This is one of several interviews that Yoshida did back around the time of the last press event, with a focus on the PS4 release as well as patch 2.2. However, presumably because they wanted to time it around JP PS4 launch (2/22), all three of the interviews were not published until recently (2/20-ish). The actual interviews took place on 1/30.
Below and in the following seven posts is my translation of the Game Watch interview (other interviews were done with Famitsu and Dengeki as well, which I may take a look after this one), which focuses mostly on the PS4 version of the game but has some questions regarding future content, continuity of PS3 support, etc. I'll continue posting the interview as I work through the translation.
Part 1: PS4 Development, Graphical Upgrades
Part 2: PS Vita Remote Play, PS4 Video Streaming
Part 3: PS4 User Interface, Control Schemes, HDD Read Speed
Part 4: PS3 Support and Hardware Limitations
Part 5: PS4 Beta, Steam and Other Regions, DX11
Part 6: Reflections on Patch 2.1
Part 7: Patch 2.2 and Beyond
Part 8: Fan Events, Final Thoughts
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How far along is the PS4 version right now?
Yoshida: I think we're at about 90% complete.
What's the last 10%?
Yoshida: We have to address some specifications for the PS4. In the presentation, we talked about how the PS4 version was developed and optimized based on the PC version, but, for example, the shader applied to the character is not the same so we have to port and re-code to match the PS4 processing pipeline, it's not an exact clone. So point by point we have to go through the code as we port over to PS4. We're almost completed with the work, but we're currently addressing some bugs that need to be fixed.
Were there any difficulties in the development?
Yoshida: Well...actually, I think it was rather tough. (laughs)
That's surprising, I thought you said it was going quite smoothly?
Yoshida: At the risk of offending the team in charge of rendering and the client system, that was just our early response to the PS4, but development didn't really start in earnest until October of last year.
In other words, after official service for A Realm Reborn began?
Yoshida: Yes. We had been preparing for development previously, but once we got to the rendering stage we had to wait for the PS4 development kit to arrive. The PC version is 32-bit and the PS4 is 64-bit, so we had to work on that for the first time. We didn't run into any unexpected issues and we went through optimization one point at a time.
Were there any noticeable benefits with the move to 64-bit?
Yoshida: Well, since the architecture is 64-bit instead of 32-bit, the software wouldn't work if we didn't support it. But generally, we were able to use memory more efficiently and get better performance out of the CPU and GPU. Plus, since 64-bit is required to support DX11, this will help make the development of the PC version towards 64-bit and DX11 support easier.
Let's talk about the design concept of the PS4 version. The PS3 version is tuned in such a way that it's basically right at the performance limits of the system. On the other hand, the PC version has varying specifications for the global market of MMOs. What did you aim for on the PS4?
Yoshida: In this event, the staff spent a lot of time talking about PS4 performance. With the PS3 hardware, we were pushing a large game into a small box, so we didn't prioritize getting everything to be 100%, but we aimed for something like 70%. Considering the amount of memory in the PS3, the number of user interfaces that can be open at the same time is different, but we should not have to have mutually exclusive control schemes. Square Enix has a history of pushing the boundaries on console performance with games like Vagrant Story and Final Fantasy XII. We felt the same way as we pushed the limits of the PS3.
Talking about the PS4 hardware, Mark Cerny was responsible for the hardware architecture, and since we wanted to be involved with the design from the start of the PS4, CTO Hashimoto (A Realm Reborn technical director Yoshihisa Hashimoto) had many discussions with him about the design. For example, we talked about how we'd have liked to see more memory or a larger HDD size which Mark naturally understood and acted as our middle-man with SCE, but really some of those were just selfish requests since we were not considering the cost of those changes.
We also wanted both the PS3 and PS4 versions to look good, and since the game was fortunately developed for Windows, we were able to get results faster. However, I think it's quite difficult for someone who has only played on the PS3 version to get used to the PC version, and vice versa for someone who has only played the PC version to move to the PS3 version.
Since we were working on both, we were able to move through development very quickly since we were already familiar with Sony's unique architecture and we were easily able to understand the limits of the hardware and optimize. As a launch title, I think it will be quite beautiful, so please check it out during the beta.
When the PS3 came out, immediately after the launch there was not much of a game library because the SDK did not have many features which made it really difficult for third parties to get software out - did you run into any problems like that this time around?
Yoshida: With respect to developing generic PS4 titles, there are plenty of features. However, since we are making a MMORPG, we had to have a lot of customized network components for our SDK. Working with SCEJA earlier on the PS3 edition allowed for some very helpful interactions like "how do you expect us to have the beta ready for PS4 release if we don't have the SDK?" (laughs)
Since working on the PS3 version, we've actually had regular weekly conferences with SCEJA for around two years, and we've discussed a lot of things such as promotions and the free service migration. They've been completely reliable to work on for these projects, so I am grateful.
Once we got to look at the PS4 edition, we were wowed by how much more natural the colors looked. Is the rendering data the same as that used for the PC version?
Yoshida: Strictly speaking, the shaders are somewhat different and you can see some benefits of the characteristics of the PS4's graphics chip processing vs a PC graphics card. The method used for coloring is not different for NVIDIA or AMD's drivers, but here it's fully optimized to focus on one. Since the PS4 hardware is fixed, its' easy to drive optimization. For example, we were also able to optimize the processing systems for water surface reflections and halation for the PS4 version.
(Referring to an on-screen image) Like this road here looks very beautiful.
Yoshida: It does. When it's viewed at home on a television because of all the different manufacturer color settings, I think it may also look quite different. Sharp's and Sony's backlights are also quite different, as an example.
Do you intend to have a "recommended TV" for A Realm Reborn?
Yoshida: Well, I personally like TVs made by a certain corporation, but that's just my personal preference. (laughs)
When I played the hard Titan battle earlier on the PS4 edition, the effects looked crisp, but I got the impression that the setting where you are viewing from will also have an impact.
Yoshida: Well, the shader is only slightly different, so you should certainly be able to see clearly. That said, PC monitors are generally set with configurations to prevent eye fatigue when working for a long time, while household TVs are often set to stand out on electronics store shelves. Even with a lot of ambient light, you should be able to get a quite a clear picture since the backlight is stronger. I wouldn't play on a 40-inch PC monitor, but a 40-inch class TV is pretty typical, and I want everyone to try it out on their big screen TVs at home.
So you want us to play the PS4 version on a TV, and not a PC monitor?
Yoshida: Yeah, I want everyone to experience how far playing video games at home has come.
Got it, so people playing on PS4 will be expecting a brighter, more vivid game.
Yoshida: With this much detail and the color performance and backlight settings, it does look beautiful at high resolution. We're also doing a demo on 4K, but we're not changing the resources.
I know the PS4 version can display a lot of characters, but can it display as many as the PC version?
Yoshida: Yes, it's the same as on PC.
Is the draw distance also the same as on PC?
Yoshida: It's the same.
I know it's a little different because the shader has changed, but are shadow and lighting effects basically the same?
Yoshida: They're the same, the assets haven't changed.
The game definitely looks good when it's running smoothly - in an earlier interview, there was talk that the PS4 version would be fixed to a framerate of 30, what is the final specification?
Yoshida: For the time being, we have removed the 30 FPS limit wherever possible and increased it up to a 60 FPS limit. We've usually been able to get 60 FPS in scenes that aren't particularly stressful to render.
So rather than a fixed 30, the framerate of the PS4 version can be up to 60?
Yoshida: Yes, it should be able to get up to 60.
It's a pretty big change to move from a fixed 30 FPS to a 30 FPS minimum.
Yoshida: It is. Although I think in a battle with a few hundred people, like the Odin FATE, it might drop a bit further than that.
At 60 FPS, are the graphical settings equivalent to the highest level settings from the PC version?
Yoshida: There are some differences in shadows and streaming, but that may not really help understand. It's just about at the highest level settings.
In the PC version, there's boob jiggle, are those specifications also the same? [[yes, they really asked this]]
Yoshida: Needless to say, that remains in the game. By the way, we're still finalizing it, but we plan to include the wetness effects caused by water in the PS3 version as well in patch 2.16.
How does the wetness effect work?
Yoshida: What's the term... we put another single bitmap on top of the texture when you enter the water with a darker base color, so the color changes when you get wet. We're also working on how the body gets wet in the rain, since it wouldn't be the entire body that got wet.
Will anything happen when equipped with plate armor?
Yoshida: It will have a slightly different sheen. By the way, the wetness effect is not just applied to characters, but we're also fairly extensively applying it to backgrounds as well.
When you say it will be extensively applied to the background, what are you referring to?
Yoshida: The ground, etc. It's a lot of stuff. Also, some people may think that characters may look a bit cuter when wet (laughs). However, "wet" and "transparent" are two different things, so don't set your expectations too high....
You say you're implementing the wetness effect on the PS3 version, but you also said that the PS3 version was basically tuned to take full advantage of the PS3, so how are you able to get even more performance out of the PS3?
Yoshida: As I mentioned earlier, we always want the latest Final Fantasy game to be the pinnacle of graphics in the genre. I believe that was the case at the time 2.0 was released. However, over time, we can further improve our processing capability, which you'll see in this update.
Do you think there will be any further improvements in the future to the graphics?
Yoshida: We will see as we implement DirectX 11 support in the future.
Something like a representation of snow accumulating?
Yoshida: Sure. As more snow piles up in the background, we could change how it sticks to certain places such as footprints, and we could have it accumulate to some extent in a virtual layer until it's to a point where the background layer changes. It will be interesting to play around with.
Do you expect you'd be able to implement that on PS3 in the future?
Yoshida: Well, I guess we'll see. Since that would eat up more memory it may be quite difficult to pull off.
Will the challenge to improve graphics continue in the future?
Yoshida: Yes, that will continue. If you're interested, please take note that the accuracy of reflections in the PS4 version is higher than those in the PC version.
Right now, in A Realm Reborn, simple physics are applied to character actions and object movement, will more refined physics be applied in the future?
Yoshida: I don't think there's any need for extremely refined physics in a MMORPG for now. I don't want to totally reject its uses, since it's enabling new play styles in EverQuest Next, for example, and it's something we could take on as a challenge in the future. However, we do need to balance this with updates to content, so it would be considerably difficult to implement.
Although my understanding of this is a bit limited, as more physics come into play, it will become more difficult to perform logic computations for other tasks, so this balance is a factor which further complicates the issue. It's a lot of work, and I don't think we'd get the return on the cost to implement. If you look at a game like KNACK, that's all about physics, but I think that's beyond the scope of what we're doing here.
I understand. So it's unlikely that you'll be suddenly introducing new physics to the game in the future.
Yoshida: Well, for now at least. If we did something like this, I would want to look at making hair move more beautifully, for example. Or we could look at things like robe flutter, or how cloaks move around twisting models.
I wonder if there would be a use for those kind of physics.
Yoshida: It might be a while off, but it's not completely out of the question.