Was This Graphical Update Necessary?

[lushblush]

They always did, though?

Again, especially so when you're actually playing the game. It was really just an upgrade to cutscenes.

an upgrade to cutscenes is pretty big considering how many cutscenes there are in this game

[GrizzlyTank]

I find very hard to take statements like these seriously in the face of comparisons such as these:

I genuinely don't know if people are losing their minds, are in denial, just trolling, or what...

Is there still a lot of work to be done? Yeah, and they've been warning us about that for months. To say that the changes are barely noticeable or insignificant on the other hand is just an insane claim to make.

They've got bugs to fix and more textures to improve, but yes. This graphical update was necessary if they intend to keep the game going for a long time.

I'm gonna go back to not looking at the forums, I don't know what I was thinking.

You are ignoring that there are multiple faces that received quite noticeable changes.

[Volkai]

I don't think it was necessary in general, but it was probably necessary to continue onboarding new players at a rate similar to what the game has seen over the past four years. The last time a similar update in graphical performance was done was with Stormblood in 2017, a bit over six years ago, and it came with the conclusion of PS3 service, which had begun with ARR (despite 1.0 being promised as a PS3 console exclusive, the original dev team never published their version on PS3 as that version of the game required more than the PS3's hardware could provide.)

With the game now on PS5 and XBox Series, as well as considering the advance of PC technology over the past seven years, it was starting to show its age in a manner noticeable to new and old players alike, and not doing the update may have dissuaded some potential new players, those not yet invested due to the story or the community.

But hey, it doesn't have to be necessary to be an enjoyable boon for all of us, right?

[UNDEAD10000]

I don't mind games getting graphics update if it's done correctly but the graphics update in FFXIV Dawntrail is just so bad and it's clearly made in hurry.

Here is few things that is wrong with FFXIV 7.0 graphics update i have noticed so far:

- Lighting reacting incorrectly on certain materials that makes them way too shiny.
- Shadows are completely broken where most shadows looks very boxy and part of the shadow are simply missing, no matter what shadow graphics settings i use.
- New textures in certain old areas makes them look really ugly.
- No ability to turn upscaling off and using AMD FSR with 3D resolution upscaling at 100 makes game look bit soft and 3D resolution upscaling at 99 it makes game look too sharp (note: i can't use Nvidia DLSS when my GTX 980 GPU dosen't support DLSS).


Now about the character model update, it's not only disappointing but it made some players character look worse then in patch 6.0.

I did get bit lucky that my character ended up mostly looking fine in patch 7.0 but there is few things that i simply don't like how things ended up looking on my character in patch 7.0

Things i don't like how my character ended up looking in patch 7.0:
(My character race is Au Ra)

- Eyes looks worse.
- Upper lip way too flat.
- Scalers are way too sharp.
- In certain lighting conditions part of the horns gets odd red glow on them.
- Skin looks bit too doll like.
- Expressions looks really bad.

[Mr_Gucky]

I don't mind games getting graphics update if it's done correctly but the graphics update in FFXIV Dawntrail is just so bad and it's clearly made in hurry.

Here is few things that is wrong with FFXIV 7.0 graphics update i have noticed so far:

- Lighting reacting incorrectly on certain materials that makes them way too shiny.
- Shadows are completely broken where most shadows looks very boxy and part of the shadow are simply missing, no matter what shadow graphics settings i use.
- New textures in certain old areas makes them look really ugly.
- No ability to turn upscaling off and using AMD FSR with 3D resolution upscaling at 100 makes game look bit soft and 3D resolution upscaling at 99 it makes game look too sharp (note: i can't use Nvidia DLSS when my GTX 980 GPU dosen't support DLSS).


Now about the character model update, it's not only disappointing but it made some players character look worse then in patch 6.0.

I did get bit lucky that my character ended up mostly looking fine in patch 7.0 but there is few things that i simply don't like how things ended up looking on my character in patch 7.0

Things i don't like how my character ended up looking in patch 7.0:
(My character race is Au Ra)

- Eyes looks worse.
- Upper lip way too flat.
- Scalers are way too sharp.
- In certain lighting conditions part of the horns gets odd red glow on them.
- Skin looks bit too doll like.
- Expressions looks really bad.

I agree with you about the look of Au Ra. My character has a completely different look, and this can't be fixed with Fantasia.

[Cookiemami]

I have to agree about the housing. When I enter my house the FPS drops drastically and I can barely move. The lighting difference in the housing is definately seen but the housing items have been downgraded entirely. Glass on chandeliers now look like canvas paper was slapped on it. I have enigma walls up and they are no longer shiney, all of them are dull. I have a gold saucer desk and it was fully downgraded. Looks nothing like the beautiful golden desk in the gold saucer. I posted the before from ffxiv housing site. The update and what it looks like in the gold saucer and the housing item of what we get now. Crayon on paper.

[Aurumis]

Not really for the characters, just for the textures and lightning, but the characters are now destroyed.

[dullneedles]

I've gotten used to my cat looking a bit different but all in all, it seems like it didn't really do much other than allow for more complicated maps (I LOVE Yak T'el) and did terrible things to the Scion's skin texture. Thancred is lookin rough in overhead lighting, man. Same with the twin's ear textures.

[Canadane]

It was. Thanks to the upgrade we're almost back to 1.0 level of fidelity.
One day...

[KadenLag]

Desperately needed and honestly I wish they would go further with it, its listed as a major graphic update but outside of armour and some fabrics (and only really close) I would consider it minor graphic update.
The game looks wildly dated, this is due to supporting older consoles for so long. but objectively I cant see anyone being able to justify it looking lovely, you can only interject a personal feeling but logically not worth much when you look at the textures vs industry standards.