FFXI on PSVita

[Auspice]

I'm super excited at the possibility of portable XI but am puzzled that SE for years has been saying they didn't want to do a version of XI for PS3 because it would be too tough to port. Didn't Sony say the Vita is comparable to PS3? Like someone postulated above, maybe SE is using this to essentially dev the game for both platforms at one time.

[Nicholette]

The 3G speeds work well. Because there is no cable internet in my area and satellite had massive latency issues my internet connection at home is my rooted HTC hero 3G and that's what I have always played FFXI on. It works consistently with no latency issues

[Jaxzer]

That actually sounds very reassuring. Has me even more pumped for an official announcement. Anyone else play at home over 3G?

[Pikarya]

3G is no limitation. I played WoW 25 man raids last year while in a vehicle, or on the go 90% of the time. Unless you live in bumfuck nowhere, then you might have a problem.

As for memory capacity. Doesn't FFXI with latest updates hit near 13 GB of space for PC users?

[Septimus]

Not to mention that FFXI can work over dial-up. Sure, 56Kbps with FFXI will be noticeably laggy (tried it once when Verizon decided to be jackasses), but you don't need a huge amount of data to run the game.

[Pikarya]

Not to mention that FFXI can work over dial-up. Sure, 56Kbps with FFXI will be noticeably laggy (tried it once when Verizon decided to be jackasses), but you don't need a huge amount of data to run the game.

This is correct, WoW uses only around 10% more bandwidth per hour vs. FFXI when I was playing.

[Atomic Skull]

I'm super excited at the possibility of portable XI but am puzzled that SE for years has been saying they didn't want to do a version of XI for PS3 because it would be too tough to port. Didn't Sony say the Vita is comparable to PS3? Like someone postulated above, maybe SE is using this to essentially dev the game for both platforms at one time.

SE are horrible liars. They just don't want to port it for some reason. It's not that hard to port a PS2 game to the PS3. Most likely what's holding them back is Sony's policy that PS2 to PS3 ports have to have graphics improvements.

With the exception of using a PowerVR GPU (which uses uses tile based deferred rendering instead of the scanline rendering ATI and Nvidia uses) the Vita is very much a straightforward standard architecture PCs, Xbox 360, Wii, etc. This is because Sony has opted to built it with off the shelf licensed technology (it's basicly an iPad 2 with double the GPU power) rather than building another of their bizarro hard to develop for architectures in house. Sony manufactures the chips I believe, but the designs are licenced from ARM and Imagination Technologies (nearly all mobile devices today are based on the ARM+PowerVR platform)

There are major differences between PowerVR and ATI/Nvidia GPUs. The way they render is to break the scene into 32x32 tiles then render each tile internally in the GPU in embedded memory using a ray casting algorithm on each pixel then shift that tile out to external memory for display. These GPU's don't care about triangle ordering and they don't use a zbuffer (not needed with the way they render) but as long as you use an API (almost always OpenGL) you won't see any difference except not having to worry about triangle ordering (you can order your triangles if you want it to be portable to other platforms but the PowerVR chip won't care one way or the other)

[Atomic Skull]

3G is no limitation. I played WoW 25 man raids last year while in a vehicle, or on the go 90% of the time. Unless you live in bumfuck nowhere, then you might have a problem.

As for memory capacity. Doesn't FFXI with latest updates hit near 13 GB of space for PC users?

Yes but they'd be using PVRTC texture compression which is much more efficient (and also better quality) than the DXT compression the Windows version uses for textures.

[macross]

Super solo friendly as in you can easily solo your way up to 90 if you wanted to. Killing easy prey mobs gives you like 150 xp per kill now instead of 30 or whatever it used to be. Anyone can lvl 1-10 in under an hour meleeing with mage job even etc. Killing lvl 1 mobs at lvl 9 gives you 100 xp a kill still lol.

Of course at higher lvl's it's faster to do abyssea, but if you only got a little time, there's no problem soloing GoV stuff. Kill 5 easy prey whatsits and get 2000 xp bonus and repeat as much as you want.

[Septimus]

SE are horrible liars. They just don't want to port it for some reason. It's not that hard to port a PS2 game to the PS3. Most likely what's holding them back is Sony's policy that PS2 to PS3 ports have to have graphics improvements.

Doesn't Sony also have a policy that ports for other systems (PC, X-Box,etc) cannot look better than the PS2 version? That might be the problem right there- they would have to make a better graphics for PS3 that they couldn't use on PC or 360. The cost of doing that combined with the burning rage of the audience could be a culprit in preventing a PS3 port.

[Gokulo]

Umm, but PC and Xbro versions already look better, no? Be it only resolution, but still.

[Atomic Skull]

Doesn't Sony also have a policy that ports for other systems (PC, X-Box,etc) cannot look better than the PS2 version?

Not that I'm aware of. The GTA games all looked better on Windows and Xbox than on the PS2. and Bayonetta on the 360 looks better than the PS3 version.

[Pikarya]

Umm, but PC and Xbro versions already look better, no? Be it only resolution, but still.

360 version runs like garbage, FPS drops and more.

[Okan]

It's okay for small things, but once you get to events that are pulling 2k down or more, you can easily expect sluggish performance. I haven't played on my Xbox since just before Abyssea, but doing a few Einherjar was near impossible. Sometimes Campaign was bad. Besieged events would be an lolslideshow though.

[Absolutely Virtue]

^This.

When I read about this, I thought of it as a way to play FFXI lite. Craft, farm, manage the AH, doing boring fetch quests or magian trials, etc. The beautiful (and terrible) thing about FFXI is there are always a million little things you should be doing. And many of them don't require gearswaps or spellcast or even active playing. I have been meaning to finish off fishing forever. Now you're telling me I can do it while I'm making toilet? I'm in.

[Tiesto]

A tip for those in Europe.
You can pre-order the PSVita at Amazon Italy pretty cheap right now.

Its 270€ for the 3G version and 230€ for the WiFi-only version.

Credit-card will only be charged on disposal.

I just ordered my 3G model.
Porting FFXI will likely take a while but I'm excited about the device anyway.

A possible FFXI-port helped me make the decision.

Here's a link to the 3G version: http://www.amazon.it/Console-PlaySta...6G0PDK/msit-21
and here the WiFi-only version: http://www.amazon.it/Console-PlaySta...-1&tag=msit-21

[Leva]

How does the 3G one work? Is it a year's access to 3G?

[dejet]

Bump

In the NY if you have net service AT&T is as fast as it comes for 3g. Get 1mps easy.

And soloing to 90 ugh lol

[Colenzo]

FFXI is super solo friendly now.

this guy

[Darknightleo]

Sony just announced at their Pre-TGS conference a remake of FFX for the PSVita and PS3, I'm starting to think maybe the thing about the XI in Famitsu meaning to be an X is true...Or maybe we'll get both! Can always hope...