Let's Talk : GRAPHICS

[KogaDrake]

SE wanted to target a MUCH LARGER group of people for FFXIV:ARR, this means not just the ps3 market, but also the casual gamer who does not have a nice gaming PC. Guess what type of PC the average casual player who plays FFXIV has?, well I can say its not a gaming computer and the sheer fact that many average non-gaming PC have to turn down everything to a minimum (making it essentially a PS3 version with more loaded on screen at one time). This is just as much of a reason as the PS3 as to why you see the changes made from 1.0 which was hard to run on a low end gaming PC (and couldn't be run well on a non-gaming PC).

Also, further evidence that it is not 100% the ps3, if you go do research their are features left out of the PS3 version which are on the PC version (Focus target for example). If they were making everything the same and going by the limitations of the PS3 for everything focus target and other things would not exist in the game currently.

[Tiggy]

What rustles my jimmies is the Fact that we don't know what it will be like or if we get better textures

Actually they specifically talked about the directx version in response to this problem. They directly told us the textures were low because of directx 9 limitations and that the directx 11 engine would fix that allowing for larger textures. Stop letting your jimmies get all rustled because you aren't reading all the known info.

[IveraIvalice]

I wish people would stop throwing around ps3 being the cause of everything being bad and not as good as they think it should be. You all forget, 1.0 was coming to ps3 also. They reduced graphics and similar things to improve other things not because of ps3 limitations.

[Tiggy]

I wish people would stop throwing around ps3 being the cause of everything being bad and not as good as they think it should be. You all forget, 1.0 was coming to ps3 also. They reduced graphics and similar things to improve other things not because of ps3 limitations.

Actually, they've acknowledged on multiple occasions that they dropped the graphics to support the ps3 and to support lower end pc's. They absolutely did do exactly what you say they weren't. As it stood there was a very good reason the existing engine for 1.0 wasn't ported to the ps3, and it wasn't entirely because the game sucked.

[HunkyJimpjorps]

Actually, they've acknowledged on multiple occasions that they dropped the graphics to support the ps3 and to support lower end pc's. They absolutely did do exactly what you say they weren't. As it stood there was a very good reason the existing engine for 1.0 wasn't ported to the ps3, and it wasn't entirely because the game sucked.

So it's not entirely due to PS3 support, like you said. PS3 isn't some kind of horrible millstone.

Some of us play on more modest computers and appreciate that the game is beautiful and fluid even on lower detail settings.

[IveraIvalice]

Actually, they've acknowledged on multiple occasions that they dropped the graphics to support the ps3 and to support lower end pc's. They absolutely did do exactly what you say they weren't. As it stood there was a very good reason the existing engine for 1.0 wasn't ported to the ps3, and it wasn't entirely because the game sucked.

They did say they lowered some graphics to make it run better on lower end pcs but not for ps3. Again we're forget that it WAS going to come for ps3 and was postponed for the specific reason of not feeling it right to release a game that they admitted was unfinished. And for no other reason. Clearly 1.0 was better graphically and that WAS coming to ps3. And I guess I'm just imagining that my pc version looks 10 times better then the ps3 version?
I mean if they were limiting the pc version for ps3 then why doesn't both versions look the same? Because they don't do that, any decision that's a limitation of the pc version is taking the performance of the game in mind. Fate battles would not be possible if they hadn't made the adjustments that they did. Both versions are limited by how they want the game to run at its core game design (displaying more characters on screen to make fate battle possible, lowering textures to improves movement speed and rendering times along with animation lag) and each system is limited graphically by its own hardware, one doesn't impact the other

[Kosmos992k]

Actually, they've acknowledged on multiple occasions that they dropped the graphics to support the ps3 and to support lower end pc's. They absolutely did do exactly what you say they weren't.

Hold on a minute, *if* the PS3 is genuinely holding back the PC client, how can the PC client run at anything beyond 720p? How can it have additional physics, better textures and effects than the PS3 - *if* the Ps3 version is holding it back? Clearly the PC client can run higher than 720p, it has additional physics, more effects and more detailed textures than the PS3 version. Sure the engine can also handle low end PCs, and funnily enough that is a positive effect since it allows more people to play, the efforts ti include lower end PCs and PS3 results in far more players being able to play, but for people with a high end PC, the graphical experience is much better than the low end or PS3 - because the engine scales with the hardware. Claiming that the PS3 held it back ignores the fact that the game OBVIOUSLY looks better on a high end PC at 1080p or greater, than it does on a PS3.

[Tiggy]

Hold on a minute, *if* the PS3 is genuinely holding back the PC client, how can the PC client run at anything beyond 720p? How can it have additional physics, better textures and effects than the PS3 - *if* the Ps3 version is holding it back? Clearly the PC client can run higher than 720p, it has additional physics, more effects and more detailed textures than the PS3 version. Sure the engine can also handle low end PCs, and funnily enough that is a positive effect since it allows more people to play, the efforts ti include lower end PCs and PS3 results in far more players being able to play, but for people with a high end PC, the graphical experience is much better than the low end or PS3 - because the engine scales with the hardware. Claiming that the PS3 held it back ignores the fact that the game OBVIOUSLY looks better on a high end PC at 1080p or greater, than it does on a PS3.

You act like running in a higher resolution means anything to this discussion. Obviously the pc version has higher settings than a locked down ps3, but you ignore that the engine was made in directx 9 explicitly to help make the ps3 version run better. Regardless of 1.0 the entire engine is different and likely performs better than the original engine would have on the ps3. So to everyone saying "omg the 1.0 engine was supposed to be launched on ps3" I respond that you all have no idea how effectively it would have actually achieved that. Consider for a moment how monumentally bad the 1.0 launch was in so many ways and you have such faith that 1.0 was all ready to go for the ps3? Even after it required blisteringly fast pc's just to run the game?. I say that is very doubtful indeed. Also, I never said pc's couldn't exceed the ps3, but to suggest the development of the engine didn't take into account ps3 limitations for the launch is lol-worthy. It absolutely did, and with time and release of the directx 11 version we will exceed the ps3 handily. Everyone is just fretting over this like it won't come in time. It will. They already talked about it before. However, right now it isn't a priority compared to getting the game stabilized.

[Kosmos992k]

You act like running in a higher resolution means anything to this discussion. Obviously the pc version has higher settings than a locked down ps3, but you ignore that the engine was made in directx 9 explicitly to help make the ps3 version run better.

I'm not ignoring that, nor am I ignoring your own statement that it enables players with less capable PCs to play as well. Aside from anything else PS3 doesn't use DX9, it uses different APIs, and is not bound by the limits of DX9. Lower performance PCs on the other hand are explicitly limited by DX9 hardware.

[Naunet]

I thought I remembered a quote from a dev that stated they have no plans to implement higher resolution textures? I can't recall where it was brought up (in another thread about texture resolution/graphics), but I distinctly recall being extremely disappointed by it. The low resolution textures in this game are hideous. I can see the pixelation of the red parts on my WHM AF without even trying. And that horrible low-resolution design on the Darklight cowls...