How good is the game engine of FFXIV?

[Razard]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVLGwudbZTk

Sorry for my ignorance but is WoW running on the same engine it was running on back when it was released?
How do they create these in-game cinematic trailers in the recent expansions? The movements are so versatile, the trailers and even in the game the environment is as smooth, vibrant and clear that it's hard to convince that it's the same game released back in 2004
So I wonder why it matters that FFXIV is running on an engine 2 generations behind while WoW is running on an engine from back in 2004 yet it still thrives and improves to such graphics

Because those are pre-rendered cutscenes?

[Alien_Gamer]

Those cinematics were pre-rendered and played as a movie, not rendered in game. Its the exact same thing FF14 does with many of its cinematics.

[TheVigilant]

Because those are pre-rendered cutscenes?

Why can't FFXIV have pre-rendered cutscenes or dialogue scenes?
And why can't the FFXIV be as smooth and clear as it is in WoW? I mean the jaggedness, shimmers and low textures of even the Stormblood new characters in the maximum settings that lead to many people resorting to things like Reshade, Stormshade etc

Those cinematics were pre-rendered and played as a movie, not rendered in game. Its the exact same thing FF14 does with many of its cinematics.

I think you only mean the patch trailers on FFXIV's official youtube channel, don't you? Unless you mean this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jinmJ6m1Kbc

...then you need to check again with the WoW pre-rendered cutscene, I'm sure you can see how much the FFXIV characters are struggling to move anything other than their lips and neck

[Razard]

Why can't FFXIV have pre-rendered cutscenes or dialogue scenes?

Because it does.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecMSU6BiE8Q

[TheVigilant]

Because it does.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecMSU6BiE8Q

Thanks for sharing, though a spoiler, I'm glad to see it
But why can't the in-game dialogue scenes be with similar movement versatility? the characters struggle to move, it seems they're struggling to focus their resources only on the most major and biggest scenes while in most of the scenes there is only movements in the neck, the lips and eyes

And I hope you're not dodging my question regarding the jaggedness of the hairs of characters and lack of texture in the majority of scenes, it's like the characters are only designed to be seen from far but then we have to see them from up-close most of the time due to the scenes

[Razard]

And I hope you're not dodging my question regarding the jaggedness of the hairs of characters and lack of texture in the majority of scenes, it's like the characters are only designed to be seen from far but then we have to see them from up-close most of the time due to the scenes

Because you are not comparing like for like. Your taking pre-rendered movies and comparing them to in game dialogue scenes.

This is what an in game WoW cutscene tends to look like.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1IrxwQNrHc

[TheVigilant]

Because you are not comparing like for like. Your taking pre-rendered movies and comparing them to in game dialogue scenes.

This is what an in game WoW cutscene tends to look like.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1IrxwQNrHc

That's not a cutscene, it's a quest from Cataclysm many years ago but you're partially right because this is what a cutscene looks like:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkfP1G-gO0U

What I can see is that the struggle of movement is the same but the textures are much more sharp, smooth and clear in comparison to the ones we have in Stormblood, what's the reason? Is it a modeling issue or an AA issue? Not a single hair in FFXIV looks as smooth as the hair of models in BFA

[Jonnycbad]

1.0 graphics are still great by today's standards. I miss the weighty running physics of 1.0. Basically when you stopped running, you would trot to a stop like in ffxv. Wouldn't work in ARR with how mechanics require precise movement.

[Aerlana]

WoW began with the war3 engine (a little improve)
BUT they did improve it later (for MOP release) So, vanilla/cata - BC - WOTLK areas are on the old engine, and MOP+ on the new. you can see difference. But the best way to see differences is an option to get the character "old" version or "new" version. (at WoD/legion, they did some rework with the new engine for vanilla/BC races)

The "ingame" cinematics are with the game engine we have now.


Also, not because they did improve the engine that SE can improve FFXIV engine. First it is some improve, but not a rework. And an engine can be "lock" without any way to improve it (or just some small improve).


But... i laugh of the "PS3 limitations"... this made my day


PS : WoW is "cartoon" design, clearly not what FF does, we could maybe see the faces, but many things avoid to directly compare. My post just aim to show that wow did evolve its engine from 2004 to now, and maybe FFXIV could also do it!

[Dyvid]

That's not a cutscene, it's a quest from Cataclysm many years ago but you're partially right because this is what a cutscene looks like:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkfP1G-gO0U

What I can see is that the struggle of movement is the same but the textures are much more sharp, smooth and clear in comparison to the ones we have in Stormblood, what's the reason? Is it a modeling issue or an AA issue? Not a single hair in FFXIV looks as smooth as the hair of models in BFA

You simply can't compare two different games together like that. First they are form two different county so the art style is different, then you have the fact that they use completely different game engines. Also WoW has two different cutscenes, one is using ingame mechanics and one is animated, WoW Kul Tiras Most of FFXIV cutscene are made using in game mechanics.