A Respectful Request For Improved Cloth & Hair Physics

[Kacho_Nacho]

Dear Creative Business Unit III,

You have informed us a major graphical overhaul of FFXIV will begin with the release of the Dawn Trail expansion. The presentations have all focused on the appearance of the characters, their gear, and the world they inhabit.

While the screenshots have been stunning in their beauty, I feel a necessary component has been overlooked, the physics of the gear and the hair/fur/feathers of the characters, their mounts, and the many creatures which live in the Source and its reflections.

I submit if better physics are not incorporated into FFXIV alongside the plans to improve the appearance of the game, the graphical update will only make the shortcomings of the current physics more apparent. In short, if you are going to update the world in which we play, you have to do it all.

I thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

Kacho Nacho

[Thurmnmurmn]

Just wait to see more. Seems pointless to ask for something they may have already done.

[Kacho_Nacho]

Just wait to see more. Seems pointless to ask for something they may have already done.

I'm of a different mindset. I feel if better physics were already done, CBU3 would have included that in the presentations.

[Thurmnmurmn]

I'm of a different mindset. I feel if better physics were already done, CBU3 would have included that in the presentations.

Or they don't show everything so they have something else new to show you in the future. Gaming company's do that all the time.

[Payadopa]

Or they don't show everything so they have something else new to show you in the future. Gaming company's do that all the time.

I remember people saying the same thing during the demo and actual release of 1.0. History truly is doomed to repeat itself.

[EverQuest]

Real time hair Physics would be a huge undertaking there won’t be an update that for that in 7.0

Maybe ever really depending on the life span of the game.

But hey if you want some good hair stuff check horizon or something.

[Jeeqbit]

SE generally don't do surprises very much. If you go back in time you find they at least hinted something in interviews or live letters a few times prior to it happening.

The only genuine surprise recently was probably the Fall Guys collaboration, which of course was mentioned in multiple live letters, but it was not predicted prior to that. But that is common with unusual crossovers.

They also did a whole segment of a fan fest showing the technical side of what they have been doing and it did not include this. It was all about improving the shaders, textures, their depth, their polygons (in new areas) and increasing the scale of everything to 1080p so that it can make use of up to a 2060 GPU's graphics, all of which means adding more lights, longer distance shadows and objects such as boxes as well as more realistic looking cloth, metal and fog.

Animations have not really seemed to be talked about much, although we do have animations on gear such as them blowing when it's windy. That fact alone could mean it's possible with hair, but they have a problem which is that in some cases, 100 players can be together in an area and that is why players have far less detail than everything else.

[Tyintheron]

Apologies for not being able to point to a direct quote, but I believe in a prior interview (when they first started talking about the engine upgrades) YoshiP had specifically called out the idea that there would be an improvement in the amount of "bones" things like cloth and hair XIV would have going forward.

This was in an interview before FFXVI was released, and he was discussing how its development had opened his eyes to how much more detail you can include as the baseline specs of your game increase.

So they were at least planning some improvement in those areas back then. Still hoping they'll make it in.

[Jeeqbit]

Apologies for not being able to point to a direct quote, but I believe in a prior interview (when they first started talking about the engine upgrades) YoshiP had specifically called out the idea that there would be an improvement in the amount of "bones" things like cloth and hair XIV would have going forward.

I do remember Yoshi-P saying that the game was designed with future-proofing in mind and increasing the number of bones was one of the things they would be able to do over time to improve animations. But that was said a long time ago now when defending how the game was in fact future-proofed contrary to what some people think.

[Iscah]

Animations have not really seemed to be talked about much, although we do have animations on gear such as them blowing when it's windy. That fact alone could mean it's possible with hair...

Hair already animates in the wind. Not so obvious on a short-haired character, but longer parts will move in the wind.

We don't have the physics for it to drape over clothing, though. And as you say, it becomes more of a problem the more people are in a place together, which is probably why some NPCs can have extra-long hair (because there will only ever be one of them at a time) but they won't give it to players.