Heavensward benchmark next month; no DX11?

Devs,

Will the DirectX 11 benchmark be a separate release when Heavensward comes around, or will that be included with the April benchmark? I mean, since Heavensward got delayed until June for extra polishing, why not also release the DirectX 11 version earlier than June? It would give us something to play with until the expansion releases. Right now the developmental team is just fine-tuning the DX11 version, but isn't it already done by now?

During the Letter from the Producer LIVE that was held in Fukuoka, Yoshida mentioned that it would be great if they could prepare both a DX9 and DX11 version of the benchmark. The team is still working on the benchmark, so stay tuned for more details!

Benchmark without the DX11 client is totally pointless. Benchmarks are supposed to be graphic testing programs and not only cool cutscenes. If the benchmark does not features the DX11 graphics then simply push it further in the future. I'm waiting for this benchmarks mainly to test how the DX11 client will perform on my system.

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Originally Posted by Riardon

Benchmark without the DX11 client is totally pointless. Benchmarks are supposed to be graphic testing programs and not only cool cutscenes. If the benchmark does not features the DX11 graphics then simply push it further in the future. I'm waiting for this benchmarks mainly to test how the DX11 client will perform on my system.

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Or give us the DX9 one to play with a while and then update it as the DX11 one is finished.

Maybe it's DX11 that's basically finished and DX9 benchmark they need more work on...

Meh I know my computer can handle it. I just want to see the new character options XD

To be perfectly honest, there is hardly a PC out there currently that can't handle DX11. DX11 has been out for ages. So no current gamers even have anything to worry about.

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Originally Posted by Riardon

Benchmark without the DX11 client is totally pointless.

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Except for seeing all those new areas and art pieces and the character creator to play with the Au Ra. It's not completely useless for those of us hyping up for the expansion in general.

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Originally Posted by Tiggy

Except for seeing all those new areas and art pieces and the character creator to play with the Au Ra. It's not completely useless for those of us hyping up for the expansion in general.

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As an actual benchmark it's still pointless without DX11 and just a fun tool to mess around before the expansion.

It is called "benchmark (character creation)," good to test if our machines can run the Au Ra character creation screen without crashing, jokes and semantics aside, it's PR, most people is more interested in testing Au Ra than DX11, but still, even without DX11 new players coming for heavensward will use it for it's purpose, and don't forget, the addition of movement on 3 axis (fly) can affect the performance, something we can't test with the 2.0 benchmark.

honestly I'm gonna be rather upset if this new benchmark doesnt have DX11 in it. I already have a DX9 benchmark I have no need for another. while I would love to toy around with the Au Ra features I am not pleased about downloading a huge benchmark just for its character creator. being able to test how the ability to fly is nice and all but we were promised a DX11 benchmark....

Benchmark = A program which measures the game's graphic performance on your machine
Demo = showcasing features and game's aspects
If it ends up this "benchmark" has not the DX11 client then don't call it a benchmark. We already have one with the DX9 client, we don't need to download huge files to see only some cutscenes and the Au Ra. It's pointless. What we want is to see the actual performance of the DX11. To see any gains or losses and the new graphic settings. That would be more useful. I will wait to see if Yoshida will say anything about this matter in the upcoming Live Letter.

I've been waiting for the benchmark specifically to test dx11 on my system before I make upgrades. If it doesn't have dx11 then it will be no different to running the original benchmark.

Please give us a real benchmark SE, not just a demo.

What are the differences between DX9 and DX11 pertaining to this game?

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Originally Posted by SummerSkye

What are the differences between DX9 and DX11 pertaining to this game?

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRqW3qlYYfE

Someone posted this from the Tokyo fanfest a while ago. DX11 comparison video starts @4:56
The basic jist of it is that the DX11 will have better texture rendering, shading and lighting effects.

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Originally Posted by Riardon

Benchmark without the DX11 client is totally pointless. Benchmarks are supposed to be graphic testing programs and not only cool cutscenes. If the benchmark does not features the DX11 graphics then simply push it further in the future. I'm waiting for this benchmarks mainly to test how the DX11 client will perform on my system.

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If only we could vote this down. We know 100% that our PCs can handle the game at at least the current levels on DX9. I want the Benchmark for the Character Creator and not actually the DX11 stuff. I won't speak for others, neither should you.

Bring on the Au Ra Char Creator and the "fun cutscene".

The current DX 9 bench is, last I checked, missing optimisations that the main game has since been patched for. So even if the new DX 11 one isn't ready, the DX 9 is still a benchmark, and useful at that.

Plus, the DX 11 benchmark should theoretically run better than 9 on any machine supporting it, they didn't seem to make any drastic changes, like adding twice the effects or anything, and DX11 is more efficient.

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Originally Posted by niwaar

If only we could vote this down. We know 100% that our PCs can handle the game at at least the current levels on DX9. I want the Benchmark for the Character Creator and not actually the DX11 stuff. I won't speak for others, neither should you.

Bring on the Au Ra Char Creator and the "fun cutscene".

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the existing benchmark is pretty big(over 2GB), the newer ones will be no different. I too want to be able to play with the Au Ra Char creation but like Riardon I'm more interested in the benchmark to test DX11 with this game to see how well it will run on my desktop so I know if downloading the DX11 client will be worth it or not because I know that will be considerably bigger than the benchmark.

Working with DX11 is much easier than working with DX9.

Most likely the DX11 version is ready to go while they have entered compatibility mode for DX9 version and working out the kinks.

All GPU chips designed for gaming with DX11 support, natively support DX11, the GPU enter a compatibility mode when processing ole DX9 stuff.

I'm hoping the game will go onto DX12 with the next expansion or when DX12 is ready. Lots and lots of goods things about DX12. It's microsoft's answer to the sudden burst of consumers and enterprise embracing open source API's.

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Originally Posted by KaedrianLiang

I'm hoping the game will go onto DX12 with the next expansion or when DX12 is ready. Lots and lots of goods things about DX12. It's microsoft's answer to the sudden burst of consumers and enterprise embracing open source API's.

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that might be hard since we don't even know where microsoft is standing on what versions of windows will get DX12, if they add DX12 support to windows 7 all the way to 10 sure it might be worth it for them to look into. but if they only support windows 8 to 10 that will make things more difficult since a lot of people will refuse to upgrade from windows 7 and quite a lot of people want nothing at all to do with windows 8/8.1. remember what microsoft did with windows XP not getting DX10 even though vista was a mess till the release of windows 7.

having DX12 support for windows 7 would be a smart move for microsoft but it remains an unlikely one since they are proving they want people to upgrade to windows 10 with their free offer to upgrade for the first year for win 7/8.1 users.

this ofcourse does not mean the FFXIV team will upgrade to make use of DX12. but it should be actually an easier leap than DX9 to DX11 since the biggest improvements in DX12 are CPU/GPU usage tweaks.

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Originally Posted by Wildsprite

that might be hard since we don't even know where microsoft is standing on what versions of windows will get DX12, if they add DX12 support to windows 7 all the way to 10 sure it might be worth it for them to look into. but if they only support windows 8 to 10 that will make things more difficult since a lot of people will refuse to upgrade from windows 7 and quite a lot of people want nothing at all to do with windows 8/8.1

having DX12 support for windows 7 would be a smart move for microsoft but it remains an unlikely one since they are proving they want people to upgrade to windows 10 with their free offer to upgrade for the first year.

this ofcourse does not mean the FFXIV team will upgrade to make use of DX12. but it should be actually an easier leap than DX9 to DX11 since the biggest improvements in DX12 are CPU/GPU usage tweaks.

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Microsoft have stated that Users of 7/8 (Even pirated) will get a 1 year window to upgrade to Win10 for free. So they're unlikely to bother porting it down. They very much want to drop support for the older OSes, considering how stubborn people are to move on from 7. (I'm one of them).

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Originally Posted by Riardon

Benchmark = A program which measures the game's graphic performance on your machine
Demo = showcasing features and game's aspects
If it ends up this "benchmark" has not the DX11 client then don't call it a benchmark. We already have one with the DX9 client, we don't need to download huge files to see only some cutscenes and the Au Ra. It's pointless. What we want is to see the actual performance of the DX11. To see any gains or losses and the new graphic settings. That would be more useful. I will wait to see if Yoshida will say anything about this matter in the upcoming Live Letter.

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Just as an FYI, benchmarks can serve additional purposes such as being a preview of content, "showcasing features and game's aspects". Even without the DX11, it's still a benchmark though, no matter what you folks might think it is lol. Pointless for those of us that know we can run the game fine on DX9, but a benchmarks release is for the people to test the intended setup and preview the game.

If they don't have DX11 ready, then just don't download it. I guarantee they will update it to DX11 when it's ready, if that were the case. What's the big deal? Why is that so Earth-shattering of an idea to accept as a potential? I mean, I hope DX11 will be ready in time, but if not... oh well?

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Originally Posted by Raeletta

Microsoft have stated that Users of 7/8 (Even pirated) will get a 1 year window to upgrade to Win10 for free. So they're unlikely to bother porting it down. They very much want to drop support for the older OSes, considering how stubborn people are to move on from 7. (I'm one of them).

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yes and whether the FFXIV team decides to make use of DX12 or not really depends on how big of a leap of users upgrade to 10. I'll say this as one of those using the technical preview I can say if they keep going like they have been things are looking like the upgrade from 7 will be well worth it. but we shall see.

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Originally Posted by Wildsprite

yes and whether the FFXIV team decides to make use of DX12 or not really depends on how big of a leap of users upgrade to 10.

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... Either I utterly blanked., or you edited it when I refreshed to post and the quote-chang carried over x-x.

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Originally Posted by Raeletta

... Either I utterly blanked., or you edited it when I refreshed to post and the quote-chang carried over x-x.

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I edited it, I tend to do this in these forums due to the stupid text limitations.

Think many of you are making the DX11 thing to be bigger than it actually is... I doubt there will be a huge difference, and I don't think a computer that runs FFXIV on DX9 fine, wouldn't run it on DX11 fine too.

Someone with more knowledge could correct me if I'm wrong though

EDIT: Btw, I'm not saying there can't be a pretty big difference, but I doubt there will be a huge difference coming to a game in an expansion...

The benchmark was suppose to be today I thought, where was it delayed until?

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Originally Posted by Fuma

The benchmark was suppose to be today I thought, where was it delayed until?

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Benchmark has always been slated as April time frame.

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Originally Posted by Craiger

Think many of you are making the DX11 thing to be bigger than it actually is... I doubt there will be a huge difference, and I don't think a computer that runs FFXIV on DX9 fine, wouldn't run it on DX11 fine too.

Someone with more knowledge could correct me if I'm wrong though

EDIT: Btw, I'm not saying there can't be a pretty big difference, but I doubt there will be a huge difference coming to a game in an expansion...

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perhaps you need an explaination
on windows vista and above DX9 is emulated using the latest DirectX available to it which on windows vista and 7 is directx11 and windows 8/8.1 is directx11.2 and DX11 does things in hardware that DX9 has a hard time doing in software.
if your system can handle directx11 you should get at the very least a minimal but noticable performance gain if they programmed it correctly.
tl;dr DX11 is a fairly big leap from DX9

should enough people leap to windows 10 and they take advantage of DX12 you will see a graphics performance(frames per second) increase but most wont see much of a graphics increase(dots per inch) because DX12 changes how the CPU and GPU communicate allowing more of the CPU cores to talk to the GPU at the same time

Au Ra char options is the real draw for a great many people. Not seeing new water effects.

I'm legitimately curious as to how the game looks in DX11. Videos can't really do that justice.
But really I just want to try out the Au Ra creation. Did we get confirmation that the new LB3 showcase would make it in as well?

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Originally Posted by Camate

During the Letter from the Producer LIVE that was held in Fukuoka, Yoshida mentioned that it would be great if they could prepare both a DX9 and DX11 version of the benchmark. The team is still working on the benchmark, so stay tuned for more details!

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Love the forum avatar. lol

Description of a benchmark (wikipedia)

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In computing, a benchmark is the act of running a computer program, a set of programs, or other operations, in order to assess the relative performance of an object, normally by running a number of standard tests and trials against it. The term 'benchmark' is also mostly utilized for the purposes of elaborately-designed benchmarking programs themselves.

Benchmarking is usually associated with assessing performance characteristics of computer hardware, for example, the floating point operation performance of a CPU, but there are circumstances when the technique is also applicable to software. Software benchmarks are, for example, run against compilers or database management systems.

Benchmarks provide a method of comparing the performance of various subsystems across different chip/system architectures.

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