX 11 standards and what not.

[Hercule]

should be so cool, or even a tool from SE that allow users to mod textures in the game with a community website for download them, like bethesda did with Skyrim

[Kaisha]

Don't even need a texture pack to make FFXI look better. Just need a new rendering engine that isn't dumping all the visuals to a flat texture to then stretch to the screen size.

There's room for much better bumpmap lighting (as it stands, it barely exists outside of 'day' and 'night' and that one second transition between the two come 18:00), native anti-aliasing that doesn't involve doubling the rendering texture resolution to something like 2048x2048, increased draw distance, unlocking frame rate from game logic to let us hit 60fps, and a less aggressive LOD so you don't see props like trees painfully popping up with more detail from 5' away.

[wish12oz]

If it made Kaerin XI look like Kaerin XIV I would pay for it, otherwise I wouldnt bother.

[noirin]

i'd pay for it.hands down without a second to think about it. i'd easily pay up to around $30 for this. Despite that being a little high, if they were retexturing EVERYTHING that currently existed that's a heck of alot of work to sift through to get everything setup properly.

[Rosina]

I welcome this

And about ffxiv character designes... I played it too, and not all the races look alike. There are options, miqo'te do have the option to give them the mithra nose. Just if people want more human looking kitty ppl. Thats their choice. And each clan does have different coloring.

But that beside the point. Maybe with the new expac they can update character creation to give us more options and had a barber shop type thing to change our characters.

again I support this even if the 360 don't get it :) it be nice to see hd ffxi youtubeds of ffxi.

[Duvemora]

I'd welcome this, and I'd pay for it.

[Jile]

I'd also pay for a texture upgrade pack..... Can I also pay to get back the orig graphics of the avatars with the GM style glow while we're doing that lol..

[Zeroe]

This game needs this bad

[Secondplanet]

i think SE should test the waters with this. Make an optional 360 & PC update pack ($10) or $9.99 since they like that for just to upgrade our characters and gear only, If it sells good then look into doing more like the monsters for another $9.99. After that maybe do zones for free if you bought the first 2 packs.

[oliveira]

It doesn't do everything on the CPU, it just only uses DirectX 8 functions. If it was software rendering then it wouldn't need T&L, wouldn't use DTX1 texture compression, and it wouldn't use Shader Model 1.0 (disable any of those things and FFXI will not run) In fact it would not need a 3D card at all and could run on an old S3 VGA card.

It may not do everything, but it does a lot of stuff using the CPU. In fact it mimics what a PS2 does, which is render and apply textures to the graphics using the "CPU". The PS2 does not use it's main CPU for that as it's not fast enough but it has two very powerful programable Toshiba DSPs (Vector Units) inside of the CPU die just for that. Also, there's a graphics chip there called "Graphics Synthesizer" which does lighting and particle effects after the bulk of the rendering is done and sent. Data rate on that system is like 35GB/s so it does not suffer slowdown/framerate drop with too complex geometries (like dust, rain, snow, confluxes, telepoints).

So the game stutters when you stand by a conflux because DX8 is a old unwanted API, Nvidia and AMD do not care about it at all. The game uses it to perform the lighting and particle effects that on the PS2 would be done in the GS chip.

Newer graphics cards are not capable of processing DX8 data natively, which means the driver will push the conversion task onto the CPU (which is already busy doing the rendering of the ~125 player characters standing around Joachim at Port Jeuno or those transparent shades of the veridical confluxes) because the graphics card need the data to be translated for it's native format prior to processing...
You end needing a (|Incredibly Tough|) PC to play decently.


I'm not posting this just to disagree or anything of that sort. I can only agree that the PC version of the game need to abandon that "PS2 compatibility" model so it can finally run in the PC in a more efficient way.

I have a GTX280 on my PC... (it's G200 based, so not as bad as G400/Fermi based cards for FFXI)
I can hear it whistle when I stand by a veridical conflux... :(


They would maybe get working on that if they see this thread. One can hope lol

[Anapingofness]

I would welcome this, no doubts about it.

The game could use a little facelift after all of these years.

[Dragoy]

Should have waited a bit more for the 1 year anniversary of the thread. :Ð

A-ny-who, it would obviously be nice if they went even further with them improvements, but alas, I have but little hope left in me.

Impossible is nothing, however, and as long as there are people hoping for it, there is a speck of a possibility even if it is hidden in the shadows of the past, waiting to be revealed by adventurers far and nigh, fearless of the perils that have been, and will be, that is, the future.

What?

I actually don't like the FFXIV characters... Be it the design or the modern looks, I do not know (the emotes are just creepy), but I do know I like the FFXI ones better...

[saevel]

They would need to first update the GFX engine to be at least DX9 native (its DX8 now). Then they could add higher quality textures to the game. Honestly do both and release it as a graphics update.

[Kuvo]

This would be great if they did it and I would pay for the updated HD as well but this is SE we're talking about. When did they really give their fans what they wanted. How long have their fans asked and demanded an updated graphics FFVII and up until a few weeks ago they weren't going to do anything extra for that game. Lets see it took them 11-12 years to re-release FF7 so with that logic we still have another few years to go for FFXI to be updated the way we would like. Not holding my breath.

Also I loved the little teasers they did for FFXI saying there updating graphics... but when u would read what they actually did was update how an icon looked or your name display. I remember being sooo sad that it wasn't an overhaul of graphics updates. Oh well.....

[Shewp]

I think we'll get a graphics update... eventually. Especially now with Tanaka out. We've seen updated spell icons and higher resolution font. I hope the next step will be higher resolution spell effects and then textures! ffxi WILL outlive the PS2, it just might take another decade because SE is SE.

[Phogg]

I'd not pay for it, frankly i don't think I should have to pay for every single upgrade in FFXI. (do other games charge for texture packs?)

But i would very much welcome something like this, and would not object to it. However if it did cost, I don't care enough about how pretty my pixels look enough to pay for it, I can enjoy a game just fine without it.

I don't play it, but I understand Cataclysm or whatever from WoW was basically an expansion that also simultaneously revamped all the previously existing zones to higher resolutions and subtle changes because the game "jumped" in time or something.

That was around the same time FFXIV came out I think and after trying that horrible game I really wished they would have just done something similar to what WoW did with FFXI.

[Kanjitai]

It would be nice to see this. They could do this for PC and Xbox. I know this would cause PS2 players to groan but it might move them to change platforms.

[Tsukino_Kaji]

Come on, even WoW did it.

[Reiterpallasch]

Come on, even WoW did it.
Of course the PC only game with 10 million+ more subscribers than FFXI did it.

[Daniel_Hatcher]

Come on, even WoW did it.

Who's graphics were awful in the first place, and are still not much better.

[MiniDiamond]

I think XI's fine, especially if you put all your settings to HIGH. ^^ But i would love if they where even better!! :D But sadly due to Xbox Support it wont happen. ;3;

[Reiterpallasch]

Who's graphics were awful in the first place, and are still not much better.
Awful is a bit excessive. On ultra settings and a few other tweaks they're not all that bad considering how absolutely gigantic the game world is compared to FFXI, which amazingly enough also looks like total crap until you take the steps to enhance the graphics.

[Enochroot]

I'd love to see this, but I don't think the timing is right.

Perhaps after the new expansion it'd be nice to see this announced. Hopefully by that time it might be more palatable to focus solely on PC users. A hi-res texture pack would be a nice consideration for those PC users who have no intentions of leaving the world of Vana'diel while the servers are still online.

I'd certainly pay for it.

[Tsukino_Kaji]

with 10 million+ more subscribersThe numbers Blizzard spits out about how many subscribers they have have always been a lie, they can't tell the difference between a subscriber and someone you just has 10 characters.

[Meyi]

I'd like this. Would be better if it was an option so people with older computers could deny it until they want it.

[Yokoh]

i would happily pay a minimal charge extra per month to be able to play in HD, who wouldn't?

[Daniel_Hatcher]

i would happily pay a minimal charge extra per month to be able to play in HD, who wouldn't?

Me, I'd pay for content, not looks.

[Dazusu]

An HD texture option would be amazing, but I can't see it ever happening simply due to the amount of textures actually in this game. Can you imagine how many artists it would take to redesign every texture in the game, and every piece of armor, for every race. It's a pipe dream, but one that I would personally like to keep alive :(

[Dragoy]

i would happily pay a minimal charge extra per month to be able to play in HD, who wouldn't?

Much like Daniel_Hatcher, I wouldn't either.

I already pay over 30€ per month, a bit higher than before thanks to the payment thingy change. If memory serves, I pay now over 150€ more per year for two accounts, and I can't even enter to the 'lottery' with both of them. ;[

So no, I would not happily pay more each month. If anything, this game needs a discount, a big one, on the monthly fee! I would probably pay a one-time fee however, as long as it didn't make everything as creepy as is in FFXIV. xd

[Meyi]

I actually disagree with the terribleness statement after recent and upcoming updat


This is true, but, FFXIV isn't FFXI. It's not even FFXI with upgraded graphics. It has its own thing going on, and playing FFXIV won't make my taru Meyi look any prettier. Or make Ru'Aun Gardens so gorgeous I never log out of the game again.

[buritoslicer]

I would actually be happy if the just upgraded the textures in the enviroments. That's a perfect place to start as far as rolling this out in stages. It would perfectly compliment the overhaul in the UI :D

[Gasher]

I would pay in order to access new (HD-quality) graphics.

[Volarione]

I would also pay for this.

[Hercule]

An HD texture option would be amazing, but I can't see it ever happening simply due to the amount of textures actually in this game. Can you imagine how many artists it would take to redesign every texture in the game, and every piece of armor, for every race. It's a pipe dream, but one that I would personally like to keep alive :(

Thats why i think SE should do this like Bethesda with Skyrim, giving tools to the community on an official "mods website", look skyrim went full upgraded on HD textures on like 1 month with the fan base "modding community".

[Vivivivi]

crowd source it! I'm sure plenty of FFXI players are skilled with photoshop and what better to do to kill time while waiting for that one void watch party member to run to sky who doesn't have the warp ><;

[Nala]

heh lets blow up mooshywooshy's in box with requests to get on that... if they ever sanction it that is.

[Karbuncle]

After seeing so many people willing to pay for prettier graphics, I now realize why Xbox Live and Playstation market are such huge money makers, even things like FF13 Costumes.

Wish I'd of thought of it.

[Mooshywooshy]

heh lets blow up mooshywooshy's in box with requests to get on that... if they ever sanction it that is.

Haaaaeeeelllll naw!

[Gaspee]

Just thought I'd gauge interest.
How many people would be interested in an HD texture pack upgrade?

Obviously, this isn't really feasible on the consoles (well, maybe premium DLC for 360?) but PC, it's totally viable.

Not interested in discussing the work involved, whether it's worth it etc. - just want to gauge opinion..

Personally, I see an optional texture pack as being only a good thing.
Perhaps they could roll it out in stages? 1 zone at a time? Start with the cities?
What do you guys think?

This would be awesome! Liked.