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.

[Elkwood]

Abriel you cant fix stupid this is a classic case of I have to be right syndrome no matter how many tell him he is wrong. Just ignore it and let the baby have his bottle.

[Abriael]

Abriel you cant fix stupid this is a classic case of I have to be right syndrome no matter how many tell him he is wrong. Just ignore it and let the baby have his bottle.

Unfortunately that seems to be the case.

[BelgianRofl]

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.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgtZvn5c4e4

I see what is causing your confusion. The FFXI Characters being relatively low-poly combined with not casting shadows makes you believe that the background is superimposed pre-rendered CGI because the lighting effects lead you to believe that that level of detail was unattainable real-time in 2005. Am I correct in assessing your (albeit wrong) position?

Unfortunately for your argument, the structures in the demo don't cast shadows either. There's just nice water reflection effects. Which just furthers my point that water reflection make the game look a WHOLE hell of a lot prettier, and is an effect which uses minimal resources (think waverace 64) - especially compared to ambient occlusion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xrReCeiZPc An example of what a modern tech demo looked like in 2005.

Edit: ^this 2005 3dmark video makes one wonder where SE got the idea for Limsa's cutscene

[Abriael]

I see what is causing your confusion.

You're the one that's confused

Not only there are no shadows cast by characters, but there's no shadows casted ON characters. on the other hand there are shadows cast on structures. There are also baked shadows very visible, which are a clear indication of prerendering.

Reflective water uses "minimal resources" only when the water model is extremely simple. That's most decidedly not the case with FFXIV.

You really shouldn't talk about what you don't know Everyone disagrees with you, and ultimately this thread was epic fail.

[Martin]

Sigh... people and their demands, "Perfect" games does not YET exists guys, play and enjoy what you have today, or wait another few years for a better game with better graphics to be developed.