HDR Support on PS4?

[SerLuke]

Has there been any discussion from the devs on adding HDR support for this game? Maybe in 5.0?

[Faeon]

nope, and not likely to happen.

[SerLuke]

nope, and not likely to happen.

Why not? I think FFXIV could benefit greatly from HDR.

[Noodle_Trinidad]

Why not? I think FFXIV could benefit greatly from HDR.

Given Yoshida’s answer when the latest graphic cards were brought up he feels that the game doesn’t need any kind of graphical update to be competitive. I think more graphical options and graphical updates especially to the textures would be great but alas Yoshida is stuck in his ways.

[Maero]

ESO had done a fairly good job i think of implementing HDR support (it really is noticeable) but it simply is not a priority for FFXIV. We can all enjoy the jagged textures on clothing for years to come

[Kirsten_Rev]

Has there been any discussion from the devs on adding HDR support for this game? Maybe in 5.0?

No discussion that I've heard of, and I'd say it's not likely to happen yet.

Honestly, this is one instance in which I agree with with the outcome, too. HDR requires a fair amount of effort, since a proper implementation involves reworking the entire rendering pipeline (textures, lighting, shaders, etc.). Despite this fair amount of effort, it's only beneficial for the small subset of players who have access to an HDR screen. In 3-4 years this will be more common, but it's not now, and won't be by the time 5.0 releases.

There's also the fact that there are far more pressing graphical issues that SE should address first, that every player can enjoy the benefits of right now. The most significant is their atrociously low-resolution textures, but there is also the nonexistent physics system that causes rampant clipping, and - while probably not entirely a graphical issue - the relatively limited number of objects that the engine can display on-screen at any given point in time. I'd much rather SE address these issues before moving on to something exotic like HDR. We could make an argument that ray-tracing would be great, too, but it'd be kind of dumb to implement it right now given the relative scarcity of RTX owners right now.

ESO had done a fairly good job i think of implementing HDR support (it really is noticeable) but it simply is not a priority for FFXIV. We can all enjoy the jagged textures on clothing for years to come

In fairness, jagged textures on clothing have nothing to do with HDR, and wouldn't be fixed by HDR.

[DrWho2010]

they would literally have to redraw everything - something that would probably only happen with maaaaaaayyyyyyybe an expansion or pretty much just an entirely new game. i wouldn't count on it happening like pretty much ever imo.

[Noodle_Trinidad]

they would literally have to redraw everything - something that would probably only happen with maaaaaaayyyyyyybe an expansion or pretty much just an entirely new game. i wouldn't count on it happening like pretty much ever imo.

This is sadly the mentality at hand. The excuse is the workload of a problem that shouldn't have existed in the first place. To quote Yoshida:
"Since FFXIV had PS3 support, its graphics technology is 2 generations behind. If we had high poly models/hi-res textures ((unclear)) then we could just swap them out, but we don't. A lot of things were created low poly/low-res from the start for cost-saving, so we would have to recreate all of them in order for the improved graphics to look good."

While I can understand the issue with low-poly models to an extent, let's not ignore the fact that 1.0 variations of armors were properly detailed on top of being fitted for all races, the fact that the textures are done at Low-Res by default is appalling. One would think they would have made their source files hi-res by default and scaled them down to adjust for hardware but it seems no matter what you run the highest you'll get in texture quality is already low-res leading to those ugly pixel staircases they love to show off during the GLA/PLD questline and Hien's outfit, which they also sold. It would have been more understandable for the reboot textures if they eventually went back and slowly updated them but we're 5 years into this game and the philosophy is kept the same, something that has obviously been bled into everything this game has to offer given how nothing has really been shaken up or properly built upon in the 5 years this reboot has been out.

As for the overall answer of when or if its been discussed here is another from Yoshida:
"I get asked this a lot lately. The other day it was in China, so I guess it might be a worldwide topic of interest. If you're asking me if there's a possibility in the future, then the answer is probably yes, there is. But if you're asking if we have it planned right now, the answer is no. We don't have anything planned and it's not in any of our milestones."

We're going into 5.0, a recent interview has already shown he hasn't even considered how he'll shake up the content formula come 5.0 and with the slowly increasing burn out rate that Eureka has sped up due to the lack of Relic Progression Options(ie Isolated In Eureka) you really need to wonder what the next expansion is going to offer to justify paying for what is essentially a massive patch. No plans for graphical updates, no plans for new formulas and an insistence to stick to the safe and true is what will end up killing this game if not addressed.

Source of Quotes: https://game.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/news/1139698.html
Translation: https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme..._and_soken_at/

[KisaiTenshi]

Has there been any discussion from the devs on adding HDR support for this game? Maybe in 5.0?

Not that I know of, last time people asked for 4K, that hasn't been answered really either. Keep in mind that Textures != Resolution, and that is a mistake that just about everyone who has never bought a dedicated video card has made, because people go "oh bigger textures means I need a card with more memory", hence people getting bamboozled into buying 4GB underpowered cards, when a card with half the memory but 4x the bandwidth would still be twice as good.

they would literally have to redraw everything - something that would probably only happen with maaaaaaayyyyyyybe an expansion or pretty much just an entirely new game. i wouldn't count on it happening like pretty much ever imo.

Not really. 4K doesn't require higher resolution textures, it requires greater depth of field for backgrounds (which is the primary thing noticed in 4K-enabled games) and in order for any foreground objects to benefit from 4K, the models themselves need to be designed for 4K, right now every close-up shot of your character in 4K, you can see the polygon edges because the smoothing has an upper-limit.

HDR is a different lighting technique (so is Ray Tracing/Radiosity) that allows for the same image to contain detail that isn't lost when the screen brightness changes. In most games right now, you can over-brighten the screen and all the dark colors become a muddy color, or you can turn the game's brightness down and all the bright colors become a dull white. HDR in theory removes this min-max of brightness levels and tells the screen that "this pixel is always bright" and "this pixel is always black". HDR has been available since DX9 games like Halflife 2, it's just now done in hardware, and computer screens have not caught up to it yet, you can only find this feature in photography monitors and home theater televisions which is how the PS4 Pro would take advantage of it.

That's the gist of it anyway. It would require changing the ambient lighting throughout the game, and that is likely the minimum we would get without re-tuning all the explosions.

[Vahlnir]

As for the overall answer of when or if its been discussed here is another from Yoshida:
"I get asked this a lot lately. The other day it was in China, so I guess it might be a worldwide topic of interest. If you're asking me if there's a possibility in the future, then the answer is probably yes, there is. But if you're asking if we have it planned right now, the answer is no. We don't have anything planned and it's not in any of our milestones."

We're going into 5.0, a recent interview has already shown he hasn't even considered how he'll shake up the content formula come 5.0 and with the slowly increasing burn out rate that Eureka has sped up due to the lack of Relic Progression Options(ie Isolated In Eureka) you really need to wonder what the next expansion is going to offer to justify paying for what is essentially a massive patch. No plans for graphical updates, no plans for new formulas and an insistence to stick to the safe and true is what will end up killing this game if not addressed.

Source of Quotes: https://game.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/news/1139698.html
Translation: https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme..._and_soken_at/

To be honest, if they would give the game the upgrades it needs to its engine and give the game proper server infrastructure so they can stop using server limitations as an excuse I'd forgive a good many of their failings recently. Yes, it would take a lot of time and effort, but the payoff would be worth it for everyone involved. But there's probably a better chance of getting struck by lightning 3 times and winning the lottery in the same day. Every time they've tried to change up the formula in any way it's like they don't know their player base at all and it comes out either half baked (Eureka) though "half baked" is actually pretty generous...or it's simply dead on release like LoV or Diadem.