Before they implemented this, I had to play the game with the lowest resolution, lowest animation framerate settings, no shadows, no weather effects, etc etc. So much nicer to hop on my dad's souped up pc and turn on all the "bells and whistles" I must say. ^^;

Now with this option setting in the config I can set the resolution higher, have weather, increase the animation framerate to max, turn on foot prints, and not have my framerate drop to 5. I still can't have shadow effects though.

I have an ATI graphics card that is not on FFXI's compatibility list.

It would seem this feature addresses graphic cards like mine, making the game more functional but not optimal like a compatible card does.