Graphics Update Discussion

[PEANUT]

Hi!

Just wanted to make a general post about the graphics updates announced and shown off. I'm reeeally excited for this given how old the game is and wondering who else is super excited for this aspect come 7.0? There was a comment by a player on another website(sorry can't give him credit he deserves) that stated that the devs are moving to a PBR system that could allow for ray-tracing support in the future for consoles/PC's that are capable of running it and THAT really excited me given that Yoshi and the team most likely will drop PS4 support come around 8.0. It also got me wondering in addition to lighting and graphics updates what they might tackle if they drop PS4 support eventually? Maybe increased physics with hair, cloth, running, animations, etc? Maybe finally strip away instanced zones and have a true open MMORPG due to SSD capabilities in PS5 and PC's? Maybe we can get better waves/ocean physics. I wouldn't expect TOO much regarding these but improvements definitely. I really hope they continue to improve on the game to make it fresh for a long time since there's no announcement to move to a new MMO(RPG) type game. Some pics that really impressed me are below.

https://images.mmorpg.com/images/con...screenshot.jpg -> LOVE the male on the left, the detail in the facial crevices, the hair looks thin and realistic, and the eyes are so intense! Not so happy with the female on the right, lacks a lot of the details shown in the male.

https://www.destructoid.com/wp-conte...mparison-2.png -> I was BLOWN away by this, how much detail and difference the gold metalics present. I remember when this launched how dry and stale this environment looked, WOW!

https://media.mmorpg.com/images/heroes/posts/128575.jpg -> The male on the left, WOW! Look at the glossiness of the horns, the shadows on his face, it looks SO much better! Very exciting!

[PEANUT]

Here's some more I thought were exciting!

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F89Cko1b...jpg&name=large -> Aside from how much more dense they can make forests/foliage, is it just me or is the geometry/cliffs in the back a lot more detailed with more polygons?

https://novacrystallis.com/wp-conten...1-1024x576.jpg -> The fix in the foliage/flowers PLUS the volumetric fog looks so beautiful! More akin to the original artwork conception!

https://static.fanbyte.com/uploads/2...hot-000041.jpg -> This to me still has to be my favorite one shown off. The one on the right to me looks almost like CGI, the cartilage in the ears, the eyes just glow and even the black bow looks like it's made of silk, LOVE IT!

https://static.fanbyte.com/uploads/2...te%20armor.png -> This is gonna make a MASSIVE difference when we can see the reflections react in the light in motion moreso than just what it looks like in the picture, I'm excited and I don't even play Paladin!

[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/NrZNPG0.png[/IMG] -> I can't wait to see how the crystal tower will look updated with these materials!!!

[LioJen]

It's alright. I don't zoom in to anyone's face close enough to ever see the difference there, so all I really care about is the lighting and environment textures.

I've also seen how wrong a graphics update can go with PSO2, so I hope they have their ducks in a row before pulling the trigger

[Shougun]

You can go over the character limit by editing your post, so in the future you can write a long post- copy it (perhaps paste it somewhere safe) and then make it small for the purpose of posting, post it, and then edit it and paste the full intended text. That's how you can see insanely long walls like this: https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...-Other-MMOs%29. For the image thing, make sure it's not in a [url][/ url] box. So just [img] imglinkehere.jpg [/ img]. I put a space in so they don't think it's actually code.

I like the graphics update. Quite a few images I can immediately see a difference, which is cool.

I hope we can see some shader improvements related to weather (I know fog has been improved) and water. Would be nice to get some better looking water. If snow would properly crunch, and rain could 'roll' in, etc. Item specific- It was mentioned recently in another thread, but if they could add tail and ear designs to gear, at least the major ones, that would be really cool. For example any PvP, shop, or such gear that is meant to be 'timeless'. Naturally everything would be preferred but if there was bias I'd take that too lol.

[Jeeqbit]

stated that the devs are moving to a PBR system that could allow for ray-tracing support in the future for consoles/PC's that are capable of running it

I read a convincing article that said this game will never support Ray Tracing and the reason is because it uses reflective lighting. What that means is that colors are decided by the lighting, so if you think that colors look washed out, it is actually because they sometimes do in real life as well due to the lighting.

For example, if you go to the character creator and look at your character's skin or eyes, you will notice they change color a lot depending on the background you choose and that is an example of the reflective lighting the game uses.

Environments are literally a different color depending on the lighting and SE spends a huge amount of development time on the lighting just to make the color look how they want. How do I know that? They did a development panel at one of the Shadowbringers fanfests where they showed how they made environments such as The Crystarium and Amh Araeng and the extensive work put into the lighting.

This extends into the gear design, where they will only use certain colors for gear because some colors, or color combinations, don't work.

So if they went with Ray Tracing to handle everything, suddenly years of work and effort put into designing the game for their lighting system would potentially have to be revisited to make it look good with Ray Tracing.

[Boblawblah]

I'm not looking forward to it only because I might have to buy the game and expansions on my PS5 because my PC just isn't up to snuff. I will wait and see though. If a GTX 1070 and i5-4670k can still do higher than 30 fps, then I'll be happy.

[CidHeiral]

The more I see about it the more excited I get. I was fully expecting them to just run the textures through an upscaler and call it a day but all the ones they've shown so far have been completely remade which is insane.

The thing I'm looking forward to the most however is the added object density in zones. The forest actually looks like a forest now and not three trees and a shrub. I can't wait to see how they update the older zones and cities!

[Denji]

The more I see about it the more excited I get. I was fully expecting them to just run the textures through an upscaler and call it a day but all the ones they've shown so far have been completely remade which is insane.

The thing I'm looking forward to the most however is the added object density in zones. The forest actually looks like a forest now and not three trees and a shrub. I can't wait to see how they update the older zones and cities!

not to put a damper on things but they'll probably be just the 1.0 cities now that we have machine strong enough to display them in their proper glory instead of the sad versions we have now.
for those unaware: in 1.0 (before ARR) things like flower pots had similar amounts of polygons as player characters and would cause even the best computers to grind to a halt.

that aurum vale update we got? they basically just used a bunch of 1.0 assets to make it closer to the original version (which iirc was actually directly attached to dezamel darkhold?)

[SargeTheSeagull]

The one that really blew my mind is the shot of Sharlayan during foggy weather. My issue with what they've shown so far is that it can be sorta hard to tell what's changed. What I really want to see at JP fanfest is some just raw gameplay of someone running around a zone in the current graphics and the exact same video with the upgraded graphics. Or better yet, show a pre graphics update trial and that same trial post graphics update.

[Mayhemmer]

Do we know if things like face paint options are also getting touched up? I would really hope so, because it's going to be very jarring on player faces if they aren't.