Lackluster Graphics in FFXIV

[BelgianRofl]

You want a link? OK here's one.

SE may have strove for perfection, but the lighting makes what they've done look tacky. I give them a C+ for effort. I'll say it again and again... Water reflection and proper shading will not tax the system like Ambient Occlusion does. I'd bet the PS3's limitations have something to do with SE's decision to also limit what PC's are going to render - this is not a good excuse, however... There's no reason the graphic engine for the PC version couldn't have a few features that render the lighting a little differently.

Thank you for contradicting your own topic

You should ask a mod to change it.

Just because it's the best looking MMO, doesn't mean it couldn't have lackluster water and shading, does it?

[Abriael]

You want a link? OK here's one.

A link to an official source, not to some random forum wrings stating an opinion that the industry proved wrong again and again (for instance with Killzone 2, look up on it). Like it or not, but the practice of prerendering demos of elements of demons and then not specifying what's "in engine" and what's prerendered is very, very widespread in the industry.

SE may have strove for perfection, but the lighting makes what they've done look tacky. I give them a C+ for effort. I'll say it again and again... Water reflection and proper shading will not tax the system like Ambient Occlusion does. I'd bet the PS3's limitations have something to do with SE's decision to also limit what PC's are going to render - this is not a good excuse, however... There's no reason the graphic engine for the PC version couldn't have a few features that render the lighting a little differently.

You have no idea of the development resources needed to implement ambient occlusion as opposed to water reflections and more dynamic shading (that for instance requires placing every single light source manually, in the whole game world, as opposed to a single engine toggle). Also, you have no idea of the hardware impact those features would have in an high-poly environment as FFXIV. You cannot compare that impact with that of other MMORPGs with MANY less polygons displayed.
You may not be aware, but both water reflection and shadows directly depend from the polyginal display of the objects reflected or that cast the shadow. Ambient Occlusion, as a matter of fact, does not.
This means that those effects would have a MUCH higher impact on hardware resources on a high polygon environment than in any MMORPG with a much lower polycount.

Can't explain it clearer than this, really. Either you get it, or you don't.

If you give them a C+ for effort, I wonder what you'd give to ALL the other MMOs that look way worse.

Just because it's the best looking MMO, doesn't mean it couldn't be a little better, does it?

Go tell it to ALL the other developers that made MMOs that look way worse.

Here a MMORPG WIP (certainly "kingdoms")
Looks kinda cool isn't it ?

Considering that it doesn't show any characters or even mobiles or anything else than a few scenes from quite afar, I don't find it very impressive, especially compared to what we have right now in FXIV.

Past MMORPGs have actually shown better scenes.

[BelgianRofl]

more dynamic shading (that for instance requires placing every single light source manually, in the whole game world, as opposed to a single engine toggle).

I stopped reading your post after this statement.

[Abriael]

I stopped reading your post after this statement.

Too bad, because the whole post proves you wrong (selective reading mh?). And you may not like the statement, but it's true. Dynamic lights need to be placed,and even more so manually tweaked (or you'll see stuff like out of place shadows that pass through the environment and horrible glitches like that, that are quite well known in MMOs that include that kind of effect) or you think they magically appear by themselves?

You seem to have a very, very simplified idea of game development. Something like "oh yeah, all effects are just a toggle, add a line of code so that they are enabled and they magically appear".

I'm sure many developers wish you were right

I'll give you a little "educational" piece of advice. To distinguish between effects that require just a toggle, and effects that normally require much more work, go to your NVIDIA or ATI control panel, and check what you can force on the engine. Those are the effects that can be simply "toggled" in most engines out there.
It's not a 100% comprehensive list, but it's a very good place to start. You'll notice that Ambient occlusion is there. Reflective Water or dynamic lighting are not.