Lackluster Graphics in FFXIV

[JudgeN]

The biggest problem with the game is the very very flat lighting, it need way more dynamic lights. Repeat texture are somewhat annoying and need to be address as well, but fuck they need to have better lights. Third thing they could fix is the overall PC performance of the engine, game runs pretty shitty and my gaming rig is very high end.

[BelgianRofl]

The biggest problem with the game is the very very flat lighting, it need way more dynamic lights. Repeat texture are somewhat annoying and need to be address as well but fuck they need to had better lights. Third thing they could fix is the overall PC performance of the engine, game runs pretty shitty and my gaming rig is very high end.

^This

Thank you.

except for the fact that the proof is in the name TECH DEMO, it means it is a TECHNICAL DEMO not actual gameplay footage.

The 2005 Tech-Demo was real-time in-engine footage. It's what the game could have looked like back then. What the hell happened since then?

They got a good engine and graphics but it is lacking details... everything, from the details, the texture mapping.. feels exactly like the game itself, half-baked and rushed out the door.

WOW's graphics may not be on par with FFXIV but their amazing level of detail makes the graphics much more enjoyable to look at and brings the whole world to life. It's not all about the polygons... the details is what truly makes good graphics stand out.

^Also This.


It's not about how many polygons you have. It's quality over quantity. Repeating textures would be fine and copy pasta'd terrain would be bearable if landscapes actually casted shadows, and the lighting in this game didn't suck.

[Elkwood]

UH Huh and the 2005 FFVII Tech demo is actual in game footage as well right? The 2005 tech demo for Rapture is just a demo of what the engine can do it is not actual in game footage, hence it means it is pre rendered. You would see Icons and other graphics such as a 1st person view of your character running around if it was in game footage, same as you do now when you login to xiv. The 2005 demo is no different then the opening sequences of the Limsa boat before you fight the first monsters.

Also as a person before said if you can prove that it is in game footage and someone is controlling a character in it, please provide a link to the interview or stop trolling with useless bull.

The Mysterious E3 Tech Demo

May 16th, 2005

Fast forward to 2005. The setting: E3. Square Enix's primary purpose was to announce to the public that it was on-board with Microsoft to develop it's first title on the X-Box 360 platform, a port of FFXI. At the close of the E3 press conference Youichi Wada, President of Square Enix, took the audience by surprise when he revealed never-before-seen footage of what appeared to be a new MMORPG. This video would become simply known as the Square Enix Secret MMO Tech Demo.

The short 40 second video depicted an elegant port city featuring steam-punk architechtures, a passing hot-air balloon, and what appeared to be wyverns floating over the calm waters. But perhaps the most interesting (and confusing) aspect of the tech demo was that this particular city was populated by characters strikingly similar to those found in FFXI.

No information was given regarding the actual content of the video, only that it was running on the 360 platform. It was at this conference that Square Enix first announced to the public that a new MMORPG was in the works. SE then went back into the proverbial bat cave with the project, details of which would not surface until nearly two years later, only bits and pieces of rumors and brief statements.

[BelgianRofl]

UH Huh and the 2005 FFVII Tech demo is actual in game footage as well right? The 2005 tech demo for Rapture is just a demo of what the engine can do it is not actual in game footage, hence it means it is pre rendered.

No. Pre-rendering is the process in which video footage is not rendered in real-time by the hardware that is outputing or playing back the video. Instead, the video is a recording of a footage that was previously rendered on a different equipment (typically one that is more powerful than the hardware used for playback). Pre-rendered assets (typically movies) may also be outsourced by the developer to an outside production company. Such assets usually have a level of complexity that is too great for the target platform to render in real-time.

Here's an example of Pre-rendering from 2001. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dyfe2kMxYPk

And here's an example of a modern, real-time tech-demo. not Pre-Rendered. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eY_En9VcwM

[Abriael]

No. Pre-rendering is the process in which video footage is not rendered in real-time by the hardware that is outputing or playing back the video.

There are several levels of prerendering.
You can prerender a whole movie, you can preprender just the effects, you can create a scene with an engine and then prerender it with additional effects.

In all those cases a movie is considered prerendered. That tech demo is evidently prerendered, just looking at the effects and how they interact with characters and environment shows that.

The vast majority of posters in this thread has evidently told you that you're wrong. The graphica of the game look fantastic. Even reviewers that you brought up so many times (erroneously) disagree with you.

[Martin]

I see a lot of people complaining about FFXIV Graphics and/or comparing it with other games... guys if you don't like FFXIV graphics at all, or you think it could be better, then join SE staff, ask for changes and/or help develop a newer graphic engine or whatever, so the game looks better but won't require an inexistent PC to run it at 40-60 FPS.

You're all whining and complaining about graphics, if you're so graphic-hunger then play something more "Detailed" and stop endlessly arguing over something so trivial as "What game got the best graphics", personally I love FFXIV graphics, they are more than decent and even with my sucky PC I can still play it with some decent graphics.

[AlexiaKidd]

Mine is more to do with animations but I suppose it falls into graphics.

Weapon skill/spell animations - This is supposed to be a next gen MMO, I realise this is an MMO so can't compare to a single player game but I still expected something more along the lines of this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-pzptgE4a4

but instead we got this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wodu_aYjSdU

Come on SE you can do better than that, in fact you already have.

[Abriael]

Want to see Lackluster graphics? get Shogun 2 Total war. First they advertised it with Direct X 11 support. Then they said that Direct X 11 support would come a month after launch and that Antialiasing would be supported only on Direct X 10.1 and upwards.
Today (after launch) we discover that nothing over DirectX 9 is supported at launch, and that includes the fact that the game doesn't have AntiAliasing for everyone. Of course the developer "forgot" to mention it.

The very convenient (and laughable) fact is that reviewers and media have been given a build of the game that had the full graphics (DirectX 10 DirectX 11 and AntiAliasing) enabled, basically dropping into the false and misleading advertisement realm.

Compared to having to play a game from today without AA, this game looks fantastic. Compared to creative Assembly and Sega, Square Enix did a great job.

They didn't get excessively involved with effects that would cause issues, and as a result we're at least getting to play the game without horrible jaggies all over the place.
First rule of game development: Don't bite more than you can chew.

[Black_Rose]

why is there a thread about FFXIV's graphics?
if it's still not enough for a 2011 mmo lean back and wait another 5 years, maybe we'll have a cryengine 3 mmo.
c'mon now, FFXIVs graphics are good, compared to other games it's the best.
alone the artwork is great.

some animations could use a rework, but we've allready voted so on the poll, so any further discussion like this feels like beating a dead horse.

if the graphics are not enough, i suggest playing a single player, i heared those games have good graphics since they don't load half as much stuff as an mmo does.

[PepperMint]

You can force a lot of really cool features in Nvidia control panel if you have a system that can handle it!

http://www.xfire.com/profile/silicus/screenshots/ffxiv/

The thing i hate the most is the ground textures, even on full graphics they are at some crazy low res :/