@SquareEnix: Kickstarter campaign to get a graphic upgrade?

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Originally Posted by peculiar

If you just want hq textures for models why not just pay modders to do it?

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Does the game engine accept higher-resolution textures?

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Originally Posted by Catmato

Does the game engine accept higher-resolution textures?

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Higher resolution than those used throughout most of the game, yes. I don' know what the game engine's hard limit is, but it's well above what a lot of the textures in the game are saved at. Different texture resolutions are used for different things, although sometimes it doesn't make any sense (e.g. the horrendously low resolution carpet texture in the mog houses).

In some specific cases, the resolution of certain (All UI-related) textures in the game has been upgraded. For instance, the title screen logo was upgraded (at some point after I asked for it although it was probably already planned), and the resolution of the 3D fonts and icons was increased, and later the buttons on the title screen. That said, these changes only applied to the PC version.

I'd still like some comment, from the FFXI powers that be, on when ps2 support ends if they at least are going to alleviate some of the pain with modern hardware.
FFXI runs like poo on my machine. Another poster asked if anyone else experiences random slowdowns for no reason, well I do also.

Plus with MS pushing us to Win10, there has to be some give from FFXI.
Numerous people have issues trying to get FFXI to run on Win10, which again, MS is shoving down the entire world's population.
So FFXI at least needs to be able to officially be supported on win10.

FFXI's platform page has not been updated in ages.

Resistance is futile.

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Numerous people have issues trying to get FFXI to run on Win10,

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FFXI has no issues with win10 that I can tell. Some people don't have legacy components installed and that will prevent the game from running, but it's as simple as turning legacy components on. I havent seen evidence of "numerous" people not being able to run the game on win10.

I'm have a crap ton of issues with FFXI on Win10. I re-installed it twice, and this morning I tried to play it, but it terminated because of something called 'Direct 3D'...

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Originally Posted by Zeargi

I'm have a crap ton of issues with FFXI on Win10. I re-installed it twice, and this morning I tried to play it, but it terminated because of something called 'Direct 3D'...

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If you made sure your gpu driver isn't broken, try installing Directx (version 8.1 iirc) from the menu that opens up when you run the client setup, and yes, even if you normally use a higher version of Directx. I get bashed by more "techsavvy" people whenever I mention this to help others with this issue, but believe it or not, I had the same issue a few times in the past and installing that directx 8.1 package fixed it for me every single time.

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Originally Posted by Zeargi

I'm have a crap ton of issues with FFXI on Win10. I re-installed it twice, and this morning I tried to play it, but it terminated because of something called 'Direct 3D'...

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Probably legacy components not installed. Or drivers not up to date. If you have an AMD card, if you have drivers from before last Novermber, they were very unstable on win10 and caused a lot of crashes in many games.

Other than that, there really isn't much of anything about win10 that would cause the game not to work if it worked on win 7 and 8.

Also @ previous post. Any person who tells you you don't need to install the directx that comes with every game is giving terrible advice. While people have only heard of things like DirectX 8, 9.0c, 10, 11 and 12, there are literally hundreds of builds of each version floating around, because every game was built on a different one and may only work correctly with that specific one. Thus you should ALWAYS proceed with directX installations included with every game. (And, as mentioned before, you need to have Legacy Components installed under Control Panel > Programs and Features > Turn Windows Features On or Off)

Steam Support created an excellent explanation of the above on their site, which you can find here:
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_...6252&l=English
(The TL;DR explanation is developers aren't allowed to simply include the individual binaries they used in their install process. Microsoft REQUIRES that they run the DirectX installer instead).

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Originally Posted by Vinedrai

If you made sure your gpu driver isn't broken, try installing Directx (version 8.1 iirc) from the menu that opens up when you run the client setup, and yes, even if you normally use a higher version of Directx. I get bashed by more "techsavvy" people whenever I mention this to help others with this issue, but believe it or not, I had the same issue a few times in the past and installing that directx 8.1 package fixed it for me every single time.

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I went back through and opened the FFXI Setup, and only clicked the DirectX 8.1 Stopped 1/2 way and said that it was successfully installed. Also I hope nothing on this thing is broken. I just got this thing...

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Originally Posted by Alhanelem

Probably legacy components not installed. Or drivers not up to date. If you have an AMD card, if you have drivers from before last Novermber, they were very unstable on win10 and caused a lot of crashes in many games.

Other than that, there really isn't much of anything about win10 that would cause the game not to work if it worked on win 7 and 8.

Also @ previous post. Any person who tells you you don't need to install the directx that comes with every game is giving terrible advice. While people have only heard of things like DirectX 8, 9.0c, 10, 11 and 12, there are literally hundreds of builds of each version floating around, because every game was built on a different one and may only work correctly with that specific one. Thus you should ALWAYS proceed with directX installations included with every game. (And, as mentioned before, you need to have Legacy Components installed under Control Panel > Programs and Features > Turn Windows Features On or Off)

Steam Support created an excellent explanation of the above on their site, which you can find here:
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_...6252&l=English
(The TL;DR explanation is developers aren't allowed to simply include the individual binaries they used in their install process. Microsoft REQUIRES that they run the DirectX installer instead).

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I went in and turned on the Legacy option last night, and I have a NVIDIA GeForce GT730 with the drivers dated to 7/22/2015. And that's about it for info I really know. I'm Downloading the 12/21/2015 currently.

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Originally Posted by Caliburn

Numerous people have issues trying to get FFXI to run on Win10, which again, MS is shoving down the entire world's population.
So FFXI at least needs to be able to officially be supported on win10.

FFXI's platform page has not been updated in ages.

Resistance is futile.

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Hm, I have no issues with XI on Windows 10 - The people with Windows 10 issues likely had issues running games in the first place no matter what Windows platform they were on and upgrading largely only affected people who stayed way ahead of the curve (which even on Windows 7 people have issues with games because some games still need to be upgraded to support newer GPU/Driver combinations.)

XI does need a core overhaul, but like any game, it can produce higher resolution textures but is scaled down to fit properly on the PS2 - Heck even in current generation graphics are actually designed higher than they are rendered.

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Originally Posted by Elexia

Hm, I have no issues with XI on Windows 10 - The people with Windows 10 issues likely had issues running games in the first place no matter what Windows platform they were on and upgrading largely only affected people who stayed way ahead of the curve (which even on Windows 7 people have issues with games because some games still need to be upgraded to support newer GPU/Driver combinations.)

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My older PC ran FFXI perfectly fine. It wasn't until I go this new computer that I had an issue. The old PC Win 7, New PC Win 10. This new one should be leagues ahead of my old one, but can't run a 13yr old game :/

What are the issues you're experiencing?
And besides W10, what hardware are you running it on?

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Originally Posted by Shirai

What are the issues you're experiencing?
And besides W10, what hardware are you running it on?

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I was finally able to figure out what the problem was after combing through pages and pages of internet forums. The Resolution for the game wasn't the same as the monitor and that was stopping the Direct3D thing from starting.

Just speculating, can they just keep all the assets and upgrade it to be at least DX11 compatible? I think the game's mostly missing the nicer shaders. The geometry is largely still OK.

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Originally Posted by Dekusuta

Just speculating, can they just keep all the assets and upgrade it to be at least DX11 compatible? I think the game's mostly missing the nicer shaders. The geometry is largely still OK.

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I don't think the game would gain anything from any directx 11 functions. It would result in increased rendering performance, but that's not the reason the game runs slow on modern PCs.

In short, it would take a lot more than simply "supporting" directx 11 to gain any benefit from it, they'd have to do the work to implement new graphical features. Which they should do but probably won't. =\

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Originally Posted by Dekusuta

Just speculating, can they just keep all the assets and upgrade it to be at least DX11 compatible? I think the game's mostly missing the nicer shaders. The geometry is largely still OK.

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I'm no programmer, but wouldn't this require rewriting large parts of the game engine?

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Originally Posted by Catmato

I'm no programmer, but wouldn't this require rewriting large parts of the game engine?

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well the rendering engine specifically but yes, there would be a pretty large amount of work involved- particularly to actually gain anything from having it.

I'd say getting the game to run properly at 60 fps without slowdown on a modern system would be a huge benefit, but that's just my opinion.

Wow, two years and no reply o.O

Anyway I know a lot of work would be involved to update the game...

I guess it comes down to SE thinking it's worth it ^^ Although I've a feeling they are hoping on that cell phone game to work (ick...) personally I'd prefer a PC update, especially since they're dropping the consoles. Iirc they said they update the game with some old ps2 kit or something? Ugh

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Originally Posted by Cesil

Wow, two years and no reply o.O

Anyway I know a lot of work would be involved to update the game...

I guess it comes down to SE thinking it's worth it ^^ Although I've a feeling they are hoping on that cell phone game to work (ick...) personally I'd prefer a PC update, especially since they're dropping the consoles. Iirc they said they update the game with some old ps2 kit or something? Ugh

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They can't really invest on anything until they see what happens to sub numbers after they drop console support. If the subs remain stable or even increase with the small PC changes we can expect all sorts of quality of life and system improvements to happen. But if subs drop we'll probably only get small updates until the game dies. Either way whatever happens next for XI is completely in the hands of the players.

They should add the full vanadil area with new graphics the content+storys to FFXIV as addon, create own servers for PLAYING STYLE round trip based like FFXI this is the important thing.
they should be preserved, the battle system this is important and unique.
^°°^

in order to do this, they have to rewrite the client. the game data would still be used and could slowly be upgraded. but rewriting the client may chase away the players playing now as certain functionality would be come obsolete. with PS2 and XBOX 360 gone, I'm sure they will work towards optimizing the game for PC, dual process inventory loading is a big start. FFXI has great potential to grow now and is free to go in directions not bound by the story it started with.

Rather then a full graphics update, I think XI would benefit greatly from:

- A PS4 Port
- Reinstatement of the XI/XIV combo subscription
- Streamlining of the registration process
- Collaboration between XI and XIV (Complimentary events, event/update times that don't conflict, etc)

I've played XIV from launch and many players end up unsubbing between major content patches. XI offers a longer term experience to enjoy that doesn't fully rely on quickly consumable content patches. This could help retain some of those players that are feeling the burnout of XIV and draw in more players who would never had tried XI. It would also give those who prefer XI on a console a reason to buy a PS4. Really that has the potential to enrich both games.

Yes, I know it's all very unlikely at this stage. :P

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Originally Posted by Moppet

Rather then a full graphics update, I think XI would benefit greatly from:

- A PS4 Port
- Reinstatement of the XI/XIV combo subscription
- Streamlining of the registration process
- Collaboration between XI and XIV (Complimentary events, event/update times that don't conflict, etc)

I've played XIV from launch and many players end up unsubbing between major content patches. XI offers a longer term experience to enjoy that doesn't fully rely on quickly consumable content patches. This could help retain some of those players that are feeling the burnout of XIV and draw in more players who would never had tried XI. It would also give those who prefer XI on a console a reason to buy a PS4. Really that has the potential to enrich both games.

Yes, I know it's all very unlikely at this stage. :P

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A PS4 Port: costs too much money for very little benefit
Reinstatement of the XI/XIV combo subscription: they would lose money doing this, this makes zero sense. Also most XI players have zero interest in XIV, we have played it and came back because we don't like wow type games.
Streamlining of the registration process: Again, would cost too much to rewrite the whole front end of the game.
Collaboration between XI and XIV: most people don't care about the other game, most who play XIV don't like XI and vice versa. They are just completely different games.

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Originally Posted by Castanica

A PS4 Port: costs too much money for very little benefit
Reinstatement of the XI/XIV combo subscription: they would lose money doing this, this makes zero sense. Also most XI players have zero interest in XIV, we have played it and came back because we don't like wow type games.
Streamlining of the registration process: Again, would cost too much to rewrite the whole front end of the game.
Collaboration between XI and XIV: most people don't care about the other game, most who play XIV don't like XI and vice versa. They are just completely different games.

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Ah, yes. Not surprised you responded to this since you've been bitterly nay-saying plenty of other threads.

As I said in my original post: "Yes, I know it's all very unlikely at this stage. :P"

A PS4 Port would provide plenty of benefits. It lets SE have both of their MMOs available on both platforms (PC, PS4). Allows for more exposure of the game due to the PS4's streaming and media features. Allows for remote play of the game via the Vita remote play feature. It gives a console option to players who can no longer play it on older consoles. Also, it would fall in line with SE's push to remaster, reboot and make available older FF titles on the PS4.

Why would they lose any money reinstating this? Polarized players who only play XI or only play XIV would be paying for one or the other subscription in the first place. The combo subscription originally cost more then either subscription.

First of all, I doubt you have any idea how much it would cost to "rewrite the whole front end of the game" or to what extent they would have to do so. Secondly, I am making these suggestions fully aware that it would only be possible if the state of the game changed in some profound way.

Finally, the assertion that XI/XIV players don't care about the other game is totally baseless. I saw a lot of new MMO players who were playing XIV show interest in XI due to the crossover event, and some XIV players who decided to try XI because of it. I also know plenty of players who play XI and still resub to XIV to check out new content.

I could go on, but frankly I don't believe you actually care.

I wouldn't mind a cross FFXI/XIV sub; there's a lot to like in XIV. I ultimately stopped because none of my friends of XI stayed to play.

might be interesting to do crossovers between the two games. Eorzea as a new land in future FFXI patches and Vana'diel as a XIV area :P I think Jeuno and all the old zones with modern graphics would get a lot of us to resub to XIV

Iroha and Shantotto have been both in FFXIV as cross-over events. It would be nice if we get the scions of the 7th dawn as guests in vana'diel.

Fancy graphics are a curse, go check out ff14 then look at the forums. All they care about is shallow nonsense.

Just enjoy the game for what it is.

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Originally Posted by Pixela

Fancy graphics are a curse, go check out ff14 then look at the forums. All they care about is shallow nonsense.

Just enjoy the game for what it is.

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There is nothing wrong with striving for better :)

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Originally Posted by dmuller30

There is nothing wrong with striving for better :)

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Graphics don't make a game better, more content does. If pretty graphics mattered over content, you and I would be playing games that already offer amazing graphics, I came from a game with the best graphics in the genre and now I'm paying to play this.

Time taken to upgrade graphics takes away from adding new content, sad fact of reality.

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Originally Posted by Pixela

Graphics don't make a game better, more content does. If pretty graphics mattered over content, you and I would be playing games that already offer amazing graphics, I came from a game with the best graphics in the genre and now I'm paying to play this.

Time taken to upgrade graphics takes away from adding new content, sad fact of reality.

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Actually visual + game play make a good game. And that is my opinion just like yours is great gameplay onry. Now for the ones who want good upgraded graphics that is there opinion and I agree with them. I don't play WoW because I don't like the graphics. To me you can have the best game play in the world but I don't want to sit and stare at a game I don't find visually appealing. I do find FFXI visually appealing because I grew up playing it so the graphics don't bother me. But I would love to see a visual upgrade on the game.

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Originally Posted by dmuller30

Actually visual + game play make a good game. And that is my opinion just like yours is great gameplay onry. Now for the ones who want good upgraded graphics that is there opinion and I agree with them. I don't play WoW because I don't like the graphics. To me you can have the best game play in the world but I don't want to sit and stare at a game I don't find visually appealing. I do find FFXI visually appealing because I grew up playing it so the graphics don't bother me. But I would love to see a visual upgrade on the game.

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When I said graphics don't matter, I meant in terms of the current game. As in adding more polygons or increasing the texture maps doesn't matter when compared to just adding more content to it. If Square spent 10 million making the engine of ffxi look like ffxiv but didn't add any new content almost all of us would leave.

As I said, you can't have a graphics upgrade without them stopping work on new content, do you want more content or better graphics? You can't have both... unless you expect them to put a whole other team on making graphics upgrades.

Also many are vastly underestimating how much a graphics upgrade would cost for this game, mainly in terms of how much money people who do this are paid.

The graphics of ffxi are fine... my only wish is they would add more granularity to the settings rather than requiring registry edits to get best graphics. Also getting off direct X 8 or whatever it's running would be swell.

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Originally Posted by Pixela

When I said graphics don't matter, I meant in terms of the current game. As in adding more polygons or increasing the texture maps doesn't matter when compared to just adding more content to it. If Square spent 10 million making the engine of ffxi look like ffxiv but didn't add any new content almost all of us would leave.

As I said, you can't have a graphics upgrade without them stopping work on new content, do you want more content or better graphics? You can't have both... unless you expect them to put a whole other team on making graphics upgrades.

Also many are vastly underestimating how much a graphics upgrade would cost for this game, mainly in terms of how much money people who do this are paid.

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So your telling me that most other games that have enhanced their graphics had to hire a whole other team to pump out those graphical increases and spend an insane amount of money to do so? Bull, look at modding community texture packs can be built by just a few people and they leave the game looking amazing. Not to mention upgrading and enhancing our character models can be done just the same with just 2/3 people. If they can do it with 2/3 people then so could SE. Character creation on this game is in it's most simplest form so the creation of HD remade models would be pretty easy or implementing the ones used in character creation with enhanced graphics would be minimal effort. There are tons of people on this game that want a graphical upgrades of some kind, not just the people on this post. And SE or any other company wouldn't say we are doing a graphics update so lets just halt the implementation of any new content that is just common sense. WoW, Aion, Tera are just a few among many who went through graphical upgrades while still getting new content added and improving on old content. So if other companies can enhance graphics on both F2P and P2P so could SE considering it is now possible with no PS2 or XBOX to limit them.

In my opinion, the best upgrade they could make would be to make the game engine use a modern Direct X version. Imagine FFXI at a constant 60 fps...

If you have a >4.8GHz i5-3570k and a reasonable video card, you should be able to maintain 60fps under all conditions with shadows off -- but only on windows XP 32-bit. The direct3d translation Microsoft added in later windows versions adds about 30% overhead, which will cut the framerate down from 60 to ~45fps in the worst case. Processors newer than the 3570k (which can't run windows XP properly) are not faster enough to make up for this translation overhead. Due to intel's recent refocus on low-performance computing, this situation is not likely to change for a very long time.

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Originally Posted by Diraco

If you have a >4.8GHz i5-3570k and a reasonable video card, you should be able to maintain 60fps under all conditions with shadows off -- but only on windows XP 32-bit. The direct3d translation Microsoft added in later windows versions adds about 30% overhead, which will cut the framerate down from 60 to ~45fps in the worst case. Processors newer than the 3570k (which can't run windows XP properly) are not faster enough to make up for this translation overhead. Due to intel's recent refocus on low-performance computing, this situation is not likely to change for a very long time.

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No mmorpg can maintain 60fps due to the nature of them.

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Originally Posted by Diraco

If you have a >4.8GHz i5-3570k and a reasonable video card, you should be able to maintain 60fps under all conditions with shadows off -- but only on windows XP 32-bit. The direct3d translation Microsoft added in later windows versions adds about 30% overhead, which will cut the framerate down from 60 to ~45fps in the worst case. Processors newer than the 3570k (which can't run windows XP properly) are not faster enough to make up for this translation overhead. Due to intel's recent refocus on low-performance computing, this situation is not likely to change for a very long time.

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You can run at a stable 60fps (or close enough, anyway) with shadows on and draw distance turned up to max without needing to use a 32-bit Win XP.

FFXI is capped at < 30fps...

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Originally Posted by Catmato

FFXI is capped at < 30fps...

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You don't have to search very hard to see this can be changed, like a lot of other aspects of the game.

pardon my english
omg, I would love to see an upgrade graphics in ffxi, even if it is only to HD textures and not a remake. Also 60 fps would be lovely.
I am not a current player, quit last december but talked with some rl friends and they may be interested to come back if something like graphic upgrade is made.
We will pay for that, obvioulsy not $90 but a $29.90 like an expantion sounds good,
I tossed money to SE for this game for 12 years, i don't care to toss some extra $ more if it makes my game prettier.
god, i miss my game ;_;