Any news on DX11 version?

[Altimis]

By the time they release a DX11 version DX12 will be around.

IMO they should have used DX11 from the get go. How many FFXIV players are still using XP?

Its optional otherwise, they lose big fan base

[LeonBlade]

snip

Sorry, but these aren't really bugs, these are just graphical issues that you aren't pleased with. Understand that your PC's performance has a lot to do with rendering objects. Also, your details aren't really... detailed "fix models (they look weird)" isn't really helping anyone.

An unimpressive grass texture is the least of Square Enix's worries with this game right now, there are far more important things to focus on, like actual content.

[Riardon]

I bet we might see the DX11 client along with the expansion coming this winter. Definitely not earlier with 2.3 and 2.4 or else that will be a huge surprise for me. I really want DX11 client. FFXIV 2.0 is a beautiful modern game and we need to take advantage of our modern machines. I'm really waiting for DX11 implementation. Come on SE give some love to the PC players.

[Gieff]

Other games have much higher resolution textures and seem to fit it into gpu memory just fine. Often those games have much larger maps (since FFXIV zones load individually anyway). Also, I'm assuming (at least hoping) the original game assets created are already a much higher resolution and aren't compressed, and were subsequently downsized and compressed to fit into the PC, PS4, and PS3 versions respectively. I don't see the harm in including a hi-res texture pack if they already have the assets, especially since players can just NOT USE IT if their respective GPU can't handle it. PC gaming and graphics are about options for the end user that scale appropriately with their individual hardware's capabilities. Right now the entire game has been reported to use at most 800MB or so of VRAM...a ton of mid-range and higher cards out there have 2+GB, so there's plenty of room to increase texture sizes and lose that nasty normal map compression for quite a few PC players.

[Gieff]

I think graphic improvements will also be much much easier after they finally declare "end of life" for the PS3 version. It's the reason the game is stuck with zone loading, terrible dithery checkered "alpha" blending, limited hair styles, physics, and a slew of other compromises. I apologize to those playing on the PS3, but meeting that system's 8 year old hardware is severely limiting this game's visual and even gameplay potential.

[Purplenum]

How about an OpenGL client?

[Saccharin]

Most DX9 games are programmed in D3D11.

Since is backwards compatible, they lower the Feature level to run on Dx9 systems.

While newer versions of DX add more 'graphical features' they aren't always backwards compatible. DX11 was rewritten to be more efficient and therefore works differently than DX 9.

How about an OpenGL client?

Why. DX9 works well as it is.

[Shioban]

How about an OpenGL client?

Not really worth the effort when DirectX works across almost any platform (Even a PS3/4 can use it with a little tweaking).

[Wolf_Gang]

Not really worth the effort when DirectX works across almost any platform (Even a PS3/4 can use it with a little tweaking).

what? DirectX is a Microsoft API and only available on Microsoft platforms. For everything else, there's OpenGL. PS4 version runs on a variant of OpenGL 4.4 (which is actually ahead of DX11) with updated shaders. When they do add a Mac client, it'll be using OpenGL shaders similar to the PS versions.

While newer versions of DX add more 'graphical features' they aren't always backwards compatible. DX11 was rewritten to be more efficient and therefore works differently than DX 9.

That's not what I mean. I'm saying games are programmed in DX11 and they turn off features to "emulate DX9". Kind of like how you can use a modern engine to make a "retro game"

[Shioban]

what? DirectX is a Microsoft API and only available on Microsoft platforms. For everything else, there's OpenGL. PS4 version runs on a variant of OpenGL 4.4 (which is actually ahead of DX11) with updated shaders. When they do add a Mac client, it'll be using OpenGL shaders similar to the PS versions.

Correct, by default the PS4's "go-to" option is OpenGL! What I originally wrote was extremely stupid, as I put down "PS3/4" without any second thought.

It's obvious the PS3/PS4 client are currently running using OpenGL instead of DirectX, however the possibility of using DX11 now is actually on the table, as we've actually managed to do it as have many others (where as before we couldn't do so with the PS3).

It's currently only used on Microsoft platforms, that doesn't mean it cannot be used elsewhere, the only difference between DirectX and OpenGL on the matter would require royalties to be paid for the use of the API outside of Microsofts outlets, and the all around general support, documentation and also the overall support provided by Sony themselves.

You should probably do some research.

Well, that was rather blunt of me, my apologies as I said above I typed "PS3/4" without first thinking what I was writing.

We did do quite a bit of research before hand when we attempted to do something similar with a PS3 development kit, but obviously that never worked.
However no less than two months ago we were able to very easily implement without issue a simple DX11 scene on a PS4, it actually proved a lot more fun and overall relieving for our team, as the last time we attempted to do pretty much anything with a PS3 we simply hit wall after wall of problems.

It's a heavily modified derivative, but it's entirely possible (although OpenGL has much better support and documentation on the PS4 specifically).



My original point should have been that it's possible to use it, Microsoft seemingly do allow it to be used, albeit through royalties.
It was actually in hindsight completely stupid to write "It works across all platforms", when I should have put "It works, although isn't fully supported on most".

Which was my original intention when writing it, not "DX is perfect, nothing can question it!".



TL;DR

I'm an idiot, I didn't think twice about what I was writing.

A PS3 cannot use DirectX, a PS4 can (albeit a bit of a hassle currently).

It's unlikely they'll use a modified DX11 API, but the possibility is on the table.