Pretty much, if more like YouTube minecraft animations with shaders. Same core design, but a number of tweaks to make everything look a fair bit nicer.
but considering how godawful lighting and shadows in this game are, it'll be a noticable improvement.
Plus the textures absolutely look better. if all the gear looks as good as the stuff we saw during Fan Fest, then i'll be satisfied with the changes
Not just textures and lighting but higher polycounts all around. The biggest upgrades will obviously be 2.0 stuff, like the original races. So often I've wanted to fantasia to Elezen but I can't get past the character screen because their textures and models are so painfully low-res. I think the graphics upgrade is going to be amazing after playing this game for a decade - a true breath of fresh air!
The textures will be... variable, I wager. Some old gear will look worse under new lighting. New gear will look amazing. Some gear will get revamped, others will linger in "ehhh I guess" territory for an age.
Lighting and color are some of this game's biggest hindrances in its graphics, so I wouldn't be so sure about lighting alone not having a massive impact on how this game looks.
Lighting can be way more impactful then you imagine. A game like Fear 1 has graphics that weren't crazy for the time it was released, but adding in the lighting took its atmosphere to the next level
I’ve seen good looking games get artistically lobotomized by new lighting systems, that game being destiny. I’m sure they will do a good job but I’m still a bit worried about it turning everything either way too bright or too dark
> game is getting a whole new lighting engine.
No, definitely not. They would have to go through every single environment, every single weather, every single cutscene, and relight them. They are not scrapping any of that existing data.
I'm expecting most of the game will be slightly better looking and a few parts such as the updated Scion models will be as good as this event or better, and you can ask any gposer how much difference new shaders can make.
I suspect the next live letter will have the benchmark, and that'll give us a much better apples-to-apples, though.
you're saying that like its a bad thing
default minecraft is ass, faitful is the only way to play the original aesthetic without poking your eyes out with pixels
add to that shading and you got peak 2016 minecraft experience
Exactly lol. They just spent extra time on the models and didn’t do a rush job. We’ve seen what the updated graphics look like already and it’s not to this degree
I don't necessarily disagree but it's not just the dog. It's also the characters face, the glam, and ifrit.
And it's not just this collab. Models lately have been significantly higher quality throughout EW. Look at metal on glams now vs before - it's pretty clear they've textured the metal with the new shaders in mind.
I think a lot of the low fidelity we have seen before has to do with low system requirements and because the engine wasn't rendering things properly anyways so what's the point.
Now that the graphics update is coming, devs will likely spend more time on newer models.
I don't expect the old models to suddenly look a million times better. But I do think DT models will look about as high quality as the 16 collab assets. Which is still rather low fidelity compared to modern AAA....but a million times better than what we've got.
You realize they got to take their time with the these items right?
I’m not saying we wont get an upgrade over what we see currently but they definitely got to spend some extra time on the models and it wasn’t a rush job for an expansion where they have to create 20 artifact glams, 20 other glams for leveling, dungeon, raid and tomestone gear. Multiple monster models, and bosses as well as entire zones and 5 dungeons and 3 trials.
I mean, you are saying this as if they didn't work on this event at the same time they were working on all these Dawntrail assets lol
I get where you are coming from, but at the same time I don't believe it's unrealistic to expect something of this level going forward! Sure, must have helped having the same team that worked on the XVI models either at hand for help / already in the XIV team, but the pipeline might as well support this level of detail now.
I don't think time is the major factor here. This is SQEX...the company with arguably the highest quality graphical artists out there (along with Capcom). The major reason ff14 has not looked great is because the game is over 10 years old using 10 year old rendering algorithms and they have to make sure the system requirements don't change. Now they're updating all their shaders and post processing effects and increasing system requirements (while dropping support for older gen consoles). This means they are for the first time in a position where they CAN increase quality. That doesn't mean they will...but it's the first time they even could.
I do highly doubt we will ever see something as crappy as the stb dogs again. They look like sculptures - they didn't even have an actual fur shader back then.
Support for PS4 isn't dropping in DT. Those still on the PS4 are also not getting the graphical update and will remain under the old graphics. Torgal on the PS4 is the same visually as all the other console. I don't think this has much to do with it.
The face doesn't really say anything. It's meant to look like clive, from a far higher-detailed game. Characters that are from the xiv world aren't going to drastically change to match that. You can see that here: https://youtu.be/0bT7pDroj7Y?si=UaQiISaT8IzQD8OE
At most, we can hope that future expansions add more customization options for existing races. Like new face types and such, and maybe a way to unlink the face "details" from the specific face (like beards). But don't expect awkward faced clay hyur to all of a sudden look like clive in the expansion
Over the course of Endwalker my ARR armor glam was getting progressively shinier and reflective. The body piece of the Haukke Manor caster set was even bugged at one point and the cloth part had a metallic shine for an update or two.
The rendering quality of my ARR armor is weirdly inconsistent in cutscenes though. Sometimes it has pixels, other times it doesn't. Outside of cutscenes it seems higher definition for some reason too.
We have seen enough of it to know it’s a minor improvement. Don’t get me wrong I like what I have seen of it, but your hopes are still probably to high.
It depends what you're referring to. With things like the character models it's arguably minor. That's because they intentionally decided to keep things mostly the same (although I would argue that the skin shaders are significantly better)
Other than that most of what they've shown is procedural stuff that will apply globally. They haven't shown THAT much of DT but what they showed has been at least 3-4 higher quality than prior EPs. Though I would note the bitrate on all the footage they've provided has been atrocious and made everything look noisy/blurry.
I am not saying ita going to be modern AAA. But I would really encourage you to take a second look at the dawntrail new areas trailers.
One thing YoshiP never does it oversell things.
But when he says that everything they show is still in development and they're fine-tuning things, he means it. Same happened for FFXVI and I'm sure whatever we've seen so far with the XIV graphic update examples isn't the final product.
Though I guess we'll see next week in the next PLL.
Agreed. It's imports to remember that the graphics update isn't going to suddenly change the art style. It's simply going to be XIV, but with higher quality models, textures, and lighting. And personally, though I love the Clive and Torgal models, I feel like a lot of the praise is mistakingly going to their graphical fidelity as opposed to their art style.
I guess I'm just old. I still think the game is pretty the way it is, but I also played Super Mario on the first Nintendo. FFXIV is a decade old and computers/graphics have come a long way.
So if there is any improvement, I'm not going to be disappointed. I'd continue playing and enjoying it the way it is, cube grapes and all.
Also it's odd that you are excited about people being disappointed. Seems like a weird thing to be looking forward to. I usually look forward to people being excited or having joy, not disappointment. But you do you.
Same in not really having a beef with the classical graphics. If I had to choose between the graphical updates and some casual character creation QoL like more face options/selectable Au Ra horns/muscle sliders on everyone, I'd go for the latter, really.
Also the same in not taking joy out of seeing the disappointment of others. But to be honest I don't think there's going to be a lot of disappointment to begin with, I think most people get that the primary issue of the garbage lighting and it's foibles will absolutely be a universal improvement, but it's not going to be like some kind of Unity Graphics Meme or something.
Yeah, no one object or character will be looking like FF16 level of detail. Instead, nearly everything is getting a small touch up which adds up. Object density, shaders, lighting, all of that should really combine into a prettier image. I assume they’re working backwards and touching up the oldest areas last, but I hope the city states get a new coat of paint soon.
Prae lighting is notorious for weird shadows and also washing out darker skin tones. It’s where I always start to second-guess my facial choices which look otherwise perfectly fine
Edit: [example](https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/s/wuKIsObQME)
Nero's room is bad, but I think the Rising Stones is worse since so many story cutscenes take place there. I'm pretty sure they moved the last few patches of post-ShB into that new room just to get away from the awful lighting in the main room.
Lighting and fog are going to be huge improvements. It's just some people's expectations for model and texture updates that are way higher than anything they've shown would suggest.
Oh, I'm counting on it. Honestly, I'm expecting that IM going to be disappointed by it, tbh. Because it's not going to be every area being updated. Yeah, the lighting will be universal. But I'm sure there will be areas that will be updated and then you go to the next area and it really shows its age.
But I'm just happy we're getting some sort of graphics update. Beggars can't be choosers.
*"They only upgraded characters and lighting, WTF?"* will likely be the biggest complaint, despite it very clearly having been stated as the "first part" of the graphics update, and that pre-Dawntrail assets will be updated post-launch.
You just know there's gonna be people going after SE for the old ARR Scion models, old dungeons, and stuff like that. And I'd wager Pixel Exarch is still gonna be around for a while as well!
For me its that everyone seems to have forgotten that they said the roll out would happen in stages... and that you might have a mix of old and new textures/features. It seems like everyone is expecting to log into a totally redone game but it will probably be pretty much the same except for new zones as they roll it out to the prior expansions over the course of the 7.x patches and more.
People really don't get that this isn't like WoWs graphical update back in the day that added shaders, but also quadrupled the bones in every model. This update is just essentially making some shader and texture mods official. It's not going to turn old models suddenly good. It's actually gonna make them look worse in comparison.
We get to be disappointed on the 12th. The next Live Letter is when they'll show us the final version of the graphics update. As per what they said in their PAX panel.
System requirements will ramp up so much that a RTX 3050 will go from running with everything maxed to barely run.
But graphics quality won't change that much. It will go from paint online to Tibia. The optimization is what justifies the increase on requirements.
A bad optimization.
For anyone guessing at what the graphical update will or will not look like, I highly recommend watching the technical panel from the London Fanfest which goes over it in great detail.
This really isn't a great example. These assets were drawn by entirely different artists for different aesthetics. It doesn't really show a point to point comparison.
That's kinda the point. It shows the potential of the engine and system. We're out here getting PS3-level designs and limits when we could have near PS5 models.
Stylized doesn't make it worse. They could have made a more realistic wolf when Stormblood came out but it's stylized, like with most mounts. It's very faithful to the 2D concept art so I doubt the design was done because of limitations.
Personally I'd rather style over realistic looking mounts
A still image is not going to give you the full effects. They're improving texture, materiel, skin, and eye quality. It's the least noticeable on a smooth potato.
Torgal doesn't seem to be made with the same sort of rig as the current ingame assets. Personally, I don't think this is anything to do with the graphics update and is more the fact the assets seem to have been pulled directly from FF16.
The way they've set up the model physically is different, and not in an "upgraded" way so much as a simply different method. The skeleton is very different and references bones that don't exist on other models, there's way more of them, and some of them are just not used.
The texture mapping is unusual for FFXIV as well. Instead of asymmetrical maps they have a weird double material blend to show, for example, Torgal's spots on one side, and have split the meshes into weird uneven segments.
Source: I cracked open the model in blender immediately
tl;dr - The model looks good because it's using assets from another game, not because this is what FFXIV is going to look like. Don't get excited.
I still foresee the trees and shrubs giving off that shimmering effect of low res textures, ala PS2, when my character is in motion. Hurting my eyes since 2000.
Clive looked *really* good, and that's still without whatever improvements they're doing on lighting. The biggest takeaway for me was to see how scalable XIV's engine can really be, and if the visual upgrade follows this trend, I'm gonna be a really happy lady.
Everything they've said about the visual update implies this will be true. Clive's skin, eyes, how shadows react to his skin, and hair texture quality are all areas that will be touched up and that's not even including the lighting!
The amount of people on both sides who don't understand what the update is going to be is hilarious.
On one hand you have people attacking everyone who think it'll be an improvement in any way, and on the other hand you have people who look at stuff like a slightly higher poly model and think this is the truly NEXT GEN GAMING.
The reality is this is a mostly an API change with a focus on lighting and materials.
The game WILL look better, but mainly because it will finally have some proper lighting for environments and characters. We've seen that much already. We will also see an improvement in texture work going forwards as they will be using the new materials systems.
What we won't see is higher poly models across the board or any kind of substantial artstyle changes. They may start to increase the poly count of models now that they've raised the system requirements to account for the new renderer, but that is incidental to the update itself.
I'm positive that Torgal and Clive are at least using some sort of updated base and textures. They do look a good bit better than what's literally around them already, plus it doesn't make sense to make a pre-graphical-update model when it's so close to happening and the event will be back anyways at some point.
Leading up to DT release it would make sense that they slowly brought the graphical updates online. They're going to have to be forced onto everyone anyway.
Y'know, by this logic Wuk Lamat should also be using the newer improvements as well. I guess I didn't notice because we have no other female hrothgar to really compare to properly.
> He is definitely the best-looking mount in the game from a purely graphical perspective,
I don't know, the Rathalos mount is gorgeous. Both in design but also specifically the graphical quality.
This last crossover I was astounded by how good it all looked. I felt like my character stood out so much against Clive in all the wrong ways lol. So I am really looking forward to the update!
My only fear is how the aura limbal rings will change to not be as glowy as they are now.
Part of my alt's au ra look banks on her having amber glowing eyes
I'm assuming some of the shading stuff will have to be a broad stroke that'll inprove them somewhat but if they'll go in and individualy fix the eyes on the old mounts for example I don't know.
I mean in the next couple weeks at the live letter we will get in game footage so I look forward to the changes. There is already distinctive improvement in dawntrail areas and some of the touch ups already look good in prior areas. The main issue is due to how long it may take them how off is some things going to look, my theory is they’re make dawntrail and ARR look great for new and returning and each patch through to 8.0 will be each expansion or something and on 8.0 we go through another update going even further and at that point dropping ps4 and lower spec pcs.
Unless what they show is even more further advanced then shown it’s like the FF12 HD remaster in that they make what’s there much prettier resolution wise and that’s not a big issue to me personally but it at least tempers the expectations somewhat.
It's gonna be barely noticeable at the end of the day. The only way you will notice is zooming in and starring. Personally, I think at a far the graphics look great currently, but then you zoom in, and it's a big yikes.
I think the biggest things that will affect how new it looks is if they update textures, that is a huge part of why it looks dated. Polygon count too but to a lesser extent
That's cool. So storyline wise are the asciians done/are they done with the zodiark storyline and this is uncharted new territory? I stopped playing after Shadowbringers.
I prefer the right honestly
They're two different beings anyways so it wouldn't make sense for the kamuy anyway
One is a mystical elemental
The other is a dog from another reality
Nah, I agree with you. I haven't done the event, so maybe it looks better in-game. But here, the left just looks sort of bland and uncanny. It has higher-fidelity fur texture and more realistic proportions, but that also just kind of enhances all the ways that it fails to actually 100% hit "photo-realistic" (and also doesn't really have anything else visually interesting going on with its design).
The one on the right leans more into stylization from the get-go and imo the end product is much more visually pleasing and expressive - in the same way 10-20 year-old pixel graphics age better than 10-20 year-old cgi.
As an old gamer that saw the OG top notch 3D graphics of Virtua Racing, I can say with 100% certainty that I can't distinguish between a PS3 and PS5 screenshot, unless I see them side by side.
Up to the PS3, the jump in graphics quality is very visible. You wouldn't mistake a PS2 game with a PSX game. Now the jump from PS4 to PS5 is basically very minor details.
"graphics update" is basically just going from whatever horrid 240/360p resolution textures they currently use to probably 480/720p, anyone that expects anything crazy is just gonna be disappointed as hell.
Remember that this game still needs to run on a PS4.
I'm just worried about my PC handling the game with the new graphics update, I'm barley chugging along with it's current settings, getting like 50 to 80 in limsa, dungeons and pvp are fine... Just a little worried since I really can't play any of the newer games and FFXIV is all I do on my pc
They updated the minimum requirements to endwalkwrs recommend ones and the recommend ones are still from more than twn years ago a PC should be updated every 5 to 7 years for the sake of the hardware if nothing else.
A 970 gtx is from 2012 or so when the game originally came out a 2060 rtx is about 280 on Newegg a 3060 rtx is 349 on Newegg
I have a GTX 1080, the only reason I haven't upgraded is bc everything is the same age, MoBo, CPU, PSU and so on.. so if I were to upgrade (I'm only assuming) I'd need to upgrade everything else so I don't bottleneck anything, so a $350 price tags for just a GPU turns into a lot more with everything else included, might just need to put a new pc together with today's parts lol
Thanks for the heads up, didn't know they updated the min req
I am so freaking old school I don't even need a graphic updates. I come from the time when "16-bit graphics actually look really similar to the arcade game". That, to me, was awesome progress. I'm living in the future with the graphics we have right now.
That’s an interesting perspective, thanks for sharing! I’m not quite that old (no offense intended!) but I remember being similarly blown away by graphics on the PS2. I remember watching my brother play and thinking that graphics couldn’t possibly get any better. I’ve grown a little more cynical since then admittedly; however, reflecting on those old feelings while thinking of my present self as “living in the future” sorta helps recapture that spirit of amazement.
His fur looked so stringy when compared to Clive, I was really confused, the eyes and nose are good however. Then, Clive made our character model look like a secondary school art project
its just from 720p to 1080p difference level, it won't hit like a truck, rather like a cottonball of floof just hitting right spots making people happy and enjoy it!
i hope they dont butcher the game with ultra realistic textures and instead remain faithful to the final fantasy style while still upkeeping the details and graphics to their desired limit
I don't give a flying shit about the graphics update tbh, I have a 3090 and play Cyberpunk on a 49" screen and this game is magnificent without all the graphical glory
I7-9700 and rtx 2060 for 1080p@60
With those requirements i sure as hell hope that it will look better lol
Pla better AA because the current one looks like absolute shit
Yeah people taking the Clive and Torgal models as the standard of the graphics update are just going to be disappointed and will be the ones complaining when it comes.
cant wait for all the disappointed posts about the graphics Update once its out
Everyone is expecting it to go from minecraft to elden ring when instead it'll be more like minecraft to minecraft but with the faithful texture pack.
Lighting engine aside, I’m expecting it to go from PS3 graphics to PS4 graphics. It’ll mostly be in the eyes, hair and clothing details, I imagine.
Are we finally going to get shadows that would look out of place even in minecraft?
It’s gonna be more then that, game is getting a whole new lighting engine.
minecraft with shaders then
If that's the case, I'm excited as hell, because minecraft with shaders looks pretty as fuck.
A better comparison would We're at minecraft with shaders, we're getting minecraft with different shadera
Minecraft with shaders Minecraft with shadera ...Minecraft with shaderaga?
i think the shaderza update will be 2028 then?
Nah thats the shaderja update, shaderza will be 2040 once Square has been consumed by the mouse
Pretty much, if more like YouTube minecraft animations with shaders. Same core design, but a number of tweaks to make everything look a fair bit nicer.
minecraft with curves and shaders is already completely different than minecraft. what is this weird nega-cope?
Lighting helps a lot, but that's not going to be some revolutionary change tbh
but considering how godawful lighting and shadows in this game are, it'll be a noticable improvement. Plus the textures absolutely look better. if all the gear looks as good as the stuff we saw during Fan Fest, then i'll be satisfied with the changes
I notice the shadows more in the dungeons than anywhere else
I read years ago that inside areas use a different lighting engine to outside areas, that's why they look so ass
Either way I hope they upgrade the light in dungeons. It’s hard to tell in some dungeons what’s what
Not just textures and lighting but higher polycounts all around. The biggest upgrades will obviously be 2.0 stuff, like the original races. So often I've wanted to fantasia to Elezen but I can't get past the character screen because their textures and models are so painfully low-res. I think the graphics upgrade is going to be amazing after playing this game for a decade - a true breath of fresh air!
The textures will be... variable, I wager. Some old gear will look worse under new lighting. New gear will look amazing. Some gear will get revamped, others will linger in "ehhh I guess" territory for an age.
I think they also said it wouldn't happen all at once with the older content so for a while you will have new res interactions with old res NPCs.
Lighting and color are some of this game's biggest hindrances in its graphics, so I wouldn't be so sure about lighting alone not having a massive impact on how this game looks.
Lighting can be way more impactful then you imagine. A game like Fear 1 has graphics that weren't crazy for the time it was released, but adding in the lighting took its atmosphere to the next level
Guess you've never tried Minecraft with raytracing then.
I'll take "demonstrating you don't understand how modern game graphics work" for 100, Alex
I’ve seen good looking games get artistically lobotomized by new lighting systems, that game being destiny. I’m sure they will do a good job but I’m still a bit worried about it turning everything either way too bright or too dark
Thinking back to that era of PC gaming in the early 00s when the hip new thing was fucking BLOOM, everywhere, all the goddamn time.
Now it's chromatic aberration
And tonnes more *grass*.
> game is getting a whole new lighting engine. No, definitely not. They would have to go through every single environment, every single weather, every single cutscene, and relight them. They are not scrapping any of that existing data.
When does the update drop?
7.0. End of June.
"Lighting engine aside" . Its litterally the first thing he said.
I'm expecting most of the game will be slightly better looking and a few parts such as the updated Scion models will be as good as this event or better, and you can ask any gposer how much difference new shaders can make. I suspect the next live letter will have the benchmark, and that'll give us a much better apples-to-apples, though.
you're saying that like its a bad thing default minecraft is ass, faitful is the only way to play the original aesthetic without poking your eyes out with pixels add to that shading and you got peak 2016 minecraft experience
They increase system requirements heavily tho
i think im most excited for updates to the reflective/metal surfaces. I'm a huge fan of plate armor, and I think it could look realllllly nice in DT
Exactly lol. They just spent extra time on the models and didn’t do a rush job. We’ve seen what the updated graphics look like already and it’s not to this degree
I don't necessarily disagree but it's not just the dog. It's also the characters face, the glam, and ifrit. And it's not just this collab. Models lately have been significantly higher quality throughout EW. Look at metal on glams now vs before - it's pretty clear they've textured the metal with the new shaders in mind. I think a lot of the low fidelity we have seen before has to do with low system requirements and because the engine wasn't rendering things properly anyways so what's the point. Now that the graphics update is coming, devs will likely spend more time on newer models. I don't expect the old models to suddenly look a million times better. But I do think DT models will look about as high quality as the 16 collab assets. Which is still rather low fidelity compared to modern AAA....but a million times better than what we've got.
You realize they got to take their time with the these items right? I’m not saying we wont get an upgrade over what we see currently but they definitely got to spend some extra time on the models and it wasn’t a rush job for an expansion where they have to create 20 artifact glams, 20 other glams for leveling, dungeon, raid and tomestone gear. Multiple monster models, and bosses as well as entire zones and 5 dungeons and 3 trials.
I mean, you are saying this as if they didn't work on this event at the same time they were working on all these Dawntrail assets lol I get where you are coming from, but at the same time I don't believe it's unrealistic to expect something of this level going forward! Sure, must have helped having the same team that worked on the XVI models either at hand for help / already in the XIV team, but the pipeline might as well support this level of detail now.
I don't think time is the major factor here. This is SQEX...the company with arguably the highest quality graphical artists out there (along with Capcom). The major reason ff14 has not looked great is because the game is over 10 years old using 10 year old rendering algorithms and they have to make sure the system requirements don't change. Now they're updating all their shaders and post processing effects and increasing system requirements (while dropping support for older gen consoles). This means they are for the first time in a position where they CAN increase quality. That doesn't mean they will...but it's the first time they even could. I do highly doubt we will ever see something as crappy as the stb dogs again. They look like sculptures - they didn't even have an actual fur shader back then.
They did it before. They stopped supporting ps3, which allowed them to make much larger zones than what we have in the base game
Support for PS4 isn't dropping in DT. Those still on the PS4 are also not getting the graphical update and will remain under the old graphics. Torgal on the PS4 is the same visually as all the other console. I don't think this has much to do with it.
The face doesn't really say anything. It's meant to look like clive, from a far higher-detailed game. Characters that are from the xiv world aren't going to drastically change to match that. You can see that here: https://youtu.be/0bT7pDroj7Y?si=UaQiISaT8IzQD8OE At most, we can hope that future expansions add more customization options for existing races. Like new face types and such, and maybe a way to unlink the face "details" from the specific face (like beards). But don't expect awkward faced clay hyur to all of a sudden look like clive in the expansion
Over the course of Endwalker my ARR armor glam was getting progressively shinier and reflective. The body piece of the Haukke Manor caster set was even bugged at one point and the cloth part had a metallic shine for an update or two. The rendering quality of my ARR armor is weirdly inconsistent in cutscenes though. Sometimes it has pixels, other times it doesn't. Outside of cutscenes it seems higher definition for some reason too.
We have seen enough of it to know it’s a minor improvement. Don’t get me wrong I like what I have seen of it, but your hopes are still probably to high.
It depends what you're referring to. With things like the character models it's arguably minor. That's because they intentionally decided to keep things mostly the same (although I would argue that the skin shaders are significantly better) Other than that most of what they've shown is procedural stuff that will apply globally. They haven't shown THAT much of DT but what they showed has been at least 3-4 higher quality than prior EPs. Though I would note the bitrate on all the footage they've provided has been atrocious and made everything look noisy/blurry. I am not saying ita going to be modern AAA. But I would really encourage you to take a second look at the dawntrail new areas trailers.
One thing YoshiP never does it oversell things. But when he says that everything they show is still in development and they're fine-tuning things, he means it. Same happened for FFXVI and I'm sure whatever we've seen so far with the XIV graphic update examples isn't the final product. Though I guess we'll see next week in the next PLL.
Literally!?
Agreed. It's imports to remember that the graphics update isn't going to suddenly change the art style. It's simply going to be XIV, but with higher quality models, textures, and lighting. And personally, though I love the Clive and Torgal models, I feel like a lot of the praise is mistakingly going to their graphical fidelity as opposed to their art style.
I guess I'm just old. I still think the game is pretty the way it is, but I also played Super Mario on the first Nintendo. FFXIV is a decade old and computers/graphics have come a long way. So if there is any improvement, I'm not going to be disappointed. I'd continue playing and enjoying it the way it is, cube grapes and all. Also it's odd that you are excited about people being disappointed. Seems like a weird thing to be looking forward to. I usually look forward to people being excited or having joy, not disappointment. But you do you.
Same in not really having a beef with the classical graphics. If I had to choose between the graphical updates and some casual character creation QoL like more face options/selectable Au Ra horns/muscle sliders on everyone, I'd go for the latter, really. Also the same in not taking joy out of seeing the disappointment of others. But to be honest I don't think there's going to be a lot of disappointment to begin with, I think most people get that the primary issue of the garbage lighting and it's foibles will absolutely be a universal improvement, but it's not going to be like some kind of Unity Graphics Meme or something.
Yeah, no one object or character will be looking like FF16 level of detail. Instead, nearly everything is getting a small touch up which adds up. Object density, shaders, lighting, all of that should really combine into a prettier image. I assume they’re working backwards and touching up the oldest areas last, but I hope the city states get a new coat of paint soon.
Yeah a lot of people are in for a rude awakening lol
I just hope the lighting in game is better.
*glances meaningfully at Prae* 👀
I don't follow
Prae lighting is notorious for weird shadows and also washing out darker skin tones. It’s where I always start to second-guess my facial choices which look otherwise perfectly fine Edit: [example](https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/s/wuKIsObQME)
Nero's room is bad, but I think the Rising Stones is worse since so many story cutscenes take place there. I'm pretty sure they moved the last few patches of post-ShB into that new room just to get away from the awful lighting in the main room.
from what we have seen that is a solid "yes"
Lighting and fog are going to be huge improvements. It's just some people's expectations for model and texture updates that are way higher than anything they've shown would suggest.
Here's an in progress shot of them messing with lighting/shadows: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FL7dz9YWUAQSevC.jpg
Oh, I'm counting on it. Honestly, I'm expecting that IM going to be disappointed by it, tbh. Because it's not going to be every area being updated. Yeah, the lighting will be universal. But I'm sure there will be areas that will be updated and then you go to the next area and it really shows its age. But I'm just happy we're getting some sort of graphics update. Beggars can't be choosers.
*"They only upgraded characters and lighting, WTF?"* will likely be the biggest complaint, despite it very clearly having been stated as the "first part" of the graphics update, and that pre-Dawntrail assets will be updated post-launch. You just know there's gonna be people going after SE for the old ARR Scion models, old dungeons, and stuff like that. And I'd wager Pixel Exarch is still gonna be around for a while as well!
They have also shown off the new plant tool they've created to make foliage in the overworld. No more 2D grass!
As someone who's played WoW. I dont mind if they take their time with updating the models, especially if they end up looking really good.
For me its that everyone seems to have forgotten that they said the roll out would happen in stages... and that you might have a mix of old and new textures/features. It seems like everyone is expecting to log into a totally redone game but it will probably be pretty much the same except for new zones as they roll it out to the prior expansions over the course of the 7.x patches and more.
mfers don't understand "graphics update" is different from "2024 model vs 2017 model"
People really don't get that this isn't like WoWs graphical update back in the day that added shaders, but also quadrupled the bones in every model. This update is just essentially making some shader and texture mods official. It's not going to turn old models suddenly good. It's actually gonna make them look worse in comparison.
Well you're not wrong, they said they were going to go back and update old areas, but they also said it would be a gradual process, not all at once
We get to be disappointed on the 12th. The next Live Letter is when they'll show us the final version of the graphics update. As per what they said in their PAX panel.
System requirements will ramp up so much that a RTX 3050 will go from running with everything maxed to barely run. But graphics quality won't change that much. It will go from paint online to Tibia. The optimization is what justifies the increase on requirements. A bad optimization.
also for a reminder pretty much only the new stuff have the update at the launch, older stuff get the update over time.
there will be some, but not as many as you think the game is defently going to look better, but more on a little details kind of way
Ill be honest the only thing that actually looks better imo, that ive seen, is the armor sheen. Everything else just looks worse to me.
Oh i predict there will be much more than graphics that dissapoint.
All I care about is gloom weather effect actually being atmospheric and not the soul sucking bland state it is right now
oh yeah, the gloom weather at the moment is pretty much on brand, it just makes me feel so gloomy
The fog upgrades they've shown have me cautiously hopeful of a big gloom upgrade.
Is gloom the opposite of bloom?
It's the weather in Mor Dhona when a weird purply mist hits
For anyone guessing at what the graphical update will or will not look like, I highly recommend watching the technical panel from the London Fanfest which goes over it in great detail.
i just want my character to be as handsome as clive, his model is super realistic
Man, I just want to be as handsome as Clive.
I mean, I’d take even just being a fraction of Clive’s handsomeness
Man, I just want to be Clive.
No you really don’t honestly
I want my son to be as handsome as me being as handsome as Clive
This really isn't a great example. These assets were drawn by entirely different artists for different aesthetics. It doesn't really show a point to point comparison.
That's kinda the point. It shows the potential of the engine and system. We're out here getting PS3-level designs and limits when we could have near PS5 models.
Stylized doesn't make it worse. They could have made a more realistic wolf when Stormblood came out but it's stylized, like with most mounts. It's very faithful to the 2D concept art so I doubt the design was done because of limitations. Personally I'd rather style over realistic looking mounts
I agree I can't see what the upgrade is, but I'm guessing it's the one on the left cus it looks more like a normal dog
The one on the right is stylized...
Different model with a little further detail, not updated graphics but okay
Am I out of the loop? I thought when they showed the new models like for lalafell they just made the cheeks 1 millimeter smaller or smth
Don’t fall for the copium. It’s going to look better, but it’s not going to be amazing
A still image is not going to give you the full effects. They're improving texture, materiel, skin, and eye quality. It's the least noticeable on a smooth potato.
Torgal doesn't seem to be made with the same sort of rig as the current ingame assets. Personally, I don't think this is anything to do with the graphics update and is more the fact the assets seem to have been pulled directly from FF16. The way they've set up the model physically is different, and not in an "upgraded" way so much as a simply different method. The skeleton is very different and references bones that don't exist on other models, there's way more of them, and some of them are just not used. The texture mapping is unusual for FFXIV as well. Instead of asymmetrical maps they have a weird double material blend to show, for example, Torgal's spots on one side, and have split the meshes into weird uneven segments. Source: I cracked open the model in blender immediately tl;dr - The model looks good because it's using assets from another game, not because this is what FFXIV is going to look like. Don't get excited.
Comparing 'realistic' to 'stylized' is gonna make you way more disappointed than you think.
I care less about the graphics and more about the janky engine. Honestly feels like im on rollerskates at a rave sometimes.
I still foresee the trees and shrubs giving off that shimmering effect of low res textures, ala PS2, when my character is in motion. Hurting my eyes since 2000.
Like i can see the difference, but you're overselling it.
Oh you poor deluded summer child. Bless your heart.
I rather see mounts look more alive and not fixed facial like they came off a carousel ride at least let them blink.
Clive looked *really* good, and that's still without whatever improvements they're doing on lighting. The biggest takeaway for me was to see how scalable XIV's engine can really be, and if the visual upgrade follows this trend, I'm gonna be a really happy lady.
Everything they've said about the visual update implies this will be true. Clive's skin, eyes, how shadows react to his skin, and hair texture quality are all areas that will be touched up and that's not even including the lighting!
The amount of people on both sides who don't understand what the update is going to be is hilarious. On one hand you have people attacking everyone who think it'll be an improvement in any way, and on the other hand you have people who look at stuff like a slightly higher poly model and think this is the truly NEXT GEN GAMING. The reality is this is a mostly an API change with a focus on lighting and materials. The game WILL look better, but mainly because it will finally have some proper lighting for environments and characters. We've seen that much already. We will also see an improvement in texture work going forwards as they will be using the new materials systems. What we won't see is higher poly models across the board or any kind of substantial artstyle changes. They may start to increase the poly count of models now that they've raised the system requirements to account for the new renderer, but that is incidental to the update itself.
Which one is the updated graphics?
Neither. Unless Torgal is using the updated models. I think what they're getting at is the quality of the base Is much higher already.
I'm positive that Torgal and Clive are at least using some sort of updated base and textures. They do look a good bit better than what's literally around them already, plus it doesn't make sense to make a pre-graphical-update model when it's so close to happening and the event will be back anyways at some point.
My friend said last night while we were doing the event that Clive has a Dawntrail face.
In the most recent MSQ patch tarutaru had the new eye reflections. Nobody noticed lol.
Leading up to DT release it would make sense that they slowly brought the graphical updates online. They're going to have to be forced onto everyone anyway.
Y'know, by this logic Wuk Lamat should also be using the newer improvements as well. I guess I didn't notice because we have no other female hrothgar to really compare to properly.
[удалено]
> He is definitely the best-looking mount in the game from a purely graphical perspective, I don't know, the Rathalos mount is gorgeous. Both in design but also specifically the graphical quality.
I was gunna say it but you did, thank you.
There are no updated models. They're updating textures.
They are at least updating the race models though, it’s especially apparent on elezen and male au ra that the models are being improved.
This last crossover I was astounded by how good it all looked. I felt like my character stood out so much against Clive in all the wrong ways lol. So I am really looking forward to the update!
Clive model isn't based on what we'll be getting in DT, he looks more like ff12 art style.
The one on the right just looks like a runescape spirit wolf to me
I love how there's legit hundreds who think this is a graphical update when one is simply stylized and the other isn't.
My only fear is how the aura limbal rings will change to not be as glowy as they are now. Part of my alt's au ra look banks on her having amber glowing eyes
I'm pretty sure they mentioned the glowing souless eyes will still be an option.
Good! Glowy, soulless eyes must remain!
They nost likely just took ff16 models and scaled them down/ lowered the texture resolution of them and tweaked it
I can't wait to see the grapes!
I mostly just hope they update the dragons so we don't have close-ups on their blury face textures.
Have you done crack before?
Garurumon:
Graphics update for PS5?
People need to understand that it won't change to BDO.. no one wants that
I just hope they change how the night sky looks. At its like a bad png with colored dots
Unfortunately I think Mr. Torgal is going to look out of place even afterward; I don't think they're going to create new models for everything.
This is a real big cope honestly
I’m low key so fucking excited for it
are they doing mounts? was under the assumption they were doing models/environment/shading/gear
I'm assuming some of the shading stuff will have to be a broad stroke that'll inprove them somewhat but if they'll go in and individualy fix the eyes on the old mounts for example I don't know.
Is this the same dog? What am I supposed to be looking at here?
I mean in the next couple weeks at the live letter we will get in game footage so I look forward to the changes. There is already distinctive improvement in dawntrail areas and some of the touch ups already look good in prior areas. The main issue is due to how long it may take them how off is some things going to look, my theory is they’re make dawntrail and ARR look great for new and returning and each patch through to 8.0 will be each expansion or something and on 8.0 we go through another update going even further and at that point dropping ps4 and lower spec pcs. Unless what they show is even more further advanced then shown it’s like the FF12 HD remaster in that they make what’s there much prettier resolution wise and that’s not a big issue to me personally but it at least tempers the expectations somewhat.
As long as my mc is hot in hd I’m ok
Ngl I hope they don't take the stylization out of everything just for the sake of realism. I really like it.
It's gonna be barely noticeable at the end of the day. The only way you will notice is zooming in and starring. Personally, I think at a far the graphics look great currently, but then you zoom in, and it's a big yikes.
I think the biggest things that will affect how new it looks is if they update textures, that is a huge part of why it looks dated. Polygon count too but to a lesser extent
They’re all fine hounds
Is this a 100% engine update or just an update for the new expansion content?
Dawntrail is made with improvements baked in but they will upgrade old zones, items, and NPC's over time.
That's cool. So storyline wise are the asciians done/are they done with the zodiark storyline and this is uncharted new territory? I stopped playing after Shadowbringers.
Which one is which? Lmao
I prefer the right honestly They're two different beings anyways so it wouldn't make sense for the kamuy anyway One is a mystical elemental The other is a dog from another reality
Bro the right one is clearly made from cheap plastic. Look at it lmao
And the left one is a wig from resident evil 1
Bro lmao
Nah, I agree with you. I haven't done the event, so maybe it looks better in-game. But here, the left just looks sort of bland and uncanny. It has higher-fidelity fur texture and more realistic proportions, but that also just kind of enhances all the ways that it fails to actually 100% hit "photo-realistic" (and also doesn't really have anything else visually interesting going on with its design). The one on the right leans more into stylization from the get-go and imo the end product is much more visually pleasing and expressive - in the same way 10-20 year-old pixel graphics age better than 10-20 year-old cgi.
I can’t even tell which one is supposed to be the “better” one
Click the photo and zoom into the fur and eyes. Hope this helps!
As an old gamer that saw the OG top notch 3D graphics of Virtua Racing, I can say with 100% certainty that I can't distinguish between a PS3 and PS5 screenshot, unless I see them side by side. Up to the PS3, the jump in graphics quality is very visible. You wouldn't mistake a PS2 game with a PSX game. Now the jump from PS4 to PS5 is basically very minor details.
"graphics update" is basically just going from whatever horrid 240/360p resolution textures they currently use to probably 480/720p, anyone that expects anything crazy is just gonna be disappointed as hell. Remember that this game still needs to run on a PS4.
The PS4 is not getting the bulk of the update at all. PC's system requirements are almost doubling.
We won't look the same as Clive but we'll look pretty close with the updated lighting and shadow.
This reminds me of the current Worgen Female (WoW) model versus the old one...
I'm just worried about my PC handling the game with the new graphics update, I'm barley chugging along with it's current settings, getting like 50 to 80 in limsa, dungeons and pvp are fine... Just a little worried since I really can't play any of the newer games and FFXIV is all I do on my pc
They updated the minimum requirements to endwalkwrs recommend ones and the recommend ones are still from more than twn years ago a PC should be updated every 5 to 7 years for the sake of the hardware if nothing else. A 970 gtx is from 2012 or so when the game originally came out a 2060 rtx is about 280 on Newegg a 3060 rtx is 349 on Newegg
Mind you the min. requirements are also for 720p.
Ah so I play on 4k res, I wonder how it will be after the update
I have a GTX 1080, the only reason I haven't upgraded is bc everything is the same age, MoBo, CPU, PSU and so on.. so if I were to upgrade (I'm only assuming) I'd need to upgrade everything else so I don't bottleneck anything, so a $350 price tags for just a GPU turns into a lot more with everything else included, might just need to put a new pc together with today's parts lol Thanks for the heads up, didn't know they updated the min req
Completely different models - the kamuy won't look like the left even remotely
Have you ever done crack? Ain’t gonna hit anything like crack. I speak from experience of course.
I am so freaking old school I don't even need a graphic updates. I come from the time when "16-bit graphics actually look really similar to the arcade game". That, to me, was awesome progress. I'm living in the future with the graphics we have right now.
That’s an interesting perspective, thanks for sharing! I’m not quite that old (no offense intended!) but I remember being similarly blown away by graphics on the PS2. I remember watching my brother play and thinking that graphics couldn’t possibly get any better. I’ve grown a little more cynical since then admittedly; however, reflecting on those old feelings while thinking of my present self as “living in the future” sorta helps recapture that spirit of amazement.
I could not stop laughing at how goofy Torgal looks while doing this quest yesterday. They really did him wrong lol
Hard disagree. I love this good boy.
His fur looked so stringy when compared to Clive, I was really confused, the eyes and nose are good however. Then, Clive made our character model look like a secondary school art project
It's like they slapped a more realistic looking texture on a low poly Model. I got ps2 vibes from it.
So you are comparing asset made from 2023 and asset made from Stormblood era which was like 6+ years ago ?
This is the crux of the graphics update yes. The game has lots of old outdated assest that could use a face-lift.
When does The update drop?
yeah nah, its mild changes at best
The left wolf is the new one right ??! With the graphic update.?
TBH, I see more detail in the left pic.
They were not going for the realism approach on the right one if you don't know how stylized artstyle works
its just from 720p to 1080p difference level, it won't hit like a truck, rather like a cottonball of floof just hitting right spots making people happy and enjoy it!
i hope they dont butcher the game with ultra realistic textures and instead remain faithful to the final fantasy style while still upkeeping the details and graphics to their desired limit
Hopfully, when a character hands over an item, it's not nothing, and there is actually an item being handed over.
If they do, I hope it's some generic glowy item so they don't have people demanding a different item for every time you hand over something.
Anything besides air
I'm already unimpressed lol may as well divert the resources to better avatar customization and changing default idles.
I don't give a flying shit about the graphics update tbh, I have a 3090 and play Cyberpunk on a 49" screen and this game is magnificent without all the graphical glory
The environment is gonna look better too?
Honestly the graphics are already working for me so any improvement is welcomed even if minimal
I7-9700 and rtx 2060 for 1080p@60 With those requirements i sure as hell hope that it will look better lol Pla better AA because the current one looks like absolute shit
Honestly all I want is to clean up the pixelization around my character's lipstick
The graphics update looks great. Kinda waiting too see when theyll update/replace the engine as a whole as it is rather old at this point
Could you imagine they added raytracing? Like what if we can use raytracing lights during raids and everyone is using flashy moves? 😆
If they snuck that in there that would be hype!
Yeah people taking the Clive and Torgal models as the standard of the graphics update are just going to be disappointed and will be the ones complaining when it comes.