What exactly is this Direct X 11 and what will it do?

[Shioban]

Don't know about the use of tessellation. Looks tacky in most cases - not to mention the performance hit.

Probably OK if they use it to do Q3A style LoD on curved surfaces. But the bricks and mud tracks look kind of ugly.

When it's used properly it works great.

But a lot of designers simply don't take enough time to adjust the bias, factors and limitations to actually suit the item they've shoved it onto. Or just crank it up and say "Here you go! 8X TESSELLATION! LOOK ITS SMOOTHER!"
As the frame-rate plummets by a 1/4, and the testers cry.


We tested it on a VERY low factor along-side the use of displacement maps, displacement maps were easier to control than a straight up tesselation modifier.
The nice subtle change is noticeable but not 'in your face', whilst maintaining a decent frame-rate. But generally it's not worth it. (FFXIV was far too low poly to do this, from experience)

[CannedGeek]

I figure it's mostly going to be like when WoW got a DX11 client. The graphical improvements were minimal at best, but the performance improvements on newer PCs was noticeable.

If I recall, DX11 also handles multithreading better than older versions of DirectX, meaning better performance, especially on quad/hex/octo-core processors and up.

[Radacci]

We tested it on a VERY low factor along-side the use of displacement maps, displacement maps were easier to control than a straight up tesselation modifier.
The nice subtle change is noticeable but not 'in your face', whilst maintaining a decent frame-rate. But generally it's not worth it. (FFXIV was far too low poly to do this, from experience)

All XIV models are done in really high detail, so they could use normal mapping or tesselation...sometime in the future
DX11 client seems like a good time to add an option for it...

[Shioban]

All XIV models are done in really high detail, so they could use normal mapping or tesselation...sometime in the future
DX11 client seems like a good time to add an option for it...

Correct! All the character models are zone in Z-Brush then retopologised onto lower polygon models.

However the retopologised models are very low poly, tessellation wouldn't do much to improve the overall look of the models themselves, other than maybe slightly reducing the sharp edges;


The problem with this, is with a maximum character rendering count of...100 characters? At approximately a few thousand polygons each (currently) to double/quadruple that would cause significant performance issues.

Higher resolution diffuse, normal and specular mapping would do fine for an MMO.

[Jynx]

Most models themselves aren't too bad it's just the poor texture quallity that really needs to go. IMHO at least.

[MilesSaintboroguh]

Yes, textures need to be improved on. Many pieces of gear look very pixliated when zoomed in on.

[CGMidlander]

Yes, textures need to be improved on. Many pieces of gear look very pixliated when zoomed in on.

Environmental textures too.

[Shougun]

Most models themselves aren't too bad it's just the poor texture quallity that really needs to go. IMHO at least.

I think Yoshida is smoking some good crack when he said textures don't matter. Either that or I just didn't quite get his emphasis (imo it came across as "don't matter", maybe I misread).

I notice low res textures all the time in ARR, best strategy to avoid that is to keep your camera away from objects but.. that solution makes sense (don't look closely lol).

Its not the worst thing ever though, in battle or far camera scene shots I doubt you'd ever notice lol.

[Bishop81]

I think Yoshida is smoking some good crack when he said textures don't matter. Either that or I just didn't quite get his emphasis (imo it came across as "don't matter", maybe I misread).

I notice low res textures all the time in ARR, best strategy to avoid that is to keep your camera away from objects but.. that solution makes sense (don't look closely lol).

Its not the worst thing ever though, in battle or far camera scene shots I doubt you'd ever notice lol.

There will be a cost though, loading textures from main memory (or even hard disk) isn't free. You pay for it with longer load times.

Is it worth it for the few moments where your camera does end up close to a surface?

I'm not saying blurry textures are good, they aren't. Just that there is a price to pay for good textures.

[MilesSaintboroguh]

Because the camera cannot clip through solid objects, it forcefully gets close to the player and that's when we can see the low res textures. You can also see how low res some gear looks when you zoom in on yourself to take snapshots.

Heck, you don't even have to be zoomed in; sometimes you can see certain objects having bad quality textures even from a set distance.