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

[Korbash]

Yoshida did say he wanted the expansion to be dark compared to the original game (2.0). This is probably to enhance the dark setting of Ishgard and Heavensward. The gothic architecture of the main city in Ishgard also goes in that sense.

[Illya]

I hope Yoshi realizes that players do like being able to see themselves, other players, monsters, etc. Black blobs fighting black blobs isn't very aesthetically pleasing nor is it very practical in terms of seeing what is going on.

[Shougun]

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

That is a good question, you can see in the video that all players lighting changes with the slider and I imagine it would also apply to mounts (just because of how the mount is likely perceived by the game..). However, I don't believe there is anything particular to that question on mounts and monsters, sorry . If I find an answer specifically I'll update the thread.

Since the game overall will be darker, as suggested above, you could try fiddling with your monitor and GPU settings (and game gamma). Or... try some DirectX injector - which there are a number of quite powerful options. I don't think you'll get a yay or nay from an official source if these are ok to use, that's a bit scary lol (threads on like tools have been on the forums and not removed though, if that means anything).

[Kukajoo]

i dont mind it personally, i think it helps set a certain kind of mood for ishgard

[Kaethra]

They just need to make an off hand item....

[Balipu]

I hope Yoshi realizes that players do like being able to see themselves, other players, monsters, etc. Black blobs fighting black blobs isn't very aesthetically pleasing nor is it very practical in terms of seeing what is going on.

I have faith in the dev team and the QA team to look at the game before releasing it. Of course the graphics might not be optimal on cold war era computers, but I am sure that is not the case for anyone here.

They just need to make an off hand item....

Maybe a tonberry lamp. Or better yet, a tonberry pet.

[Skeith-Adeline]

Ugh I'm so sick of racist persons on the thread

obvious sarcasm/joke is hopefully obvious

[Sylve]

OPs Words

So i ran the Benchmark on maximum DX11 on my R9290x, and aside from discovering the Benchmark doesn't do 5760x1084 properly, i didn't have the kind of shadow problems i can see in your video.
Shadows were noticeably darker on the underside of my character/mount when in bright light, but not so dark as to look pitch black as your video does.

This may simply be an issue with the 4K Resolution. Try running it again on maximum settings with a standard 1920x1080 resolution and see if the Shadows remain pitch black. If they do, you'll have to look to your Monitor's Contrast/Gamma settings for the problem.

[Radacci]

I hope Yoshi realizes that players do like being able to see themselves, other players, monsters, etc. Black blobs fighting black blobs isn't very aesthetically pleasing nor is it very practical in terms of seeing what is going on.

you think they didn't have it in mind?
and like others said, there's a slider so you can make it look like now.

they made HW darker, cause of the apocalyptic "vibe" of the story; with what happend in 2.55 story, and what's happening in Ishgard.
All they really did, was remove the light source that is always in front of the character; which you can turn on/off-slider.
There's always ambient light, so your character isn't gonna be a black blob, They will adjust ambient lights, so your char is always visable.
They kind of do this is every movie, when the setting turns bleak. First harry potter movies are very colorful, while the last movies are less color, more contrast, etc.

[Apoptomon]

Oh, so it's adjustable? When I tried the benchmark, the depth of the shadows was one of the first things I noticed. As for the last scene in the benchmark, there are a couple of camera angles where the PCs kind of blend into the arena IMO, but I think that's more to do with the color scheme (eg dark clothes on the BLM and the purple/lint-colored flooring) than the lighting in that instance.