So... What Exactly ARE the PS3 Limitations

[Tarta]

PS3 doesn't have 512 of RAM.
Has 2 sources of Memory, which together would equal 512, but you don't *add* them up.

Memory 256 MB XDR DRAM system and 256 MB GDDR3 video

[AstreaTrinity]

Honestly i dont know how anyone can put themselves through the suffering thats playing this game on PS3

once this dropped on PS4 i never looked back

Good old memories of missing hunts because 5 minute load times and killing half my raid group because the adds would kill them before even becoming visible to me (:

[Niwashi]

As to PS3s long load times, a solid state drive takes care of that part (or it's possible, as someone mentioned earlier, that a larger and defragmented drive would do the same even if it weren't solid state). I've played on both PS3 and PS4 and the load times are about the same, but that's a PS3 with SSD and a PS4 with its standard hard drive.

The one place I do really see a difference between them is in crowded areas where the PS3 is slow to load all other characters / mobs. In the worst cases it doesn't display some of them at all. (From what I've heard, that can also an issue with low-end PCs, so it's not exclusively a PS3 problem, but I'm really glad it doesn't happen on my PS4.)

[Ametrine]

I played PS3 from the beta to Heavensward.... And everything stated about the load times is true. What can take 5 seconds on PS4 takes 20 or more on PS3. And that isn't an exaggeration, especially in areas saturated with many players.

Remember that quest in Mor Dhona where you have to find the prospective Crystal Braves hanging out around the town? It took 20 minutes without a guide since the NPCs refused to load for all the players!

I really don't care about the graphics. The aesthetic is lovely and will look great for a long time, but the SEVERE rendering lag and length of load times just put a huge damper on that console's ability to function.

[vrkosk]

I've been playing on the PS3 since patch 2.4. Loading times were really awful. Teleporting to a city state could take anything between 30 and 120 seconds. Retainers sometimes took so long to load that you received a "time out" message. I didn't do any hunts or large FATEs, because I could never get there in time, and when I did get there, the monsters didn't always appear on my screen.

Then I replaced the hard disk with an SSD. Suddenly loading times are measured in seconds, and I'm nearly always the first one to finish loading an instance. I can teleport as freely as PC players, retainers come in a couple of seconds and I've had no problems at all in FATEs. The only remaining problems are S ranks and the Odin FATE, where the PS3 hits the maximum on-screen character limit (so some players become untargetable).

Make no mistake, it is incredible what Square Enix has been able to do with the PS3. I'll upgrade to PS4 only when they drop PS3 support.

[Riardon]

PS3 can't load too many things at once. This console is archaic. It can't load UI with too many options. Low memory and very low cpu power are the limitations. It's purely cause of it's old weak hardware. So in order to make the game run there they trimmed down everything. From UI options to the graphics themselves. The limitations on character creation screen (number of faces, number of tails etc) are limited because of this. TP bar too. Zones are being made small in order for that poor thing to load. Ever wondered why dungeons despite being small areas are segmented into smaller zones as well? Towns the same. Because that poor thing can't calculate all of this. It's just too much for it. PS4 can handle an open zone games like Witcher 3 and FF XV without an issue. Despite that PC and PS4 got a trimmed down FFXIV version because of PS3. PS4 and PC's can run way larger areas and more NPC's and bigger scale battles instead we got a game with very limited options both in UI and graphics. We could have 20 faces for each race and 20-30 different tail shapes but they refuse to do it because of "memory limitations". A game with 6mil players (according to SE) have only like 4 faces for each race. We are clones to each other because of those limitations. So if you ask those limitations are the weak hardware of PS3. Once they drop support for it they will be free to do more things with the game. Both PC and PS4 can enjoy a way better FFXIV.

[Chessala]

In the end, SE is only using the PS3 as an excuse to NOT advance the game. The easiest solution is to drop PS3 support once and for all. However, the problem here is that PS4 sales were sub-par in Japan and SE could potentially lose quite a chunk of the community they actually care about.

Also, as stated at the beginning, it is a convenient excuse to not do changes. They feel that they are in a comfortable place so they try to remain there as much as possible. This won't change unless the JP community complains about this.The west is just an additional market that can be milked (see CE prices being 1:1 translations).

[Eifahlwyn]

I play on a PS3 with an ssd in it and I have no issues with load times, functioning in crowded areas, doing Hunts ect... In fact my load speed is often faster than my friends playing on PC.

Which really leads to the crux of the whole "PS3 limitations issue". The people who think that the moment PS3 is dropped will result in some graphical and technical renaissance for FF14 are simply delusional. SE will not devote resources in making the game more demanding on hardware because, aside from that being an unnecessary allocation of resources, it will also hurt people on low end PCs. That's the thing vocal PC players always forget about is that lots of PC players have really, REALLY bad gaming rigs.

So if SE actually implemented something in FF14 that the PS3 can't handle it not only costs them their PS3 user-base but sections of their PC customers as well. It is simply good business to make sure your mmo runs as well as it can on as many types of hardware as possible.

Oh and of course the nanosecond PS3 support is dropped the new mantra will be PS4 limitations.

[raymon]

It's unlikely they will be dropping it before 4.0 and it seems unlikely it will be dropped on 4.0. even if we assume that the PS3 is the absolute lowest and weakest system, it is still a sizable portion of the player base. even if PS3 players are (and i am completely making these numbers up) just 10% of the player base, SE will be taking a huge risk that i don't think they would want to take. that's a chance SE could "potentially" permanently get rid of 10% of its players. having less players means less subscription which means having money from the game. from a business standpoint (and video games are a buissnes so they want to make money) that's a lot of money your throwing not gonna get. i am not arguing if they should or should not or even if it is holding back on major aspects of the game. so long as players are playing on PS3, it is very likely not gonna be dropped.

TL;DR: Square Enix is a business and businesses need to make money, so they won't drop PS3 so long as it is even somewhat profitable.

[Derio]

The limit will always be RAM. It is the number one reason