Vana'Bench = Win. POL/XI = Fail.

[Aymee]

Ok so... my new pc got here yesterday. Yes, it's Vista. Yes, it has an nVidia card. However, I don't think the problem is unrelated (or if it is, it's not the types discussed in the sticky).
Quadcore 2.4, 2GB, 512 GeForece 8600GT. No errors or bugs after installing my misc stuff and removing the damn yahoo toolbar and default search embedded in 20 places.

I downloaded and installed the latest drivers. Downloaded and installed the vista POL from site. Installed the XIness and whatnot.

Ran POL with it all done. Grainy view. You know, with the text all garbled and barely legible. On my last PC (XP pro sp1) if this happened it was usually if xi crashed randomly... restart pc and reinstall drivers and no issues. That didn't work this time. The XI rendering looks okay, avatars and text (log, names) look like I'm on a PS2. Rescaling the window makes it look even more comical. Both the POL viewer and XI have this same problem. This is with all the default graphical settings and not using Windower.

This would all lead me to believe it's a driver issue... so I downloaded the beta drivers, fail. Downloaded old drivers, fail. I'm really starting to wtf now.

...So I download the official benchmark program. Really was quite adorable with all the tarus in bst rse and all. Ran low resolution first. Ran 60fps for most. Ran high resolution, did about 30-40. A little choppy. Oh well. That's a freaking ton of tarus.

...Ran the 'demonstration' option on high resolution. Holy crap, ran 59fps flat the entire time, simply gorgeous. I was not aware that xi could look that good. I was shocked. I am now confused as hell, as a result.

How can the benchmark demonstration run flawlessly on highres uninterrupted framerate but POL/XI proper look like my PS2 version? This is why I say this is different than the sticky since apparently things -can- work beautifully. Everything else on the pc is perfect. I've reinstalled the POL viewer, drivers, whatever and no help. I have no clue what's wrong.


Edit: I've managed to make things look mostly playable... on xi windowed mode and low resolutions. It's still absolutely nothing like what the benchmark demo did. Also, I hadn't considered that stretching the POL window might not even be possible to correct in vista because of the stupid opaque borders. ...Toying with additional settings in the xi config to max out quality also helped a little. Still lousy framerates @ whitegate mh and ah.

So issues still:
--Window resizing (well, I'm used to having that at least) and particularly the look of text with it.
--Maxed out settings still not close to the benchmark program output.
--Windower doesn't work [but I know that not 100% with vista].

I'm considering installing the beta vista SP1... I read on another forum that it helped someone with a 8500GT.

[Vyvian]

If I remember right, nVidia released a specific driver for ffxi in beta, 169.17.

I don't think the fix is applied in any mainstream driver release yet, the only ffxi fixed version was 169.17.

The benchmark program doesn't factor in internet latency and some of it is pre-rendered so the computer knows what's coming before its told, so it can look better than the actual results from ffxi.

[Gunslinger]

When I installed SP1 RC, it randomly deleted my macro books, I shit you not. I opened a help ticket for it on MSDN forums so they know about it, hopefully it's a memory error that is fixed by release.

Try going into your NVidia control panel and switching the options from "Application controlled" to high values like 16X, 8X, etc. Change hard values where you can so that FFXI doesnt throw the game at your CPU, it seemed to help me quite a bit with making the game look better on my machine for textures. Also, use the .17 drivers until something else comes out. Let me know if any of this works for you!

[Aymee]

Thanks for the replies.

I know the benchmark is only that and can't really be used for comparison, but it makes me sad that I can't make things look even close to that good, lol.

I installed the .17 drivers... xi is now playable 1280x800 in windowed mode (not windower) with good options. Not perfect and not how I hope it winds up, but fine for now. I think I'm going to install the Brandson dats for the UI to clear up the pixely text. Damn ironies on this stuff... xi is this fussy, yet I can goof off and play SimCity Societies at 1680x1050 full options (fear my massive gaming appetite!). Stupid vista.

My real hope is to get windower to work at some point, but who knows. I've tried every possible combination of resolutions that are and are not the screen resolution, combination of windowed mode with or without 'true fullscreen', etc. So that's a dead end for now, sadly. Oh well, if I lived without plugins for the past forever I suppose I can wait longer on that.

Thanks again, things are cool for now.

[Rags]

What you expect. Your vista system is running Direct X 10 and FFXI is still on Direct X 8.

[Osede]

What you expect. Your vista system is running Direct X 10 and FFXI is still on Direct X 8.

they upgraded it to dx9 during the patch for wotg if not mistake

[Shuemue]

What you expect. Your vista system is running Direct X 10 and FFXI is still on Direct X 8.

they upgraded it to dx9 during the patch for wotg if not mistake

You're mistaken, it was too much like actual work for them.

[Rags]

Last I heard it was suppose to be released with WOTG but to my knowledge never was. Of course maybe I am wrong and I missed the notification.

[Vyvian]

No they specifically said they didn't touch it, and they don't intend to.

"By the time we would finish a conversion to DX9, people would want us to write a conversion to DX10", something along those lines, was the response they gave.

[Rags]

DX9 would look allot better then DX8. I wouldn't care for DX10 because a good portion of the PC base isn't running Vista yet. An thats the only way you can get DX10. But from what I am hearing is that MS is dropping Xp updates at the end of June. So thats most likely when most will be making the move to Vista.

[Osede]

there is a sp3 for xp that will be release, but I don't know when it will. since there is some ppl are participate in the beta about a months ago.


hm... seem like SE never said they did make it Dx9. because I only remember during after the time the big patch for wotg, I just some how feel there is some graphic or effect upgraded. When I'm first login after patch just notice there is something different about the graphic. And thought they did upgrade the dx version

[calinz]

hm... seem like SE never said they did make it Dx9. because I only remember during after the time the big patch for wotg, I just some how feel there is some graphic or effect upgraded. When I'm first login after patch just notice there is something different about the graphic. And thought they did upgrade the dx version

There was no DX version upgrade applied with Wings of the Goddess. However they used an old trick to make it look a tab better - they used higher resolution textures for most every area of WotG. That is why it looks a bit better than the rest of the game. This trend was started with ToAU's high resolution skies and continued in WotG. We'll never see a real graphics update for this game. It's sad really, especially since SE is known for it's masterful graphics. I wish they would at least optimize the netcode... it would definitely help reduce lag. /sigh