Lackluster Graphics in FFXIV

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Originally Posted by Elkwood

UH Huh and the 2005 FFVII Tech demo is actual in game footage as well right? The 2005 tech demo for Rapture is just a demo of what the engine can do it is not actual in game footage, hence it means it is pre rendered.

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No. Pre-rendering is the process in which video footage is not rendered in real-time by the hardware that is outputing or playing back the video. Instead, the video is a recording of a footage that was previously rendered on a different equipment (typically one that is more powerful than the hardware used for playback). Pre-rendered assets (typically movies) may also be outsourced by the developer to an outside production company. Such assets usually have a level of complexity that is too great for the target platform to render in real-time.

Here's an example of Pre-rendering from 2001. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dyfe2kMxYPk

And here's an example of a modern, real-time tech-demo. not Pre-Rendered. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eY_En9VcwM

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Originally Posted by BelgianRofl

No. Pre-rendering is the process in which video footage is not rendered in real-time by the hardware that is outputing or playing back the video.

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There are several levels of prerendering.
You can prerender a whole movie, you can preprender just the effects, you can create a scene with an engine and then prerender it with additional effects.

In all those cases a movie is considered prerendered. That tech demo is evidently prerendered, just looking at the effects and how they interact with characters and environment shows that.

The vast majority of posters in this thread has evidently told you that you're wrong. The graphica of the game look fantastic. Even reviewers that you brought up so many times (erroneously) disagree with you.

Abriel you cant fix stupid this is a classic case of I have to be right syndrome no matter how many tell him he is wrong. Just ignore it and let the baby have his bottle.

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Originally Posted by Elkwood

Abriel you cant fix stupid this is a classic case of I have to be right syndrome no matter how many tell him he is wrong. Just ignore it and let the baby have his bottle.

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Unfortunately that seems to be the case.

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Originally Posted by Abriael

There are several levels of prerendering.
You can prerender a whole movie, you can preprender just the effects, you can create a scene with an engine and then prerender it with additional effects.

In all those cases a movie is considered prerendered. That tech demo is evidently prerendered, just looking at the effects and how they interact with characters and environment shows that.

The vast majority of posters in this thread has evidently told you that you're wrong. The graphica of the game look fantastic. Even reviewers that you brought up so many times (erroneously) disagree with you.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgtZvn5c4e4

I see what is causing your confusion. The FFXI Characters being relatively low-poly combined with not casting shadows makes you believe that the background is superimposed pre-rendered CGI because the lighting effects lead you to believe that that level of detail was unattainable real-time in 2005. Am I correct in assessing your (albeit wrong) position?

Unfortunately for your argument, the structures in the demo don't cast shadows either. There's just nice water reflection effects. Which just furthers my point that water reflection make the game look a WHOLE hell of a lot prettier, and is an effect which uses minimal resources (think waverace 64) - especially compared to ambient occlusion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xrReCeiZPc An example of what a modern tech demo looked like in 2005.

Edit: ^this 2005 3dmark video makes one wonder where SE got the idea for Limsa's cutscene ;)

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Originally Posted by BelgianRofl

I see what is causing your confusion.

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You're the one that's confused :D

Not only there are no shadows cast by characters, but there's no shadows casted ON characters. on the other hand there are shadows cast on structures. There are also baked shadows very visible, which are a clear indication of prerendering.

Reflective water uses "minimal resources" only when the water model is extremely simple. That's most decidedly not the case with FFXIV.

You really shouldn't talk about what you don't know :D Everyone disagrees with you, and ultimately this thread was epic fail.

I see a lot of people complaining about FFXIV Graphics and/or comparing it with other games... guys if you don't like FFXIV graphics at all, or you think it could be better, then join SE staff, ask for changes and/or help develop a newer graphic engine or whatever, so the game looks better but won't require an inexistent PC to run it at 40-60 FPS.

You're all whining and complaining about graphics, if you're so graphic-hunger then play something more "Detailed" and stop endlessly arguing over something so trivial as "What game got the best graphics", personally I love FFXIV graphics, they are more than decent and even with my sucky PC I can still play it with some decent graphics.

Mine is more to do with animations but I suppose it falls into graphics.

Weapon skill/spell animations - This is supposed to be a next gen MMO, I realise this is an MMO so can't compare to a single player game but I still expected something more along the lines of this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-pzptgE4a4

but instead we got this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wodu_aYjSdU

Come on SE you can do better than that, in fact you already have.

Want to see Lackluster graphics? get Shogun 2 Total war. First they advertised it with Direct X 11 support. Then they said that Direct X 11 support would come a month after launch and that Antialiasing would be supported only on Direct X 10.1 and upwards.
Today (after launch) we discover that nothing over DirectX 9 is supported at launch, and that includes the fact that the game doesn't have AntiAliasing for everyone. Of course the developer "forgot" to mention it.

The very convenient (and laughable) fact is that reviewers and media have been given a build of the game that had the full graphics (DirectX 10 DirectX 11 and AntiAliasing) enabled, basically dropping into the false and misleading advertisement realm.

Compared to having to play a game from today without AA, this game looks fantastic. Compared to creative Assembly and Sega, Square Enix did a great job.

They didn't get excessively involved with effects that would cause issues, and as a result we're at least getting to play the game without horrible jaggies all over the place.
First rule of game development: Don't bite more than you can chew.

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Originally Posted by Abriael

D Everyone disagrees with you, and ultimately this thread was epic fail.

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#1, You and Elkwood having zero understanding about what pre-rendering is does not mean everyone disagrees with me. Did you even look at the 3dMark 2005 video showcasing vastly superior real-time graphical technology?

#2, You've posted on this thread probably about 45 times. It doesn't get much more WIN than that, making fanboys this mad...

#3. Pause the 2005 video at 9 seconds in and examine what you see. The walls, posts etc.. of the structure do not cast shadows. Light is allowed to pass through as if there are no walls, lampposts, or rails. Hence, no shadows on the characters either. Same thing as compared to FFXIV today.