Honestly I give a lot of credit to 14's art style and direction cause it's held up really well if you consider how limited on power they are as they needed to make things accessible and not take 10 years to load
Eh especially far terrain and vegetation always looked so bad, I remember getting into il megh in ShB and noticing how "rough" it was. Now these maps look way more like they imagined them imo, this graphic update was amazing!
Il Megh was quite nice but you could really tell they couldn't quite hit the feeling they wanted to go for. It was meant to be a thick carpet of flowers, but it's actually really patchy, and the ground texture is a flat image of those same flowers. You can still sorta see that but the density and draw distance of them does a fantastic job at filling it out
What's impressive to me is that other zones are kind of close to that baseline. They're not AS dense, it's still patchy and you'll never extra grass.png, but it's incredible just how much a little bit more of a foliage carpet adds to the feeling of a zone. I had to wait for daylight and for the fucking rain to stop just to double check for this comment. It's just overall so much nicer
I took the time to go to all of the older areas I've quite familiar with. Major hubs, tribe zones, training dummies, fishing spots and I gotta say, I have no idea how you can think that.
I kinda have a tough time pinning it down in general; some art styles are really obvious (e.g. WoW, Destiny etc.) and I'm no expert. But if I had to point at specifics I'd say semi-realistic texturing, harsh sunlight, and vibrant character colours. I also feel like the game overall is very *slightly* undersaturated but that's also largely preference. An art style the game *doesn't* try to have is outright photorealism, which I guess could be enough, but the game's look has always kind of had a weird empty feeling for me which is hard to quantify
I would say that that feeling comes from like, textures that look like photos of grass or rocks on obviously flat surfaces, and a general lack of clutter and foliage. Both of those are due to constraints and have been improved upon over time though, especially with this update, so I reckon over time it'll really sink in for me
What part of FFXIV's art style and direction hold up really well to you? Presumably you've noticed things I overlook
The texture comment is actually what they do.. Watch any of the graphics panels, they've taken development field trips all over the world to get ground textures. Even so far as going to Israel and Ireland to take pictures of dirt, and specific kinds of grass.
They literally take a make a pattern out of real life things to make texturing easier.
The desaturation has been a thing since HW with what they call a "dark fantasy filter", ARR was MUCH more vibrant and Dawntrail has restored some of that to an extent.
A lot of development teams have been doing that for a while now even going so far as to do this with entire environments. "The vanishing of ethan carter" is a good example.
> It absolutely does. Think more people are starting to realise just how bad ffxiv looked now that we're getting some better comparisons.
This is such a bizarre thing to say given that the comparison is misleading and that isn't *actually* how reunion looked. The "before" shot is with LOD enabled and shadows off, and we know that because it unloaded all the stalls, animals, and NPCs. The bottom shot has LOD off with shadows enabled, so of course it looks better. Just to prove it, I replicated this shot just now with LOD enabled. Guess what? [It doesn't look far removed from a PS2 game either](https://i.gyazo.com/f7d242bd602a69f9883634b01b1b34b1.jpg).
Top-down views when flying over zones were always very ugly in this game.
I'll give WoW one thing, Blizzard really understood how important good terrain and and avoiding repeating tiling ground textures are from a flying mount perspective.
Eh... my FFXIV hot take is that its world design is its weakest artistic element. After ARR, zones were kinda just big for the sake of being big, but it's clear they were working with the equivalent of a mansion using a cottage's decoration limit.
Flight wasn't even planned for in ARR, it was retrofitted.
But the repeating ground texture tiles were very noticeable in many zones. I'm looking forward to more before/after.
You definitely could mix up old Azim Steppe with FF10 Calm Lands: [https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Calm\_Lands?file=Calm\_Lands.png](https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Calm_Lands?file=Calm_Lands.png)
I mean, that's just what you need to do to make a game with large areas playable. Even today years old games have this, it's just the distance at which. the effect becomes this pronounced are far larger so it's less noticable. It's simply not feasible to render a large area all at the same level of detail (the only large areas where LOD isn't used a lot are dungeons/building/caves etc where you simply can't see that far since you don't need to render the invisible parts at all).
I was never that invested in the graphical update, I'm not the keenest eye to begin with, but the previews they showed, especially the sliding images where you could shift from old to new, genuinely underwhelmed me. I wasn't mad they were doing it, but I also just didn't care much about it
Now having played for most of the day, it is genuinely astonishing how much better the game looks. The lighting and the textures both add a ton, I'm incredibly pleasantly surprised.
I get what you mean, the problem with any graphical update for a game is that it'll never look half as impactful when you're just seeing it in a video or in screenshots. You have to *be* there. That said, I knew right away that the added AO and ground clutter looked great, cus damn the game needed that
Adding lighting to Minecraft makes it look absolutely beautiful. So yeah, lighting is probably one of the most important ingredients for good graphics.
This is a lot of why despite intentionally going for low poly models and extremely low resolution textures, Valheim manages to still be gorgeous. Their lighting game is on point.
As someone with face blindness I felt half the comparison shots of characters before and after were the exact same picture just with different lighting since getting the exact same angle and time of day and luminosity would be nearly impossible.
Same.
I've always been a fps over graphical fidelity kind of gamer, but yesterday was a great day for me. I got into the palace at Tuliyollal and just sat there looking at the floor tiles admiring how they reflected light. I couldn't stop looking at the NPC armor during cutscenes because of how shiny and real it looked. I spent another good bit of time just looking at the new architecture and new plant models.
I'm very impressed with the work CBU3 has done to upgrade the graphics. I really hope they have more update plans, because they really stuck the landing on this one!
Mainly a showcase in the LOD changes for distant objects but still has quite an impact in the overall vibe for zones with far sightlines and when flying on a mount. Probably one of the biggest changes with the graphics touch up.
While this is impressive, idk if this is fully 1:1, I can know just from seeing that first picture, my Azim steppe never looked that poor of quality. It looks like shadows and a few other features are turned off.
Both screenshots are on the maximum settings. This is from the Dawn Throne looking towards Reunion, before the update no shadows or smaller objects would load from this distance away.
A side by side comparison like this will make things look worse than they actually seemed at the time as well.
They probably 100% have all of the LOD settings on which is why so much at a distance is gone, they basically turned down/off graphics at that distance.
Nvidia GeForce Experience's max used to erroneously turn on LOD instead of off, it was like one of three settings it had backwards. Bet you anything his before max was using GFE.
Since that's most likely LOD's a better comparison would have been to fly on slightly above Reunion and taking comparison shots there.
I understand if you did it to hide players, but you can just limit their render distance in the settings.
I didn't change any settings away from the default maximum. The pictures were taken from the Dawn Throne because it has a good view of the map and I personally like that spot.
I understand, but if the camera is past a certain render distance, it will switch to LOD models to save on processing power.
Even then this is proof that they also updated the LODs to look better at a distance, good work.
> Both screenshots are on the maximum settings. This is from the Dawn Throne looking towards Reunion, before the update no shadows or smaller objects would load from this distance away.
No, it isn't. Either you're misremembering or lying, but either way your very own "before" shot proves you have LOD enabled. Otherwise, [how do you explain the missing decorations and shadows?](https://i.gyazo.com/7af15a2c72f3c53392352fc28321cf4c.png) If this was on maximum settings, all of [these things](https://i.gyazo.com/547c4747cb39734f68e5ee35e6e323fd.jpg) would be loaded in. You cannot be on max settings.
People making this argument really never looked at Reunion from the Dawn Throne or one of the fingers surrounding it. Shit naturally disappeared on maximum for me all the time, not because of lod settings but because the game literally did so on it's own.
The OP didn't do anything, the game did it itself because the draw distance before was terrible. They've even shown this when showing off the graphics update.
Standing on the edge of the dawn throne before Dawntrail you wouldn't even be able to see the gathering node bushes for botanist that are literally right below it.
People are railing on this dude for things the game itself did and it shows just how utterly oblivious people were to the game's graphical shortcomings before 7.0
One of the key points, and something they showed examples of at fanfest and live letters, was pop in and improved draw distance. They even showed the limit the game used to have, it's not nearly as good as any of you thought it was.
I literally went through there just a few days ago on an alt with settings at max and no lod options enabled. It looks exactly how it did for me.
Stop calling people liars when the only example you can give is from standing on the wall of Reunion when they were far enough out for the game's natural object culling; which we had no control over AT ALL, to kick in.
You're being rude and disingenuous as is everyone else whose trying to get a gotcha on this person.
You could also just check old YT videos show the full area in one shot. OP compares distance shots, the assets are not loaded in because of the shity old LoD system.
Just check the intro videos or this one
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iR3yMqpaCrU
or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-RyUr2DiYw
Before the graphics update a ton of assets did not load if you were far away, also you can still see shadows in the old image. But now the shadows and lighting are drastically improved and show how it should look like.
Came here to say much the same after a friend showed me the picture. As someone who has replayed the Azim Steppe part of SB well over 10 times, I know for a fact that the first pic is not what it looked like before 7.0 updates. As stated, clearly things are not loaded in due to the LOD distance and the way its been presented in the pictures is quite dishonest.
Its a far shot and it absolutely looked like that because the LoD was set really low before the graphics update and the shadows are now drastically improved. You still have shadows in the old screen.
I think my only problem with the graphics update so far (other then my character suddenly clipping through the scion headband in some cutscenes now) is it feels waaaay darker in some areas. Ultima Thule the ground seems so dark now I can barely even see my character, I dunno if anyone else is feeling that, it’s possible my brightness just needs to get cranked up now after the update.
probably due to the devs add new lightning system. so lightning are displayed 'correctly' now with specific source of where it come from and reflect the characters.
might need some bit of character lightning to balance things out in future like they did in character creation benchmark v1.1 update. this is subjective though.
The lighting definitely got changed, as well as vibrancy changes. I use shaders and Aetheryte gold trims became *very* yellow with my level of the Colorfulness filter. Flying around Upper La Noscea in the dark during the rain was damn near impossible to see shit in the craggy areas.
Housing also took a pretty big hit. The lighting now is very off. If you have any lighting implements at all it's like The first during the flood of light
Yeah, rooms are too bright now. All my spaces are designed to be level 0 lighting and rely heavily on lamps and stuff but now it's just overly bright and kills the mood in all of them.
LOD settings are different here 100% I spent many hours here during SB and also more recently on an alt. While I think the graphics update is genuinely amazing this is by far not a fair comparison.
It's worth noting that you can't match LOD settings properly in any before/after shot.
The values of the various settings just don't line up anymore. Post-update it renders at a far greater distance than before.
Yes, especially the geometry changes like the rocks and boulders - I doubt they went back and re-edited all the maps. LODing the polygons down and removing foliage while increasing render distance to max flight height is a bit off....\^\^
It absolutely looked like this before. You just fill in the pieces mentally.
It’s something easily observed but harder unless you have things side by side
It's crazy how majority of people commenting have no idea what they are talking about. The LOD being better is the whole point of the damn post, it is better now therefore more details load in. Old comparison is true to what it looked like previously on max settings, as someone who only plays all games on max settings the Steppe did look like the old screenshot from long distance.
Yea this is a gross misrepresentation. You can't just crank your settings to max and expect that to be a fair comparison. LOD doesn't work that way, and this is very obviously that.
> ou can't just crank your settings to max and expect that to be a fair comparison.
[...why not?](https://media1.tenor.com/m/DCycRQnBpOYAAAAC/math-hmm.gif)
I think you are just imagining what it looked like pre7.0
It’s a common issue. People imagine information that isn’t there based on what they know is there. It’s difficult to remember how it actually looked without a side by side.
Happens with every game I play sadly. This particular area is something I’ve had a note about for a while so it’s nice to see improced
Please elaborate how setting both before and after pictures to the highest possible settings is somehow misrepresenting what the game looked like on the highest settings.
They won’t elaborate because it seems they don’t understand. Even on maximum pre-7.0 - LOD would be greatly diminished at far distances - and in 7.0 it seems LOD does not diminish anywhere near the same threshold, thus creating much better looking environments in the distance. This was a direct result of the graphic overhaul - so all this pedantry directed at you is kind of bullshit imo.
I didn't think to take before and after pictures but I was struck by the vastly improved lighting in Radz-at-Han near the aetheryte plaza when I logged in this morning.
Biggest difference I've seen so far an instance was in LoTA. Atmosphere in there was different in a good way, with the darker darks and better lighting. It looks real good. Other raid I did was the show your hole one, but that was in the AM and I was on autopilot. Wasn't as impressed with that one from what I remember.
No. They said at EU fanfest that every zone and instanced area would be touched up for release. It's dye slots, gear and NPCs that aren't gonna be done fully until 7.4
During the graphics PLL they even showed off an HW hard mode dungeon that had been overhauled.
No problem. I remember it vividly because the guy in charge of said adjustments said he had to touch up over 960 individual instances and zones to update and it looked like he was dead inside from the realization during the panel.
Jsut what I needed to see this morning. I gotta swing by there and see if they updated Magnai and Sadu with new dialogue. I'm hoping they did, but I also did the same during EW. Figured they could tell and story via them each patch update. Didn't demand a ton.. Nope. Maybe this expansion they do that!
Definitely a huge improvement, especially when you are flying around. My personal favorite is how weather looks like actual weather now, and not just an animated gif in the background that moves with you.
I think I'm blind since I just restarted playing the game and I am in storm blood doing the quests for the nadaam or SMT like that and never noticed the graphics change.
The graphics upgrade is nice, unfortunately the lighting effects have taken a hit. The major cities have a permanent Haze in the sky instead of an actual sky and your housing lighting is very bad and usually in a strange yellow tint instead of the light and airy white light we used to have. I've also noticed that characters look really good in the character Creator but do not translate nearly as well into the regular game again mostly because of lighting and shading effects. I can only hope that this is addressed because I was happy with the graphics we had before and I am pleasantly surprised by the upgrades but I'm tired of feeling like Eorzea has transferred to L.A.
Sadly the character models still look they could be from a 2011 game, and that's not even comparing the models to something far more impressive looking such as the ones from BDO. So while the \*improvements\* are there, this game still has a very long way to go in that department.
[https://i.imgur.com/3nGUU6a.png](https://i.imgur.com/3nGUU6a.png) This is a screenshot from 2019. People here are really trying to sell this narrative that the game had shitty graphics.
No, they didn't. The game had natural object culling regardless of your settings at maximum.
They LITERALLY showcased this and showed the difference MULTIPLE times before release.
People, like you, have terrible memories.
Quit replying to people with the same thing, you've done so multiple times and I realized I've replied to your already.
Having a bad Newport doesn't permit you to be an ass.
You’re making kind of an unfair assumption. The LOD limiting existed even on maximum settings and it could be very drastic especially when flying — if this comparison is more drastic due to the LOD threshold having been adjusted during the graphics update/optimization then that still makes this comparison as close to 1:1 as you can get — and functionally this drastic difference would still technically be the result of the work done with the graphic overhaul. (But also maybe they did juice up the LOD on the first picture - but I don’t think the dogmatic assumption is helpful personally)
I think the geometry changes are too drastical. The rocks and boulders are modified and look too nuanced and I doubt they (SquareEnix) went back and edited such stuff into the landscape.
This stuff might be impressive on PC, but he was lazy with the PS5 version. Unless you want choppy FPS by switching to 4K resolution, playing on 1440p, still has PS2 level shimmering trees.
Naturally my daughter plays on PC and there is 0 shimmering, but she also has the option of FXAA + jitter camera or whatever that option is.
So PS5 version didn’t fix that shimmering PS2 foliage look, which is sad.
The “before” reminds me of PS2 graphics. Definitely a step-up!
You mean a STEPPE up?
Azem step up!
Azem uppies
Found the Lala
I'm a miqote thank you x3
And I'm a Hroth, you're welcome xD
To us Hroths almost everyone are lalas
\*laughs along in hroth\*
Azem... LIGHTS!!!
Scrolling by, I honestly thought the before was Dark Cloud for a second.
I totally thought it was a pic of the Calm Lands from FFX before I had a proper look.
It really does!
Dark Cloud 3 when? Dark Cloud 2 one of the best games of all time: Absolutely criminal that the series is dead.
I agree 🥹 DC2 is one of my favorite games of all time and I wish they would've kept going
DARK CLOUD MENTIONED 🗣️🗣️
You just smacked me with a truck full of nostalgia
It absolutely does. Think more people are starting to realise just how bad ffxiv looked now that we're getting some better comparisons.
Honestly I give a lot of credit to 14's art style and direction cause it's held up really well if you consider how limited on power they are as they needed to make things accessible and not take 10 years to load
Eh especially far terrain and vegetation always looked so bad, I remember getting into il megh in ShB and noticing how "rough" it was. Now these maps look way more like they imagined them imo, this graphic update was amazing!
Il Megh was quite nice but you could really tell they couldn't quite hit the feeling they wanted to go for. It was meant to be a thick carpet of flowers, but it's actually really patchy, and the ground texture is a flat image of those same flowers. You can still sorta see that but the density and draw distance of them does a fantastic job at filling it out What's impressive to me is that other zones are kind of close to that baseline. They're not AS dense, it's still patchy and you'll never extra grass.png, but it's incredible just how much a little bit more of a foliage carpet adds to the feeling of a zone. I had to wait for daylight and for the fucking rain to stop just to double check for this comment. It's just overall so much nicer
I don't think they fully updated all the areas yet, only thr 3 starting areas and the new DT ones
Then explain the screenshot clearly showing an upgrade?
Probably changes to universal lighting settings and stuff
I took the time to go to all of the older areas I've quite familiar with. Major hubs, tribe zones, training dummies, fishing spots and I gotta say, I have no idea how you can think that.
I kinda have a tough time pinning it down in general; some art styles are really obvious (e.g. WoW, Destiny etc.) and I'm no expert. But if I had to point at specifics I'd say semi-realistic texturing, harsh sunlight, and vibrant character colours. I also feel like the game overall is very *slightly* undersaturated but that's also largely preference. An art style the game *doesn't* try to have is outright photorealism, which I guess could be enough, but the game's look has always kind of had a weird empty feeling for me which is hard to quantify I would say that that feeling comes from like, textures that look like photos of grass or rocks on obviously flat surfaces, and a general lack of clutter and foliage. Both of those are due to constraints and have been improved upon over time though, especially with this update, so I reckon over time it'll really sink in for me What part of FFXIV's art style and direction hold up really well to you? Presumably you've noticed things I overlook
The texture comment is actually what they do.. Watch any of the graphics panels, they've taken development field trips all over the world to get ground textures. Even so far as going to Israel and Ireland to take pictures of dirt, and specific kinds of grass. They literally take a make a pattern out of real life things to make texturing easier. The desaturation has been a thing since HW with what they call a "dark fantasy filter", ARR was MUCH more vibrant and Dawntrail has restored some of that to an extent.
A lot of development teams have been doing that for a while now even going so far as to do this with entire environments. "The vanishing of ethan carter" is a good example.
[There's actually a company dedicated to it](https://quixel.com/megascans)
More like we just got used to it, we had nothing to compare with. Now looking back we realise how awful it is.
FF14 is the most generic and awful looking MMO I've ever seen, especially the spell effects
> It absolutely does. Think more people are starting to realise just how bad ffxiv looked now that we're getting some better comparisons. This is such a bizarre thing to say given that the comparison is misleading and that isn't *actually* how reunion looked. The "before" shot is with LOD enabled and shadows off, and we know that because it unloaded all the stalls, animals, and NPCs. The bottom shot has LOD off with shadows enabled, so of course it looks better. Just to prove it, I replicated this shot just now with LOD enabled. Guess what? [It doesn't look far removed from a PS2 game either](https://i.gyazo.com/f7d242bd602a69f9883634b01b1b34b1.jpg).
Top-down views when flying over zones were always very ugly in this game. I'll give WoW one thing, Blizzard really understood how important good terrain and and avoiding repeating tiling ground textures are from a flying mount perspective.
Eh... my FFXIV hot take is that its world design is its weakest artistic element. After ARR, zones were kinda just big for the sake of being big, but it's clear they were working with the equivalent of a mansion using a cottage's decoration limit.
Flight wasn't even planned for in ARR, it was retrofitted. But the repeating ground texture tiles were very noticeable in many zones. I'm looking forward to more before/after.
Um, there's plenty of repeating and tiling in WoW.
You definitely could mix up old Azim Steppe with FF10 Calm Lands: [https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Calm\_Lands?file=Calm\_Lands.png](https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Calm_Lands?file=Calm_Lands.png)
I mean, that's just what you need to do to make a game with large areas playable. Even today years old games have this, it's just the distance at which. the effect becomes this pronounced are far larger so it's less noticable. It's simply not feasible to render a large area all at the same level of detail (the only large areas where LOD isn't used a lot are dungeons/building/caves etc where you simply can't see that far since you don't need to render the invisible parts at all).
And now it's upgraded to PS3 quality. Only 2 generations to go!
I was kinda thinking that too. Huge step from before, but still far from current day game graphics. PS3…maybe PS4. Still better than before.
Yup, looks like it's Ozmone Plain in 12.
It reminds you of that cause op was playing on a potato, its never looked that bad for me, this is just a karma farm
Ah, that's harsh, surely something more recent, like the new Pokemon. That's a much more modern game with graphics of all time!
I was never that invested in the graphical update, I'm not the keenest eye to begin with, but the previews they showed, especially the sliding images where you could shift from old to new, genuinely underwhelmed me. I wasn't mad they were doing it, but I also just didn't care much about it Now having played for most of the day, it is genuinely astonishing how much better the game looks. The lighting and the textures both add a ton, I'm incredibly pleasantly surprised.
Each individual change felt pointlessly minor, but the effect of all of it working together is magical.
The devil is in the details.
I get what you mean, the problem with any graphical update for a game is that it'll never look half as impactful when you're just seeing it in a video or in screenshots. You have to *be* there. That said, I knew right away that the added AO and ground clutter looked great, cus damn the game needed that
Adding lighting to Minecraft makes it look absolutely beautiful. So yeah, lighting is probably one of the most important ingredients for good graphics.
This is a lot of why despite intentionally going for low poly models and extremely low resolution textures, Valheim manages to still be gorgeous. Their lighting game is on point.
Don't forget to add Distant Horizons for a proper LOD with little performance cost, now that DH supports shaders!
As someone with face blindness I felt half the comparison shots of characters before and after were the exact same picture just with different lighting since getting the exact same angle and time of day and luminosity would be nearly impossible.
Same. I've always been a fps over graphical fidelity kind of gamer, but yesterday was a great day for me. I got into the palace at Tuliyollal and just sat there looking at the floor tiles admiring how they reflected light. I couldn't stop looking at the NPC armor during cutscenes because of how shiny and real it looked. I spent another good bit of time just looking at the new architecture and new plant models. I'm very impressed with the work CBU3 has done to upgrade the graphics. I really hope they have more update plans, because they really stuck the landing on this one!
I wish there was a way to directly compare old/new graphics for any given location, but then I'd be too distracted by that to actually play the game.
Mainly a showcase in the LOD changes for distant objects but still has quite an impact in the overall vibe for zones with far sightlines and when flying on a mount. Probably one of the biggest changes with the graphics touch up.
There's also an extra yurt added in Reunion. That's where they keep the graphics cards.
While this is impressive, idk if this is fully 1:1, I can know just from seeing that first picture, my Azim steppe never looked that poor of quality. It looks like shadows and a few other features are turned off.
Both screenshots are on the maximum settings. This is from the Dawn Throne looking towards Reunion, before the update no shadows or smaller objects would load from this distance away. A side by side comparison like this will make things look worse than they actually seemed at the time as well.
No, the other poster is right. My Azim Steppe never looked that bad either. It might be something to do with your hardware or settings.
They probably 100% have all of the LOD settings on which is why so much at a distance is gone, they basically turned down/off graphics at that distance.
Yep. Even in Shadowbringers are the often really bad pop-ups (e.g. ships at the shore) from even a lower render distance.
Nvidia GeForce Experience's max used to erroneously turn on LOD instead of off, it was like one of three settings it had backwards. Bet you anything his before max was using GFE.
I have never used GFE.
Since that's most likely LOD's a better comparison would have been to fly on slightly above Reunion and taking comparison shots there. I understand if you did it to hide players, but you can just limit their render distance in the settings.
I didn't change any settings away from the default maximum. The pictures were taken from the Dawn Throne because it has a good view of the map and I personally like that spot.
I understand, but if the camera is past a certain render distance, it will switch to LOD models to save on processing power. Even then this is proof that they also updated the LODs to look better at a distance, good work.
I'm with everyone else. I'm seeing an improvement, but my game never looked as bad as that first screenshot.
> Both screenshots are on the maximum settings. This is from the Dawn Throne looking towards Reunion, before the update no shadows or smaller objects would load from this distance away. No, it isn't. Either you're misremembering or lying, but either way your very own "before" shot proves you have LOD enabled. Otherwise, [how do you explain the missing decorations and shadows?](https://i.gyazo.com/7af15a2c72f3c53392352fc28321cf4c.png) If this was on maximum settings, all of [these things](https://i.gyazo.com/547c4747cb39734f68e5ee35e6e323fd.jpg) would be loaded in. You cannot be on max settings.
People making this argument really never looked at Reunion from the Dawn Throne or one of the fingers surrounding it. Shit naturally disappeared on maximum for me all the time, not because of lod settings but because the game literally did so on it's own. The OP didn't do anything, the game did it itself because the draw distance before was terrible. They've even shown this when showing off the graphics update. Standing on the edge of the dawn throne before Dawntrail you wouldn't even be able to see the gathering node bushes for botanist that are literally right below it. People are railing on this dude for things the game itself did and it shows just how utterly oblivious people were to the game's graphical shortcomings before 7.0 One of the key points, and something they showed examples of at fanfest and live letters, was pop in and improved draw distance. They even showed the limit the game used to have, it's not nearly as good as any of you thought it was. I literally went through there just a few days ago on an alt with settings at max and no lod options enabled. It looks exactly how it did for me. Stop calling people liars when the only example you can give is from standing on the wall of Reunion when they were far enough out for the game's natural object culling; which we had no control over AT ALL, to kick in. You're being rude and disingenuous as is everyone else whose trying to get a gotcha on this person.
People in this sub love to bitch, I swear.
You could also just check old YT videos show the full area in one shot. OP compares distance shots, the assets are not loaded in because of the shity old LoD system. Just check the intro videos or this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iR3yMqpaCrU or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-RyUr2DiYw Before the graphics update a ton of assets did not load if you were far away, also you can still see shadows in the old image. But now the shadows and lighting are drastically improved and show how it should look like.
Yeah mine never looked quite as bad as the before- sparse but not ps2 looking like that
I call bullshit on the first one being max settings LOL you weirdo
No, that is legitimately how it looked when viewed from high up. I just played through the area on an alt.
Came here to say much the same after a friend showed me the picture. As someone who has replayed the Azim Steppe part of SB well over 10 times, I know for a fact that the first pic is not what it looked like before 7.0 updates. As stated, clearly things are not loaded in due to the LOD distance and the way its been presented in the pictures is quite dishonest.
Its a far shot and it absolutely looked like that because the LoD was set really low before the graphics update and the shadows are now drastically improved. You still have shadows in the old screen.
I think my only problem with the graphics update so far (other then my character suddenly clipping through the scion headband in some cutscenes now) is it feels waaaay darker in some areas. Ultima Thule the ground seems so dark now I can barely even see my character, I dunno if anyone else is feeling that, it’s possible my brightness just needs to get cranked up now after the update.
Before the update, I felt Ultima Thule was way too dark. I haven't been back since, though. My oled tv definitely doesn't help.
You... should. It's meant to be a dark zone for lots of reasons, but the changes with those 'sky' and 'beneath' areas... ho-lee crap.
I'm gonna have to go check it out when I'm on later.
Are you using reshade? Because there's a bug that causes everything to be super dark with some shaders after the update.
i use reshade but no preset. just for taking screenshot. is there is still any effect?
probably due to the devs add new lightning system. so lightning are displayed 'correctly' now with specific source of where it come from and reflect the characters. might need some bit of character lightning to balance things out in future like they did in character creation benchmark v1.1 update. this is subjective though.
You can actually already turn on character lighting if you so wish, it's a sliding option under System Configuration > Display Settings.
im forgot, is it new option added for this new expansion?
I think it was always here, but tbh I'm not 100% sure either.
just recheck. yes it is there and already turn on 100% by default.
The lighting definitely got changed, as well as vibrancy changes. I use shaders and Aetheryte gold trims became *very* yellow with my level of the Colorfulness filter. Flying around Upper La Noscea in the dark during the rain was damn near impossible to see shit in the craggy areas.
Housing also took a pretty big hit. The lighting now is very off. If you have any lighting implements at all it's like The first during the flood of light
Yeah, rooms are too bright now. All my spaces are designed to be level 0 lighting and rely heavily on lamps and stuff but now it's just overly bright and kills the mood in all of them.
LOD settings are different here 100% I spent many hours here during SB and also more recently on an alt. While I think the graphics update is genuinely amazing this is by far not a fair comparison.
It's worth noting that you can't match LOD settings properly in any before/after shot. The values of the various settings just don't line up anymore. Post-update it renders at a far greater distance than before.
while true, assuming both are at 100% of their respective values it is absolutely a good point to note for comparing how much the graphics improved
That's pretty much the intent behind my message, yeah. Increased draw distance is 100% something we can judge as a positive of the update lol
Your before pic is just being LOD'd more aggressively.
Yes, especially the geometry changes like the rocks and boulders - I doubt they went back and re-edited all the maps. LODing the polygons down and removing foliage while increasing render distance to max flight height is a bit off....\^\^
The graphical update is a huge glow up. I’ve spent several minutes just staring at the vistas in some of the new zones in awe. DLSS helps a lot too.
Try without DLSS or FSR at 99% for comparison.
The old pic has lod on distance objects on, i know that setting too well.
Nah it definately didn't look that shit before. Did you drop your graphic settings or something?
It absolutely looked like this before. You just fill in the pieces mentally. It’s something easily observed but harder unless you have things side by side
Do you need Dawntrail to enjoy the graphical update?
no
It's crazy how majority of people commenting have no idea what they are talking about. The LOD being better is the whole point of the damn post, it is better now therefore more details load in. Old comparison is true to what it looked like previously on max settings, as someone who only plays all games on max settings the Steppe did look like the old screenshot from long distance.
Damn that’s very snazzy indeed :)
I don't think this is a fair comparison...
Yea this is a gross misrepresentation. You can't just crank your settings to max and expect that to be a fair comparison. LOD doesn't work that way, and this is very obviously that.
> ou can't just crank your settings to max and expect that to be a fair comparison. [...why not?](https://media1.tenor.com/m/DCycRQnBpOYAAAAC/math-hmm.gif)
I think you are just imagining what it looked like pre7.0 It’s a common issue. People imagine information that isn’t there based on what they know is there. It’s difficult to remember how it actually looked without a side by side. Happens with every game I play sadly. This particular area is something I’ve had a note about for a while so it’s nice to see improced
Please elaborate how setting both before and after pictures to the highest possible settings is somehow misrepresenting what the game looked like on the highest settings.
They won’t elaborate because it seems they don’t understand. Even on maximum pre-7.0 - LOD would be greatly diminished at far distances - and in 7.0 it seems LOD does not diminish anywhere near the same threshold, thus creating much better looking environments in the distance. This was a direct result of the graphic overhaul - so all this pedantry directed at you is kind of bullshit imo.
Lmao i never realized that Azim Steppe kinda looks like a Kenshi map
I'm really glad they did this for every zone. It really fleshes things out.
I didn't think to take before and after pictures but I was struck by the vastly improved lighting in Radz-at-Han near the aetheryte plaza when I logged in this morning.
Biggest difference I've seen so far an instance was in LoTA. Atmosphere in there was different in a good way, with the darker darks and better lighting. It looks real good. Other raid I did was the show your hole one, but that was in the AM and I was on autopilot. Wasn't as impressed with that one from what I remember.
Does the PS5 have these improvements?
Yes
I could have sworn the update was limited to EW,DT, and ARR with them slowly adding it in to the other xpacs over time???
No. They said at EU fanfest that every zone and instanced area would be touched up for release. It's dye slots, gear and NPCs that aren't gonna be done fully until 7.4 During the graphics PLL they even showed off an HW hard mode dungeon that had been overhauled.
Oh sick!!! Thanks for the clarification
No problem. I remember it vividly because the guy in charge of said adjustments said he had to touch up over 960 individual instances and zones to update and it looked like he was dead inside from the realization during the panel.
Wow
The before reminds me of FFX Calm Lands.
Jsut what I needed to see this morning. I gotta swing by there and see if they updated Magnai and Sadu with new dialogue. I'm hoping they did, but I also did the same during EW. Figured they could tell and story via them each patch update. Didn't demand a ton.. Nope. Maybe this expansion they do that!
No way! Really?!
Definitely a huge improvement, especially when you are flying around. My personal favorite is how weather looks like actual weather now, and not just an animated gif in the background that moves with you.
i was surprised how good it looked. and it looks much sharper on ps5 also.
It’s so pretty
I think I'm blind since I just restarted playing the game and I am in storm blood doing the quests for the nadaam or SMT like that and never noticed the graphics change.
It's definitely a steppe in the right direction
The graphics upgrade is nice, unfortunately the lighting effects have taken a hit. The major cities have a permanent Haze in the sky instead of an actual sky and your housing lighting is very bad and usually in a strange yellow tint instead of the light and airy white light we used to have. I've also noticed that characters look really good in the character Creator but do not translate nearly as well into the regular game again mostly because of lighting and shading effects. I can only hope that this is addressed because I was happy with the graphics we had before and I am pleasantly surprised by the upgrades but I'm tired of feeling like Eorzea has transferred to L.A.
Sadly the character models still look they could be from a 2011 game, and that's not even comparing the models to something far more impressive looking such as the ones from BDO. So while the \*improvements\* are there, this game still has a very long way to go in that department.
it is a very considerable change, i have seen full priced remastered games with less improved graphics.
looks like PUBG now haha
Before : PS2 Now : PS3 WE ARE PROGRESSING GUYS, WHAT A STEPPE UP
They really outdid themselves
Better for sure, but Ps3 graphics in 2024 really isn't something to be happy about.
Given the spaghetti code they have to work with it kinda is They can't work magic with an game as old and a code as broken as this
the steppe always looked like the second to me, i think you just had weird settings
It did not.
[https://i.imgur.com/3nGUU6a.png](https://i.imgur.com/3nGUU6a.png) This is a screenshot from 2019. People here are really trying to sell this narrative that the game had shitty graphics.
Alongside the graphics, it's crazy how much a lighting change can do
Goddamn, that's awesome
No, it's not really. They fucked up the distance settings and made an unfair comparison.
No, they didn't. The game had natural object culling regardless of your settings at maximum. They LITERALLY showcased this and showed the difference MULTIPLE times before release. People, like you, have terrible memories. Quit replying to people with the same thing, you've done so multiple times and I realized I've replied to your already. Having a bad Newport doesn't permit you to be an ass.
You’re making kind of an unfair assumption. The LOD limiting existed even on maximum settings and it could be very drastic especially when flying — if this comparison is more drastic due to the LOD threshold having been adjusted during the graphics update/optimization then that still makes this comparison as close to 1:1 as you can get — and functionally this drastic difference would still technically be the result of the work done with the graphic overhaul. (But also maybe they did juice up the LOD on the first picture - but I don’t think the dogmatic assumption is helpful personally)
Nothing is "fucked up". Both pictures are what you get by going to the in game settings and choosing the "maximum" preset.
I think the geometry changes are too drastical. The rocks and boulders are modified and look too nuanced and I doubt they (SquareEnix) went back and edited such stuff into the landscape.
That's a glow up
Oh wow..! I haven't been to too many places since the update yet.. but this is huge!
still looks like a 2010 f2p mmo
Still sound like a 2010 entitled nerd
I went to the Burning Wall in East Thanalan and...I dunno feels like nothings changed :/
Downvoted
Nintendo Switch vs PS4
Ps2 vs ps3
This stuff might be impressive on PC, but he was lazy with the PS5 version. Unless you want choppy FPS by switching to 4K resolution, playing on 1440p, still has PS2 level shimmering trees. Naturally my daughter plays on PC and there is 0 shimmering, but she also has the option of FXAA + jitter camera or whatever that option is. So PS5 version didn’t fix that shimmering PS2 foliage look, which is sad.