Tried numerous image searches and didn't find those anywhere except the ones you uploaded to photobucket.
Printable View
I was gonna say something to keep the drama going to get people to keep posting in my thread so it stays on top and gathers more attention, but meh....
Geez people, shut up about the screenshots and get back on topic, because this is a great suggestion. Yes SE should see what they can do to massively increase the draw distance and make whatever tweaks they can to make it work well without bogging down our way-too-nice-and-new-to-not-run-this-game-flawlessly-at-max-settings-PCs.
Find another screenshots :p
This is the exact same place, without then with improvement
Without:
http://img7.hostingpics.net/pics/761794Before.jpg
With:
http://img7.hostingpics.net/pics/190967After.jpg
Please SE we need this ingame option!!! :(
And people complaining about graphics mods, its so 2003 we are in 2012, games like Skyrim beat every selling chart mainly cause of mods
In all seriousness, I don't think this is anything to do with graphics card/computer strength.
The clipping limit is for aesthetic effect. Just like real life, the distance you can see is not meant to be infinite. As there is a lot less in the game to obstruct your view (where there are buildings, forests and other obstacles in real life) there has to be a limit to the view to give the effect of expansion.
Stand on a hill overlooking valleys, your view is rarely infinite due to dust, clouds, fog, mist, etc.
Plus,if you absolutely must see the entire zone taking away the feeling of exploration and expansion (inb4 "I've seen every zone and know where it leads"), there are two examples by consumers of third-party programs proving just how easy it is to do on a PC.
I don't care about PS2 in the slightest - or Xbox. I play on PC.
I could almost agree with this, if the game wasn't as old as it is, some things, like the spine in meriph, are just weird looking and it totally ruins the feel of the game for me. In dynamis, or like Caedarva, I don't mind the current distance since they're obviously intended to be like that. But for vast brightly lite areas I just can't agree.
This is a bit of a ridiculous statement. As others have said, unless you are in a smoke-filled room, your view distance is far better in reality than it is in FFXI.
Besides, a view-distance "fog" and a "clipping plane" are two different things. Personally, I hate both, but at least the former is more realistic-looking than the latter (and the former is usually used to hide the latter). In places like Meriphataud, the clipping plane just makes the landscape look stupid, as in the above pictures.
And for the people commenting on the 3rd-party tools that may or may not have been used to generate the "improved" images, all this does is act as another prime example of why so many people use said 3rd-party tools to enhance their game experience. Here's something that a 3rd-party tool allows you to do that doesn't affect "fairness" in any way, and should not require a 3rd-party tool to do. Stuff like this is exactly the type of thing that should be high on SE's list of graphics enhancements needed to bring the game closer to the standards of the current decade.