Grass

[Eekiki]

Copypasta'd textures. FAIL

To me, it just a giant leap forward that the flora in XIV is finally casting semi-accurate shadows.

Also, DX9 sucks.

[Nayto]

Hmmm maybe they'll keep gridania half-assed and make Coerthas where the true 'grass' is at. Other than that, the grass is there to stay most likely.

[Shougun]

Copypasta'd textures. FAIL

To me, it just a giant leap forward that the flora in XIV is finally casting semi-accurate shadows.

Also, DX9 sucks.

Lol!

You only even need to have 3d grass about half the distance out too, since the grass colors could fade into ground texture so easily (in that photo).

I agree there are some large leaps forward, I'm hoping the shadows edges get softened (they are pretty much exactly like the object in terms of shadow but unfortunately the objects like tree branches are pixely so the shadow of that is also pixely - but again its amazing how precise to object the shadows are.. literally the exact same lol).

[Reinheart]

looking at all that grass... I want /layongrass emote now! - and allow first person view while at it... so we can view the clouds... but going to grass topic... the add-on's YoshiP talked about mentioned something like Skyrim you can mod the grass and stuff and didn't he say he wanted to allow that kind of mods also? If yes... then we might actually see something crazy. But wish I can see SE's Ultra graphic settings make the grass look much better even without any user mods.

[Shougun]

looking at all that grass... I want /layongrass emote now! - and allow first person view while at it... so we can view the clouds... but going to grass topic... the add-on's YoshiP talked about mentioned something like Skyrim you can mod the grass and stuff and didn't he say he wanted to allow that kind of mods also? If yes... then we might actually see something crazy. But wish I can see SE's Ultra graphic settings make the grass look much better even without any user mods.

Holy crap? I dont recall that but did he really say maybe you can mod graphics?

IF yes I agree something crazy lol, that would be awesome. I would be very surprised.. but awesome.

[Reinheart]

Holy crap? I dont recall that but did he really say maybe you can mod graphics?

IF yes I agree something crazy lol, that would be awesome. I would be very surprised.. but awesome.

I could just be dreaming... but I thought I read that kind of stuff somewhere...

[Shougun]

I could just be dreaming... but I thought I read that kind of stuff somewhere...

What a pretty dream.. lol




What I see they need is a shorter model that can be in larger groups that flow (if you see ARR footage none of it is in a flowing unit they are all tight singularly packed units), while their taller models they already have work as dotting they would work better when put into the unit of the shorter grass (imo) - then both models need higher resolution so they can blend in (the jaggdy edges - though of course these are all medium to high end machine options).

Uldah already has short grass (in 2.0 screenshots) but it isnt placed in large flowing groups like in the concept art or like you would expect in general. To be fair we've only seen a tiny tiny tiny fraction of 2.0 thanalan and they could have scenes just like their concept art with flowing grass, but the grass we can see in thanalan 2.0 is short its just not in a flowing mesh, each grass belongs to itself (if that makes any sense lol).



To make this concept art in game, packs of other vegetation would help a lot, along with very short grass (very short). I havent seen this screen in game so, I was just making a comment - right now I dont see or know anything wrong with this image. You can actually see the flower plant on the left in ARR already, its actually not that bad:



On the orange moss bush on the right in the concept art could be the same in the above photo.

[Shioban]

Can't find who I was quoting, sorry!

Actually, sorry to say it but...

An Alpha stage is usually a graphics/stress test for an MMO. Its the perfect opportunity to test these sort of things, this is a standard in MMO development

Alpha is the stage when key gameplay functionality is implemented, and assets are partially finished.[138] A game in alpha is feature complete, that is, game is playable and contains all the major features.[139] These features may be further revised based on testing and feedback.[138] Additional small, new features may be added, similarly planned, but unimplemented features may be dropped.[139] Programmers focus mainly on finishing the codebase, rather than implementing additions.[137] Alpha occurs eight to ten months before code release.[138]"

Please tell me you've seen some videos of the Alpha so far? It fits this description.

For FFXIV:ARR they requested feedback not only on gameplay but also; Graphics, Sound, Stress-Tests.

HOWEVER, every developer is different, some may only want to focus on testing server loads, some may wish to have an Alpha that is pretty much border-line BETA standard as was the illusion for ARR's Alpha.

[Shougun]

snip

I'm not sure what your point is. This is neither the alpha or beta forums (all our threads on game balance are also just bored speculation threads because beta has been promised to have lots of changes) - we havent seen beta yet and I've already said that.

I though I made that clear in the OP ("if its changed in beta or Yoshida said it will happen, I wont bring it up"). Also I've seen every piece of information on ARR, every piece.

[Shougun]

Oh I found a good video for grass talk, imo.

http://youtu.be/7rduwq-Of9Y?t=23s

Set it to high (and fullscreen), when he is going across the bridge pay attention to the ground below the bridge - it "almost" has that cohesive flow that says it was meant to be there (rather then looking like little packs of an object, I'm not a pro but I have terrained before and there is a clear difference in cohesion vs its obvious that each object is by itself). An aside: I dream of SE releasing their world editor >.> lol (or at least invite people to guest play with it at their offices XD).


Then you wait till he is running through the thick of the forest with the large purple.. thingy in the background. The Sylph village - the grass has lost its cohesion and the quality is quite apparent (bad).

If they could add an option to bump up the existing quality and density with preferably a smaller real grass - I'd say your almost at FPS quality and that would be awesome to say (since FPS usually have amazing graphics - and they focus a lot of their money into that).

If you keep watching there is a darker forest around ~3 with a short grass type I've been talking about. But then again its not placed in a cohesive unit its all separated (and again the quality makes a speckled effect).

They are getting closer, and they are leaps bounds and light years better then 1.0 :P

I'm sure people are going to say it, and honestly I hope they do, ARR looks great - I agree, but for myself the element holding it back is the ground cover. And while I understand its GPU intensive, many of us have GPUs that spanked 1.0, and now that 2.0 is --easier-- to run, there is no reason for them not to give us rofl lol melt your core settings.

(Which dont need to be released on release, they can delay them to the graphical milestone (and should if it will delay their release of the game) - I just want to know they didnt give up early and settle for less when so many of us have so much more computer resources to offer to the program).

And again before someone says it, I will be trying the beta before commenting on the beta - and grass wont be my first priority to comment on. I'll probably wait a phase or 2 before I make the post - if I feel like I need to. They might have fixed it. That would be awesome.