Anyone else underwhelmed by the new DX 11 graphics?

You are comparing the water physics in FFXIV, a game in which we can neither swim nor sail, to water physics in games like AC:4 and Archeage that have major water-based gameplay components.

Now, if you were complaining about the skybox, clouds, and other aerial effects in 3.0, you would have a good argument. But it kind of makes sense that the FFXIV team hasn't put much work into the water effects as of yet.

If 4.0 involves the oceans, like a lot of rumors are suggesting, THEN I imagine a major update to water physics will be required. I can recall a few mmos that updated water effects when new water based content was created, and I think FFXIV will be no different.

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Originally Posted by Chiramu

I think what you took was also a bad screenshot too. You do not stare directly down at water, usually you are standing on the edge of a beach as you look at the water or standing it in in the Sea Of Clouds.

Your screenshot has no context, and you are basing an argument around it.

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Here (open it in it's own window, it's 1080p)

http://i.imgur.com/YQwL3c7.png

I believe this is a fairly normal position to stand at and that water doesn't look natural.

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Originally Posted by Gunspec

You are comparing the water physics in FFXIV, a game in which we can neither swim nor sail, to water physics in games like AC:4 and Archeage that have major water-based gameplay components.

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Not really asking for it to look major impressive.

I figured that tessellation will bring you the "impressive" automatically if implemented correctly - and tessellation is what SE implemented.

The current implementation is kind of sloppy given the artifacts.

Might as well just use a loop animated mash, e.g. Uncharted 3. Low tech but pretty simple.

That reminds me,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i63NKuhLlcg

GTA V's water is pretty good too and it's a game that is mostly on land.

PS: I can understand Parallax Occlusion bugging out; it's a limitation of the (base) technique (it can be worked around with more advanced algorithms; which might be too expensive.)

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Originally Posted by Bishop81

GTA V's water is pretty good too and it's a game that is mostly on land.

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Again, that is a game where you ride boats and jet skis. Obviously the devs worked on making the water look nice because you could interact with it, and such graphics were a major selling point.

There are only a few zones in 3.0 that have sizable bodies of water, and they clearly aren't the focus right now for the devs. I can almost promise you that there will be a major overhaul to water effects in the future, but not until they make new zones where water is a central feature.

And I'm saying this as someone who is currently leveling fishing on a 2nd monitor. Water effects just aren't a concern right now for the devs.

Well I believe the devs said in the past when it came to thinking about expansions they were trying to decide between "sky" and "sea" and ended up going with sky first. I imagine next expansion may revisit their plans for ocean stuff at which point they could revisit water effects.

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Originally Posted by Bishop81

Here (open it in it's own window, it's 1080p)

http://i.imgur.com/YQwL3c7.png

I believe this is a fairly normal position to stand at and that water doesn't look natural.

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Sadly that's just a result of the low resolution bump textures. That "line" you see there is the result of a poor job of downsizing the texture - kind of like when you simply shrink a picture in photoshop you may end up with a slightly darker pixel on the edge. Then it got exacerbated as a result of the displacements used in tesselation.

Mostly though, the changes look good.

You expected perfection right off? well guess what mr Snowflake OP, it's tech that is constantly in development not everything is going to look crystal clear right off it will be years but now the framework is in place and SE can develop better graphics in the future with it in place.

The thing about the Water is, those "Tesselation" Waves won't even move. The Line you see above in the Screenshot just stays in the same Spot the whole time.

Just when you move, certain Textures begin to jump. You can notice this at Mountains or the Ground and suddenly the Mountains/Ground becomes spiky. I highly doubt this is a Problem thanks to the low-res Textures, this looks like it has been rushed (We still got no AA...)
It's a strange sort of "Tesselation" based on the Camera. If you look at certain Points, like from above, the Ground is flat, it looks like you were using DX9, move the Camera 90 Degrees and you get the Illusion there is "Tesselation".

Do 90 Degrees again and Tesselation is gone.

I'd take HD texutres over water improvements any day of the week >_>

seriously, sometimes I can't tell if I have the game on max settings or not.

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Originally Posted by Mwynn

The thing about the Water is, those "Tesselation" Waves won't even move. The Line you see above in the Screenshot just stays in the same Spot the whole time.

Just when you move, certain Textures begin to jump. You can notice this at Mountains or the Ground and suddenly the Mountains/Ground becomes spiky. I highly doubt this is a Problem thanks to the low-res Textures, this looks like it has been rushed (No offend but we still got no AA...)
It's a strange sort of "Tesselation" based on the Camera. If you look at certain Points, like from above, the Ground is flat, it looks like you were using DX9, move the Camera 90 Degrees and you get the Illusion there is "Tesselation".

Do 90 Degrees again and Tesselation is gone.

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That's why I think it's bugged. ><

PS: Speaking of AA, with DX11 it should be possible to implement MSAA - might need to change the tone mapping function though.