Alpha System Requirements - Let the Upgrades Begin?

[Reality]

If I remember correctly, didn't SE specifically say that the graphics for the PC and console versions were self-contained for the purpose of being upgraded and enhanced seperately in the future? Seeing as the PC is the only one that can really reasonably be upgraded, this would heavily hint towards XIV being primarily developed for the PC.

They said that the PC version will be better, graphically, than the PS3 version. I'll have to find the link/quote but I know they've already "laid the ground work" as far as getting this information to the public. That being said, they haven't publicly stated that the PC version is being ported to the PS3 and scaled down, which is fact as far as what I've been told

edit: found it, and this is the first i've actually seen of them publicly stating that the lead platform is the PC

http://www.uffsite.net/news/264/ff14...anslation.html

FF14's Director Hiromichi Tanaka spoke to the Japanese Press about the technology behind Final Fantasy XIV and the plans for a beta - and we've got it all translated right here.

As always, we've slimmed the important bits into easy to digest lists.

Technology Information

* FF14 is being developed for PC first and then ported to consoles - the opposite of FF11, which was made for PS2.

* Fans can expect support for systems with multiple cores and 64-bit machines, unlike FF11.

* FF14 is designed with today's higher end machines in mind.

* The team is working on seperate graphics for the PS3 and PC versions.

* The PS3 version will likely run in 720p - the PC version will depend on the settings and hardware the user has.

[niwaar]

Ask yourself if Blizzard could have successfully implemented the phasing system today if WoW had been released on PC and PS2 back in 04, as well as the processing intensity of introducing the Wintergrasp battle, or even allowing for full flight over the whole of Northrend. I can't see all of that being possible on a tired old console, and yet, that is what can once again happen to this FF MMO.

I can ask myself all I want. Phasing is about server side resources and does not directly effect the system requirements of the computer playing it. Does it lag a bit on some super old machines? Yes, but it did not bump the requirements. As for full flight in an entire expansion area? Well TBC also had that as well.

PC-only MMO's tend to kinda suck graphics wise. WoW wanted to appeal to the masses, so they didn't make the game as good looking as it could have been. SW:TOR seems to be the same way. I can't blame them, though. Huge part of the potential market, or should I say biggest, does not have good enough PC's to run new games on a level that would look good. The hardware costs too much, and people can't afford to spend so much just to get to play something.

Like Hyan said so succinctly, most MMOs do not go in the direction that AoC did. They dumb EVERYTHING down in order to be playable on systems up to 2-4 years behind the current generation. They want the game to be completely accessible to everyone. The difference here is we want to believe the game will look leaps and bounds better on high end pcs while looking dumbed down and playable on older systems. WoW's graphics are generic and exceedingly simplistic. They use a very similar system of graphics as XI does. A "dat" type system that actually replaces body parts with an armored graphic. We are hoping for much more advanced tech from any newer MMO, PC or otherwise.

Just remember, we have seen the game already, it looks pretty damn awesome, at least from a character design point of view. A good deal of the graphics we have seen in trailers is supposedly in game (non CG) game footage. The graphics are NOT being dumbed down all that much unlike WoW. If you think WoW graphics are decent, then XI will blow you away, whatever system you are going to use.

The real issue between PC vs Console is going to be if we are going to be repeatedly bombarded with answers to simple questions like Bag/Mog space. Even after repeatedly being told "we can't expand bag size due to PS2 limitations", we got our Locker and Satchel and more Gobbie Bags.

In the end, you can have faith in SE or little faith in SE. Until we see the game go live into the Beta, we will not see what they truly have planned for the game. The odds that the opening stages of the alpha AND the beta will not even have a complete version of the game world is fairly high. Being limited to a certain area, will not truly give us a true sense at the potential of the games graphics engine.

[Kaelan?]

Blizzard is a horrible example to bring up, by the way. They deliberately keep their game's requirements as low as possible to hit the widest possible market, which is part of why they make so much money. If they actually wanted console ports, they probably could have made them work fine.

[Hyan]

Sounds like a perfect example to me.

[Uzor]

Blizzard is a horrible example to bring up, by the way. They deliberately keep their game's requirements as low as possible to hit the widest possible market, which is part of why they make so much money. If they actually wanted console ports, they probably could have made them work fine.

Which MMO company does NOT want to keep their market as wide as possible? Its why they try to optimize it as good as possible, so people with sucky computers and people with great computers can both run it.

[Enos]

Which MMO company does NOT want to keep their market as wide as possible? Its why they try to optimize it as good as possible, so people with sucky computers and people with great computers can both run it.

sad but true. unfortunately it simply isn't as profitable to make an MMO that would require a large amount of the population to upgrade their pcs. sure if your pc is more than 2-3yr old then you'll most likely have to upgrade at least ur GPU or add a GB or 2 of memory, but if they release a game that isn't playable on almost every gamer's PC then they won't make as much money.

It sucks because we hardly ever get the full potential out of games, but it's just the way it is.

[darkscion0]

If I remember correctly, didn't SE specifically say that the graphics for the PC and console versions were self-contained for the purpose of being upgraded and enhanced seperately in the future? Seeing as the PC is the only one that can really reasonably be upgraded, this would heavily hint towards XIV being primarily developed for the PC.

I wouldn't say so much. Even though the PS3 can't be upgrade there are ways to get more out of it. For example, just recently Sony manager to shrink the operating RAM footprint to give more RAM to the actual games. SE can improve the engine and graphics in future patches, sure it won't be major but the possibility is there.

[darkscion0]

Blizzard is a horrible example to bring up, by the way. They deliberately keep their game's requirements as low as possible to hit the widest possible market, which is part of why they make so much money. If they actually wanted console ports, they probably could have made them work fine.

And more polygons and higher texture resolution does not always equal better graphics. In comparison I'd have to say that Wow's graphics are leaps and bounds ahead of other MMOs *for the system requirements*.

[Corrderio]

Didn't SE also state when it first announced the game that the engine was designed to be able to tax computers five years after release? That they wanted to future proof the graphics to a degree? I remember this. Since its their engine they'll probably limit the max settings like in FFXI, but that can be registry hacked much farther than consoles would allow. Who knows. Its too soon tell or cry about it.

Pretty much yeah. SE said computers around 3ish years old can handle it. However this is probably for minimal settings, which you won't have the option of setting in the Alpha.

Either way looks like I need to buy a new PC for XIV since my motherboard is a pile of crap.

[Katlan]

Lucavi, ur bitterness is unfounded, why the fuck r u trying so hard to tell ppl that SE is retarded. It's like u have a personal vendetta against SE

And seriously, phasing being a console limitation? I seriously hope u didn't say that, that's 100% server Side and just shows u only trying waaay to hard

[Kirb]

edit: found it, and this is the first i've actually seen of them publicly stating that the lead platform is the PC

http://www.uffsite.net/news/264/ff14...anslation.html

FF14's Director Hiromichi Tanaka spoke to the Japanese Press about the technology behind Final Fantasy XIV and the plans for a beta - and we've got it all translated right here.

As always, we've slimmed the important bits into easy to digest lists.

Technology Information

* FF14 is being developed for PC first and then ported to consoles - the opposite of FF11, which was made for PS2.

* Fans can expect support for systems with multiple cores and 64-bit machines, unlike FF11.

* FF14 is designed with today's higher end machines in mind.

* The team is working on seperate graphics for the PS3 and PC versions.

* The PS3 version will likely run in 720p - the PC version will depend on the settings and hardware the user has.

Well, there we have it, I guess.

[Vacht]

* The PS3 version will likely run in 720p - the PC version will depend on the settings and hardware the user has.

Is there a PS3 game that runs in anything higher?

[Mathematics]

Is there a PS3 game that runs in anything higher?

assassins creed, god of war 3, most of the newer games coming out

[niwaar]

Which MMO company does NOT want to keep their market as wide as possible? Its why they try to optimize it as good as possible, so people with sucky computers and people with great computers can both run it.

And more polygons and higher texture resolution does not always equal better graphics. In comparison I'd have to say that Wow's graphics are leaps and bounds ahead of other MMOs *for the system requirements*.

The simple fact of the matter is that no MMO publisher can afford to be hit by the AoC disease. Besides the HUGE number of bugs that plagued it early on, they had over half of their initial sales returned to the store because a vast majority of purchaser's PCs simply could not handle the game graphically. Even if the game had been a perfect, bugless masterpiece, they would have lost a great deal of money and potential subscribers because it just needed too powerful a PC to play at a decent level.

Blizzard has done a phenomenal job of dumbing down their graphics but still make them damn good looking for the limited power it takes. We wont be seeing too dumbed down graphics given what we've seen.

[Khamsin]

The simple fact of the matter is that no MMO publisher can afford to be hit by the AoC disease. Besides the HUGE number of bugs that plagued it early on, they had over half of their initial sales returned to the store because a vast majority of purchaser's PCs simply could not handle the game graphically. Even if the game had been a perfect, bugless masterpiece, they would have lost a great deal of money and potential subscribers because it just needed too powerful a PC to play at a decent level.

Blizzard has done a phenomenal job of dumbing down their graphics but still make them damn good looking for the limited power it takes. We wont be seeing too dumbed down graphics given what we've seen.

I thought software wasn't returnable?

[Enos]

well, one thing i found kind of cool (not an MMO however), is BF BC2.

on its low settings the game still looks really good, and is in some respects "better" or smoother.

Hopefully SE will have a nicely optimized low setting for people who cant afford to get themselves a high end gaming machine, BUT also allow those of us with high end machines to really make use of them.

I do think WoW is a good example of a game that can be played by complete shit PCs as well as look relatively good on PCs that can max its settings. However, WoW has always had a blizzard-y cartoonish look to it, and while a lot of the content and armor does look badass, FFXIV will be MUCH easier on the eyes, and rightfully so as its coming out in 2010, and thus require a lot more power to run properly.

I do sympathize that it's not always easy to afford a new computer, but seriously if you are running a 2-4yr old gaming rig and expect to play 2010 MMOs...well ya. Especially considering a budget build (built at release of XIV ~6mo) will be able to run it totally fine, and for extremely cheap. I mean comon...even in 6mo plenty of high end parts of today will be much cheaper.

[Vacht]

This makes me want to buy a PC and toss my PS3. One of the greatest things is that this shuts down anyone who thought SE was gonna come in with yee ole "PS3 limitations". This is gonna be a good game

[Kurokikaze]

The rig is ready. I just need in on that alpha/beta/gamma/delta/etc.

[Sephiroth]

I think if the PC version will run 1080p (or 1920x1200 which is the normal PC spec) I will definitely upgrade my PC instead of getting the PS3 version.

Would be nice if they give the game a graphical update 3-4 years after release to keep it looking great and perhaps release a PS4 version with it.

[Plow]

The rig is ready. I just need in on that alpha/beta/gamma/delta/etc.

Seriously?

Don't build a system for the alpha/beta. Play the beta on ps3 if your current system can't handle it.


You'll save yourself money and get a WAY bettter system if you wait and build it when the game is about to launch, let alone if you wait until it's been out 6mo-1yr and is "fully" optimized.