Normal for names above characters to be jittery?

[gobby]

Hi all,

This might be a weird question, but I came back to FF11 recently (after reinstalling) and I noticed something kind of odd. It seems like the names above most NPC's and monsters text seem to be really jittery; like when you are walking towards them or away from them, the text has to keep re-sizing or something. It looks pretty odd, and I couldn't remember if FF11 was always like that, or what. A good example is if you go to any of the Synergy machine NPCs in any of the Kingdoms, you'll see what I'm talking about.

Is this a bug / something on my end, or is it like that for everyone? Thank you!

[Alhanelem]

This is an intended feature to ensure target readability.

The nameplates usually shrink as targets get further away,, this is entirely normal and the game ha s always been this way. But when you target something, the text will grow to the largest size, regardless of the target's distance. This is an intended feature to make sure you can always read the name of something you're targeting.

It was added at least a few years ago.

[Dragoy]

How jittery exactly?

This is what it looks like for me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJqVCDpDKcs

But when you target something, the text will grow to the largest size, regardless of the target's distance.

This only happens with sub-targeting though (when selecting a target for a cure spell for example), and needs to be enabled via 'Target Expressions' under 'Misc.3' or '/targetcharaeffect' (I imagine it's enabled by default though).

It was added at least a few years ago.

Yup, back in 2015: https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/47481

Dang, time, stop moving so fast.

[gobby]

Hey guys!

I just wanted to say thank you for taking the time to help! I just watched your video Dragoy that you posted, and that's it! Mine looks exactly the same with the text adjusting as you get closer. So that's totally normal then? I know Alhanelem mentioned targeting the NPC / monster, but mine doesn't have to be targeted for it to happen (like your uploaded video). For some reason I just didn't remember it being like that way back in the day, but if it's normal I'm fine with it, I was just curious if everyone's game is like that. Thanks again guys for the help!

[Dragoy]

Yer welcome and also welcome back!

Yes, as far as I know, that's normal. I can't recall that anything changed that made it become any different, though they did add a higher quality fonts-option, but that doesn't seem to make a difference either.

The targeting thing is a bit different, and you'll know when you see it as long as it's enabled (you'll need to be far away enough from a target when targeting it with a spell or ability).

[Dragoy]

I will add that it might depend at least a little bit on the resolution (and possibly other graphics settings) being used.

I did a clean install to test something for a different thread, and in the 640x480 default resolution them jitters didn't seem that... expressive, but I kind of doubt you played at that low of a resolution before (I didn't try at what point going up from that makes it more noticeable).

[gobby]

Thanks Dragoy for the extra feedback!

That's interesting. I also started from a fresh install (I actually did it twice, once from the original Amazon game downloads, then again straight from Playonline's official site .rar files). I play at 1080x1920 now with full screen or borderless window so it looks nice, but I did spend much of the last few days before I knew this was common just checking settings (like Nvidia, FFXIconfigs) and for me it still did it every time. That's interesting it might be a resolution thing like you said though, with the game originally being 640x480 right? Between looking at other people's Youtube videos, and what you posted I'm glad to know it's not just me though, and thank you for taking the time to just do a direct test for me.

It's not like it makes or breaks the game, but I was so curious about this I had to post it lol. Thank you again, maybe if you or anyone else ever finds more conclusive evidence they can post it on here someday.

[Dragoy]

It's pretty easy for me to try clean installs without affecting my actual install since I use Linux; it's almost like using virtual machines, so no biggie at all!

It's also interesting to me, so I thank /you/ for all the data I was able to gather from this. ^^