We’ve learned the Final Fantasy XIV first graphics update is coming in its big update 7.0, news confirmed in the latest Letter from the Producer broadcast.
The new graphics overhaul was detailed by game director and producer Naoki Yoshida, who noted the game’s previous graphics updates won’t compare to this – where he literally calls it the “first graphics update.”
As mentioned, the Final Fantasy XIV first graphics update is coming in its big update 7.0, and Yoshida notes the upgrades are substantial enough to likely raise the PC version’s minimum hardware specs required to play. Despite this, they plan on supporting a broad range of hardware, and will also add more graphics options for the PS4 version to compensate.
With the initial rollout of the Final Fantasy XIV first graphics update, the team will focus on the look and appearance of characters, as shown above. Yoshida was keen to note they are not going for photo-realism, however they want to make characters look nicer with high-res textures and shaders, as well as improved lighting.
The graphics updates will also naturally be applied to various in-game NPCs, some of which may need to be rebuilt to make them more compatible with the improved lighting or textures. This will also take into consideration how player characters and NPCs look within the in-game cutscenes, of course.
Other improvements will also focus on better map visuals, with more light sources added to specific areas so that regions look more exciting or have more atmosphere.
These improvements include new things like better metallic shader textures, better shadows, and an increased memory limit for areas to let the team shove more objects into the same area. He noted this will also include things like the automatically-placed grass objects getting improved.
As with all of the presented graphics updates, Yoshida noted these are just test results during their ongoing development and support for the game, and as some of the results are a bit exaggerated to give you a better idea – they are not indicative of a final content release.
Final Fantasy XIV is available for Windows PC, Mac (via the SE Store, and Steam), PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and still planned for Xbox One. In case you missed it, you can find our Endwalker expansion review here (we can’t recommend it enough!)
