GRAPHICAL UPDATE

[Mokawic]

they said in a live letter that they plan on showing more in the upcoming fanfests and nothing before then

[Ardythe]

Heaven Benchmark sure is pretty - can't play it though...better to have good content first.. This is a good game, it does not need newer graphics to remain good. Waste of time, and waste of money upgrading computers. Shallow, like I said - but, hey - dumb blondes draw the eyes first.

[Coratanni]

Heaven Benchmark sure is pretty - can't play it though...better to have good content first.. This is a good game, it does not need newer graphics to remain good. Waste of time, and waste of money upgrading computers. Shallow, like I said - but, hey - dumb blondes draw the eyes first.

The developers have pride in what they've created. If they can find a way to make it better, not just content wise, but graphically, you better believe they will try to do it. They want FFXIV to be the very best game they can create for people to enjoy. And that includes what you call shallow.

[PEANUT]

Heaven Benchmark sure is pretty - can't play it though...better to have good content first.. This is a good game, it does not need newer graphics to remain good. Waste of time, and waste of money upgrading computers. Shallow, like I said - but, hey - dumb blondes draw the eyes first.

Lol, well my fictional "not real" character is blonde... and now you're just getting rude and enforcing stereotypes. Yoshi-P himself even said he was really taken out of a serious scene during a closeup of the terrible pixelated grass, and given the heart of this game is story telling, one of the things that help them do that is having decent graphics. No one is expecting like PS5 next-gen graphics like UE5 or anything, but upgrading them? Yes, for sure, nothing wrong with that and it doesn't mean it's taking away employees or money from upgrading other aspects of the game, so your negative attitude is really not needed. You can stay mad about this issue, but it's gonna happen whether you like it or not so...

[Rithy255]

I'd like to see a graphics update personally. I think it can make FF14's appeal even better so that's a good thing, I think the game looks alright but the lighting and shading really could use some work in my opinion.

My main issue with the cosmetic side of the game and looks wise, generally is the amount of clipping you get with longer hairstyles, I wish hair was designed around sets a bit more, I think ff14 has a lot of good class fantasy sets, problem is a lot of them restrict my hairstyle which I just default to the cat girl pony tail because most sets don't have clipping, I guess it would be less of a problem if I just used "casual glams" but I like my character to fit more into the world.

Also just adding here, but some weirdly hide your tail I've seen recently or hats not showing your ears bothers me from what would otherwise be really cool looking glams.

[DiaDeem]

There's a few things I'd like to see in the update, and here they are in order of importance for me:

Lighting: This is huge when it comes to computer graphics. Fortnite's UE5 update is proof that you can have really basic assets but if they're well lit, it makes a world of difference. There's places in XIV that frankly are lit horribly. A lot of time is spent in the Ocular in ShB and everyone's face looks so weird, and that's just the most prominent example I can think of at the top of my head. This is gonna be huge for the game.
Better Antialiasing: The current implementation is just not great. Good antialiasing can help even low quality textures look rather nice at a smaller loading cost. Add it on top of nice textures and that's the next step to making the game look much prettier.
Foliage: This will make open environments looks so much prettier. The example they had in Elpis blew my mind. That's one I'm excited about.
Textures: Most textures right now are... fine. They're serviceable, particularly if you're looking from a distance. Better AA will help some of these look better. Get a little closer and some just look really poor, particularly in older areas. I think there's room here for improvement.
Character Triangles: Just with better textures and lighting, the current models would look way better than they do right now, and this is why this is the lowest for me. Avoiding sausage fingers and N64 feet are the big change I feel these characters need, though I think this engine can push models with the quality of the ones 1.0 had and even better.

Good graphics aren't a shallow. They're part of the artistic vision of the developers. They let us be more immersed, and there's no reason not to improve on areas that were limited by a PlayStation 3 of all things. As long as the options remain flexible for all kinds of PCs I think this can only be an improvement.

We'll see what comes out from this in the end.

[PEANUT]

There's a few things I'd like to see in the update, and here they are in order of importance for me:

Lighting: This is huge when it comes to computer graphics. Fortnite's UE5 update is proof that you can have really basic assets but if they're well lit, it makes a world of difference. There's places in XIV that frankly are lit horribly. A lot of time is spent in the Ocular in ShB and everyone's face looks so weird, and that's just the most prominent example I can think of at the top of my head. This is gonna be huge for the game.
Better Antialiasing: The current implementation is just not great. Good antialiasing can help even low quality textures look rather nice at a smaller loading cost. Add it on top of nice textures and that's the next step to making the game look much prettier.
Foliage: This will make open environments looks so much prettier. The example they had in Elpis blew my mind. That's one I'm excited about.
Textures: Most textures right now are... fine. They're serviceable, particularly if you're looking from a distance. Better AA will help some of these look better. Get a little closer and some just look really poor, particularly in older areas. I think there's room here for improvement.
Character Triangles: Just with better textures and lighting, the current models would look way better than they do right now, and this is why this is the lowest for me. Avoiding sausage fingers and N64 feet are the big change I feel these characters need, though I think this engine can push models with the quality of the ones 1.0 had and even better.

Good graphics aren't a shallow. They're part of the artistic vision of the developers. They let us be more immersed, and there's no reason not to improve on areas that were limited by a PlayStation 3 of all things. As long as the options remain flexible for all kinds of PCs I think this can only be an improvement.

We'll see what comes out from this in the end.

Excellent post! I enjoyed reading this!

The "sausage fingers" and "Nintendo 64 feet" made me laugh! x"D I was really impressed with with the art team showed as far as upgrading character faces when they announced the graphics update and was not expecting them to look so much nicer and more real, but I am DYING to see how they are going to improve the Shrek hands and painted on toe feet for sure! Those take me out of cutscenes more than anything! Like they're wearing gloves x"D

[SassyAssassin]

hey - dumb blondes draw the eyes first.

What do graphic updates have to do with OPs hair colour? Or better yet, what is the correlation between hair colour and intelligence?

[PEANUT]

What do graphic updates have to do with OPs hair colour? Or better yet, what is the correlation between hair colour and intelligence?

Ty!!! They are just getting rude at this point, taking time and money to fix up the graphics I'm sure doesn't take away from what that person wants out of the game...

[Starshower]

I do think that they can do all sorts of texture upgrades and add new light sources, but really, the biggest thing holding this game's visuals back is the "mud filter", that greenish-brown tint making everything look dull and desaturated compared to anything else outside of the game. With Gshade you can get rid of that and the game can already look amazing doing it. Looking at FFXVI I have hope they can make the colors look better since it uses the same engine, so I'm curious how the final product will look like.