FFXIV's RAM issue: Solved next expansion?

This is unacceptable, in my opinion:

In 5.0 we shouldn't have to deal with dungeons which use zone lines like this:
https://icdn2.digitaltrends.com/imag...0-c-ar1.91.jpg

It takes away from the experience. I know they do this to prevent 2012 gaming laptops from exploding because of low RAM but let's be real, it's time they stop using these zone lines for everything. Sprinting to the castle would feel amazing in that situation, instead of once again being teleported to another room. Thoughts?

I don't care either way. Both works for me, although if it saves having to manually run through a long corridor, then zoning is preferrable.

"Let's be real"

People dislike sitting through actual story cutscenes, I can imagine the complaints if some people had to run that distance. The zoning isnt that breaking, and makes transitioning for the programmers a bit easier I imagine. I would be careful what you wish for in all honesty. Instead of making you sprint that distance, they would most likely move the castle closer, which would remove your 'amazing sprint' and leave you with a much smaller impression of scale.

I mean, I'm not willing to sacrifice dungeon complexity just to avoid a loading screen or two, if it came down to the choice.

Nor do I see anything wrong with loading lines that are reasonably utilized (e.g. to give a larger sense of space without demanding that we run through barren stretches).

FF14 does not have a ram issue. The Playstation 4 does my friend. If you think this is bad imagine having everything designed around the PS3. Consoles give you a wider audience but the cycle at which they get upgraded is slowwwwwwwwww.

If you played FF7 Remake those strange things where you would go down a corridor then have to shimmy between some random object that was everywhere was because that is a loading screen lol

It would be cool once.

Till you'd have to spend 1-2mins running up to the castle through what is effectively a barren loading tunnel in all but name every single time you run through the dungeon (and more than once, if you wipe on the final boss). There's definitely times where loading zones could be cut to create a more unique dungeon design; this is not one of them.

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Originally Posted by Kes13a

they would most likely move the castle closer, which would remove your 'amazing sprint' and leave you with a much smaller impression of scale.

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This is the reality of what would happen.

Oh no a 5-10 second loading screen.

People would complain that the dungeon run takes too much time.

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Originally Posted by Amnmaat

Sprinting to the castle would feel amazing in that situation, instead of once again being teleported to another room. Thoughts?

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Castrum Meridianum have some of the "amazing sprint" you are searching for, but it seems it wasn't exactly what everyone wants. Maybe a few, but not everyone. Maybe it is ok have a loading screen in this case.

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Originally Posted by Shurrikhan

I mean, I'm not willing to sacrifice dungeon complexity just to avoid a loading screen or two, if it came down to the choice.

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I certainly would agree...if we actually had any dungeon complexity instead of pretty window dressing on a long corridor.

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Originally Posted by LalaRu

Castrum Meridianum have some of the "amazing sprint" you are searching for, but it seems it wasn't exactly what everyone wants. Maybe a few, but not everyone. Maybe it is ok have a loading screen in this case.

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I'd argue people have more of an issue with the annoying, sometimes completely pointless, cutscenes interrupting gameplay than the size of that dungeon.

As far as I know, FFXIV is a 32-bit application which means that it's max addressable memory is limited to 4GB and in windows applications only 2GB of that 4GB is available for use by the application code. Once upon a time 4GB of ram was beyond HUGE, but now its nothing. I've run programs that can't even start with less than 6GB RAM and anything under 12GB would be awful performance.

Compare that 4GB to 17,000,000,00+ GB available (theoretically) to a 64 bit application and while no one I've ever met has anything close to that amount of RAM, but many people have 16GB and even 32GB of RAM on their home PC's. Porting everything from 32bit to 64bit would be a monumental task and may not actually result in a game that runs faster even though its no longer has RAM issues.

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Originally Posted by Amnmaat

This is unacceptable, in my opinion:

In 5.0 we shouldn't have to deal with dungeons which use zone lines like this:
https://icdn2.digitaltrends.com/imag...0-c-ar1.91.jpg

It takes away from the experience. I know they do this to prevent 2012 gaming laptops from exploding because of low RAM but let's be real, it's time they stop using these zone lines for everything. Sprinting to the castle would feel amazing in that situation, instead of once again being teleported to another room. Thoughts?

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I'm against this. It'll be novel the first couple times for players first experiencing it in the game, and might feel like a bit of a throwback to the long bridge from lower Limsa to middle La Noscea for those of us who played back in 1.X. Then the more you do it the more you gradually start to hate it. They can already do it, despite the maximum RAM 32-bit applications can allocate (4GB), just takes some asset loading/unloading. This is how 1.X did it, the long bridges and side hall to go from Ul'dah to Thanalan were basically loading zones like the hallways in Metroid Prime. Unless they made that section have something to do other than run across the water to the castle in your example, it would take more time to complete the dungeon for an insignificant reason (disregarding speed runners entirely, it serves no real purpose to remove the loading zone for a stretch that long to run across). Zones allow for more efficient use of assets, they can get away with low object detail on the castle to make the areas we traverse through more detailed.

That zone line isn't there for any kind of RAM etc. reasons. It's there just so you don't have to do a long, boring and unnecessary trek to the castle every time you do the dungeon. That castle up ahead doesn't even containt the actual interior, so you couldn't make a direct trip there anyway.

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Originally Posted by Puremallace

FF14 does not have a ram issue. The Playstation 4 does my friend. If you think this is bad imagine having everything designed around the PS3. Consoles give you a wider audience but the cycle at which they get upgraded is slowwwwwwwwww.

If you played FF7 Remake those strange things where you would go down a corridor then have to shimmy between some random object that was everywhere was because that is a loading screen lol

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Actually, the PS4 isn't holding the game back at this time. The minimum PC requirement specs are. However, the load lines aren't due to RAM at all.

"It takes away from the experience"
Nope, It doesn't

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Originally Posted by Luna-M

Oh no a 5-10 second loading screen.

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I can't say that I've ever really thought about the issue in OP's original comment regarding dungeons specifically, but there is definitely something to be said for having a seamless world, or in this case, a seamless dungeon.

I absolutely looove games that have an open world, although these do seem to be fewer, sadly. I have always disliked how XIV feels so chopped up. The zones are small, you have instances everywhere, and now that it's been brought to my attention, he's very correct that dungeons can also feel choppy with all the zoning you do in them.

Thank you Skivvy, those are my thoughts exactly. Holminster Switch feels like a complete dungeon, Dohn Mheg is that "chopped" up design that makes you like the start of the dungeon and hate the end of it.

Nah its great immersion tool if you have a good computer. I mean personally even during 1.0 I had a transition of a few seconds between areas it did add a bit of immersion. Yea even with Limsa Lominsa being 1 zone during 1.0 my load times were on par with what we have today.

However, in this example, a loading screen is a good to have that would be a bit of a transition that would be quite a trek to get ot the castle there though I agree though the open world could use less loading screens.

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Originally Posted by EmmetOtter

As far as I know, FFXIV is a 32-bit application

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You know wrong. Perhaps read a notice once in a while (like 2 years ago), maybe? https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...26bb168047042a or https://support.na.square-enix.com/f...5382&kid=67500

Needlessly long and mostly empty corridors are awful and pointless.

They were awful when they had spiders, they were awful when they had mushrooms, they were awful when they had flurrydrakes, they were awful when they had akhevans, they were awful when they had mephits, they were awful when they had fire dogs, they were awful when they had elves, they're awful when they have nothing.

Immersion is fun when you're running around solo to explore, and the bane of all but 1 person in a thousand's existence when its in group or raid settings.

If you're going to buiild a massive structure and not have teleport pads / zone lines, you better make every room and corridor work to further your raid or group content.

You're talking about computer RAM or video RAM!?.


My FFXIV uses less than 1.5 GB of computer RAM and around 4 GB of video RAM, all that at 4K resolution and max graphics settings.


I agree that the game is getting really old in 2020, the best looking games use way more 4 GB of video RAM, sadly FFXIV is tied to Sony's latest console and so there's no way to expect a big upgrade, Square Enix will always adapt to the current PlayStation.


The upcoming PS5 should dictate the new standards for this game, if said console has more that 8 GB of RAM/VRAM we could see a nice upgrade in graphics; I remember Yoshida saying he would the PS5 to give better dyeing palettes, the time has come and I will not accept any excuses now.

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Originally Posted by SigmaOZ

You're talking about computer RAM or video RAM!?.


My FFXIV uses less than 1.5 GB of computer RAM and around 4 GB of video RAM, all that at 4K resolution and max graphics settings.


I agree that the game is getting really old in 2020, the best looking games use way more 4 GB of video RAM, sadly FFXIV is tied to Sony's latest console and so there's no way to expect a big upgrade, Square Enix will always adapt to the current PlayStation.


The upcoming PS5 should dictate the new standards for this game, if said console has more that 8 GB of RAM/VRAM we could see a nice upgrade in graphics; I remember Yoshida saying he would the PS5 to give better dyeing palettes, the time has come and I will not accept any excuses now.

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Sony will still adapt to the PS4. Limitations will be based off that console, once support drops for the PS4, then we may see something better but until then don't hold your breath.

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Originally Posted by Amnmaat

This is unacceptable, in my opinion:

In 5.0 we shouldn't have to deal with dungeons which use zone lines like this:
https://icdn2.digitaltrends.com/imag...0-c-ar1.91.jpg

It takes away from the experience. I know they do this to prevent 2012 gaming laptops from exploding because of low RAM but let's be real, it's time they stop using these zone lines for everything. Sprinting to the castle would feel amazing in that situation, instead of once again being teleported to another room. Thoughts?

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I ran a simulation in my head about how this would look & feel if we spent 30seconds or about a Minute running across water to a giant castle which design is fully rendered in the game in a seamless transition....
Conclusion--- it might be cool....the first 2 or 3 times. Otherwise, id feel like its dead air and wasted time from playing the game and Id end up bored and do something else while I wait for the dungeon to continue. After that first 2 or 3 times of AMAZING IMMERSION, id ask why did they do this instead of either pulling the castle closer so we are wasting less time here, or why cant we just teleport to a new zone?
Basically...the Praetorium.

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Originally Posted by Zanarkand-Ronso

I ran a simulation in my head about how this would look & feel if we spent 30seconds or about a Minute running across water to a giant castle which design is fully rendered in the game in a seamless transition....
Conclusion--- it might be cool....the first 2 or 3 times. Otherwise, id feel like its dead air and wasted time from playing the game and Id end up bored and do something else while I wait for the dungeon to continue. After that first 2 or 3 times of AMAZING IMMERSION, id ask why did they do this instead of either pulling the castle closer so we are wasting less time here, or why cant we just teleport to a new zone?
Basically...the Praetorium.

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As I see it (and I COULD BE SO WRONG), they can make these grand backdrops because they know they'll just have you zone into the castle, so no biggie!. If they were to opt for seamless dungeons, there's no reason why they'd have to keep this as a huge, empty waterway that you simply run across.

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Originally Posted by Amnmaat

This is unacceptable, in my opinion:

In 5.0 we shouldn't have to deal with dungeons which use zone lines like this:
{snip}
It takes away from the experience. I know they do this to prevent 2012 gaming laptops from exploding because of low RAM but let's be real, it's time they stop using these zone lines for everything. Sprinting to the castle would feel amazing in that situation, instead of once again being teleported to another room. Thoughts?

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The way they do dungeons is perfectly fine. I do think they need to fix the world maps now that they have flying, some zones don't make sense to be divided the way they are. Also, they need to make it so we can land on the hilltops and stand and walk around, the way we can in other expansions. But I'm going to use a term from another MMO "I don't want to sacrifice a raid tier for it." Which means I don't want them to stop what they are doing to fix that.

ps4 limitations

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Originally Posted by Zanarkand-Ronso

I ran a simulation in my head about how this would look & feel if we spent 30seconds or about a Minute running across water to a giant castle which design is fully rendered in the game in a seamless transition....
Conclusion--- it might be cool....the first 2 or 3 times. Otherwise, id feel like its dead air and wasted time from playing the game and Id end up bored and do something else while I wait for the dungeon to continue. After that first 2 or 3 times of AMAZING IMMERSION, id ask why did they do this instead of either pulling the castle closer so we are wasting less time here, or why cant we just teleport to a new zone?
Basically...the Praetorium.

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See I wouldn't mind the 30 or so seconds if they weren't afraid of putting more than two to four trash packs between bosses. It honestly would break up the samesies feeling that I get in every dungeon with a different coat of paint that they've been doing lately. It honestly might make dungeons a bit more fun, and that would be a good thing XD.

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Originally Posted by Zorvan

You know wrong. Perhaps read a notice once in a while (like 2 years ago), maybe? https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...26bb168047042a or https://support.na.square-enix.com/f...5382&kid=67500

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End of 32 bit Windows support does not imply this game is 64 bit.

But yes, FFXIV.exe is 64 bit (checked using procexp) so it is console limitations.

You guys realize that this game used to run on PS3? And there is lot of Technological Debt for that. The engine itself is still in core, super upgraded PS3 engine because "just upgrade the engine" etc is very hard.
We are still, in sense, playing a semi-upgraded PS3 game and it shows. For now, we deal with it or play something else.

We could also demand motion captured cutscenes and actual lip syncing and stuff like that but...

You know... Or you don't and just be that way too I guess it is OK too.

To "fix" this all, is to ask YoshiP and company to ARR yet again.