Enhanced Graphics

[Xanthe]

I did some searching both here and on Google, but couldn't turn up any good results. I'm curious as to which graphics enhancement package is being used in the screenshots on the BG front page. I'm currently using FFXI Element Enhancement 1.6.6, but it doesn't look nearly as good as those screenshots. I know that the package made it up to 1.7.0, but the support provided by the author has also dropped through the floor. Are you just using the newer version, or is there another enhancement package I haven't managed to come across yet? Thanks!

[Shadida]

I'm pretty sure they touch them up with photoshop after taking the screenshots.

[Xanthe]

I was hoping that wasn't the case. I'd love to play looking something like that.

[Elesirdur]

http://members.shaw.ca/cgreer11/Rank10.jpg
PhotoShop

http://members.shaw.ca/cgreer11/Feb03_01.jpg
more PhotoShop

I'll admit, I did go too far with the blur on the first photo but when you play at 1680x1050 and scale the images down a lot it's easy to make them look good.

[Xanthe]

I guess I just haven't seen enough shops in my time. Beautiful work btw. Mystery solved, thank you!

[Senkhi]

The only photoshopping I do on my SS (a lot of them are on the front page) is using Microsoft PictureIt to crop them. I use a prog called TheRegMage to do my registry editing/MIP mapping adjustment but I think the element enhancer does the same thing? My screen res is 1280 x 1024 and the rendering res is 1280 x 1280 or so, my computer can't handle anything much higher.

Some Dynamis screens have edited contrast/brightness but otherwise I have not shopped them. Changing a picture from an 1280 x 1024 to a 600 x whatever file really helps the look of it. The MIP adjustment also helps a great deal in creating a fake "distance blur" effect in-game.

Popeh's tend to come out a little cleaner than mine but he doesn't use Photoshop either afaik.

[SephYuyX]

As Senkhi said, most of those pics look like their just taken with a modded registry. I forget which reg entry needs to be changed, but theres 2 for rez, and you just up it as high as your comp can handle it, and it will turn out better looking pics.

[Elesirdur]

Things you can do to make FFXI look better:

Increase the screen and background resolutions above stock limits using the registry edits.

Increase the mip-mapping level using registry edits. Doesn't do all that much since FFXI seems to use bilinear texture filtering (at best). Whitegate looks like shit on my PC because of the horrible texture mapping. The tiled stonework textures are just disgusting in how they don't blend or filter properly beyond about 20 virtual metres.

Force Anisotropic Filtering on your graphics card. In my experience, this only works on nVidia cards; forcing AF on an ATi card will not do anything.

Don't bother forcing anti-aliasing on your graphics card, it won't stick. Instead, set you background resolution to be greater than your foreground resolution to get a AA-like effect.

Because FFXI is so reliant on CPU for all it's processing needs, having a good graphics card or an advanced GPU will not make the game look better or run faster. Even though FFXI was designed to run best on nVidia hardware, a lot of nVidia machines still suffer from horrible graphics lag whenever a Firaga spell effect or Bard song effect is on screen.

[Shadida]

Even though FFXI was designed to run best on nVidia hardware, a lot of nVidia machines still suffer from horrible graphics lag whenever a Firaga spell effect or Bard song effect is on screen.

Man, I hate that too...

[Xanthe]

I run at 1280x800 with 1280x1280 background resolution since I'm a fan of the wide aspect. Just loaded up using TheRedMage as suggested and the additional MIP mapping really makes a difference! I'll have to keep playing around a bit, with suggestions others have made, but things definitely are a lot smoother than at the original setting.

[Elesirdur]

Even though FFXI was designed to run best on nVidia hardware, a lot of nVidia machines still suffer from horrible graphics lag whenever a Firaga spell effect or Bard song effect is on screen.

Man, I hate that too...

I never experienced the song slowdown, but I had the Firaga problem when I was running my old 5900 card. I was pretty damn pissed when I got my new (current) ATi X1600 card in that ran F.E.A.R. and Oblivion like a champ, and I go to run FFXI and the textures look like shit covered in razor blades since AF doesn't stick. I'm thinking when I upgrade my PC sometime this summer (new CPU, mobo, and a PCIexpress card - yeah, when I upgraded in 2005 I was a retard and didn't get a PCIexpress mobo) I think I'll switch back to a nVidia card. The ATi card is nice, and I do like to support Canadian technology, but it just seems like there are so many games out there that are optimized for nVidia hardware - not to mention better driver support.