ffxiv_future: New Development Engine (Luminous or Cry Tools 3?), UI Picture etc.

[Elkwood]

As a player who was recently unhappy with the latest patch and has subsequently decided to stop playing, a friend directed me to your latest batch of updates regarding the redesign of XIV. I have to say taking on a feat of this task while the game is live I am most impressed.

I am curious as to the differences between the Luminous Engine compared to Crystal Tools, I know Luminous is DX11 capable and would like assurances that the games redevelopment will include features that were currently left out of the current version of FFXIV. I assume with the recent videos that have been released you are developing FFXIV in the Luminous engine since it was designed by SE as a replacement to the horrid Crystal Tools engine you initially used on the game. What i would like to know is the following...

1. Are you actually using Luminous to develop the game, or did you license another engine out to redevelop FFXIV 2.0 thus incorporating DX11 capabilities into the engine?

2. With DX11 capabilities present should you be switching over to Luminous, will you incorporate proper development to take full use of Quad, 6 and 8 core processors to alleviate some of the issues that plagued FFXIV version 1.0?

3. Will you incorporate proper programming to allow full use of SLI/Crossfire setups on the PC version allowing for greater than 60 fps on proper setups?

4. With the redevelopment of the client is it possible to have the new PC client stop time-stamping 2-300 files every 60-90 seconds as that was causing variable lag on some systems forcing people to upgrade there HDD to SSD to stop said itinerant lag?

5. What types of hardware will you be testing on to verify that GPU temps will not spike like they did in FFXIV 1.0?

6. Is the new UI pic concept art or was that an actual picture of what we can expect from FFXIV 2.0?

7. Will there be a return option in the future to replace our current physical hard media copies. Some NA/EU ISP have bandwidth caps and downloading 6+GB of Data every time we need to install is not the most optimal option. Will there be a replacement option for our hard media should we want new physical disks?

8. Are you developing FFXIV primarily for PC or PS3 will FFXIV be a PS3 client ported to PC or vice versa, SE in the past has used PS2/3 limitations as an excuse not to do certain things to the game or implement certain features.

I understand answering question number 6 may be hard to do because of the current state of development. As someone who left the game you have finally done what was asked and for that I am happy.

I also understand that because of this I will miss out on some of the new storyline but that is my choice. I refuse to pay for a Beta that is currently in development after the last year or so, not to mention your horrid FFXIV payment options still have not been resolved.

I as a consumer have lost a great much faith in your company recently with the purchases of XII, XIII, and XIV all products I have thus far been unhappy with, and am hoping that this redesign will restore said faith. I look forward to hopeful responses from you in regards to some if not all of these questions.

Should you properly fix the game and client with this new revision of FFXIV I will return as a loyal customer, should you not, then well we shall cross that bridge when we arrive there.

For those unaware of Luminous Engine and what it is capable of I will link you to the IGN article where SEE debuted the new engine in Tokyo on Oct 12th.

http://games.ign.com/articles/119/1199800p1.html

[Synfrag]

Good post but unfortunately I highly doubt you will get any response on it. If they aren't announcing publicly what engine the new version is being developed on they sure aren't going to do it in here.

We are all praying for DX10/11 but I think they would have mentioned it already if it were happening.

Best of luck though!

[Elkwood]

Good post but unfortunately I highly doubt you will get any response on it. If they aren't announcing publicly what engine the new version is being developed on they sure aren't going to do it in here.

We are all praying for DX10/11 but I think they would have mentioned it already if it were happening.

Best of luck though!

It would make sense for them to announce Luminous if it is said engine especially since they are touting a 30% reduction in development time using said engine.

If it is Luminous then it would make sense that DX11 works, that should also fix the AA/AO issues as well and most of the heat issues with the new client.

I guess from a stockholder view of things I am curious how XIV 1.0 even got the green light using Crystal Tools if it was such a bad engine to begin with. Judging by what this development team is saying the engine is so bad it seems like SE wasted there money developing anything for it aside from FFXIII which was straight to PS3/360.

Idk as a consumer I guess I just want assurances and technical details that these issues will be resolved using the new engine, or at least some type of technical explanation on how they intend to resolve these issues in the 2.0 brand of product.

[Vaer]

I have a feeling it will be Luminous. One of the things they touted was scalability, and that's exactly what they need for FFXIV to reach a wider audience. In one of the documents they released they want to "broaden the range of PC environments" that can run it, both high end, ("genre leading graphics") and low end, as well as being able to (eventually) scale down to the PS3 as the PS3 ("and similarly powered PCs") will become older hardware eventually.

Just my guess though.

[Synfrag]

It would be awesome, I saw the Luminos video a while ago and it's pretty amazing. 3D Modeling with global illumination murders my PC and that video shows the same effect in realtime. It's just nutty.

[NefarioCall]

i also want to know the answers to these very important questions.
they are CRITICAL issues. Especially if SE has any goals to surpass 1 million active players.

[Abriael]

They just had a conference about DX 11 at their event in tokyo, so i wonder too if the new engine will support DX11.

But lol @ "unhappy with the latest patch". This is downright laughable.

And even more lol at the trite argument "pay for a beta". The beta ended september last year buddy. Get over it.

Oh, for the record, the team is saying nothing about the crystal tools (that shown some pretty amazing results with other games), the issues have very little to do with the engine (seamless zones, server structure and so forth), and they're updating the engine simply to keep the graphical edge in the market.

[Elkwood]

They just had a conference about DX 11 at their event in tokyo, so i wonder too if the new engine will support DX11.

But lol @ "unhappy with the latest patch". This is downright laughable.

And even more lol at the trite argument "pay for a beta". The beta ended september last year buddy. Get over it.

Oh, for the record, the team is saying nothing about the crystal tools (that shown some pretty amazing results with other games), the issues have very little to do with the engine (seamless zones, server structure and so forth), and they're updating the engine simply to keep the graphical edge in the market.

I am trying very hard not to retort to you in this response, I did not like the patch that is my opinion and we will leave it at that.

The team has mentioned MULTIPLE times that Crystal Tools is responsible for the current state of the game. "Due to the coding engine we are unable to add X feature" Crystal tools is fine for PS3 I am sure but it absolutely BLOWS with MMO and PC and that absolutely shows as well. The zones are not exactly seemless the loadtime is exponentially reduced i will give it that. you can see it loading for a quick second or 2 when you cross zonelines and are unable to examine players and such that is still loadtime.

So according to the devteam, BTW I am not going back through all the posts to prove this, because of Crystal Tools

Server coding is messed up
Cannot Add AH
Cannot add mail
Cannot Fix Linkshell issues
Cannot fix lag on servers or client
Cannot make the game run on PS3 properly
Cannot fix AO
Cannot make it run fullscreen with alt tab because of it being DX9 (BTW that one is my favorite)

In short they cannot fix the game

If they could have optimized the game by now they would have but the engine it is developed on is so jacked up they are unable to do so. You do not recode a game on a new engine mid game after 6 years of development; it is a financial strain on anyone hence why they have 250+ employees now working on coding to fix this, and push the game over to a new engine.

[Jennestia]

Server coding is messed up
Cannot Add AH
Cannot add mail
Cannot Fix Linkshell issues
Cannot fix lag on servers or client
Cannot make the game run on PS3 properly
Cannot fix AO
Cannot make it run fullscreen with alt tab because of it being DX9 (BTW that one is my favorite)

1. They chose not to add an AH. Crystal Tools isn't preventing that.
2. They stated specifically the servers are why they can't add a mailing system yet. (Server side interface, remember this.)
3. Server related issues are also a part of why they haven't yet done anything with the linkshell system.
4. "Fix lag on servers or client" has nothing to do with the engine, the client lag regarding actions are due to shoddy servers, as they stated and shoddy servers with a serverside interface is bad.
5. Crystal Tools is an engine designed specifically for compatibility and playability on consoles -- I've witnessed zero problems with FFXIII outside of oversight glitches which is due to bad programming and not the engine.

You leave out one vital piece of information:

They restructured the managerial team. Any company, whether media related or even fast food related, any changes in the pipeline will be halted or sometimes cancelled. Not only did they change the direction of the game, they're also rebuilding the game from the core and up. So to say:

If they could have optimized the game by now they would have but the engine it is developed on is so jacked up they are unable to do so

Is flatout false. You hate the crystal tools (even though it's guaranteed you yourself have never worked with it), but the engine itself isn't bad, Versus XIII alone is proving that, however the MAIN problem with the game, and if you actually read what the devs state, is the servers and interface. They meed to tweak the engine, that much is obvious but the engine itself isn't the main culprit to XIV's problems.

[Elkwood]

1. They chose not to add an AH. Crystal Tools isn't preventing that.
2. They stated specifically the servers are why they can't add a mailing system yet. (Server side interface, remember this.)
3. Server related issues are also a part of why they haven't yet done anything with the linkshell system.
4. "Fix lag on servers or client" has nothing to do with the engine, the client lag regarding actions are due to shoddy servers, as they stated and shoddy servers with a serverside interface is bad.
5. Crystal Tools is an engine designed specifically for compatibility and playability on consoles -- I've witnessed zero problems with FFXIII outside of oversight glitches which is due to bad programming and not the engine.

You leave out one vital piece of information:

They restructured the managerial team. Any company, whether media related or even fast food related, any changes in the pipeline will be halted or sometimes cancelled. Not only did they change the direction of the game, they're also rebuilding the game from the core and up. So to say:



Is flatout false. You hate the crystal tools (even though it's guaranteed you yourself have never worked with it), but the engine itself isn't bad, Versus XIII alone is proving that, however the MAIN problem with the game, and if you actually read what the devs state, is the servers and interface. They meed to tweak the engine, that much is obvious but the engine itself isn't the main culprit to XIV's problems.

Except for the fact they used Crystal Tools to make not only the PC/PS3 Client but also all the server files. I am sure the programming is jacked up as well as the server files ultimately everything reverts to the tool used for the programming. Crystal Tools locked XIV in at DX9, and hindered progress from that aspect.

I am also sure the way they coded it in C++ also had something to do with the fact that the game is jacked up. Ultimately everything reverts to CT as it was used to design the games engine. Is it possible the programmers just do not have a clue, yes and in some regards probably lie partially at fault. Either way using CT as the basis for designing the engine limiting it to PS3 rather then PC also probably hindered things.

The Engine or the Core of the system using CT is at fault for at least 35-40% of the issues with the PC client and the game.