Curious on new Graphical Engine

[Llewelyn]

Yea it sounds like luminous which is using DX11 I think, so we can expect some extra graphic option for high end PC's, you think this game looks good now, well I bet its guna look ridiculous when 2.0 hits.

If it requires hardware DX11, I can guarantee that this isn't the engine they'll pick, as they've said one of the goals is to lower the entry bar to allow lower spec players to play. Requiring a brand new graphics card, even a low end one, is not in line with what they said.

Software DX11 requirement with lower hardware requirement (fallbacks) is unlikely too, because there are also still people running Windows XP, which won't get anything newer than DX9. The official requirements for FFXIV as it exists now includes Windows XP.

Far as how easy to port things... it would really depend how they created the content. That said... they're remaking the entire gameworld, so the only thing to port really is armor, which is probably in 3d Studio Max or Maya or something similar.

They said we wouldn't somewhere amongst all the text.

They also said it would require a lot of downloading so, Im guessing digital distribution, in the form of a massive patch.

I suspect they're going to start rolling out the patch before the patch goes live, to help with download rates. Like preloading a game on Steam.

[Answa]

If it requires hardware DX11, I can guarantee that this isn't the engine they'll pick, as they've said one of the goals is to lower the entry bar to allow lower spec players to play. Requiring a brand new graphics card, even a low end one, is not in line with what they said.

Software DX11 requirement with lower hardware requirement (fallbacks) is unlikely too, because there are also still people running Windows XP, which won't get anything newer than DX9. The official requirements for FFXIV as it exists now includes Windows XP.

Far as how easy to port things... it would really depend how they created the content. That said... they're remaking the entire gameworld, so the only thing to port really is armor, which is probably in 3d Studio Max or Maya or something similar.



I suspect they're going to start rolling out the patch before the patch goes live, to help with download rates. Like preloading a game on Steam.

2.0 starts being distributed on October 2012, A good three+ months before release.

[Jinko]

If it requires hardware DX11, I can guarantee that this isn't the engine they'll pick, as they've said one of the goals is to lower the entry bar to allow lower spec players to play. Requiring a brand new graphics card, even a low end one, is not in line with what they said.

Software DX11 requirement with lower hardware requirement (fallbacks) is unlikely too, because there are also still people running Windows XP, which won't get anything newer than DX9. The official requirements for FFXIV as it exists now includes Windows XP.

Doesn't matter really Direct X11 is backward compatible, its not a requirement in any game, not that it matters they aren't using it at least for the short term.

[Aion]

but in the article said that it need DX11, does PS 3 capable of that?

[Liminality]

but in the article said that it need DX11, does PS 3 capable of that?

PS3 uses OpenGL, I believe; DX11 has nothing to do with it.

[Jinko]

but in the article said that it need DX11, does PS 3 capable of that?

The PS3 version will be using a slightly different engine because its not a DirectX device, it will prob uses the same game assets though, maybe slightly lower quality ones.

[Aion]

Gamer Escape: 2.0 is going to be a new client, new servers, new engine. Is this still a form of Crystal Tools? Is this the Luminous engine? What can you tell us about that? Is there going to be support for Direct X 11?

Yoshida: First of all.. the current engine like Crystal Tools or the Luminous project, are made more for console games where they’re able to show the greatest level of graphics in a passive environment whereas an MMO is an active environment where, while you still want it to look beautiful, you also have many many people coming together in the same world. You have something like MW3 where the graphics are beautiful but what would happen if you had like 3 or 400 people on the screen at once. Would the engine be able to handle that? So what we wanted was something that could handle more of an active gameplay that we’re aiming for but also be able to provide beautiful graphics and landscapes. We found that Crystal Tools and Luminous would not be the optimal solution for this so that’s why we’re going to develop our own.

One of the reasons we had some trouble with the original launch of FFXIV was because we went through Crystal Tools and it was an engine that wasn’t really optimized for an MMO and so we’re currently working with technologists that are working on Luminous to make us a custom, optimal engine that will work for FFXIV.

As for DX 11, the first thing the dev team feels we have to do after the release of 2.0 is have a graphics engine that can accommodate the high-end computers and let those players have the highest quality graphics, smooth playability and a lot of different characters on screen- not the 40 we have now but having lots of characters displayed without having performance lag. But we’re also looking at the users with lower end computers as well and being able to create a system where you don’t have to have a high end PC to play. It also means having a system that will also handle the PS3 hardware as well that you have and just because it’s on the PS3 doesn’t mean it’s going to have lower quality. Maintaining quality for all three platforms- for high-end, low-end and PS3 and having an engine that will support this is what we’re aiming for with 2.0 and once that’s completed, and we hope to have that completed for 2.0, the next step will be to get the game ready for DX 11. So it’s in our schedule but we decided to make sure we had those three things covered by 2.0 and pushed back DX 11 for now. It’s not off the table thought and definitely the next thing we do after this.

so custom engine...great...

[Sephr]

I expect it's some kind of dramatic upgrade to the current engine, rather than a whole new one. Though as others have said, I'm not sure what limitations they face in this area.

[Betelgeuzah]

The thing is, Crystal Tools is not an engine. It is a set of tools used by multiple graphic engines.

Both FFXIII, FFXIV and Versus XIII use Crystal tools, but they also have their own graphic engines modified specifically for each (white, black, and for XIV... let's call it Grey engine).

This is mostly due to the fact that it is no longer financially and technically feasible to create a new graphics engine for each game you make (like Square did back in the 90's) and their solution to this when coming to the current gen was to create a set of tool to make the development of engines more efficient.

That concept failed in execution, but nevertheless what they have today is three graphic engines and XIV is using one of them. This is the upgraded version of said engine, and still probably using crystal tools.

It's not a fact this is the case of course- just an informed opinion based on multiple sources.

[Vahzl]

Just wanted to point out the following:

* September to October 2012 - Begin distribution of version 2.0 software for PC
* Begin distribution of PlayStation3 system beta version

I am not saying this is going to happen BUT I am seeing this as a new game purchase, not a patch. Is it possible that we may need to purchase the game again?