The art is miles above the competition (in MMO's), the graphics/animations/characters are very well done, I run at max settings with a pretty run of the mill gaming computer (i7, GTX 275, 6gb ram, windows 7 64-bit) and I don't lag anywhere.
I have seen Arkham Assylum I think the graphics in this game are better. Ambient Occlusion is very well done, cloth armor gets visbly wet in the rain, metal weapons glint in the sun, animations are very well done (exciting but not arcade-ish like Aion's), and everything fits in the world.
I'd also like to address the copy+paste thing, I'm sorry but the landscape is the number one thing that I like about this game. Vanguard had good landscapes, but the vistas and varied elevations in FFXIV make it feel much more impressive when you are in game and overlooking the region. All games re-use textures, and I absolutely disagree that this game makes it more obvious that those games who landscapes already look like ****, now in those games when they reuse their crappy textures everywhere it is painfully obvious. Square Enix however knows how to make beautiful games, even FFXI tweaked today looks better than most MMO's on the market obviously not because of its graphics (as they are PS2 quality) but because the art employed is just that much better.
Really? I'm not trying to be an ass but Aion's graphics look about the same to me. Ok maybe FFXIV has a bit more polish to their textures but really? That much of a jump in specs?
I'm known to be a bit of an Aion fangirl on these boards, so I'll throw in my opinion of the matter. Aion has FFXIV beat hands down when it comes to how well you can design your character and character graphics. However, with textures and landscapes are amazing and in this area FFXIV beats Aion easily. Actually, I would say that the landscapes are the best in any MMO I've played, even LotRO (and LotRO's landscapes, especially in the Shire and Moria, are amazing).
Yup, 50 chanter here who played through headstart. I have to say u nailed it. I like aions art style alot and the character creation. But the textures and trees/ect sometimes make the would look sort of like plastic.
Sure, it probably ran 20-30 FPS out in the open with 0 AA ( you clearly have no AA on ) and all the settings set to low. Half of the stuff you see there in the back aren't even actual objects, they're backdrops covered with bloom and Depth of Field. Now go into a forest and fight some stuff, you'll be playing at 10-15 the second your CPU/GPU/RAM need to use more than the max allowed resources.
Now put yourself in an instance vs a boss with 10+ other people around you.
AA was on 16x, thanks. My settings were on high with ambient occlusion off, all the objects in the background are real. That's Ishgard, a city. I ran at 40-50 FPS, in a raid situation I would run about 35 FPS. I played in gridania, my FPS was higher than in Coerthas. The black shroud isn't as taxing as you would think.
What exactly does ambient occlusion do? Is it worth having on if it doesnt kill your computer?
Also my rig is
ATI 5770
6gig 800 mhz
Q6600 3.0
Asus p5nd
Will I run this at max at 1680/1050? Or at least close to max. I really hate it when I have to play with AA off, AA makes everything look so much more refined.
I thought the lighting was very impressive and the overall graphics reminded me a lot of Age of Conan which is great. I had my settings on low, and it still looked awesome. The only thing that wasn't so impressive to me was the animations/effects of spells and such.
I've been seeing complaints from people on much higher end rigs than what I have saying the game gets crappy FPS or whatever and that may be due to the lack of optimization SE has done. My question is though and comment is though: I've seen HD 1080p videos of this game on high-end rigs. I realize this is an MMORPG and no doubt probably has some of the better graphics in that genre.. what I really want to know is for those of you who have experienced it first hand and not through videos.... Do the system requirements really warrant the graphics you see in this game? I have a game called "Batman: Arkham Asylum" and it's a bit older now and has lesser system requirements. I really don't see where this game is so impressive. No physics, even in high res the models still look like Aion toons upgraded slightly. So is it just me, or does anyone else feel far less impressed with the graphics than the majority? This isn't meant to be a flame post, I'm just trying to see if people think the graphics justify the system requirements. It is a different monster (being an MMORPG) I just don't see where people are getting all googly eyed over the graphics.
I do think the graphics are, in fact, THAT impressive. I don't know how many people play with ambient occlusion but I do and its awesome. Granted, I don't think it warrants the kind of rig required to run the game at decent fps (requires a Radeon HD 5870 to run the game at max settings, and even then probably averages 30 fps), but its easily hands down the best graphics MMORPG on the market atm.
It blows Aion completely utterly out of the water, I don't know how you can even compare the two.
Sure, it probably ran 20-30 FPS out in the open with 0 AA ( you clearly have no AA on ) and all the settings set to low. Half of the stuff you see there in the back aren't even actual objects, they're backdrops covered with bloom and Depth of Field. Now go into a forest and fight some stuff, you'll be playing at 10-15 the second your CPU/GPU/RAM need to use more than the max allowed resources.
Now put yourself in an instance vs a boss with 10+ other people around you.
AA was on 16x, thanks. My settings were on high with ambient occlusion off, all the objects in the background are real. That's Ishgard, a city. I ran at 40-50 FPS, in a raid situation I would run about 35 FPS. I played in gridania, my FPS was higher than in Coerthas. The black shroud isn't as taxing as you would think.
What exactly does ambient occlusion do? Is it worth having on if it doesnt kill your computer?
Also my rig is
ATI 5770
6gig 800 mhz
Q6600 3.0
Asus p5nd
Will I run this at max at 1680/1050? Or at least close to max. I really hate it when I have to play with AA off, AA makes everything look so much more refined.
It's the shading and reflection of light/shadow on an object, the game tries to mimic this from real life.
But that's only what google told me 20 seconds ago :P
Your pack moves when you run and when you stop running. Everything looks pretty realistic and moves "correctly". It's actually quite amazing for an MMORPG.
Sure, it probably ran 20-30 FPS out in the open with 0 AA ( you clearly have no AA on ) and all the settings set to low. Half of the stuff you see there in the back aren't even actual objects, they're backdrops covered with bloom and Depth of Field. Now go into a forest and fight some stuff, you'll be playing at 10-15 the second your CPU/GPU/RAM need to use more than the max allowed resources. Now put yourself in an instance vs a boss with 10+ other people around you.
AA was on 16x, thanks. My settings were on high with ambient occlusion off, all the objects in the background are real. That's Ishgard, a city. I ran at 40-50 FPS, in a raid situation I would run about 35 FPS. I played in gridania, my FPS was higher than in Coerthas. The black shroud isn't as taxing as you would think.
What exactly does ambient occlusion do? Is it worth having on if it doesnt kill your computer? Also my rig is ATI 5770 6gig 800 mhz Q6600 3.0 Asus p5nd
Will I run this at max at 1680/1050? Or at least close to max. I really hate it when I have to play with AA off, AA makes everything look so much more refined.
Im not entire sure about that video card, but I'm guessing you can run it close to max with ambient occlusion off (might have to lower the resolution). I'm pretty sure you have no chance of running it with ambient occlusion on though.
You know, I've been following this game a bit since just before OB started, and I've definitely seen a lot of screenshots. Most of them are quite impressive. However, I have to admit I don't think I've really watched a single video of the game. I mean, screenshots can be very deceiving of the overall look and feel of a game, and can certainly make a game look better than it actually is. Take, for example, EQ2. Some people have posted screenshots in the past of it, and they do indeed look absolutely stunning, but in-game even with high-end settings, it just doesn't look and feel the same way. Stills are just always more flattering than the game itself in most cases, particularly when really maxing out settings to the point of unplayable for most everyone, perhaps even the person taking the shot.
Point is, for all the folks who've really been digging into this stuff for a longer period of time, how about posting links to some HD vids that really showcase the game's graphics? Having been in the OB, I wasn't nearly as impressed as most of the folks here, and especially not for the performance on my particular system (most of which I chalk up to poor optimization yet, especially given the scale of the issue) so I'd love to see what it really looks like in action being rendered on someone else's PC. Having seen it first-hand, and not being impressed, I shrugged the graphics off for the most part and haven't dug into it further, but seeing all the support for them here makes me want to.
"The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it." George Bernard Shaw
What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. Oscar Wilde
Sure, it probably ran 20-30 FPS out in the open with 0 AA ( you clearly have no AA on ) and all the settings set to low. Half of the stuff you see there in the back aren't even actual objects, they're backdrops covered with bloom and Depth of Field. Now go into a forest and fight some stuff, you'll be playing at 10-15 the second your CPU/GPU/RAM need to use more than the max allowed resources.
Now put yourself in an instance vs a boss with 10+ other people around you.
AA was on 16x, thanks. My settings were on high with ambient occlusion off, all the objects in the background are real. That's Ishgard, a city. I ran at 40-50 FPS, in a raid situation I would run about 35 FPS. I played in gridania, my FPS was higher than in Coerthas. The black shroud isn't as taxing as you would think.
What exactly does ambient occlusion do? Is it worth having on if it doesnt kill your computer?
Also my rig is
ATI 5770
6gig 800 mhz
Q6600 3.0
Asus p5nd
Will I run this at max at 1680/1050? Or at least close to max. I really hate it when I have to play with AA off, AA makes everything look so much more refined.
Ambient Occlusion is actually worthless in my opinion. It adds shading to smaller objects that would usually not have shading, like a small pumpkin, a rock, leaves, plants, ect. Major shadowing still occurs if you have it turned off, it's just the detailed shadowing is gone. And I am going to say yes, see how it runs though. Apparently the fact that my game is running so well is sort of an anomaly, so just check it to see how it goes.
What exactly does ambient occlusion do? Is it worth having on if it doesnt kill your computer?
Ambient Occlusion is actually worthless in my opinion. It adds shading to smaller objects that would usually not have shading, like a small pumpkin, a rock, leaves, plants, ect. Major shadowing still occurs if you have it turned off, it's just the detailed shadowing is gone. And I am going to say yes, see how it runs though. Apparently the fact that my game is running so well is sort of an anomaly, so just check it to see how it goes.
Just for clarity, AO is supposed to add shadows where objects make contact with others, giving a more grounded look. I think that it's actually pretty much a standard in most non game 3d renders.
I think for games, generally, people don't notice the effects of AO as much since things are constantly moving and there's so much other things to pay attention to besides "ooh, pretty." So if it kills your FPS, I'd say it isn't worth having it on.
Comments
Yup, 50 chanter here who played through headstart. I have to say u nailed it. I like aions art style alot and the character creation. But the textures and trees/ect sometimes make the would look sort of like plastic.
What exactly does ambient occlusion do? Is it worth having on if it doesnt kill your computer?
Also my rig is
ATI 5770
6gig 800 mhz
Q6600 3.0
Asus p5nd
Will I run this at max at 1680/1050? Or at least close to max. I really hate it when I have to play with AA off, AA makes everything look so much more refined.
I thought the lighting was very impressive and the overall graphics reminded me a lot of Age of Conan which is great. I had my settings on low, and it still looked awesome. The only thing that wasn't so impressive to me was the animations/effects of spells and such.
*srry double post
I do think the graphics are, in fact, THAT impressive. I don't know how many people play with ambient occlusion but I do and its awesome. Granted, I don't think it warrants the kind of rig required to run the game at decent fps (requires a Radeon HD 5870 to run the game at max settings, and even then probably averages 30 fps), but its easily hands down the best graphics MMORPG on the market atm.
It blows Aion completely utterly out of the water, I don't know how you can even compare the two.
It's the shading and reflection of light/shadow on an object, the game tries to mimic this from real life.
But that's only what google told me 20 seconds ago :P
Taru-Gallante-Blood elf-Elysean-Kelari-Crime Fighting-Imperial Agent
Your pack moves when you run and when you stop running. Everything looks pretty realistic and moves "correctly". It's actually quite amazing for an MMORPG.
You know, I've been following this game a bit since just before OB started, and I've definitely seen a lot of screenshots. Most of them are quite impressive. However, I have to admit I don't think I've really watched a single video of the game. I mean, screenshots can be very deceiving of the overall look and feel of a game, and can certainly make a game look better than it actually is. Take, for example, EQ2. Some people have posted screenshots in the past of it, and they do indeed look absolutely stunning, but in-game even with high-end settings, it just doesn't look and feel the same way. Stills are just always more flattering than the game itself in most cases, particularly when really maxing out settings to the point of unplayable for most everyone, perhaps even the person taking the shot.
Point is, for all the folks who've really been digging into this stuff for a longer period of time, how about posting links to some HD vids that really showcase the game's graphics? Having been in the OB, I wasn't nearly as impressed as most of the folks here, and especially not for the performance on my particular system (most of which I chalk up to poor optimization yet, especially given the scale of the issue) so I'd love to see what it really looks like in action being rendered on someone else's PC. Having seen it first-hand, and not being impressed, I shrugged the graphics off for the most part and haven't dug into it further, but seeing all the support for them here makes me want to.
"The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it."
George Bernard Shaw
What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.
Oscar Wilde
With Depth of field, Motion Blur, etc, anything can look pretty.
~Miles "Tails" Prower out! Catch me if you can!
Come Join us at www.globalequestria.com - Meet other fans of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic!
Ambient Occlusion is actually worthless in my opinion. It adds shading to smaller objects that would usually not have shading, like a small pumpkin, a rock, leaves, plants, ect. Major shadowing still occurs if you have it turned off, it's just the detailed shadowing is gone. And I am going to say yes, see how it runs though. Apparently the fact that my game is running so well is sort of an anomaly, so just check it to see how it goes.
Outside the city (the port one) the grass and rock hilly surroundings were near photo-realistic.
Can, yes... But FF still looks on pair with the other best games out there (that would be AoC and possibly LOTRO).
Is how they made it look good important?
FFs problem is that it can't run on an average computer while AoC and LOTRO can that (at least now).
Just for clarity, AO is supposed to add shadows where objects make contact with others, giving a more grounded look. I think that it's actually pretty much a standard in most non game 3d renders.
I think for games, generally, people don't notice the effects of AO as much since things are constantly moving and there's so much other things to pay attention to besides "ooh, pretty." So if it kills your FPS, I'd say it isn't worth having it on.
Real Life > Computer Graphics. And that's free... mostly.
Its funny how much the powers that be have been able to put a price tag on.
I love snails.
I love every kinda snail.
I just want to hug them all, but I cant.
Cant hug every snail.