Lackluster Graphics in FFXIV

[Diraco]

I've been playing XI since 2004, and all the things that annoyed me about XI's graphics have been carried over to XIV (except one, self-shadowing):
Lighting/Shadows:
-Environment doesn't cast shadows. This such an obvious thing that I can only assume it is an artistic choice.
-Only one lightsource produces shadows

Physics/Water:
-When it rains, nothing looks wet
-Walls, floors, characters, etc. are not solid: Weapons and character appendages can be seen moving freely through the ground, or other characters. Hair on characters slides right inside shoulders, etc.
-weightlessness: characters float in midair when stopping on uneven surfaces, characters running along above ceilings in caves, and rubberbanding through midair when getting knocked back

Additionally, even though XIV's character animations are nice compared to XI's, There's no variation to account for the environment, such as standing on sloped ground or near obstacles. Transitions between the recorded (motion captured?) animations are glitchy.

To be fair, most of the above complaints are basically impossible to fix without adding 10X more processing power than what's available even at the top of the line at the moment. The problem is, if you go by XI's track record, Square will not make any significant upgrades to the engine.
It would be nice to imagine that they will add DX11 (or beyond) features to the engine years from now, but it's been about 10 years since they finished development on XI's engine, and so far all they added was a windowed mode, even though the game runs increasingly poorly as new graphics cards/drivers/operating systems are released.

[BelgianRofl]

It is my opinion that maxing out polygons should not be a priority when trying to attain realistic looking graphics. Proper shading and lighting will drassssssstically improve the realism of the game, regardless of how many polygons are used.

[gifthorse]

Perfect games will NEVER exist

I seriously wonder what BelgianRofl would do if he bought Shogun 2 today. He'd probably be speeding towards Creative Assembly's studios with a torch in his hand lol.

That's what happens when you dabble with more effects than you can chew.

Perfect games will never exist, but I'd rather have a game that compromise a little on graphics and creates a world that I can actually interact with rather than just a blue screen that goes on in the background as I run past.

http://aaportal.net/en/index.php?vie...lery&Itemid=55

[Abriael]

Perfect games will never exist, but I'd rather have a game that compromise a little on graphics and creates a world that I can actually interact with rather than just a blue screen that goes on in the background as I run past.

And how exactly are the two things conflicting?

[Spuffin]

The graphics are amazing, if you say other wise then you are in denial. The only problem we have is copy paste. Give this game until 2012 and it will be playable yet bearable.

[BelgianRofl]

The graphics are amazing.

You must have not yet been to Limsa Lominsa.

[Spuffin]

lol I can do it too...

You are in denial.

[gifthorse]

And how exactly are the two things conflicting?

Because the Crystal Tools engine doesn't have game world streaming technology, it has to load in the zones all at once, this limits their ability to create truly seamless zones. Limsa Lominsa isn't really an island surrounded by water, it's an island surrounded by a flat panel representing water.

[BelgianRofl]

That true gifthorse... FFXIV isn't a seamless world. The engine isn't sophisticated enough to perform such tasks.

They really should have just used a different engine.

[Epo]

How does this game not have amazing graphics? Even on extremely low settings this game looks much better than the majority of MMOs out there. On max settings, this game is by far the best graphical MMO out there. Surpassing WoW by far, and even Aion. The only games that can surpass this are ones that aren't out yet, such as Blade and Soul and possibly TERA. Aion might look better when it has the new graphic engine that's supposed to be released in their 2.5 patch. Other than those few games, all of which aren't out yet ('cept Aion, but the new engine isn't out yet), this game easily has the best graphics of any MMO. Not to mention it's one of the few games in the world, not even just one of the few MMOs, but overall few GAMES that has dynamic lighting.