Graphics card support for PC users

[Vodou]

I lol at the people in this thread who do the anti nvidia rants.

I have a laptop I bought 6 months ago with what is not even Nvidia's top of the line card (its an 8400 go iirc) and I run FFXI under Vista with no problems and with decent speeds at good settings.

On top of that I have 4 more desktops under XP running FFXI with varying speeds all directly related to the cpu, the gpu, the ram and the settings.

My 'best' pcs are using 3 year old technology and I have FFXI maxed out with 29 fps. Maybe this is because I actually know how to use a PC. Despite the many good points here on how SE can make the game more friendly to users, this game is NOT demanding on a PC. In almost any FPS test possible, its likely that every GPU made and every CPU made in the last 3 years will cap at 29, and with few exceptions with most if not all settings maxed.

If you machine is less than 3 years old, and you can't run it at close to 29fps with high settings, its not your PC or the GPU or the OS. Try the user.

[Lordwafik]

I lol at the people in this thread who do the anti nvidia rants.

I have a laptop I bought 6 months ago with what is not even Nvidia's top of the line card (its an 8400 go iirc) and I run FFXI under Vista with no problems and with decent speeds at good settings.

On top of that I have 4 more desktops under XP running FFXI with varying speeds all directly related to the cpu, the gpu, the ram and the settings.

My 'best' pcs are using 3 year old technology and I have FFXI maxed out with 29 fps. Maybe this is because I actually know how to use a PC. Despite the many good points here on how SE can make the game more friendly to users, this game is NOT demanding on a PC. In almost any FPS test possible, its likely that every GPU made and every CPU made in the last 3 years will cap at 29, and with few exceptions with most if not all settings maxed.

If you machine is less than 3 years old, and you can't run it at close to 29fps with high settings, its not your PC or the GPU or the OS. Try the user.

Yeah it's the user when the user can run TF2 / HL2 / Portal / DMC4 fresh off steam at full frames, and then go to FFXI and see lag if there's more than <X> amount of models on the screen.

It's bad programming is what.

[coldbrand]

I have to agree, I really wish they'd push this subject at the convention. It's ridiculous that monster computers don't make any difference at all, and as far as I can remember, my much older computer ran the game far better than what I have now.

I'd resubscribe if I could play FFXI at a steady 60 FPS.

[tymora]

If SE needs some motivation to upgrade the graphics engine, I think a good number of us would be willing to fork out some money for a graphics update pack. (Amidst and despite all the grumblings and FU SE...)

FFXI has a good basis for graphics. Despite the faults, it still looks decent after so many years. Patch it to better utilize the latest hardware and they should be able to attract a new customer base.

---------
My wishlist...
1. Volume lighting (screw the billboard texture mapped glows)
2. Higher resolution texture maps. (things look real bad in HD)
3. Truly epic looking relic/mythic weapons. (weapon glows, weapon trails...etc etc)
4. Updated character models. (upgraded hair, higher polygon count)
5. Refined, more efficient engine for new cards. (Sucks to process a fraction of the polygons and still lag when other contemporary games can do much more...heck do what they did for Last Remnant and license the Unreal engine or something...)
6. Particle systems (screw the billboard weather effects)
a. Projectiles! ...arrows, tathlums...boomerangs...

[Sumy]

yes please.


















that is all...

[Shafted!]

From a programming standpoint how hard could it be for SE to change ffxi to utilize more of the GPU instead of CPU? I'd gladly pay 5 bucks or so for this 'upgrade', though imo it should be free.

[Sumy]

From a programming standpoint how hard could it be for SE to change ffxi to utilize more of the GPU instead of CPU? I'd gladly pay 5 bucks or so for this 'upgrade', though imo it should be free.

I'd be willing to pay 49.99 for a "VanaDiel Colletion +1".

Which is what I think they should call it.

[Delekii]

I lol at the people in this thread who do the anti nvidia rants.

I have a laptop I bought 6 months ago with what is not even Nvidia's top of the line card (its an 8400 go iirc) and I run FFXI under Vista with no problems and with decent speeds at good settings.

On top of that I have 4 more desktops under XP running FFXI with varying speeds all directly related to the cpu, the gpu, the ram and the settings.

My 'best' pcs are using 3 year old technology and I have FFXI maxed out with 29 fps. Maybe this is because I actually know how to use a PC. Despite the many good points here on how SE can make the game more friendly to users, this game is NOT demanding on a PC. In almost any FPS test possible, its likely that every GPU made and every CPU made in the last 3 years will cap at 29, and with few exceptions with most if not all settings maxed.

If you machine is less than 3 years old, and you can't run it at close to 29fps with high settings, its not your PC or the GPU or the OS. Try the user.

You're an idiot, lying, or wrong. As has been pointed out in this thread, if you are not running an extremely fast CPU, you are NOT going to maintain 30fps in high traffic areas at any sort of high settings/resolution. Period.

[kisada]

just wanna point something out : i think what at least one person here does, as well as several others who discuss this topic in similar threads, is fail to properly define what "29 FPS" is.

there's a difference between max FPS in campaign with 40 people and 50 NPCS with full shadows/weather/animation/drawdistance etc. and max FPS running through a bare zone.

as a very experienced user and as someone who has tried desperately with several different pc's and different settings, getting full frames with maxed settings at the highest stress tests is virtually impossible, but liberally thrown around by the people whose definitions are different.

just saying, the above situation A in campaign is not the same as situation B in the bare zone, and too many people fail to differentiate between the two. there's people on the tech forums all the time asking how is it possible to make situation A occur and the its the people who eyeball it or are running around in simple stress-free zones who are saying "yeah max-fps all shadows blah blah." what people are asking for is a different question from what people are asking, and because of that, a lot of misconceptions occur.

[Asami]

They could blow this question off easily again except for one tiny little detail... We have them by the balls now! Your argument is very compelling and this is what must be shoved in their faces over and over "How do you expect new people to join this game when it's so poorly optimized?"
Honestly I would agree that they are just waiting for the game to die and don't care, simply squeezing all they can. However it is painfully obvious that they are indeed trying to get a new player base isn't it? Go go gadget ball grabber!

[Corrderio]

I really do agree SE needs to do more crap for PC users. My card is a Nvidia 8x (forgot the exact card) and I seem to have some weird issues. Like textures bleeding through other things, a list of these is....

-The pile of gold in the Talacca Cove BC just looks horrible due to all the dark brown "gird lines" (That's what they look like, they're not there on PS2 though)
-Being able to see part of the stairway through the walls in Port Jeuno
-Being able to see that purple glow effect though the stairs on the sky/delkfutt telepads
-Armor clipping in odd ares (Mithra hair clipping through the strap on the W.Turabn and cloaks for face 6# for example)

I also seem to have an odd graphic issue with some transparent effects, another list for fun!

-The glow effect on dark elementals
-Mimic's "Death Trap" animation
-Manticore's "Heat Breath" animation.

Basicly... they look like squares on my monitor.


Sadly however, I doubt SE will do jack. They never did that DX upgrade for XI like they promised they would. I don't have the URL, but octoberasian gave it to me over KI a long time ago. Long story short... SE decided against the DX update because it was too buggy and too long to upgrade.

I also think higher quality graphics would be nice. Doesn't the 360 version of XI have smoother graphics?

[Terrain]

The 360 graphics really aren't superior to PC graphics, and PC graphics you can tweak in the registry.

The arguments that "FFXI is dying" and "SE doesn't care" were all dismissed when level sync was introduced. That was a MASSIVE undertaking, and much more than I would have ever given them credit for. They would never have developed something that complex if they didn't want to keep this game alive. Final Fantasy was their baby, and they have a history from day 1 of making that one last, best effort and having it pay off (hence the name, Final Fantasy).

I think that people just haven't been asking for it enough, and it doesn't help that it's largely only the NA playerbase who is asking.

I would like to see some updates to the graphics as well, because sooner or later they are going to be forced to move on from the Ps2.

[Corrderio]

Okay, thanks for the clear up Terrian. Someone in my LS told me 360 had smoother graphics/textures. And since I don't own a 360, let alone want XI for it.

For SE caring.... I got mixed opinions on that. Since while we ask for stuff, SE seems to take forever for it. Remember how long we were plagued with RMT before SE made the STF? It was like 2-3 years before SE decided to do something about it. Around the same time players were fed up and leaving. I'm not saying SE doesn't care at us at all, however they only seem to do these things when it becomes a problem in their wallet.

[Khalil]

The 360 graphics really aren't superior to PC graphics, and PC graphics you can tweak in the registry.

The arguments that "FFXI is dying" and "SE doesn't care" were all dismissed when level sync was introduced. That was a MASSIVE undertaking, and much more than I would have ever given them credit for. They would never have developed something that complex if they didn't want to keep this game alive. Final Fantasy was their baby, and they have a history from day 1 of making that one last, best effort and having it pay off (hence the name, Final Fantasy).

I think that people just haven't been asking for it enough, and it doesn't help that it's largely only the NA playerbase who is asking.

I would like to see some updates to the graphics as well, because sooner or later they are going to be forced to move on from the Ps2.

We have been asking them for awhile. Best example for this is getting rid of RMTs; it took them 2-3 years before the STF came into effect. We've bee asking them to provide other means of getting King drops, and it took them about 3 years to develop Einherjar and Salvage. SE is slow to implement things, that's the truth. As much as I think that we should all quit for a day or two just to show our dissatisfaction to the game, I doubt SE will even get the hint of updating their game. But then again, last I heard their production & developpement team were cut and are down to handfull of people, I'm honestly not expecting anything done like the DX upgrade and much more. So, ride this flawed game till the end, I say.

[Terrain]

You guys might be right. I guess I just want to give them the benefit of the doubt in light of the level sync undertaking. I mean, that was huge.


I was on playstation version for so long that I was actually pretty floored when I upgraded to the Xbox, and then again when I got the PC version. So I guess that they might be looking at it as a comparison to what older things were capable of, and not what newer things are capable of.

Let's not forget that SE has only EVER designed for consoles, and the past few years mostly Sony. They are just now realizing that there is a larger market at stake here, and other players are emerging that weren't in the game before.

All we can do is keep shouting. Sooner or later I think someone will take notice.