Lackluster Graphics in FFXIV

[BelgianRofl]

Until I play a game worthy of my time that can't be run on max settings @ 1920x1200 with at least 45 frames, I'll not be upgrading.

[Abriael]

Until I play a game worthy of my time that can't be run on max settings @ 1920x1200 with at least 45 frames, I'll not be upgrading.

Do you mean like this?
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5070/...2ae312fd_o.jpg

Notice the fraps FPS counter on top left.

And mind you, my PC is very far from being a beast.
http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=1329846

Before spending tens upon tens of posts stubbornly bashing a game's graphics, might want to actually experience them in their full splendor. As much as one might want to experience the vast majority of a game's gameplay and systems before bashing them.

[Sinzfeldt]

Do you mean like this?
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5070/...2ae312fd_o.jpg

Those cliffs still look absolutely horrible though.

[Abriael]

Those cliffs still look absolutely horrible though.

I wouldn't say so. They look pretty realistic stratified cliffs to me, and the normal mapping improves the visuals very nicely.
Sure they'd look even better with tassellation, but that kind of effect is probably too heavy for a MMORPG.

Maybe they're a tad too clean, and could use some weathering/vegetation (even if volcanic cliffs in very windy area actually tend to be quite clean, and limsa is a volcanic area, and very windy).
But as I already said that's a matter of art direction, not of quality of the graphics.

I remember Bastok and its "greys" indeed but like you'll see in this image, they are fragmented and merged with "whites" and other colors around:

That's an extremely zoomed out image (that I believe couldn't even be seen in game from that perspective. Might be wrong, but I'm 99% sure). Looking with a nearer perspective the grey was very, very strong.
I actually find limsa quite a lot warmer, thanks to the the use of a lot of dark wood (which is actually used in modern architecture to "warm" concrete/steel interiors that tend to be extra cold), an element that was pretty much absent in Bastok.

Mind you, even some areas of Jeuno that were designed much later than bastok were strikingly grayish and "clean".
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4109/...5567c876_o.jpg

[Sinzfeldt]

Thing is though, no matter how many polygons you added to that cliff it would still look crap because the texture is low res as hell because of the crappy curtain LOD.

[Abriael]

Thing is though, no matter how many polygons you added to that cliff it would still look crap because the texture is low res as hell because of the crappy curtain LOD.

That's why you're given the option to use the depth of field effect if you find it so much of a problem.
Most games hide it by adding distance haze (that normally can't even be deactivated) or by shortening radically the draw distance.

I'd rather have the minor annoyance of the LOD, but the extremely long (and quite spectacular) draw distance that the FFXIV engine grants, than not being able to see at an even remotely realistic distance like in other MMOs.

[Sinzfeldt]

That's why you're given the option to use the depth of field effect if you find it so much of a problem.

Yes lets give players fish vision, that's a real solution to the problem eh.

[Munba]

Mind you, even some areas of Jeuno that were designed much later than bastok were strikingly grayish and "clean".
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4109/...5567c876_o.jpg

And also in Jeuno that white/yellow in the floor 'softens' the general grey atmosphere. LL becomes a bit warmer only during the sunset and dawn, for obvious reasons.