Lackluster Graphics in FFXIV

[Dubont]

1) I'd use Ambient Occlusion if it was implemented properly because it creatures the illusion that the game has some shadowing, but, of course, only those with dual 590's and a 5GHz 995x can run ambient occlusion at comfortable framerates. (maybe I'm exaggerating a little bit..)

you aren't far off. I run at mid-high settings and the second that I turn on AO, I can press my "move forward" key...go grab a glass of kool-aid, come back and my dude MIGHT have moved...

[Black_Rose]

you aren't far off. I run at mid-high settings and the second that I turn on AO, I can press my "move forward" key...go grab a glass of kool-aid, come back and my dude MIGHT have moved...

did you try AO lately?
i dunno but i've tried it with my GTX460's in SLI and it was working fine.
with highest settings possible ( besides general drawing quality which shouldn't be above 8) i only lost 5-10 FPS outside towns, so i had a stable 50~55 FPS on the fields.

i know that months back AO would've cause extreme FPS lose, but ever since around may/june it was working normaly for me.
maybe due to new Nvidia driver, maybe SE did something.

either way, i still don't use it at all, the difference isn't that big.

[Alyssa]

Repeating textures are worse than in world of warcraft - again, most notably on Limsa Lominsa cliffs.

I agree with your comment on repeating textures. The copy pasta is also really bad in The Black Shroud, especially those curving inclines that are all over the zone.

I don't really have a beef with the water graphics or the not-totally-naturalistic lighting effects.

[Dreamer]

I agree with your comment on repeating textures. The copy pasta is also really bad in The Black Shroud, especially those curving inclines that are all over the zone.

I don't really have a beef with the water graphics or the not-totally-naturalistic lighting effects.

Repeating textures and repeating terrain are two entirely different things. All games use repeating textures, some just do it better than others. FFXIV's texture work is really good, at least for the high-resolution textures. The low-res ones that display on terrain at a distance can be really bad at times, but even it would be fine if they would simply push back the distance that it switches between the two and make it gradual, instead of the Line of Eyesore(TM) that currently runs 12m in front of you.

[Kerath]

I thing the game looks amazing, but I would like an option that would allow for Casscade Shadow maps. I feel like the lighting in the world is really flat because it lacks the contrast of shadows.

[Aramyth]

I like this water:
http://tagn.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/evendim.jpg

[giftforce]

Bad things about FFXIV's graphics:

Water
Texture resolution at far distances
Spell and skill effects (just awful)
No shadows

Those are the main things.

[Eekiki]

Bad things about FFXIV's graphics:
Texture resolution at far distances

With my system (i7 with a GTX590 graphics card, kinda high end for most people), I can run it with Depth of Field turned on, and I increased oversampling on distant objects to "High" from "Standard". Distant textures look pretty good now.

The thing that bugs me the most is the "no shadows" thing. We cast shadows. The big easter egg balloon that was floating around during the egg hunt cast a shadow. But terrain does not cast a shadow! There's no shade under the trees! That irks me greatly (probably more than it should).

[Trocien]

With my system (i7 with a GTX590 graphics card, kinda high end for most people), I can run it with Depth of Field turned on, and I increased oversampling on distant objects to "High" from "Standard". Distant textures look pretty good now.

The thing that bugs me the most is the "no shadows" thing. We cast shadows. The big easter egg balloon that was floating around during the egg hunt cast a shadow. But terrain does not cast a shadow! There's no shade under the trees! That irks me greatly (probably more than it should).

For those non-believers, check out this video to see how much of a difference adding shadows can make. Also - what leaving a game engine up to a real developer can do for your game.

[zaviermhigo]

With my system (i7 with a GTX590 graphics card, kinda high end for most people), I can run it with Depth of Field turned on, and I increased oversampling on distant objects to "High" from "Standard". Distant textures look pretty good now.

The thing that bugs me the most is the "no shadows" thing. We cast shadows. The big easter egg balloon that was floating around during the egg hunt cast a shadow. But terrain does not cast a shadow! There's no shade under the trees! That irks me greatly (probably more than it should).

That irks me too, this game is kinda half ass and lazy, maybe it was rushed.