My attempt to fix our glamour troubles

I think it has to do with the amount of space. SE should help FFXIV team with updating/recreating the engine/codes, because everything from faces to inventory space is linked to this memory issue that Yoshida is talking about all the time. It has been 4 years and still this issue always comes back.

Its pretty obvious right now that FFXIV team is either underfunded or something else is going on there. Which is sad, because when you see the yearly reports you see that FFXIV is bringing in alot of money. I just wish SE would give FFXIV more love and attention that it deserves.

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Originally Posted by Laerune

I think it has to do with the amount of space. SE should help FFXIV team with updating/recreating the engine/codes, because everything from faces to inventory space is linked to this memory issue that Yoshida is talking about all the time. It has been 4 years and still this issue always comes back.

Its pretty obvious right now that FFXIV team is either underfunded or something else is going on there. Which is sad, because when you see the yearly reports you see that FFXIV is bringing in alot of money. I just wish SE would give FFXIV more love and attention that it deserves.

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Underfunded, yes.

Servers need an upgrade but most of the money from XIV goes to other SE projects.

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Originally Posted by Narthice

Greetings fellow Eorzeans, Narthice here and this is my first time creating a thread on this forum. Here I will try explain how I believe Glamour/Style should be handled in Final Fantasy XIV

First Let me introduce you to the "Equipment" and "Style" Tabs in the character window. I've highlighted them in this image
below.

Now, let's look at the "Equipment" Tab (highlighted in the image below) Here you equip the gear that will give you stats, such as your Combat, Crafting or Gathering gear.


And now the fun begins, in the "Style" Tab (highlighted in the image below) you equip the glamour gear, this is how your Combat, Crafting or Gathering gear will be projected for others to see. Gear in this Tab will also save to the Gear Set NOT on your Combat, Crafting or Gathering gear.

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This is nearly a duplicate of how Wildstar handles their appearance system and very close to a few other systems I've seen. I can tell you though that SE's comment has always been keeping things as items creates extra bandwidth demands per character. This has been the explanation given almost every time something that adds "storage" capacity to a character is asked for and this is basically an extra set of 11 slots per job.

I really don't think the problem is they are clueless about what we want. They're trying to work around restrictions.

Nice mock up though. Regardless of whether it CAN be implemented or not I'll say I would use this in a heartbeat.

Basically the way I expected "Glamour plates" to work. And what has been suggested 100 times by myself and others already.
Not hating on the graphic effort.. But it's not the most uncommon suggestion/fix/request in the world.
It's really just the way "plates" should work..

Ditch the plates and add a tab on each gear set that lets you slot cosmetic gear. Job done.

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Originally Posted by Fhaerron

Underfunded, yes.

Servers need an upgrade but most of the money from XIV goes to other SE projects.

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It's not really a matter of hardware even. Remember that at its heart, this game was put together quickly as a last-ditch effort to save the FFXIV name and by a team that was also keeping 1.x going at the same time. The fundamental underlying systems simply can't handle a lot of the stuff players are asking for because there wasn't time to build the infrastructure for it back then, and to change something so deeply wired-in now would be a monstrous effort.

Personally I agree with Nephthys above - the dresser is an early version of an excellent system. Sure they need to add more slots, more plates, allow plate application in any area, allow saving of plates to gearsets and turn the dresser into a placeable furniture item, but all of those are things that I believe they can and will do.

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Originally Posted by Kazrah

So this is basically the same system that is used in games like Rift. It's nice, but the biggest hurdle is most likely that it'd take up too much data since you're having to load twice as many gear images in (one for the base equipment, one for the glamour style). The only way those games can pull it off is because they normally have the visual quality of a Sega Saturn and gear doesn't take up anywhere near as much data.

The glamour system we use works instead by removing the base gear look and replacing it with the look of the intended glamour item (which is also why you can't use a glamoured item as a glamour), and the glamour plate system we have now is about as close as it'll get. It just requires the resources to expand on it, preferably starting with a glamour dresser housing item so we don't have to keep going back to inn rooms.

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Graphics have nothing to do with the amount of data being sent from the servers, though. The server supplies only the IDs. The client draws them accordingly.

At worst, it repackages the information in a way that would require an extra module compared to the sent item carrying the glamour tag as it would an augmented secondary stat or the like.

Sorry guys, I should have been a bit more specific. This is just focusing on making the process a little easier when it comes to interface, and separating “stats” gear with “projected” gear by implementing separate tabs. Because we now end up with the problem of shared role gear looking one way. And yes glamour plates+macros fixes some of it but it only works in the cities. The idea was to save this within gear-sets since that information is not stored server side. Yes this still doesn’t solve the storage problem, for that we can only hope they further expand on the glamour toilet. Thanks for your input it's given me lots to think about :)

PS: I'm gonna be adding this to the original post

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Originally Posted by Shurrikhan

Graphics have nothing to do with the amount of data being sent from the servers, though. The server supplies only the IDs. The client draws them accordingly.

At worst, it repackages the information in a way that would require an extra module compared to the sent item carrying the glamour tag as it would an augmented secondary stat or the like.

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It determines size though, and the OP's system would effectively double it.

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Originally Posted by Kazrah

It determines size though, and the OP's system would effectively double it.

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I still don't know what you mean by "size", then. You're only loading one image per slot, and these images are loaded solely by the client according to client-side (e.g. .dat) data. In total, each slot would still request two IDs (one for base stats, the other for appearance), dye, condition, and materia. It's just that the glamour could now be applied to the gear slot on a job by job basis if one wanted, rather than to the gear itself, and could easily swap between using the item original or applied appearance, circumventing the need to so frequently return to your inn room or consume glamour prisms.

You either receive apply and save or receive (from a gearset save) as little as one module with 3-8 tags each per slot (depending on if all attached materia is considered additively and under a single string, or if the secondary stats are each queried and sent separately), or as many as two modules per slot, one with just two tags (appearance, dye) and the other with 1-6, still for a total of 6-8.

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Originally Posted by Shurrikhan

I still don't know what you mean by "size", then.

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Every image has a size. Yes, it has an ID for appearance, which is attached to an image with a set data size on it. It's exactly why we don't have a glamour log: because of the data size required to load in all those ID's, even the recycled ones. In fact, that's one reason why the art team recycles so many gear appearances.

I'm saying that unless the OP's system permanently alters that appearance ID like glamours do now (and how glamour plates work now), it's going to require the game to have to load both appearance ID's at the same time for one piece of gear. This is what I mean by effectively doubling it.