Making FFXI look better?

[DAKPluto]

To answer a question earlier in the thread, yes, you do not need to touch the reg edit with windower. Load up the Launcher_GUI and go into the advanced settings. It has all the reg edits in there for you.

AA is something you will have to do in the drivers provided by your video card.

[madpersian]

Tried on my system, and the results look impressive. However, the drawback is that this takes the CPU usage on my computer to near 90% (1920x1200, 1920x1920 background res). Maybe it's time to start considering a newer rig?

Change your background res to 1920x1200 and that should look about the same and lower the load on your CPU. Most of the benefits from oversampling are barely noticeable in anything but zoomed in screen shots.

[Pikarya]

Rehosted all the images and made slide by slide comparisons in this thread.

http://www.bluegartr.com/forum/tech/...omparison.html

[Kimiko]

Yeah, good idea, setting the background res to match the foreground res is much easier on the CPU load. Runs on average around 40-50% CPU usage.

Warning, large pic (fore/background res @ 1920x1200)

Spoiler: show

http://i43.tinypic.com/2w6fcpw.jpg

[Syntex]

i made a tutorial about that, but i think you took in the blur too much <_<;

http://www.bluegartr.com/forum/ffxi-...y-they-do.html

sometimes if the pic is dramatic enough, than you can pull it off

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/695...907ac4copy.jpg

but the way most ppl do it, you need to put on sunglasses. If FFXI looked like SS above, it would be pimp

That is an awesome picture...




Is there a dat file somewhere to get the sky to look that way like in the picture or is it strictly photoshop?

Would be nice to be running around with a cool sky like that.

Oh and thanks for the guide on the regedit, my FF looks amazing now. :D



@Kimiko

I have a widescreen and I doubled the resoluton, so its 3360x2100 and background is 2048x2048, should I change the background to 3360x2100 to get it to match?

Or keep it the same?

[Pikarya]

That is an awesome picture...




Is there a dat file somewhere to get the sky to look that way like in the picture or is it strictly photoshop?

Would be nice to be running around with a cool sky like that.

Oh and thanks for the guide on the regedit, my FF looks amazing now. :D



@Kimiko

I have a widescreen and I doubled the resoluton, so its 3360x2100 and background is 2048x2048, should I change the background to 3360x2100 to get it to match?

Or keep it the same?

1. Pretty sure FFXI's 3D rendering cannot go above 2048x2048. So don't even bother.

2. I'm pretty sure the clouds in that picture he posted are shopped. On another note, if you'd like. You can .dat mod your clouds so the basic/sunny day clouds look like the updated version in WOTG (WOTG/TOAU clouds vs. Zilart are easily noticeable and look 10x better.

[Kryssan]

I've been playing FFXI since 2004 now, and since 2005, I've been playing it on a 62" DLP tv. I've known about these changes for a while, and just for a frame of reference, this is what I currently use:

Game Res: 1776x1000 (DLP TV requires underratioing the 1080i res since TVs - unlike computer monitors - actually blow pictures out of proportion to ensure there are no blank spaces - if you don't understand what I'm saying don't worry about it, not really important, just explaining the odd res)

Background Res: 2048x1152 - I've seen a lot of people using the square textures for background, but honestly, I find doing that 'squashes' the image for me and it's very noticible on a large screen. I keep my background and game res to be the same aspect ratio to keep the image from degrading, at least from my perspective.

MipMap: 2 - It makes a big difference to far away objects on a big screen... best way to describe it is that it keeps the distant objects from appearing too sparkly.

I use ATI tool and currently use the ATI 9.2 drivers to apply maximum settings for AA, AF, etc.

Even with maxed settings CPU usage stays around 20% on my gaming pc.

I'd provide screenies to show how it looks but I'm in the process of moving so I don't have stuff setup properly to do so and my net will be down soon enough too. I will say that it's much more aesthetically appealing to the eye though. Too bad the engine is limiting and you can't take it farther though.

[Kimiko]

I've been playing FFXI since 2004 now, and since 2005, I've been playing it on a 62" DLP tv. I've known about these changes for a while, and just for a frame of reference, this is what I currently use:

Game Res: 1776x1000 (DLP TV requires underratioing the 1080i res since TVs - unlike computer monitors - actually blow pictures out of proportion to ensure there are no blank spaces - if you don't understand what I'm saying don't worry about it, not really important, just explaining the odd res)

Background Res: 2048x1152 - I've seen a lot of people using the square textures for background, but honestly, I find doing that 'squashes' the image for me and it's very noticible on a large screen. I keep my background and game res to be the same aspect ratio to keep the image from degrading, at least from my perspective.

MipMap: 2 - It makes a big difference to far away objects on a big screen... best way to describe it is that it keeps the distant objects from appearing too sparkly.

I use ATI tool and currently use the ATI 9.2 drivers to apply maximum settings for AA, AF, etc.

Even with maxed settings CPU usage stays around 20% on my gaming pc.

I'd provide screenies to show how it looks but I'm in the process of moving so I don't have stuff setup properly to do so and my net will be down soon enough too. I will say that it's much more aesthetically appealing to the eye though. Too bad the engine is limiting and you can't take it farther though.

I'm curious though as to the specs on your system.

[Kryssan]

Screenshot. Unedited, all I did was crop off names and such to preserve the guil.... I mean innocent. Since I'm hosting it on my server it won't be available in a couple days due to moving/changing commands.


System Specs:

GameBoxII:
ASUS Maximus II Formula
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 (Overclocked to 3.6~8 something don't have it up and running atm as getting ready to move)
4 x 2GB RAM sticks
2 x Radeon HD 4870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 Video Cards in Crossfire
Creative Fatal1ty Pro 7.1 Channel
COOLMAX 1200W Power Supply
Win Vista Ultimate SP1 x64

[Araelus]

On another note, if you'd like. You can .dat mod your clouds so the basic/sunny day clouds look like the updated version in WOTG (WOTG/TOAU clouds vs. Zilart are easily noticeable and look 10x better.

Which .DAT files are involved with this? >_>; Thanks, always thought the skybox was part of the zone.

[Auspice]

Wait, I thought making your BG resolution anything other than matched(1600x1600 etc) would skew your textures and make the game look funky.

[shaddix]

I use 4:3 overlay and bg and it looks good to me, I use barely under 1600x1200 so border doesn't protrude into another display @_@b

I would think using a 1:1 bg ratio and a 4:3 overlay would make it look more strange than 4:3 for both, since you're squeezing more pixels in vertically than horizontal

[Cream Soda]

The background res isn't limited by my monitor res is it? (My laptop monitor has 1440x900 res)

[Pikarya]

The background res isn't limited by my monitor res is it? (My laptop monitor has 1440x900 res)

Background 3D can go up to 2048x2048.

Its your overlay that depends heavily on your current monitor resolution. Too big and it looks like crap, too small of a resolution and the letters and windows will be huge like xbox.

So yeah, usually always use your desktop resolution for overlay for FFXI if your running fullscreen.

Edit: Also your background 3D doesen't need to be proportionate (1600x1600). It can match your overlay just fine.

[Cream Soda]

So I'd be fine with overlay of 1440 x 900 and background of 2048x2048?

[Kryssan]

You would, but like I said, it squashes it noticibly when you're talking about widescreen ratios. Your vertical ratio is so much smaller than your horizontal ratio at fullscreen with a square background that things tend to shrink on the y axis; most visual que you'll get right off the bat is that your name will appear thinner and not as tall above your character. Some people don't mind this but on a really big screen it can make things unreadable. I hate it so I keep my ratios the same.

[Cream Soda]

so by the same, would you mean 1440x900 overlay 1440x900 background or by same ratio do you mean higher for both but with X being higher than Y instead of X and Y being the same

[shaddix]

your ratio there is 16:10 for 1440x900, so increase your bg res to whatever you want, but make sure horizontal res is 1.6 times the vertical. so you could do 2160x1350 for bg res if you wanted, overlay*1.5 that will make it look better yes!

[Kryssan]

Try them all and see what you like better? User preference really. I do aspect ratios, so if my screen is 16:9, my background is 16:9... but not necessarily the same size. You *do* want your background to be equal to or larger than your resolution though, otherwise fugliness will ensue. So in my earlier example you see res of 1776x1000 and background of 2048x1152, which is 1.775 to 1.777~ as far as ratios go. This is how I prefer things. Perhaps you'll prefer it better with the square. Regardless, you want the background to be equal or greater than res in order to get a better picture for your game.

[shaddix]

Also I sometimes use widescreen aspect ratio just to increase my Field of View in game to increase gameplay performance. Can see more of what is going on and don't need to rotate the camera as much.