Hi Res Texture Pack

[Recon1o6]

+1 here, a texture update would be very welcome. They can do so much with it like clear the bluriness from gear and fix the look of the auri scales (there's 3 layers and apparently they are not aligned correctly)

Only for some odd reason the devs made a lot of textures literally low quality as opposed to shrinking them/unshrinking during an update like competitors do.

[DinahDemiurge]

We are WAY overdue for an optional texture pack. Outsource it to another outfit if you need to SE, this game's look is aging horribly. PLEASE consider it.

[Raikai]

The models themselves are aging pretty okay, apart for a few things that seriously peeve me (Miqo male 'arthritis hands' is one), but I agree that a texture overhaul, even if only for the player characters is something largely overdue.

One of the things I'm really waiting in Fanfest is they announcing not a new race, but improvements to what we already have, namely: more options across the board as well as better textures.

Seriously, most of the races have only 4 face options... How that is okay to today's MMO standards?

[Jin-]

What I really dislike that even the new gear we get is made with ps3 in mind. Textures sometimes are like from WoW Classic

[Veritas-Ancora]

As someone who plays this game in 2K and 4K, I agree.

This should be a priority very soon.

[Hyperia]

I am not expecting any new textures or an engine overhaul until 7.0 at the minimum. If I had to guess as to what is going on, they are probably trying to finish all the story elements and tie up loose ends in 6.0 before any upgrades.

As Yoshi has FFXVI in his division, I have a feeling that the XVI engine will be used in 7.0. They can hide the development costs in XVI and reuse it in XIV. The upgrading of the 1.x and 2.x textures can be outsourced to another company. The 3.x textures to current are all in high def in their original art files so it’s only the old stuff that needs to be fixed.

This timetable somewhat lines up with some of Yoshi’s old comments about upgrading the game’s graphics. He is also on record saying that they want the game to keep going beyond 5 more years. This game is SE’s cash cow and a sacred one at that.

The only way to really keep the game fresh and moving forward is to start investing in upgrades and they know it. It will not surprise me if they start to wind down PC support of older configs along with retiring PS4 support around 7.0 in order to make the new upgrades work.

[Recon1o6]

From this interview
https://kamedani.tumblr.com/post/642...geki-interview

Dengeki: With the new expansion there is going to be a graphical upgrade to the game. Is there also going to be a change in the minimum PC requirements?

Yoshi P: No, we are working hard on the PS5 version to make it look as good as possible but since this is going to be the final chapter in the Hydaelyn and Zodiark storyline, we decided not to make any major changes.

I want to update the graphics engine at some point since the amount of data used has gotten quite great over these ten years. Also, we want to rebuild the data access system to support 4K graphical textures.

Players have also told us they want their mounts to feel more alive but for that to work we will need to do a graphical overhaul. We are, of course, doing this little by little.

Please remember that we work on schedules planned years at a time. We were able to fix some of our data center issues on this schedule over a long period of time fitting in work where we could. So, when it comes to updated graphics, it is something we want to do but don’t have much free time. It is quite a challenge to do as well so please be patient.

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This wouldn't be such a strain if SE had actually made high res textures then downscaled them way back when 2.0 launched like every other mmo

That being the case, ouch, spaghetti code strikes again on data limits

[Riardon]

From this interview
https://kamedani.tumblr.com/post/642...geki-interview

Dengeki: With the new expansion there is going to be a graphical upgrade to the game. Is there also going to be a change in the minimum PC requirements?

Yoshi P: No, we are working hard on the PS5 version to make it look as good as possible but since this is going to be the final chapter in the Hydaelyn and Zodiark storyline, we decided not to make any major changes.

I want to update the graphics engine at some point since the amount of data used has gotten quite great over these ten years. Also, we want to rebuild the data access system to support 4K graphical textures.

Players have also told us they want their mounts to feel more alive but for that to work we will need to do a graphical overhaul. We are, of course, doing this little by little.

Please remember that we work on schedules planned years at a time. We were able to fix some of our data center issues on this schedule over a long period of time fitting in work where we could. So, when it comes to updated graphics, it is something we want to do but don’t have much free time. It is quite a challenge to do as well so please be patient.

-----------

This wouldn't be such a strain if SE had actually made high res textures then downscaled them way back when 2.0 launched like every other mmo

That being the case, ouch, spaghetti code strikes again on data limits

So no new graphical updates yet again. Unfortunately as expected.

[Ultimatecalibur]

This wouldn't be such a strain if SE had actually made high res textures then downscaled them way back when 2.0 launched like every other mmo

They were working with what were at the time overscaled models and textures that they did downscale, the biggest factor is that "high res" has increased massively over the past decade. We went from 1280x720 being standard with 1920x1080 being high end with 2560x1440 being cutting edge high end to 2560x1440 (2k) being close to standard, 3840x2160 (4k) being high end with 7680x4320 (8k) being cutting edge high end.

We went from the difference between standard and high end being a 150% increase with their workstations being a ~266% increase over standard to standard and high end being a 225% increase with cutting edge being a 900% increase over standard.

[Recon1o6]

They were working with what were at the time overscaled models and textures that they did downscale, the biggest factor is that "high res" has increased massively over the past decade. We went from 1280x720 being standard with 1920x1080 being high end with 2560x1440 being cutting edge high end to 2560x1440 (2k) being close to standard, 3840x2160 (4k) being high end with 7680x4320 (8k) being cutting edge high end.

We went from the difference between standard and high end being a 150% increase with their workstations being a ~266% increase over standard to standard and high end being a 225% increase with cutting edge being a 900% increase over standard.

That is true, however it doesn't change the fact that other mmos start at the highest grade for the time then downscale to the lowest acceptable. So when they feel they could upgrade they just adjust to the next higher tier.

Eg, they develop assets with the 1920x1080 or 2560x1440 then downscale them to the current 512x256. Upgrade comes, they tae the original and downscale it to 1048x512 or expand upwards

SE hasn't done that- their assets are literally 512x256 or 512x512 and so modders can't just push a button to undo the scaling. Chest pieces are as low as 256x256 (hempen kurta to name one) but to SE credit, from sb onwards they are adding chest pieces at 1024x512...most of the time and just chest pieces at that
the gear to fill in gaps pre 50 like the aurum chest or manor halfrobe? still using 512x256

so in order to create a hi-res texture pack, SE needs to put some work and staffing resources in. And SE higher ups don't like that. That's why the ffxiv dev team is run on a shoestring