FFXIV Graphics Engine change

[Mireille]

I very much like the current look of the character I created, so I am curious will the graphics change come with a change in the artistic style of the game for example like a move to the more cartoonish style of WoW? Since the option to update character race, gender etc. seems tied to this change as opposed to just adding more character options. I'm also curious if this option to update character graphics will be a one time thing at login, or provided as a part of a barbershop option? Will we see more concept art for characters published as the v2 launch comes closer?

[SolArisa]

They talked about a modernized graphics engine instead of the current Crystal Tools which were developed for FF III and XIV.
They did not talk about changing the models or turning cartoonish.

[Mireille]

They did stipulate that because of the change they will be letting us change a lot of character options which to me implies we may not like the way what we chose in V1 looks in V2. Based on the art that was released the artistic style of the game is changing. Cartoonish was just an example of radical change to the artistic direction of the game.

[Crux]

They did stipulate that because of the change they will be letting us change a lot of character options which to me implies we may not like the way what we chose in V1 looks in V2. Based on the art that was released the artistic style of the game is changing. Cartoonish was just an example of radical change to the artistic direction of the game.

They are rebuilding the current engine with some of the Luminous Engine devs. Your system will dictate the graphics, so I imagine there won't be a huge change in graphics for high-end systems. They want it to be able to run on low end machines and consoles, but you will see less detail and less player characters if you are on a system that can't handle all the data. Here are some quotes from this interview: http://goo.gl/Bfv9o

RPGSite: With the new graphics engine, by chance will it be using the Luminous Studio engine?
Yoshida: As you know, it was recently announced, but the Luminous Engine is being more designed for console games, where the emphasis is more on passive types of games with high quality graphics. Because it’s a one player game, it’s about showing what’s there, but for an MMO, it’s different, it’s more about having lots of things—characters on the screen at the same time. You’re in a community with many, many people. The [Luminous] Engine is more developed for a console type of system. To get something that would be more suited for an MMORPG, what we did was we borrowed some of the engineers that are working on the Luminous system, and had them help us rebuild an engine that would be able to display high quality graphics, but is more tweaked to displaying many of those rather than just a passive type of image. That’s what we’ve been doing.

RPGSite: Similar to how FF Versus XIII is taking the lighting portion of that engine and using it in their game?
Yoshida: It’s different in the sense that it’s not a part of the existing Luminous Engine, because if we were to wait until that engine was completed, we wouldn’t be able to get the game out in time. What we are doing is taking people who are working on Luminous, and having them use their knowledge—some of those things that will be used in Luminous as well, to make a completely new engine. You mentioned the lighting—yes, probably the lighting we’ll end up using will be similar to what will be used in Luminous, but it’s not like we’re waiting for Luminous to be completed.

RPGSite: Will the newly introduced graphics engine support Direct X 10/11? Or will it still be limited to DX 9.0c?
Yoshida: With the development of the new engine, the first phase—the first thing that we are prioritizing, is to have a graphics engine that will support high-end users, low-end PCs and the PlayStation 3. The quality of graphics will be the same across all three, but depending on your system, it’ll be about how many characters can you display… how many effects can you display, draw distance.

You won’t have to have a high-end PC to have great graphics; the high-end PC people will be able to see more stuff, and for the low-end, we’ll be able to limit that so those people can still play it, and so PS3 users can also run the game. That is our first phase. Once we have gotten that ready for 2.0, the next step is getting that ready for Direct X 11. That might take between 6-8 months, but it’s on our schedule. We are pushing it back because if we had put that together, then it would mean delaying the release 6-8 months, so first thing’s first.

RPGSite: Not to mention, not everyone has a DX11 system.
Yoshida: It’s a very long schedule, and if you have too much stuff that you want to get in, then it just delays that release. We thought we could make that a step—release [2.0] first, and then go from there.

[VydarrTyr]

They talked about a modernized graphics engine instead of the current Crystal Tools which were developed for FF III and XIV.
They did not talk about changing the models or turning cartoonish.

From the .pdf on the release:

The new graphics engine will cause certain objects to display differently than they do in the current version. Because of this, we will allow all current players the opportunity to re-customize the race, gender, and appearance of their characters upon the implementation of the new engine.

So, yes, the character models will probably look different.

The point of the revision seems to be to decrease the computer power required to render the character and environmental models. They may make them more efficient, but it's also possible that they'll be a bit less well-defined.

But considering that they also say they're aiming for "Genre-leading graphics on high-end PCs," and fully customizable graphics, I'm hoping that people with high end PCs will still get the same, outstanding graphics we can get with the current system.

[Evangelus]

maybe luminous engine?

[Kinseykinz]

I think the main reason they are allowing us to change (an it'll be a one time only thing from what I understand) is because some race/class options weren't available when we started playing the game. For example: maybe you wanted to be a Roegadyn but are a girl and don't like playing cross-gender...well then you might have selected Hyur or Lalafell instead. I think the decision is based more on this than a drastic change to how our characters will look.

[Genome]

I REALLY hope its possible to completely pick a new character type. With the new additions of male and female types that weren't available before it would be disappointing if with the new release we aren't given the option to choose from all of the new available options.

[Reika]

It will hopefully be an engine that supports DX11 and all features of the newer graphics cards.....

[Ruisu]

It will hopefully be an engine that supports DX11 and all features of the newer graphics cards.....

They've stated that there will eventually be DX10 and 11 support.