Interesting Bit of Speculation Regarding Game engine

[Amarande]

Single player game engines don't generally tend to make great mmo engines



Different needs and the like.

Definitely this, as most single player engines I've seen in modern times aren't really designed with, for instance, large numbers of simultaneous onscreen actors at a time (think Hunts or certain FATEs especially). There's a reason why for instance the original Doom game engine is still heavily preferred for fans of mass slaughter shooter gameplay, it's because the old school 2.5D sprite based design can actually handle the hundreds of monsters and sometimes thousands of projectiles at a time (in fact, just try playing one of the "tons and tons of monsters in a room" experimental pieces like Nuts.WAD on a GL engine like GZDoom ... you'll find that even on a computer 20+ years newer than the thing was made you still can't get a decent framerate to save your life LOL).

Given the graphical level of FFXVI, and for that matter Forspoken, I could expect a disaster if such an engine was brought over verbatim to FF14. (In particular, given the reviews of Forspoken, I could easily imagine long time players suddenly having to scramble to get a PS5 and re-purchase all their XIV licenses for it or else literally have to get a RTX 4080/4090 to get decent speed in crowded areas. Might even make the Dalaran lag from original Wrath of the Lich King look snappy on less. I'd rather not have to replace my RX 6600 this soon ...)

[Ath192]

Given the graphical level of FFXVI, and for that matter Forspoken, I could expect a disaster if such an engine was brought over verbatim to FF14.

The Engine does not equal the graphics of a game. A modern engine that is capable of rendering high-quality textures does not have to do so. Everything depends on the graphics team. More over games usually have graphic settings that you can lower and increase to achieve the desired framerate.

[Kaurhz]

It's a nice dream, but I wouldn't use the refusal to name the tool (especially if new and proprietary) as being indicative of anything for XIV. Frankly speaking, whilst the updates to XIV will most likely be substantive, relatively speaking. I don't see them being that substantive.

I think the information and teases, or lack thereof, actually, for the graphical update, I just think they'll be saving it for the right time until it's more flushed out and ready to go. Arguably, it's going to be one of the pivotal feature updates going into 7.0, and as such, they'll tease it on the relevant live letters / fan fests.

[SieyaM]

I am curious what exactly this update or overhaul they are doing entails. Are we just getting textures and models improved or are we going to see new particle effects and sound design as well. I don't know what it is about XIV but most of the sound effects I get through it seem to lack any midrange or real bass unless it's really hitting the bass. I don't really think it's my settings since other games I play do not seem to have this problem. The tinkling sound with AST is especially egregious, after a certain amount of time playing my ears just can't take it.

[Absimiliard]

FFXVI's plays like it's running on a Walmart-brand remake of the engine Strangers of Paradise uses.

[R041]

Definitely this, as most single player engines I've seen in modern times aren't really designed with, for instance, large numbers of simultaneous onscreen actors at a time (think Hunts or certain FATEs especially). There's a reason why for instance the original Doom game engine is still heavily preferred for fans of mass slaughter shooter gameplay, it's because the old school 2.5D sprite based design can actually handle the hundreds of monsters and sometimes thousands of projectiles at a time (in fact, just try playing one of the "tons and tons of monsters in a room" experimental pieces like Nuts.WAD on a GL engine like GZDoom ... you'll find that even on a computer 20+ years newer than the thing was made you still can't get a decent framerate to save your life LOL).

Given the graphical level of FFXVI, and for that matter Forspoken, I could expect a disaster if such an engine was brought over verbatim to FF14. (In particular, given the reviews of Forspoken, I could easily imagine long time players suddenly having to scramble to get a PS5 and re-purchase all their XIV licenses for it or else literally have to get a RTX 4080/4090 to get decent speed in crowded areas. Might even make the Dalaran lag from original Wrath of the Lich King look snappy on less. I'd rather not have to replace my RX 6600 this soon ...)

None of that has anything to do with it being an 'MMO'. The main difference is usually architecture and data communication. But a game client is still a game client.

It being an MMO or Single Player game does not change how things are rendered at the core of the engine itself, that has to do with the pipeline and the expectation of graphical limitations for the amount of static or dynamic objects. Has nothing to do with.. Amount of actors in a scene. . ?

An 'MMO' Engine is typically a 2-3 part system with a client, server instance, and sometimes other interpreters for data exchange and storage. If you take the first part, the Client. Then you can write all of the game logic without server interaction and it would be fine. 'MMO' is all about saving as much memory, cpu, and network calls as possible with the server instance and infra all separated from the client.

So yeah, they can make a Single Player game out of the FFXIV client fork of Luminous. Which I'm pretty sure was forked again for XVI.

The Engine does not equal the graphics of a game. A modern engine that is capable of rendering high-quality textures does not have to do so. Everything depends on the graphics team. More over games usually have graphic settings that you can lower and increase to achieve the desired framerate.

Sorta, but the engine still forces a Rendering Pipeline that determines most of that. The team is limited by what pipeline and tools they have at their disposal. Being limited on dynamic lights because of the lighting model, or things like not having PBR, or newer shader systems have a significant impact on the art/tech team's ability to create complex systems and can also impact the client's overall performance.

[Oizen]

I was under the impression that FFXIV was build on a modified version of whatever FF13 was built on.

[Seraphor]

I was under the impression that FFXIV was build on a modified version of whatever FF13 was built on.

XIII used Crystal Tools, as did XIV 1.0
Luminous was used for XIII-2, which is what XIV, XV and Forspoken run on.

[Vallerie]

Unreal engine is being used to develop MMO's so while this can be true, it doesn't have to be.

And pretty much all of the MMOs running on Unreal are some of the worst optimised games out there, because the engine was not built to support the sort of structure MMO needs.

[Wanzzo]

Well, I'm trying to not get my furry ears hypped by this thought, but...

To change the engine and solve all the current issues and limitations we have now is a dream that I have for some years now.

Normally, the process take some years to make (the migrating to a new engine in an ongoing game). But they have experience in such things. I don't care if it takes 3 or 4 years to make and they possibly are trying to cover it up for now to not give us this very hype (and tons of threads here asking for the change xD ). But, I really think this could be a real possibility and I hope for it!

Can you imagine? If my ears react to my emotes/emotions like a real bunny does?
And if we can see our hats and use all hairstyles inside game? Well, in a new engine this could be possible! Maybe, that's why they are so lazy with Hroths and Vieras requests in these matters...
Imagine as well how immersive improviments this could bring to all the cutscenes! To all game content!! Oh my Goddess!!

Well, lemme breathe... like I said... I can't fall for such hypes... Well, not yet. '-'