Lackluster Graphics in FFXIV

[Abriael]

Oh yeah. I agree with you.

Glad to see we could see eye to eye.

There's not even 1000 characters logged into an FFXIV server at any given time. At most there are like 100 Characters on screen, all of which cast shadows, and all of which have different sets of gear and armor. Is it so much to ask SE to make the landscape cast shadows as well? Easy Peezy Japaneezy!

Do you mean that they should code the game based on the current population? Come on. This is silly.

Obviously they have to take in account the possibility of heavy traffic. Do you expect them to tell us "oh yeah, now we're adding more effects, but mind you, we're taking them away when the PS3 version launches".

100 characters on screen are a TON (mind you, even 50) of stress on the hardware. Especially with the level of detail we have in FFXIV. If landscapes casted shadows, they should cast shadows not only on themselves, but on the characters as well (otherwise it would look absolutely ugly). This means that every shadow has to interact with every polygon of the characters. That's quite a lot further calculations weighing on the graphics chip.

Just think about this. Your character walks in a shadow under a mountain. Everything around him is dark... and he's perfectly lighted!

Honestly, it'd look much worse than what we have now.

[BelgianRofl]

If landscapes casted shadows, they should cast shadows not only on themselves, but on the characters as well (otherwise it would look absolutely ugly).

The 100 on-screen characters already do this. I'll repeat myself again and again to keep my info-graphic on the front page.... Ambient Occlusion taxes the system waay more than landscape and structures casting shadows.

This: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...Floodlight.png :will make the game look greattttt for those of us crazy enough to spend $400 on a GPU!!!! WOOOOO!

[Abriael]

The 100 on-screen characters already do this. I'll repeat myself again and again to keep my info-graphic on the front page.... Ambient Occlusion taxes the system waay more than landscape and structures casting shadows.

This: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...Floodlight.png :will make the game look greattttt for those of us crazy enough to spend $400 on a GPU!!!! WOOOOO!

You forgot a detail that's been told over and over already. Implementing Ambient occlusion has been stated by SE as a futureproof option. It's not supposed to be used (while I find it's inclusion to be rather silly, I would have left it out, as it causes confusion and I don't know a single person taking advantage of it). They put it in for the simple fact that it took basically no resources to include it.

Unlike dynamic shading/lighting, it's such a simple (in implementation) effect that you can force it on almost every game from your video card control panel if your VC is powerful enough. Even if it's not implemented in the game.

The 100 on screen characters don't cast shadow on each other, by the way. Just on themselves and the ground. Luckily their shadow is small, and the problem is almost unnoticeable.
Adding environmental shadows would involve shadows to be cast on every single character happening to walk in the area, which is a LOT different.