Kill the PS2 limitations end of the Dark Ages Era

Upgrades could be done to the PC and 360 clients that could be done that would not require them to upgrade the art assets and geometry of the game or drop PS2 support but which would still vastly improve it.

Most texture artists create textures in a higher resolution and then scale it down to whats needed by the project rather that working on 256x256 postage stamps. Geometry is usually created the same way, you make a high poly version of the object first and then bake the surface and transfer those textures to a low poly version of the object. Unless SE has been throwing all of their files out they already have high res textures and models for most of this stuff. You don't just toss files when you are done with a project you archive them for later use in other projects.

I'm glad that this is 12 pages of people saying "Accounts aren't system-linked." We got it after the first reply. >_>

You know something... the other 90% of players don't care... as long as it runs...

And some of us play on PS2 because it tends to run better with less troubleshooting than a PC does.

It is definitely less troublesome playing it on a PS2 than using a PC. And in many ways the PS2 version looks better. Weather effects, the blurring of textures in the distance that slowly sharpen as you get closer. Very nice effect... both console versions also have a more responsive UI when not under heavy load. (I.E. on a battlefield, not in Jeuno).

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Originally Posted by Atomic_Skull

Minor tweaks =/= complete overhaul

DirectX 8 is emulated in Vista and Windows 7. A lot of the problems with running it on modern Windows would disappear because it would be running directly on the DirectX 9 HAL instead of indirectly via a D3D8 -> D3D9 wrapper.

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I don't think so... you better back this up with some good references... D3D9 will work with all prior D3D versions... D3D9Ex (D3D9.1) is a different story.

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Also, DirectX 9 is capable of doing FSAA with offscreen rendering unlike DirectX 8 (this is why FSAA doesn't work with FFXI) It would still require some code changes to make it possible, but it *would* be possible.

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Again please back this up with some references. FFXI does not draw the 3D rendering to the frame buffer. Obviously if it did you wouldn't have separate settings for the UI/screen resolution and a 3D world resolution setting.

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Originally Posted by Laraul

It is definitely less troublesome playing it on a PS2 than using a PC. And in many ways the PS2 version looks better.

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Not ps2 dont look better. In pc you can play FFXI 1080p, with background textures 2048 x 2048, and MipMaps 6. FFXI looks a lot better in PC than in ps2 and xbox 360. You can set drawdistance to 5.0 with program for make ffxi window mode and you can see almost the entire map

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Originally Posted by Laraul

Weather effects, the blurring of textures in the distance that slowly sharpen as you get closer. Very nice effect... both console versions also have a more responsive UI when not under heavy load. (I.E. on a battlefield, not in Jeuno).

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What the people dont understand about ffxi is this. If you have a oldd video card lets take as example 8800 gt nvidia. FFXI will use the 30% from it and the other 70% will be charged to the CPU. (FFXI dont need a super video card the game hardly will use it)

For play FFXI is necesary a VERY GOOD cpu, a old cpu Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor E8400
(6M Cache, 3.00 GHz, 1333 MHz FSB. Over clocked to 3.8 ghz. is enough for cap 30 frames even in AH, and crowed areas.

i have the game for xbox360, pc and ps2. I can tell you FFXI in a good pc looks superior to console VER. (Like the 90% from the games console vs gaming pc)

I run the game in 2048x2048, looks fantastic.

But yeah, how about giving us updates for PC users specifically? I'm sick of all these ridiculous limitations due solely to the low RAM of the PS2.

PS2 users don't like it? Get with the times.

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Originally Posted by Atomic_Skull

Upgrades could be done to the PC and 360 clients that could be done that would not require them to upgrade the art assets and geometry of the game or drop PS2 support but which would still vastly improve it.

Most texture artists create textures in a higher resolution and then scale it down to whats needed by the project rather that working on 256x256 postage stamps. Geometry is usually created the same way, you make a high poly version of the object first and then bake the surface and transfer those textures to a low poly version of the object. Unless SE has been throwing all of their files out they already have high res textures and models for most of this stuff. You don't just toss files when you are done with a project you archive them for later use in other projects.

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The problem is, the other platforms are still using code designed with the PS2 environment in mind, so their are simply logical limitations to what can be done within that environment. To truly fix it would require a massive overhaul. PC/360 users already get the high quality textures before they are downsampled for the PS2. Granted, they may be able to upscale them higher, but I guess they don't see much point in putting them out there since they are already like 3x the resolution or something (don't know the actual PPI resolution, but they are markedly higher from what I've heard people say who have multiple clients to compare against.).

As for putting it on a next gen console--it isn't just the art assets that have to be redone. You are talking about hosting it in a completely differnt operating environment. Compare it to older software that was released originally for Windows OS. They had to write new versions specifically for Mac and Linux because the operating environment was vastly different. While Linux could be running on the same hardware, the API's were still different--with the older Mac's, there was no Intel support so you had to actually code to different hardware at times. Same goes for consoles--they run on different chips with different command structures, so you would have to create a custom layer to interface with the PS2 encoding (ie, they'd need to write a new "wrapper" for the new console)--you would STILL be fighting the original PS2 design though, as that is the virtual environment the game is actually running under.

Until those specific pieces of legacy coding are scrapped--no matter what you play it on, it is going to have some level of PS2 restrictions. As long as the PS2 is actively supported, we are less likely to see that legacy code go away. Once Ps2 is gone, then they have to make a decsision wether to drop said code and rebuild to newer specs.--but ultimately it will come down to whether they view it as a cost-effective change or not.

I'm sure it been said but, the limitations SE has is not the PS2, its the budget put into the game, they are already stretched thin with all the additions they are working on, overhauling the game would require more artists for the graphics, more devs for the recoding, and more testing for these improvements, all of which add up to more $$$, its been said if it aint broken dont fix it, it's most of you PC users are Nazi "KILL THE PS2s!!! Heil, mein PC!!!". Really if you don't like it why do you still pay to play the game every month, obviously its not for the graphics :P