Concerning The Quality OF FMV Cutscenes

[Matheny]

I decided to make this post to try to clear up any confusion about the quality of the cutscenes in this PC port.

The 60GB file size seems to be due to the inclusion of Japanese Language cutscenes. Deleting one of the languages frees up about 20 GBs of space. It seems that a better solution for players would be for Square to offer a free optional language DLC download.

Apparently, The PC cutscenes don't seem to match the high standard of the original PS3 release. After reading the FFXIII thread on NEOGAF, the general consensus seems to be that the PC version cutscenes are superior to the XBOX 360 release, but inferior to the PS3 release.

On PS3, all of the FMV cutscenes were rendered in 720p, except for the intro which was 1080p. The same is true for the PC release, so no problem there. The issue seems to be COMPRESSION ARTIFACTS. The cutscenes were converted to .bink format for PC, which has degraded the quality to some degree.

This post on NEOGAF illustrates the difference between PS3 and PC.
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=133609256&postcount=3004


The PCGamingWiki has a good summary of issues and fixes as well:
http://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Final_Fantasy_XIII


In my opinion, the difference between the two is not extreme. It's just dissapointing for anyone that was hoping for a DEFINITIVE version of the game on PC. So if Square never offers the better cutscenes, I don't think it's the end of the world. No harm in making the request though, right?

[Ulli]

I do not even see a difference... is that complaining on a high level?

[noeg]

The only place I can notice some difference is with the font/text on screen. I probably just don't have an eye for it, but at least it's not the horribly pixaled mess we got with the 360 version.

[Matheny]

Folks on NEOGAF were complaining about it. Some even suggested making a torrent of the PS3 cutscenes to replace these. I haven't spent a large amount of time with the game, so I don't know if I have a strong opinion about it.
But, it would seem that the original PS3 FMV's are objectively higher quality. All things considered, better is better and worse is worse.
I think the requests for Custom Resolutions and Graphics Options are the more important concern right now.

[Lelouch vi Britannia II]

Having played the PS3 version, I can attest that it does indeed have superior quality cutscenes. What's unfortunate is that despite recompressing to bink, they have not seemed to make the cutscenes smaller in size (original PS3 version was like 37 GB total), showing once again why bink is a pretty ♥♥♥♥♥♥ video format that game devs still decide to use for whatever reason.

[noeg]

Originally posted by Lelouch vi Britannia II:

Having played the PS3 version, I can attest that it does indeed have superior quality cutscenes. What's unfortunate is that despite recompressing to bink, they have not seemed to make the cutscenes smaller in size (original PS3 version was like 37 GB total), showing once again why bink is a pretty ♥♥♥♥♥♥ video format that game devs still decide to use for whatever reason.

Did the PS3 version include the English and Japanese cutscenes?

[ReikonSaisei]

I dunno about you guys but the PC screenshots look slightly better/sharper than the PS3 ones. lol

[chrcoluk]

the visuals are fine but listening to the FMV's with headphones, wow that compression is bad.

[Matheny]

Originally posted by noeg:

Originally posted by Lelouch vi Britannia II:

Having played the PS3 version, I can attest that it does indeed have superior quality cutscenes. What's unfortunate is that despite recompressing to bink, they have not seemed to make the cutscenes smaller in size (original PS3 version was like 37 GB total), showing once again why bink is a pretty ♥♥♥♥♥♥ video format that game devs still decide to use for whatever reason.

Did the PS3 version include the English and Japanese cutscenes?

No.

[StarMagus]

PS3 FMVs are definitely superior. PC FMVs have very prominent macroblocking and black crush. Such low quality video at such large file sizes is no good. They should ditch Bink and use something that will get them better quality at smaller file sizes. Bink was designed for older PCs. Modern PCs that can run FF13 can also run higher quality well compressed video even while loading levels and such in the background.

The CG is impressive despite the video quality, not because of it. Square-Enix already put a ton of painstaking effort into every little detail in those prerendered cut scenes and to have so much of that go to waste just because of a bad choice in codec would be a real shame. Although there are obviously more important issues regarding performance and resolution I do hope SE fixes this issue as well. It would leave me as a much more satisfied customer.

[Leopold Butters Stotch]

Pretty sure all pre-rendered cutscenes (both FMV and in-engine) were in 1080p on the PS3.

[Matheny]

Originally posted by Brendude13:

Pretty sure all pre-rendered cutscenes (both FMV and in-engine) were in 1080p on the PS3.

I don't think that's true. The thread on this forum had a list of cutscenes ripped straight from the Blu-Ray disk. I'm pretty sure that all of the cutscenes are 720P, and only the intro cutscene is 1080P.
http://finalfantasy-xiii.net/forums/showthread.php?t=15515

[Tsagualsa]

Since i doubt SE will make it some form of DLC it would be nice if this works.

[yunafire]

Having played a bit of both PS3 and PC, I don't even notice the graphical differences. What irks me is the audio compression.

[HikingBuddy]

Everyone who can't see a difference, are you on a small monitor? I am on a TV and the difference is huge. The PC looks like a low res jpg compared to the PS3. The PC is terrible. In the first picture look around the text, it's a complete mess. Look at the PS3 picture; crisp and clear, like text on a monitor.

The black levels on the PC are completely trashed. On the 2nd set of pictures, look at the top right corner. The PC is blacked out and you can't see any of the dark purple lines on the overhead walkway thing. The PS3 version is completely visible.

[introducingpants]

the crushed blacks in the cinematics are an even bigger problem to me than the performance issues. has anyone found a tweak to fix this before an official patch (short of increasing the brightness on my monitor everytime a cinematic plays)?