Shaders?

[Shougun]

i think it's just higher quality textures in general, otherwise it's called ambient occlusion ^^

"In computer graphics, ambient occlusion attempts to approximate the way light radiates in real life, especially off what are normally considered non-reflective surfaces.
Unlike local methods like Phong shading, ambient occlusion is a global method, meaning the illumination at each point is a function of other geometry in the scene. However, it is a very crude approximation to full global illumination. The soft appearance achieved by ambient occlusion alone is similar to the way an object appears on an overcast day."

I dont think what happened in that alpha -> beta video for 1.0 was ambient occlusion beacuse the shadows were built into the texture without regards to nearby 3d objects. Also 1.0's ambient occlusion was a massive memory leak lol but I do believe Yoshida said that they'd get it properly working in ARR so

It's not a matter of caring about something, it seems just like the "grass" issue to me, where people are prematurely complaining about something that clearly isn't ready yet. There's a good possibility that certain graphical features and such will be disabled initially.

There is a deep seeded issue with this. If people honestly believe this then they should never take part in -any- feedback of the game (at least until beta, and even then I imagine some people that think like this will say "its just beta, stop giving feedback about this"- not saying you would say that.. just I know some will say it to what they dont care for). Why comment on the combat system when it can change, why comment on the job system when it can change, why comment on the economy when it can change, why comment on the graphics when it can change, why comment on the music when it can change, why comment on any of the game content when it can change, why comment at all. (Through beta, through release and on all faculties are constantly taking edits, there may be a premium time to make suggestions but there is never a "you may not speak" time as everything is always able to evolve and is/can be in the air (unless you can read Yoshida's mind), or unless you count NDA.. then you really cant speak :P)

This logic is flawed for a forum designed for feedback and suggestions (funny side note, they made a bunch of sub forums for each topic but general discussion gets the most hits so its really the best place to discuss things lol).

I don't think its impossible that they have improvements, for things like grass already prepared - but since we don't know about it its pretty much not there and if we are not allowed to make those kind of comments.. then we fall back into what I said above - where as everything is in change nothing can be talked about - if we know a solution is coming then that is a different story.

Sure some people don't care for certain issues or like to mock others for how little of an issue it is to them - but to blame it on "its probably going to change" means that NO things should be talked about.

Instead if someone isn't suggestion something that will destroy your game, and you really don't care about it- then just leave it alone and let the Devs to decide.

Its not like I in the grass thread said ARR will die if they don't listen to me, or that I said it needs to happen this second (many times in that thread I suggested it be done after release or if someone has free time), or that I also said that if it changes during beta or if Yoshida mentions it I wont bother making it a point. People just like to forum police and often the logic is irrational.

My other favorite reasoning is that people have some understanding of Yoshida's exact available resources and no one can ask anything because they need to carefully plan Yoshida's resource expenditure out for him.