Anyone else disapointed with the "Graphics Update"?

[Mina]

I mean sure, my Au'Ra looks a bit better, but overall i'm not really noticing a difference to be honest. Kinda expected to login and be like "wow this looks so much better" but it kinda looks the same.

[Nonomori]

Yeah, it's definitely kind of lackluster. Copium-injected kids will babble about improved lighting, grass and maybe texture resolution increase but in reality, considering how it was hyped up, it's really disappointing. You could barely notice the difference. Maybe the skin has a little shine to it now and is a little more detailed. But is it really what we were expected out of graphics update for a 10 year old game?

[Mumrah]

Originally posted by Mina:

I mean sure, my Au'Ra looks a bit better, but overall i'm not really noticing a difference to be honest. Kinda expected to login and be like "wow this looks so much better" but it kinda looks the same.

Not really. While things are meant to look the same, but sharper, that's all. Not everything got a resolution update. Mainly character models/faces. You would have to be looking very closely to notice.

Shadows and lighting are smoother.
Textures to things are sharper and improved.
Your eyes are more realistic.
Viera's forehead gemstone reflects light way better now.
Most gear textures are the same, I would assume none were changed since there are so many.
The eye movements are unnoticeable unless your camera is jammed up the characters nose....

[Rain]

Faces look worse, the makeup options (racial features) got nerfed too.

[Havok]

world textures look better, but characters, especially the face look a lot worse

[necrogirl55]

well it's true that haven't noticed much of a difference, but I wouldn't say i'm dissapointed as I didn't really care about the graphics update to begin with, I play for the gameplay and story, not the graphics.

[MOSLEY]

Looks a lot better to me.

[Faust]

Well I love the game but without "trying" to look for the changes I wouldn't notice them at all.

[Tadorm]

I didnt notice the difference at all and the only difference I noticed is an increase on loading NPC/Players and loading screen between Teleports...

[Sunny]

Biggest difference I've noticed is the amount of clutter/groundcover and the changes to the lighting/shadows. I'm pretty happy with it.

Looks good on my rig.

[Deejudanne]

yup, world still looks very grey and dull at max settings

[Nícolas Teixeira]

I noticed very small to medium-sized differences that combined improved the game quite a lot, to be honest. The textures on the ground, rocks, and stones improved significantly (rocks and stones have been a massive problem for Square since forever, for example, FFVII Rebirth on performance mode). There's a completely new system for grass with full player, NPC, and wind interaction, a new weather system (especially fog and rain), reflections (especially in places where it's raining), character models look way more detailed, and especially the quality of the textures on the gear and weapons. Now plate armor looks like plate and not just metallic-colored cloth, leather looks like leather and cloth like cloth.

I think the update was quite substantial and surely advanced the game by almost a decade, at least. It went from a 2011-ish game to a 2018 one, comparing only MMOs here, of course.

The fact that they also applied most of the stuff to the older expansions and even the base game (and plan on applying most of what's left in future patches) is the cherry on top. After Cataclysm, WoW had several graphical updates (WoD, Dragonflight, etc.), and these barely changed any of the old zones at all, even the remade Cataclysm zones. Most of the graphical updates were locked to the current launching expansion and future expansions.

Just for reference, I'm playing with everything I can at maximum settings at 1440p (native resolution, no DLSS or FSR) with a 7900 XTX. If I can say anything bad about the update, it's that the game is a lot heavier now than it used to be. Four days ago, I would get 165 FPS mostly anywhere, and it was beautiful with a 165hz monitor. Now, it's better to stay locked at 60 FPS since my frames constantly varies between about 65 and 150.

[ruppe27]

The game looks alot better overal in almost every area, people who are not seeing it need glasses.
I'm not a fan of the changes to character faces though but all the rest looks great.

[Stormy Dawn]

It looks really good to me.

Can't say I have any complaints. I think some people were just expecting far too much.

[Sel Und Irae]

Tbh, It looks the same to me.

I really do think the change is minor or being overhyped, Idk how it took em this long to put this out.

[galacticcorgi]

Did you seriously expect next gen graphics updates????