A Respectful Request For Improved Cloth & Hair Physics

[Tyintheron]

Apologies for not being able to point to a direct quote, but I believe in a prior interview (when they first started talking about the engine upgrades) YoshiP had specifically called out the idea that there would be an improvement in the amount of "bones" things like cloth and hair XIV would have going forward.

This was in an interview before FFXVI was released, and he was discussing how its development had opened his eyes to how much more detail you can include as the baseline specs of your game increase.

So they were at least planning some improvement in those areas back then. Still hoping they'll make it in.

[Jeeqbit]

Apologies for not being able to point to a direct quote, but I believe in a prior interview (when they first started talking about the engine upgrades) YoshiP had specifically called out the idea that there would be an improvement in the amount of "bones" things like cloth and hair XIV would have going forward.

I do remember Yoshi-P saying that the game was designed with future-proofing in mind and increasing the number of bones was one of the things they would be able to do over time to improve animations. But that was said a long time ago now when defending how the game was in fact future-proofed contrary to what some people think.

[PEANUT]

Apologies for not being able to point to a direct quote, but I believe in a prior interview (when they first started talking about the engine upgrades) YoshiP had specifically called out the idea that there would be an improvement in the amount of "bones" things like cloth and hair XIV would have going forward.

This was in an interview before FFXVI was released, and he was discussing how its development had opened his eyes to how much more detail you can include as the baseline specs of your game increase.

So they were at least planning some improvement in those areas back then. Still hoping they'll make it in.

Thanks for the input! I really hope they drop support for the PS4 along with the ancient hardware that lies within it come 8.0. I have a VERY strong feeling they will since Dawntrail is being shown to run on PS4/5 and XSX/S, they are not allowing it on XOne, why? Because that would mean they would need to have plans to continue to support that console and they are not, which means come 8.0 they will most likely drop support for PS4. They only kept it because it's still a little too soon to drop support for it since most people are not moved over to a PS5 YET and they still have a lot of players that would be alienated on PS4 if they did. But 8.0 will most likely come out in late 2026 which will be 6 whole years since the PS5 LAUNCHED, so by then it's more of a "you really need to upgrade" kind of thing. Reason I am saying all of this is because if they drop PS4 support, they should be able to increase things like physics(hair, cloth, foliage, etc), weather, maybe a dynamic skybox(instead of flat 2-d cloud pictures), open maps(maybe can break down the instances since SSD's will IMMENSILY help with this and would be very common/baseline required) and even ray-tracing for all lighting(since 7.0 they are moving to a physical based rendering system which would definitely allow this for people who want to enable ray-tracing). ALL of these improvements would really help lift the graphical update they are doing even more and would improve the overall quality of the game for the next 10 years imo...

[Oizen]

wouldn't you prefer smoother lalafaces?

[Iscah]

wouldn't you prefer smoother lalafaces?

I can only assume they went with that demonstration because something more impressive got pulled at the last minute, and all the really nice-looking technical improvements were already locked in for discussion at the dev panel.

[Evergrey]

I can only assume they went with that demonstration because something more impressive got pulled at the last minute, and all the really nice-looking technical improvements were already locked in for discussion at the dev panel.

Or they didn't really have much else to show so they added it to make it look more impressive.

[Iscah]

Or they didn't really have much else to show so they added it to make it look more impressive.

They said in the presentation that they had intended to show off the side content but it wasn't ready yet. My bet is that they had it booked in until the last minute waiting on something that they just couldn't get ready in time.

[Evergrey]

They said in the presentation that they had intended to show off the side content but it wasn't ready yet. My bet is that they had it booked in until the last minute waiting on something that they just couldn't get ready in time.

Honestly my comment was mostly just a stupid joke.
Didn't even bother putting the /s in the end.

But now when you mention this I remember them saying that there was something they felt wasn't ready to show just yet so they postponed it.

[Jojoya]

Dear Creative Business Unit III,

You have informed us a major graphical overhaul of FFXIV will begin with the release of the Dawn Trail expansion. The presentations have all focused on the appearance of the characters, their gear, and the world they inhabit.

While the screenshots have been stunning in their beauty, I feel a necessary component has been overlooked, the physics of the gear and the hair/fur/feathers of the characters, their mounts, and the many creatures which live in the Source and its reflections.

I submit if better physics are not incorporated into FFXIV alongside the plans to improve the appearance of the game, the graphical update will only make the shortcomings of the current physics more apparent. In short, if you are going to update the world in which we play, you have to do it all.

I thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

Kacho Nacho

They're aware that clothing and hair can use better physics. They've brought it up themselves.

They could do it but then the majority of players wouldn't be able to play the game because their PCs/consoles would crash. You're talking 1.0 Flowerpots all over again but 100 times worse.

They are slowly making improvements as average player clients improve but as a MMO they're more limited compared to single player game with how far they can push the graphics.

[Vejj]

The "GLAM" aspect of FF14 is truly enormous, if not even more substantial than PvP and PvE combined. It's been long overdue for FF14 to receive a graphical update, as the 2014 standards are far behind us, and today's computers and consoles are significantly more powerful than they were back then. Consoles, in particular, repeatedly demonstrate their capability to deliver stunning graphics.

Physics-influenced elements like hair and clothing have become standard in games, and they have been around since 2011, if not earlier, on a large scale. Whether it's vegetation or clothing, these features have been available for quite some time.

I always advocate for great graphical updates, especially since my computer is getting bored with FF14, and most of its components, except for the RTX3080, are now five years old. Even today, I can play current games at high FPS, even with ray tracing enabled (using Cyberpunk 2077 as an example).

Yoshi himself stated that FF14 is far from ending, and players growing up in today's era, spoiled with abundant computing and console power, will look back at past games with a tired eye. Graphics aside, this aspect of a game should truly not be neglected.
In short: Physics-influenced elements like hair and clothing? Yes, please, I absolutely want them. They make the whole game environment more vibrant and authentic.