Breaking down some of the screenshots

[Reyn]

Those of you whinging over the graphics, refusing to believe that SE would release a promotional image at less-than-max settings have clearly never seen this (click for full size):



In comparison...



...doesn't look too bad. IMO.

That said, I think a degrade in quality is to be expected when promised a new engine intended to run the game smoothly on lower end machines. I'm not sure how anyone could be surprised?

Honestly, the most exciting thing for me is that the downgrade isn't anywhere near as dramatic as I feared it would be. I think I can live with a less impressive ground texture in Thanalan if it's no longer the only texture I'm looking at from one end to the other of the entire region.

[Keith_Dragoon]

Yeah but Lulu has a dark fireball icon next to her name and casting firaga in one of the shots. Chocobo? Really doubt it. Lulu is a mage, and so far the names they pick depict the classes they represent (Delita is paladin, Aerith is the white mage, etc)

Hence why I said pet which includes your main storyline companion and any NPC that might join you for a quest. I doubt jobs are going to be limited to players especially with party AI coming along with 2.0. Who knows, SE loves to make us speculate then smack us down with raw facts making all our hopes and reams turn to ash. :P

[Nakiami]

Oh holy balls 2.0, that CG War just made my desktop wallpaper.

[Laraul]

WHAT LOW RESOLUTION TEXTURES?!? I see NONE! Less than those in the present game. WHAT ARE YOU PEOPLE LOOKING AT? Are you people referring to the foliage and shrubbery not being in ultra-high detail? I mean one person refers to "low resolution textures" and everyone assumes the game has "low resolution textures." You just are seeing what you WANT to see.

[AlphaDragoon]

WHAT LOW RESOLUTION TEXTURES?!? I see NONE! Less than those in the present game. WHAT ARE YOU PEOPLE LOOKING AT? Are you people referring to the foliage and shrubbery not being in ultra-high detail? I mean one person refers to "low resolution textures" and everyone assumes the game has "low resolution textures." You just are seeing what you WANT to see.

Specifically, people are talking about the ground and rock textures closeup. The current ground textures in Thanalan look normal mapped, while the ones in the 2.0 screenshot look almost like they're just textures.

I noticed as soon as I saw the 2.0 screens. If those screens are indeed how it looks when the game is run at the recommended settings, then I'd say the textures did get a minor downgrade. It's well worth it to give up some of the detail to achieve the variety in design we're getting and the game still looks amazing, possibly even more so thanks to the real-time lighting upgrades, but let's not pretend like it isn't there.

[Laraul]

Specifically, people are talking about the ground and rock textures closeup. The current ground textures in Thanalan look normal mapped, while the ones in the 2.0 screenshot look almost like they're just textures.

I noticed as soon as I saw the 2.0 screens. If those screens are indeed how it looks when the game is run at the recommended settings, then I'd say the textures did get a minor downgrade. It's well worth it to give up some of the detail to achieve the variety in design we're getting and the game still looks amazing, possibly even more so thanks to the real-time lighting upgrades, but let's not pretend like it isn't there.

But changing the texture setting from highest to lowest actually does nothing. You get the exact same textures regardless of that setting. And there are no screen shots that show the ground or rocks extremely closeup. At least not head on. Maybe people who say the game is full of low res textures run with DoF off. That would possibly explain why people say the textures are low res. No one has seen the game in action either. Who are we to judge based on a few screen shots of completely different rendered scenes.

Have you seen the Inn in the current game? Have you not noticed that it's nothing but low res textures? And it's premature to judge the looks of a game that's not finished. Especially if you don't know what you are looking at. I don't even know if these images are from the game or conceptual renderings. I can tell you they aren't PS3 picts cuz all the screenshots are 1600x900. I can also tell you that it's highly unlikely SE or any one trying to promote a game would show it running less than at it's best. So why would you run it at "standard" or "low" settings?

Oh yeah, let's not forget that FFXIV launched looking the same as it does now. I don't think graphics should be the thing on the top of the agenda. Right now, my opinion of anyone who says that the graphics aren't "good enough" are f**king idiots. SE should never release screen shots again to you people.

I am really mad if you haven't noticed and i'm going to go lie down in the corner for a while.

[Jocko]

You just are seeing what you WANT to see.

Oh, the irony

[bobbygunz]

WHAT LOW RESOLUTION TEXTURES?!? I see NONE! Less than those in the present game. WHAT ARE YOU PEOPLE LOOKING AT? Are you people referring to the foliage and shrubbery not being in ultra-high detail? I mean one person refers to "low resolution textures" and everyone assumes the game has "low resolution textures." You just are seeing what you WANT to see.

Are you BLIND? Look at the ground. It's a flat surface tile with one or two different colours. . Look at the aliased edges around everything.

Everyone's blind.

[Psion]

I couldve sworn a while back they mentioned chocobos also having jobs as well, so you could have your chocobo casting cure on you. At least, i think i recall that being the example they used.

Most likely surnames are here to stay, but if you noticed with one screenshot of the carpenter manqote, there was a tell by Kain H., not Kain Highwind. This suggests to me that you will probably be able to send /tells using their last initial, provided there's not two people with the same first name and last initial. It would certainly make sending tells quicker.

I wouldn't be surprised if they have a config option that lets you see only your first name for cutscenes and game display though.

[Cthulhu]

Both the characters are using the AF weapons from the jobs questline. I hope this puts to rest the debate about what weapons the promissory note is for.