FFXI and the Playstation 3

[Macht]

Re: FFXI and the Playstation 3

Well the PS2 is not HD supported. The PS3 however though I'm doubtful of it, but I could see the possibility that it is better.

To start the PS3 is running Nvidia's newer GeForce 8 Series graphics cards while the 360 is hanging around the GeForce 6 Series. On top of that when the CBE technology was being made one of the things they boasted about it was the CBE's capability to "culture" graphics and sound effects. Then finally the PS3 system just got a version upgrade, one of which seems like a universal control of the systems output resolution.

If that control carries over to the PS2 games then the PS2 games could potential be unhinged from the 640x480 resolution. If that is the case then the PS3 has provided what would ponentially be an improvement to the game over what the XBox 360 could do.

Of course this is all still theoretical, until I actually see more of the PS3's graphics of the game I couldn't positively say if any of that is actually happening.

[Shadowffvi]

Re: FFXI and the Playstation 3

And the PS3 isn't emulating a PS2 its utilizing all of the PS3 and its processors and graphics.

no.

[Tsikuro]

Re: FFXI and the Playstation 3

It runs exactly the same as PS2. There is still even that abnormally long delay between changing window types.
Despite what people have been saying, the PS3 is just emulating a PS2 when it runs these games, I think.

[tdh]

Re: FFXI and the Playstation 3

It runs exactly the same as PS2. There is still even that abnormally long delay between changing window types.
Despite what people have been saying, the PS3 is just emulating a PS2 when it runs these games, I think.

Could you post some PS3 screenshots? Give us an idea of what it looks like.

[Macht]

Re: FFXI and the Playstation 3

It runs exactly the same as PS2. There is still even that abnormally long delay between changing window types.
Despite what people have been saying, the PS3 is just emulating a PS2 when it runs these games, I think.

Yeah, the delay is a different issue then graphic quality. The delay is a result of how the program is coded, eventually if the system gets fast enough it just flashes that delay to were it isn't always noticed (Diablo II on newer PC for example). The newer games are just using better techniques.

At the least the load time should be shorter on the PS3 then it was on the PS2. Even when I emulted stuff with my PC there is usually an improvement of some sort. Hell even when you play FFXI on a good PC it can beat the PS2 to loading zones, when I use to play on the PS2 and a friend got his new PC he was in the next zone by at least 5-6 seconds faster then I was.

[Jei]

Re: FFXI and the Playstation 3

From an artist (student) point of view. I like the style in FFXI a lot. Their models/textures are also very well done. They just lack the resolution and effects that newer games have. Hello, 32x32 textures >.> Not to mention PS2 has something like 16Mb memories for textures. Compare to the old Xbox 512Mb memory (Sorry I can't remember the exact number, heard my instructor talked about it long ago). That limitation alone really prevent FFXI to use any higher resolution images for textures at all. You can really see how environments a wayyyyy better in Xbox games. That's because the console itself has the memory for it.

S-E said somewhere before that they will not redo the engine. Because that will require an entire developement team to re-code and re-do the graphics. And that amount of work is better put into making new games.

[Macht]

Re: FFXI and the Playstation 3

From an artist (student) point of view. I like the style in FFXI a lot. Their models/textures are also very well done. They just lack the resolution and effects that newer games have. Hello, 32x32 textures >.> Not to mention PS2 has something like 16Mb memories for textures. Compare to the old Xbox 512Mb memory (Sorry I can't remember the exact number, heard my instructor talked about it long ago). That limitation alone really prevent FFXI to use any higher resolution images for textures at all. You can really see how environments a wayyyyy better in Xbox games. That's because the console itself has the memory for it.
S-E said somewhere before that they will not redo the engine. Because that will require an entire developement team to re-code and re-do the graphics. And that amount of work is better put into making new games.

I don't recall ever seeing a texture in the .dats that was 32x32. Might of been one or two things, but they didn't require much anyways. Also I remember that debate occuring before with the 16MB for Video RAM, Sony had stated in responce to that the 16MB for Video RAM ment nothing. The system was designed around getting a large bandwidth to handle everything. In which the PS2 had nearly like 3x more bandwidth then the XBox.

It's the very reason why FFXI is more processor heavy then it is on the Video. It's also the unfortunate reason though that the engine can't juse be swapped as easily as UO or EQ can do theirs. The newer models the .dats in them have quite a few 256x256 textures in them (Unless for some reason I'm getting some freaky results as I mess with them. You can't really compare XBox and PS2 together on a 1-to-1 basis. I mean they both used different OSs to start with.

[Jei]

Re: FFXI and the Playstation 3

The thing is, memory really limits the amount of textures that can be loaded at the same time. So when you have these limits of what you can use, you just have to use smaller images and it is harder to make everything look good. xD Take a look at FF7 for example. PS1 you needed to use even smaller images and that's pretty much all you can do.

With FFXI, we have hundreds of things loaded on screen at a time. You really can't give them all 1k textures because of this limitation. Characters in FFXI uses a little larger format (128-512 from what I see) but take a look at their grasses or trees, some of them are even as small as 16x16 you can see how they are really jaggy when you look up close. Like those grasses in La Thaine.

SE has done a really fine job with their low resulotion textures, but you can't deny that 1024x1024 textures will of course look better than 64x64.

[Tsikuro]

Re: FFXI and the Playstation 3

This is the best I can do...


Normal picture of game running on TV. (Yes, I have a shitty TV in my room)


Picture of game running after "PS" Button was held down to bring up the PS3's ingame management menu thing, just to prove it's running on a PS3.

[Vertabreaker]

Re: FFXI and the Playstation 3

This is the best I can do...


Normal picture of game running on TV. (Yes, I have a shitty TV in my room)


Picture of game running after "PS" Button was held down to bring up the PS3's ingame management menu thing, just to prove it's running on a PS3.

I'll post SS of FFXI on PC tonight. All you PC "nay-sayers" will see the difference. I'll post PS2 shots as well.

[Manatra]

Re: FFXI and the Playstation 3

Well the PS2 is not HD supported. The PS3 however though I'm doubtful of it, but I could see the possibility that it is better.
To start the PS3 is running Nvidia's newer GeForce 8 Series graphics cards while the 360 is hanging around the GeForce 6 Series.

The PS3's graphics card, the RSX, is a GeForce 7 series videocard. It is not a GeForce 8 series videocard. See Anandtech for details.

[Tsikuro]

Re: FFXI and the Playstation 3

One thing you don't want to do, though... is play it on a big TV. I have a 1080i 55'' in another room, I plugged it into that, hooked it up to FFXI... and my God... it doesn't upscale at all, so it looked so bad, it was unbelievable. Like stretching a 50x50 image across 500x500. >_<

[tazirai]

Re: FFXI and the Playstation 3

pfft, beautiful graphics my tarutaru ass... Graphics compared to any other game is still horrible. They need to update the entire engine. I mean seriously. A game that doesn't base most of the computational work on the graphics card and just the cpu isn't all that great.
Let's face it, FFXI graphics are very outdated, and could use an entire update to the engine. First thing to go should be the PS2 (piece of shit 2)

I respectfully disagree with ya,^^ FFXi still looks TONS better thanmany games out there dated or not. Looks better than Anarchy online, Star wars galkaxies and even EQ2, looks more realistic than WoW, not better just more realistic. With that said the graphics could use a Update, AFTER the ps2 pase out.
I still love the look of the game, I'mnot a big graphics whore anywho, but FFXI isnt the worst looking game at all. there are worse. Much worse.

[tazirai]

Re: FFXI and the Playstation 3

I'll post SS of FFXI on PC tonight. All you PC "nay-sayers" will see the difference. I'll post PS2 shots as well.

I've posted many Screenshots over the years and videos to so the quality is there.

[Arximiro]

Re: FFXI and the Playstation 3

I've been playing the PC version for over 3 years now, and the other day for kicks there was a bunch of ps2 FFXI-HDD combos on clearance for $30 (weird) so I picked one up (Mainly for the HD to backup saves) and I installed it. I knew the graphics were pretty bad so I was ready. I got all the updates done turned it on and I was in shock. I knew it was the resolution but shit it was horrible. You would be running and couldnt see ppls names till they were right in your face. Examines were so nasty and stretched out you could barely even recognize what they were wearing without reading the description. Does anyone know for sure if you can or cannot adjust the resolution on the PS3 carryover or is it just speculation? Because it would be great to relax on the couch for once and play -.- until then the PS2 verion will be used for bazarring only.

This is what Im used to, going from this to ps2 was like a knife in the heart.