Which part of the graphics would you like to see improved?

[Roda]

I would love to see ambient occlusion. The lack of it iis the number 1 reason why the game looks so flat to me.
That and self shadows, though AO could definitely help cheat that. (I'm sick of my hat brim, hair, and nose not casting shadows on my face.)

[Rufalus]

I think lighting would be the biggest upgrade. They already announced plans to begin preparation for better textures, to be done in batches. Sounds like they have a lot on their plate since they are also working on - among other things - female Hrothgar and addition of more platforms. There's no hurdles to Xbox any more but the PS5 client was their first priority. If Nintendo's next gen system is suitable then that'll be even more work.

[Allegor]

Gear in this game always intrigued me because you can have, say, a chest piece that has nice 'HD' ornaments and belt buckles, but then the collar look like it was ravaged by the blur tool. Character textures would be nice too I guess, Hydaelyn knows I want to call a dermatologist anytime I see my Roe's pores

[Lauront]

The character models. Some of them are looking quite dated at this point.

I'd likely play a male Highlander if they had proper eyebrows and nicer looking faces.

I'm hoping with an eventual engine overhaul, we'd also be able to do things like set muscle tone on an Au Ra male. Body types would be a dream come true but very difficult to implement. Being able to really make the muscle tone on an Au Ra show would be great.

There's promising news anyhow on the graphics front, based on this:

Even more to look forward to
The PS5 open beta is bringing a lot to the table in terms of upgrades, but we aren’t stopping there—the team is looking to add even more in the future.

Matsuzawa: “We are thinking of eventually upgrading in-game textures in phases and are starting initial preparations for that update.

However, we do need to keep in mind that other platforms, including the PlayStation 4 version, are still in service. Since FFXIV is an MMO, we need to place some emphasis on being able to simultaneously render player characters and their equipment, while still ensuring everything works smoothly. We do need to take care when planning major updates like this and start with testing and verifying it all works well.

Plus, assets that we created nearly ten years ago didn’t factor in the possibility of being displayed at the high resolutions available to us today, so we have to think about how to revise quite a massive amount of assets efficiently.

...and this...

Will there be any graphic improvements for the expansion this time? If so, will there be any demand on higher PC spec requirements?

No, not at all.

We’re improving the rendering on the Playstation 5 and allow players to play with slightly better graphics. The rest will remain basically the same. However, we do think of reworking the graphics engine in the future.

All the assets we’ve created for the past 10 years ended up in enormous amounts here and on top of that, the data folder structure will have to be restructured in order to make this work. In addition to that, there’s also a demand for 4K texture support.

To begin with, I think we will have to change the way we work on creating the graphics in order to do this.

For example, to make the mantle flutter even more, we will have to change the concept called “bones” that are located on the rig, install a physics engine on it, and it is necessary to perform physical adjustments on each character in order to make this work. Doing so will end up overperforming here, so in order to deal with this, we will have to ensure that it will be possible to turn off the character physics calculations of other players. But if we do so, the mantle visual seen on other players will end up cracking because of this.

All of these elements will have to be included and fixed from the ground up, and considering we want to deliver the best game experience due to the importance of the end of Hydaelyn-Zodiark arc as well, the progress is currently put on hold for now.

However, we are indeed laying preliminary arrangements, and we are conducting research here. This applies to the Data Center Travel that was announced earlier but we are moving our projects forward on a multiyear basis here. so in a way, players are able to go on exciting adventures with the current spec required and this will be unchanged for now, and I want players to be able to do so without worrying too much.

However, you can interpret this whole answer as “Yoshida did mention that he wants to do this”, and I don’t mind if you tell readers that.

Adding to that, it would be great if you could also let them know that it will be a tremendous amount of work involved here. (laughs)

Naoki Yoshida

[Enla]

Texture updates across the board, particularly for older content. Lighting updates would be nice as well but better lighting is only going to make the bad textures more apparent if they aren't handled together.

[TheVigilant]

I also noticed the graphics of some of the older jobs skills feel like they could be updated to look up to par with the reaper's skills animation, just an example is Stone II of the White Mage, the rocks don't look as clear and detailed as the animations of the skills of newer jobs.

[Crowzer]

As most of the people here, I would to see textures upgraded.
Also, shadow and lighting.

[GrizzlyTank]

The environments. Always a bit sad seeing how grandiose the cities are in the cutscenes, only to have most of the flora and other doodads stripped/absent in-game.

[MrPresident]

The gear. Even new pieces look awful when you zoom in on them.

[Sorimachi87]

Wouldnt say no to more atmospheric fog / clouds and hair / clothes physics improvements.