Can we talk about 3rd party tools and disability?

[Shirala]

I just want PvP-like combos to counteract the button bloat. Arthritis is no fun.

[Xirean]

Every time I've run P3 not even S, just the normal version, I have to ask for a dorito guide because I CANNOT see the aoes. Stuff like that really makes me question why we can't just make a color selector option for aoes in our personal settings. Also why can't we have separate display name settings for players in our FCs yet?

[sagacious]

Exactly why I have to use Reshader, it's not just a singular on the RGB spectrum. If colours are too close/samey I can't differentiate and instead of to rely on shapes/animations

Which If you got an entire arena and boss and mechanics that are all just a different Shade of the same colour

I'm going to have a much harder time making out just what the heck is going on and that's simply something I can't help with what's provided ingame or through GPU settings. It's very much a problem with the fights design choice.

So if we use reshader we will get banned?

[Vahlnir]

So if we use reshader we will get banned?

They made a pretty blanket announcement today, so I think that Reshade is potentially on the list of ban worthy programs. By their logic, my AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition is also not allowed, which is something baked into my PC and its drivers. So...I think more clarification is needed. I play primarily on console, but I definitely want to know more here.

[sagacious]

They made a pretty blanket announcement today, so I think that Reshade is potentially on the list of ban worthy programs. By their logic, my AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition is also not allowed, which is something baked into my PC and its drivers. So...I think more clarification is needed. I play primarily on console, but I definitely want to know more here.

I was thinking of housing when I read your answer. Is it possible that the housing zero is caused by a third party tool and when housing saw it it answered with a zero wins?

[JanVanding]

They made a pretty blanket announcement today, so I think that Reshade is potentially on the list of ban worthy programs. By their logic, my AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition is also not allowed, which is something baked into my PC and its drivers. So...I think more clarification is needed. I play primarily on console, but I definitely want to know more here.

I think the statement points out the major issues with SEs stance as a whole, they fence sit until a knee jerk, then put out a blanket statement which puts a large majority of the playerbase in the crosshairs of wondering if they'll be banned for using tools simply for the reason of making the playing field equal over trying to get some advantage.

They absolutely should clarify, come off the fence and let the playerbase know what's safe to use and what's not because we are just going in circles.

[Packetdancer]

So if we use reshader we will get banned?

In truth, it's unlikely.

The reason that a game company will just blanket prohibit third party tools and note that bans will be issued at the company's discretion is that it's a lot easier than trying to say "We ban this tool and this tool and this tool" and having someone come up with a fourth tool, then say "But the TOS didn't ban this one!" or trying to come up with a whitelist of allowable tools. Doing so means that if someone is using third-party tools in a manner that SQEX doesn't think is harmful, it's entirely up to SQEX whether or not to ban someone.

In actual practice, yes, it's forbidden by the current TOS.

I will note that the devs actually made a post here on these forums waaaaay back in 2013 that noted they had no intention of banning folks for using shader injection or other aesthetic mods; they just basically said "use at your own risk, and if it breaks the game we're not providing support". Which, y'know, is reasonable.

Similarly, Nvidia's got a ReShade variant called "Freestyle"; if you have GeForce Experience installed and running and open FFXIV, you actually have Nvidia's ReShade equivalent running in the game to start with; Alt+F3 brings it up. It's worth noting that Freestyle changes the graphics at the driver level rather than intercepting the final rendering call in the process itself as ReShade does; Freestyle technically might count as "monitor calibration" more than a third-party tool.

(It also allows you to store a grand total of four presets, which is an annoying limitation.)

Either way, FFXIV is on the list of officially-supported games on Nvidia's site for Freestyle, and since they get approval from game companies to put things there, one assumes SQEX was okay with it at least at the time.

That said, the discussion of ReShade -- and the official SQEX reply in that thread I linked above -- was in 2013. I think Freestyle added FFXIV to the officially supported games list in like... 2019? 2018? Something like that. Whenever Freestyle came out. Several years ago, anyway. So it certainly possible that SQEX's position as regards ReShade/GShade (and maybe even Freestyle) has changed over the years and they would enforce TOS against it.

(Though I think it would be difficult to enforce a ban on Freestyle, since it's already there and enabled for basically anyone using an Nvidia card, unless they've manually disabled Ansel and Freestyle in the GeForce Experience settings...)

I would hope not -- I'm a shader author and my work is actually included in the FFXIV-optimized GShade fork of ReShade -- but the TOS is written in such a way that ReShade et al are technically prohibited.

[Lihtleita]

we need a high contrast aoe marker bare minimum, preferably one that inverts the colour of the terrain its on

[Doragan]

I don't think ReShade is going to get you into trouble. You can use Nvidia Freestyle/whatever it's called now in it, and it needs approval from SE for it to work. You can add filters and effects, and kinda freecam there as well. If that's allowed.. doubt it's going to cause a problem with Reshade.

Might not be allowed regardless though, but they're pretty similar, and their purpose/way of using them are more or less the same.

[sagacious]

So what % of the player base is using 3rd party tools?