Thread: Question about 1.0 FFXIV

Originally Posted by Kacho_Nacho

Hello everyone!

Thanks to another thread, I discovered a collection of all the cutscenes from the original FFXIV MMO. The look of the cutscenes are quite striking.

Sort of dreamy, with these wonderful, rich shadows, and good, sharp detail. I was wondering if we could have an optional setting or a texture pack which would capture this look?

I wish we could have one, but SE has made no moves in this direction. Ironically, aside from the insistence on PS3 support, the average computer (or PS4) was more than powerful enough to run FFXIV 1.0's graphics by the time 2.0 was released with the detail levels blown to smithereens.

That said, as others have pointed out, there's a lot more to it than the shadows and such. The animations in the 1.0 cutscenes were entirely original, not repackaged emotes like what we have now. As a result, they were more difficult to make, though I'd argue some of the more major cutscenes in 2.0+ would benefit from the extra attention.

We might get an improved engine one day when PS4 Pro becomes more widespread, but I'm not holding my breath.

Edit / Additional Reply:

Originally Posted by Malzian

Would it be nice too have that level of graphical detail back? Yes, but the amount of computing resources that would make it feasible to do that in the game system is significant and would likely erode playability at its expense.

I beg to differ, here. Virtually any high-end PC title made over the last several years looks vastly better than FFXIV. Hell, Skyrim, which was released in 2011, blows FFXIV out of the water when you layer on high-resolution texture packs and some extra lighting bells and whistles.

It wouldn't have worked on the PS3, and weaker computers or the PS4 would struggle with improvements right now, but allowing for higher-resolution textures and some improved lighting effects really wouldn't take that much effort right now. Let people who have the hardware use it.