I realize Dark Knight is coming in Heavensward, but why are shadows so BLACK?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2Q7MlpPSOQ

If you don't know what I'm talking about, watch this video. I recorded a Heavensward benchmark run, so you can see what I'm seeing. All places where dynamic shadows are being cast are like pitch black, the engine is completely crushing all shadow detail right now. It's easily noticeable for example on all flying mounts when the sun is behind them, the front of the mounts is all pitch black. Similarly, when Alexander raises his leg out of the water, the underside of his leg is completely black and all the flying mounts flying across the screen in the background are all black. Later on when the party confronts the dragon, you can barely see it because it's all black on black. I don't really think this is being correctly rendered, it looks fine right now in the existing client in-game. Hopefully this can be corrected in the released Heavensward client.

The benchmark was run at 4K resolution, DX11 Maximum. You can see my system in the lower left corner of the screen. Yes, framerate is that bad in 4K on a GTX 970. I need a GTX 980 Ti, sigh.

They actually did change the lighting engine, including removing a minor ambient effect centered on player characters.

I'm curious to see how it looks in action. I think it could add quite a lot of atmosphere. I'm actually reminded of the art direction of FF6, which was defined by a lot of low-saturation, high-contrast colors.

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Originally Posted by Mahri

They actually did change the lighting engine, including removing a minor ambient effect centered on player characters.

I'm curious to see how it looks in action. I think it could add quite a lot of atmosphere. I'm actually reminded of the art direction of FF6, which was defined by a lot of low-saturation, high-contrast colors.

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As Mahri said, it's darker and it's because they made it so :P, but I wanted to add that you can turn your character "light" back on and up.

Anyone notice the increased contrast and change in lighting for Steps of Faith battle? I presume that is how the new areas lighting will appear, personally I think it looks great. As for the black shadows if you adjust your settings (as well as on your monitor) you can level it out a bit and bring back some of the detail. It worked for a few people I know, depending on the contrast range for your monitor the new shadows may appear a bit too dark. But as they said you should be able to toggle the settings back to the original lighting.

(Obligatory Bane Quote)

Some of what they've said about darkness and lack of color had me concerned, but as long as we can still see what's going on, I'm fine with it.

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Originally Posted by Gunspec

(Obligatory Bane Quote)

Some of what they've said about darkness and lack of color had me concerned, but as long as we can still see what's going on, I'm fine with it.

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http://i.imgur.com/BptTvOY.jpg

Yoshida mentioned something about the lighting during his demo of Heavensward, that the char "light" was off, but players who wanted that light back would have a option to turn it on. TBH its more realistic, to have a bright light behind a tree such as a sun set and to see the tree in shadow it will appear to be darker than it really was from that pov(at least in photography it does).

Found the little self light slider:

http://www.twitch.tv/finalfantasyxiv/v/5280683?t=72m25s

Subtle mood setting difference, but keep in mind the area's light isn't particularly bright either (vs the sun shining down on you).

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Originally Posted by Shougun

Found the little self light slider:

http://www.twitch.tv/finalfantasyxiv/v/5280683?t=72m25s

Subtle mood setting difference, but keep in mind the area's light isn't particularly bright either (vs the sun shining down on you).

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Interesting. However what about mounts, other players, and mobs?

Based on interview with Yoshida.

Yoshida: The shading of the graphics is definitely darker this time around. Actually, there used to be lighting on the character even if there was no ambient lighting in an area, but with more of an emphasis on the image quality, we've turned it off. However, you can bring it back with a slider in the system settings to make it look more like A Realm Reborn.

Will the lighting disappear even in 2.0 areas?

Yoshida: It will. Actually, we've also changed shadows in the 2.0 areas as a whole to make them more picturesque. I think the new style is better, but if you play with the lighting and gamma, you can get it close to the original atmosphere. We got differing feedback on the brightness of the original game where some people liked it and some were troubled by it. We decided long ago that after the patch 2.55 scenario the overall atmosphere would be plunged into darkness.