What The Black Shroud should look like.

[Point_Zero]

yeah the witcher2 looks insane

[Chrees]

Malicious site, blocked! thanks Norton.

Thanks for reminding me why Norton is horrible.

[Miku-chikuku]

There are two problems with the Black Shroud. One is that the ambient light is just way too high. patches of shadow should be everywhere. The second is that trees are a complete non-factor. The only thing they provide of substance is the canopy if you're looking up. Otherwise, that's it - just tunnels and small fields surrounded by mossy ledges. That's not a forest.

And this needs to change, come friends lets storm the doors of Square Enix and make them see we need shadows and more trees, more life and plants! BAND TOGETHER!

[Laughlyn]

Malicious site, blocked! thanks Norton.

lol wtf, thats the sadest thing ive seen all week. ;^.^)

[tymora]

You also have Endregas climbing down the trees to ambush you from all around, Nekkers that pop out of the ground when you are not looking.

1. That low lying fog around the Nekker nests...makes it spooky...
2. Undergrowth, weeds, flowers...yeah those add to the atmosphere.
3. Ambient shadows helps a lot. No one noticed the trees and furnitures don't actually "cast" shadows? As in the shadows don't move according to the time of day.
4. Corpses in pieces, poked with arrows, blood all over...that adds to the sinister feel, but FFXIV is not 17+M only.

That said, single player games have more room for detail on the environment - They don't have to consider the effects of hundreds of players running through the zone.

The zones in Witcher 2 are also a lot smaller than what you find in FFXIV, even if it is cut & paste here - No one will have the resources to hand-tune the entire zone to make it perfect.

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As suggested by the earlier poster, if they turned down the ambient lighting such that there is a more dramatic difference between "under trees" and clearings, have caves actually feel like the dark forboding caves that they should, add a "light" spell for mages or some form of lighting for melees...it might just feel more 2011.

But then I am sure half the population will revolt because I now need to use lights to look around.

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Finally, Witcher 2 is DX10 with DX11 elements while FFXIV is still DX9.

[indira]

As suggested by the earlier poster, if they turned down the ambient lighting such that there is a more dramatic difference between "under trees" and clearings, have caves actually feel like the dark forboding caves that they should, add a "light" spell for mages or some form of lighting for melees...it might just feel more 2011.

should of just texture baked everything, cant tell the difference from that or projected light and its not much more of a recource hog than a normal texture. then we would get all the fancy effects of lighting we want. even DX9 does it amazing. and its not hard for them to change that unless there crystal tools suck, baking has been around for atleasts 10 years that i know about it.

[Miku-chikuku]

should of just texture baked everything, cant tell the difference from that or projected light and its not much more of a recource hog than a normal texture. then we would get all the fancy effects of lighting we want. even DX9 does it amazing. and its not hard for them to change that unless there crystal tools suck, baking has been around for atleasts 10 years that i know about it.

Baked Textures in the blackshroud would work perfectly most of the time if not all the time you are always under the branches of the giants trees, so you really wouldn't see the shadows move through out the day or at night. I also really thought the mage lightspell or a torch for melee was a great idea, just to add a more black shroud of darkness feel to the area. ( see what i did there)

[BiggsWedge]

Props on using screens from The Witcher 2. Great game, but irrelevant. We just need to give SE time. Besides, the rumored Garlean attack on the Black Shroud is supposed to re-shape it anyway.