Would you like to see a texture update?

That's an easy yes

I'd love to see a texture update but I don't expect S.E. to do it. It'll amount to an overhaul of the entire game ((with its multiple expansions.))

With that said, maybe it could be done via Nvida GE Force.

The graphics are sufficient to keep the game as enjoyable as it currently is. I see no reason to need this change, and wouldn't mind if it was never done.

We gamers get too fixated on graphics over quality of story or gameplay.

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Originally Posted by Morningstar1337

I suppose it is pertinent to ask if there is a precedent. I.e. did XI ever get a graphics overhaul or not?

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No, but I think WoW had a major graphical overhaul and update during one of its expansions.

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Originally Posted by MorionQ

No, but I think WoW had a major graphical overhaul and update during one of its expansions.

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I don't think so? They did an overhaul on the player models, and stuff has been getting progressively nicer looking every expansion, but I don't think they ever went back and did a full graphical overhaul beyond blowing the old world up in Cataclysm.

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Originally Posted by Yencat

I don't think so? They did an overhaul on the player models, and stuff has been getting progressively nicer looking every expansion, but I don't think they ever went back and did a full graphical overhaul beyond blowing the old world up in Cataclysm.

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My error then. I assumed the player model upgrades applied to all content.

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Originally Posted by Yencat

I don't think so? They did an overhaul on the player models, and stuff has been getting progressively nicer looking every expansion, but I don't think they ever went back and did a full graphical overhaul beyond blowing the old world up in Cataclysm.

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They've sort of steadily done it over time in many regards. Some of the older, less polished enemy/critter models were completely remade. Sometimes more than once - and it was applied retroactively throughout prior expansion content. A lot of areas also received touch ups at various points.

I don't think it'd be a terrible strain for the FFXIV development team to take a similar approach on a smaller scale. There's some key issues that could be fixed - such as the fuzzy textures on Hien's attire - but pretty much every enemy model is of a high quality.

Character customisation, however, would be welcomed for improvement. Especially when multiple rival MMO's are tackling the problem in their respective games. Personally I'm hoping that both WoW's next expansion and the overhauled PS02 do very well for themselves. FFXIV could use some major competition to remain healthy and focused.

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Originally Posted by MorionQ

My error then. I assumed the player model upgrades applied to all content.

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Honestly it probably should have, I haven't played in years but players have also been asking them to update the textures on some of the older model gear or replace the skyboxes, tree models, creature models etc. in older zones for years.

I suppose in a weird way that's a plus for XIV. Even though some textures might look like barf up close, it's not a jarring change going between Shadowbringers and ARR zones in texture quality. I'd still like an optional texture pack though, but it'd definitely be a massive undertaking.

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Originally Posted by Theodric

They've sort of steadily done it over time in many regards. Some of the older, less polished enemy/critter models were completely remade. Sometimes more than once - and it was applied retroactively throughout prior expansion content. A lot of areas also received touch ups at various points.

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Definitely, but sometimes they don't update a model even though they have a newer one available, which is a bit baffling but with how many models are running around it'd be a lot of busywork to make sure each is using the newest model.

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Originally Posted by Theodric

I don't think it'd be a terrible strain for the FFXIV development team to take a similar approach on a smaller scale. There's some key issues that could be fixed - such as the fuzzy textures on Hien's attire - but pretty much every enemy model is of a high quality.

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Yeah, Hien's attire is especially bad because they're selling it for real money. I could get on board with them starting with items like that.

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Originally Posted by Theodric

Character customisation, however, would be welcomed for improvement. Especially when multiple rival MMO's are tackling the problem in their respective games. Personally I'm hoping that both WoW's next expansion and the overhauled PS02 do very well for themselves. FFXIV could use some major competition to remain healthy and focused.

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Honestly WoW's new character customisation still doesn't look that good to me. They're definitely doing some cool stuff compared to how restrictive it was, but the quality between what the races get is wildly inconsistent.

WoW probably still has more players, but I definitely agree FFXIV could use some more major competition so they actually feel like competing again though.

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Originally Posted by wereotter

The graphics are sufficient to keep the game as enjoyable as it currently is. I see no reason to need this change, and wouldn't mind if it was never done.

We gamers get too fixated on graphics over quality of story or gameplay.

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Well I disagree. The characters are looking dated at this point and the options are limited. So I do see a need for it. Moreover, I don't see why gameplay - a very broad rubric - and quality of story are mutually exclusive with that.

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Originally Posted by Lauront

Well I disagree. The characters are looking dated at this point and the options are limited. So I do see a need for it. Moreover, I don't see why gameplay - a very broad rubric - and quality of story are mutually exclusive with that.

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It doesn't help that if you dig into the files for the various races you'll see that their textures are pretty small, with the average face textures being 256x128 pixels in size. Even just bumping that up to 512x256 would go a long way in making the textures feel a bit fresher and less pixelated. (Also Roedames have this weird mottled texture issue that could do with some cleaning up. To say nothing of the issue with some of the female Highlander faces that have blocky mesh issues.)

I would also like an option to cull others appearances. As in, when too many people get on screen they just turn into a generic adventurer representing their job. So literally 1 model for each job. Especially when doing PvP or the Hunt, I couldn’t care less if someone is rocking that Excalibur.

Same for mounts, just make em chocobos.

Basically, I would rather be using my pc’s resources to make the game’s mobs and environment look as good as possible for me than see someone’s Mario cosplay mid battle. Town?, all good. Can’t see the Hunt mob? Screams of FFXI’s Aht Urgan siege...

This is the kind of stuff I expect them to do if they don't add the missing genders. I understand that adding "new races" takes a lot of work but ok, then how about updating a lot of textures if you decided not to add the missing genders? It doesn't have to be all of the game's textures, start with a good number for 6.0, then more for 7.0. It's funny how for Blue mage they have this mentality of patching it up as it goes but that's an impossibility for stuff like upgraded textures.

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Originally Posted by MorionQ

No, but I think WoW had a major graphical overhaul and update during one of its expansions.

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It's been getting increasingly better in bits and pieces since WotLK or more noticeably since Cataclysm, around the original XIV's release, rather than having any single "major overhaul".

Wrath greatly improved the bounds of texture quality, though it didn't go ham with the added capacity at first despite doubling the minimum RAM requirements at the time to 1 gig. Cataclysm, which featured an underwater zone, most noticeably entirely redid how water was rendered; it also added Dx11 support, most noticeably through sun-shafts and dynamic lighting, and improved character models. Mists greatly improved shadows and lighting, without which the expansion's Sha enemies likely would have seriously lacked visual punch, and further improved on character models and animations, especially for key NPCs. Legion provided further optimization and some more nuanced forms of glow, and just generally spent a bit more time on the floor textures and doodads to really bring out the gritty pseudo-realism of the "viking" lands' slopes, the glow and glint of snow in High Mountain, the magical-but-none-too-gaudy appearance of the plants in Suramar, etc, and further graphical features support. Battle for Azeroth then polished characters even further, while Shadowlands will be providing a plethora more character customization options alongside revised UI and deeper Dx12 support to really nail the feel of its zones without bogging frames, it would seem.

Honestly, at this point, WoW's graphics generally leave fewer obvious points of disappointment or anything obviously jarring than do XIV's.

Outside of certain areas of vanilla zones, the terrain is less sharply cut, patchy, or pixelated than a typical XIV zones, and forgoes any obvious repeating textures across wide spans of the same terrain. Modern WoW armor generally looks fine from afar and fine from up close, rather than looking realistic at a distance and then horribly pixelated when zoomed in tight. Heck, if I judge the two experiences holistically, XIV today (as expanded July 2019) feels to me much like Mists did then (Sep 2012), but somehow less... artistically-cohesive.

You can say much of that is because of WoW's more "cartoony" art style from the offset, but honestly it just seems to be due to a lot more attention to what will matter for what they next want to produce, what improvements can be steadily made without getting in the way of content creation, and a general interest in making the experience look more polished and artistically striking and cohesive whenever they can. Both games have struggled with engine limitations and old spaghetti code. But while XIV uses those excuses like an unsurmountable limitation, WoW has been consistently working to overcome each and has actually made progress with no content droughts owed specifically to doing so (each has been due, instead, to "preemptive salvaging").

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Originally Posted by Lauront

Well I disagree. The characters are looking dated at this point and the options are limited. So I do see a need for it. Moreover, I don't see why gameplay - a very broad rubric - and quality of story are mutually exclusive with that.

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I tend to hear a lot more criticism in games about not being good enough visually whether it's too pixelated or not having enough frames per second, yet when there are issues regarding gameplay, you rarely hear it brought up if the game is pretty.

Sure the models are old, but they accomplish what is needed to make an enjoyable game. Having more polished graphics won't make the fights more enjoyable or the story more dynamic/interesting. The game doesn't have the most amazing graphics, but they're fine for what we need, and I would be disappointed if rather than spend graphical resources on new items, they bow to people who think that they need something shiny else "thing bad"

I do think both games have their merits in terms of art style. It's odd, since I'm not actually invested in WoW itself any longer these days but I do miss the 'atmosphere' of many zones. FFXIV doesn't really tap into many of the aesthetics that I'd like to see within the game itself or at least as often as I'd like it to. In some ways, even compared to what can be found in various JRPG's it can be a tad...subdued?

I recently played through Xenoblade Chronicles for the first time and the zone design utterly blew me away. Even now, ARR stands out to me as a lot more detailed than anything that has been added since if we're talking about the number of buildings that can be entered and how 'lively' various settlements feel. I can't be the only one who thinks Aleport is one of the best settlements in the game, right?

That aside, polished graphics do make the game much more enjoyable for a lot of players. That some people don't care about graphics is hardly a secret, though it's not unreasonable for players to desire a strong focus on every aspect of the game - including the core game features, the sound direction, the story and the way it looks.

I'd also argue that some of the core models have some rather jarring flaws. Highlander men can't have actual eyebrows, Hien and G'raha suffer from pixel related issues in regards to their character models...and so on.

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Originally Posted by Theodric

FFXIV doesn't really tap into many of the aesthetics that I'd like to see within the game itself or at least as often as I'd like it to. In some ways, even compared to what can be found in various JRPG's it can be a tad...subdued?

I recently played through Xenoblade Chronicles for the first time and the zone design utterly blew me away.

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I remember the first time I climbed up First-Shard's Bismarck, I really loved the aesthetic: the smaller winding paths and the use of color all resonated really well and made me want way, way more. A friend accordingly recommended Xenogears and I couldn't help but think we needed more of that -- not the combination of tech and nature, of or colors, or even of zone design, but just some of that less subdued artistic vision. "Yes! This! I need this in XIV!"

WoW has had moments, likewise, that have made me fall in love with a zone or area within. Heck, most of its zones have several, even if a lot of BfA's fell flat for me (I was only blown away by Zuldazar, Vul'dun, and small parts of the Sound). XIV, though? The eastern side of the Dravidian Forelands almost struck a chord, but the constantly shivering textures at the edges of shadows and all the hugely pixelated rock textures made it just that bit too... "off". I should have loved the Hinterlands, but the way objects at a distance were drawn, disappearing, reappearing, and shivering all the while due to incredibly poor filtering and LoD procedures, atop the poor ambient lighting making it seem unpolished or almost... not quite fully rendered just kind of ruined it for me save for along the back-hills along the west edge. Much of those same graphical "issues" made Azys Lla gritty, but in a way that was entirely fine for that zone in particular because of its theme. In the end, although Azys Lla and Western Coerthas least resonated with me, they, parts of the Forelands (following the river into the large western expanse), and the Sea of Clouds were the only Heavensward zones I enjoyed as much as, say, most of the Mists of Pandaria zones (of which none felt "off" and only one seemed dull to me). And it's sad that it was just these irritating "half-done" or "half-assed" textures or lighting, or the engine's graphical procedures themselves, that often made them unable to click for me.

I dream where they put ff16 as a mmo on UE5. Let the graphics destroy my pc.
As for a texture pack, i know pc players wouldnt mind although i can also see ps4 players complaining about it. Im more on the side of might as well update everything engine, character models, textures, etc.

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Originally Posted by JisKing98

I dream where they put ff16 as a mmo on UE5. Let the graphics destroy my pc.

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Wasn't that part of the issue with 1.0? graphics destroying PCs?

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Originally Posted by Morningstar1337

Wasn't that part of the issue with 1.0? graphics destroying PCs?

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Well they had flower pots with the polygon count equal to players. They had beautiful animations but no smooth animation canceling in many situations, physics that ate PCs, etc, etc. Some of it was not, I think, due to quality but both weird decisions and optimization wasn't ready (weird decision being something like a flower pot being equal to a player character lol), as I've seen a lot of this stuff in other games and my PC (at the same time that game was released) was like "..Zzzzz, give me moar" (of course those were single player games, where certain optimizations were far more reliable to make).

With the amount of players FFXIV 2.0+ shows on screen at once the high quality characters with physics would probably still cause a lot of issues even with good optimization given the number of characters on screen lol. Although perhaps selfishly I'd prefer lower view count but higher quality visuals. I also turn off the special effects of players not in my group so I can actually see the monster I'm attacking :p. I might even consider some sort of shadowy 'shade' figure for players after a certain number, if it meant allowing the game to render everything else at a better quality. I'll hardly be able to see anything at 100 players anyways, just a blob of chaos, might as well simplify some of the visuals and improve the ones I'll still notice (or at least that's my thought).

I always enjoy the funny nature of people prefer FFXIV for it's graphics over WoW, as it's a major point I see people like FFXIV for, and then at the same time seeing people say graphics don't matter. Now to be fair sometimes that isn't the same person, some people don't care and just don't care, period. But I think graphics do matter, they just aren't the only thing that matters. There is a thing of aesthetic outside of just quality, to make sure to note that, so something can be technically detailed but still not that pretty. You'd want amazing graphical aesthetic and design over just pure high quality in most situations, but like many things having it all would be the preference ;). So one might think of Journey and how things aren't hyper realistic detailed but the game is still very very pretty.

Beautiful game with awful gameplay is just a wallpaper maker that isn't that fun to play. Ugly game with amazing gameplay can be fun but leave a lot of desire and missed a lot of potential hook value. Beautiful game with amazing gameplay is going to steal your soul and hold you hostage. That's the sweet spot.

If you had to sell yourself short on one then yeah I guess you'd do graphics, but actively selling yourself short is like.. 'but y tho?'. Now I'm not accusing SE of that, but I do sometimes feel people will do that for SE and act like graphics have no importance. Like the recent pixels people are talking about with the crystal effect part of 5.3, count-able pixels, not pretty nostalgic pixels either like a pixel game, nah these just be pixels waving madly at the screen lol. Like how FFXIV could benefit greatly from some good AA (which it doesn't have since it's engine is differed rendering). To be clear I'm not calling FFXIV ugly, just clearly has some technical anchors that can pull one out of the experience and the game 'could' be prettier (well could as in visually, in terms of code I've no idea how hard it would be to fix and so I won't pretend that party is easy to fix). Especially 'could' as we move forward and more and more MMOs are looking better and better, or like WoW where they continue to slowly update old systems. If you take a look at recent WoW, and even some old parts of WoW, that pixels can be hard to find, and they do have a few quite stunning sets, and models get fixed up over time. Now WoW is ancient and they've no intention, it seems, of replacing it so that makes sense, and if FFXIV is going to do a WoW then I think it can use some of that thought of reconstructing old parts occasionally (and if it's heading towards a slumber then I guess, new MMO can be shiny and purty).

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Originally Posted by Shougun

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All of this. Back during the 2019 Japanese Fanfest they had an art panel that brought in animators and the concept artists, and they broke down the decrease in fidelity between 1.0 and 2.0, and even between the concept demo for 1.0 and 1.0 itself. As well as why we never saw the original progenitor of the Crystarium that was teased in concept for FF14 before the MMO even launched. It wasn't just the flowerpots, but even models you'd never see due to lighting and particle affects had insane polygon counts like the lightbulbs inside the lanterns. It's the main reason why so many things look blocky in the 2.0 areas because they were desperately trying to scale back from that error in design.

Note: The stream is in Japanese, but there are English restreams out there if you look for them. Reddit also did a live reaction for the entire fanfest that summarized what happened here.

I would love it, but it would mean remaking the entire games graphics. I hope for it but I don't expect it any time soon.

I'm 150% for it. A texture update has been long overdue. It's really jarring when I catch the wrong camera angle or zoom in too much and notice how low-res everything is, notable examples being the Exarch and Varis' face (especially his eyes, and his teeth don't match either).
I'm aware of how much of an undertaking it would be, as you'd essentially have to re-release an HD version of the game (kinda like how FFX/X-2 got that remaster a few years back). I'd still be willing to cough up full price for it though.
I know the modding community upscales a lot of gear & whatnot to 4k, but I mean, there's only so much they can do. The demand for it is clearly there.

Very much so, the textures in FF XIV are absolutely horrible and given it was always possible to ship higher res textures as an option for high end PCs, even when people made excuses about "PS3 holding us back", it is about time ... or 5 years too late :D. But I'm trying to stay positive here believe it or not :D.

yes.
the game looks more and more dated every year

it's very funny to me that one of yoshida's concerns was with foliage not looking good, distracting from a serious moment but ANY close up on a character will show armor sets absolutely riddled with pixilation, worse than any plant. i mean hell, crystal exarch looks downright embarrassing during the precursor to the SoF fight. armor textures desperately need an update if the damn plants needed one.

hell, i'd be willing to pay for a re-release of ffxiv that removes the 1.0 coding. it's apparently enough of an issue that it prevents the developers from implementing some really basic stuff, so it definitely needs to be taken care of

Not if it meant performance suffered