GRAPHICAL UPDATE

[Coratanni]

Heaven Benchmark sure is pretty - can't play it though...better to have good content first.. This is a good game, it does not need newer graphics to remain good. Waste of time, and waste of money upgrading computers. Shallow, like I said - but, hey - dumb blondes draw the eyes first.

The developers have pride in what they've created. If they can find a way to make it better, not just content wise, but graphically, you better believe they will try to do it. They want FFXIV to be the very best game they can create for people to enjoy. And that includes what you call shallow.

[Rithy255]

I'd like to see a graphics update personally. I think it can make FF14's appeal even better so that's a good thing, I think the game looks alright but the lighting and shading really could use some work in my opinion.

My main issue with the cosmetic side of the game and looks wise, generally is the amount of clipping you get with longer hairstyles, I wish hair was designed around sets a bit more, I think ff14 has a lot of good class fantasy sets, problem is a lot of them restrict my hairstyle which I just default to the cat girl pony tail because most sets don't have clipping, I guess it would be less of a problem if I just used "casual glams" but I like my character to fit more into the world.

Also just adding here, but some weirdly hide your tail I've seen recently or hats not showing your ears bothers me from what would otherwise be really cool looking glams.

[DiaDeem]

There's a few things I'd like to see in the update, and here they are in order of importance for me:

Lighting: This is huge when it comes to computer graphics. Fortnite's UE5 update is proof that you can have really basic assets but if they're well lit, it makes a world of difference. There's places in XIV that frankly are lit horribly. A lot of time is spent in the Ocular in ShB and everyone's face looks so weird, and that's just the most prominent example I can think of at the top of my head. This is gonna be huge for the game.
Better Antialiasing: The current implementation is just not great. Good antialiasing can help even low quality textures look rather nice at a smaller loading cost. Add it on top of nice textures and that's the next step to making the game look much prettier.
Foliage: This will make open environments looks so much prettier. The example they had in Elpis blew my mind. That's one I'm excited about.
Textures: Most textures right now are... fine. They're serviceable, particularly if you're looking from a distance. Better AA will help some of these look better. Get a little closer and some just look really poor, particularly in older areas. I think there's room here for improvement.
Character Triangles: Just with better textures and lighting, the current models would look way better than they do right now, and this is why this is the lowest for me. Avoiding sausage fingers and N64 feet are the big change I feel these characters need, though I think this engine can push models with the quality of the ones 1.0 had and even better.

Good graphics aren't a shallow. They're part of the artistic vision of the developers. They let us be more immersed, and there's no reason not to improve on areas that were limited by a PlayStation 3 of all things. As long as the options remain flexible for all kinds of PCs I think this can only be an improvement.

We'll see what comes out from this in the end.

[SassyAssassin]

hey - dumb blondes draw the eyes first.

What do graphic updates have to do with OPs hair colour? Or better yet, what is the correlation between hair colour and intelligence?

[Starshower]

I do think that they can do all sorts of texture upgrades and add new light sources, but really, the biggest thing holding this game's visuals back is the "mud filter", that greenish-brown tint making everything look dull and desaturated compared to anything else outside of the game. With Gshade you can get rid of that and the game can already look amazing doing it. Looking at FFXVI I have hope they can make the colors look better since it uses the same engine, so I'm curious how the final product will look like.

[Kuroka]

I'll never understand what ppl dislike on our "mud filter"... i could throw up whenever i see someone using these terrible filters on the game (Pint is especially terrible to me...) and its mostly just our artstyle imo... the worst problems really are lighting, antialiasing and some textures....

[GTK0HLK]

tldr, Upgrades good, Filter good<allows vibrant to pop without blindy..,>

Don't have much to say..,
Upgrades to the system, even just to the ui gives hope to even more important updates in the future. no matter how vain, or fruitless it seems. Hardly anyone expected AdventPlates<unless you've played Portable Consoles/Handhelds, and fighters with the option>

But it's wide popular now, and honestly. Completely Genius on their part<even if it's now reduced to what can get our blood flowing the most, more than a big-giant-huge red carrot from the moon>

as for the filter thing, visuals are always subjective. but a bit of shade and dark makes brights stand out more than not at all.

but again subjective. the game does well for what it is.<besides, any additions to graphics are not counted on the engines load, so do as you will with caution>

[DiaDeem]

I'll never understand what ppl dislike on our "mud filter"... i could throw up whenever i see someone using these terrible filters on the game (Pint is especially terrible to me...) and its mostly just our artstyle imo... the worst problems really are lighting, antialiasing and some textures....

Well, there's plenty of filters to chose from. Not all of them are so intense. Human eyes are built to capture more detail in good lighting conditions, and that's because the cones in our eyes (photoreceptor cells) can capture way more detail from color than our rods (the other type of photoreceptor cells used to see in low light). In an image, more color usually just means more detail. Many of the filters that you see boost the saturation and contrast of the game to different degrees and using different techniques, but most of them result in helping the base game textures just look better.

Take a look at house facade, and you should be able to see how much more of the little details in the wooden textures just pop at a glance. Same goes for the white archway and the flowers on the top right. The image is much more vibrant, and that's just the result of a rather soft filter.





Believe it or not, the "mud filter" is another indirect result of flat lighting, specifically in this case it would be Global Illumination. If we look at what Yoshi showed us and look at the windows in The Dancing Plague, there it is again: Color variance and contrast reveals more detail on them. See the leaves on Mustard Seed? Same thing: Color variance and contrast make the foliage look so much more alive:



Right now, these filter options are only available for PC users through Gshade, and they're only post processing tweaks. I think it's very exciting for console players (and just everyone in general) that the dev team is bringing an entirely new lighting model to the whole game to bring out so much of the detail that's already there but just hiding in plain sight.

I hope this helped in understand why some people enjoy the ever so contentious filters, though keep in mind: Taste is also involved so there's really no right or wrong answer, though for my money, I prefer a more vibrant, better lit and more detailed game. It makes the beautiful art style shine so much more imho.

[Kuroka]

Tbh i dont really like em.... I really hope we can tune it back

[Renathras]

Yea, that sounds plausible :\ Oh well, at least that's something exciting to look forward to later this year! Thanks for the reply!

It's not a guarantee, but they'll probably announce the next expansion at one of them, too. It's Jan and we're getting 6.3, so 6.4 will probably be coming in May, and the North America fanfest will be in either June or July (I forget which), so around the time of 6.45. I think the NA fanfest was when they first announced the next expansion...well, the last time pre-pandemic we were having the things, anyway. Then the EU one is where they tease the new Job (or if more than one, the first new one they tease out) after 6.5, and then the JP one will be the super announcement with release date and all that goodness.

So another look forward to might be a tease of some kind for the next expansion, by latest in the EU fanfest but probably the early tease will be in the NA one.

.

EDIT: Oh, and as to the OP:

Probably will hear more about it at the fanfest. Personally, I love the graphics in game now. The spell effects are sharp and pretty to me, and I like the character models. It's just some of the older gear that could use a touch-up. So I'm cool with the new, but I'm also fine with the old.