Lackluster Graphics in FFXIV

[DAOWAce]

The game engine is just bad, regardless of what anyone says about how adding shadows would require higher system requirements.

The texture quality in FFXIV is standard in present time. The water quality is below standard and the water animation is very poor (in places). The model quality is above standard and the model animations are way above standard. The shadow quality is below average for things that actually have shadows. The density of grass doesn't exist. The LoD is horrendous.

It's a bad engine, either not meant for a PC game, or the creators of it have no idea how to properly develop PC games compared to companies like Blizzard, Epic, Valve, or most importantly, Crytek.

Look at games like Crysis (all), Bad Company 2, The Witcher 2.. look at the amount of graphical options in those games (even DX9 only options), then look at what FFXIV lacks. (The game of choice to compare FFXIV to is Crysis 2 for the PS3.) I'm not even mentioning games coming out in the future for a reason, else I'd throw Battlefield 3 in there with its massive landscapes, comparable to MMORPGs. (that's not to say games from years ago didn't have massive landscapes, but BF3's detail on them is incredible.)

We can all assume it's due to PS3 limitations, but the reality of it is: Square can create different clients for the platforms. They don't want to, just as they don't want to add regional servers despite there being HQ's in the US and EU.

They are a bad PC game company and a poor multiplayer game company. That's all there really is to it, and it's very sad. We'll have to deal with their incompetence until they face reality.

Edit: I meant to bring up things like multithreading, but forgot. Pretend I said stuff about it.