E3 stuff (benchmark, trailer, and more!)

[Kylin]

Benchmark:

 

SE has unveiled the benchmark for FF14 as well as the opening Limsa Lominsa cutscenes. You may download it here:

 

http://download.nvidia.com/downloads/nZone/demos/FFXIVBenchmark.zip

 

It's a big file (173 MB). So may take awhile. But at least now you can know how well your machine can handle the game.

 

Trailer:

 

New trailer just played as well. A moogle was spotted in it apparently. Video has been uploaded to the FF14 main site under "Media." You can also view it via Zam (and/or Core and Eorzeapedia): http://ffxiv.zam.com/story.html?story=22548

 

Interview:

 

FFXIV Core scored an interview with SE. It is as follows:

 

Q. Will end game content contain more open area boss fights or will there be more focus on dungeons?

 

A. We do know the ending of the first story but of course we can't tell you what the ending of the story is. The story that will lead you to a secret area, but we can't reveal anything about that right now.

 

Q. Will classes have their own special sets of armor?

 

A. Yes, there will be because in FFXIV the equipment itself is going to be meaning more for the class the player is being. There will be high end equipments for that class.

 

Q. Is there going to be chocobo breeding and chocobo racing in this game?

 

A. For this Final Fantasy, chocobo have a unique place but we can't tell you anymore about them at this time. There will be more information closer to release.

 

Q. About how many classes do you plan on releasing in this game?

 

A. We will be introducing more classes even after the launch of the game, so it will be continuously increasing. It will depend on how development goes and how the users react to see how far we go. We already have tens of thousands and we should be able to impliment them at any time.

 

Q. Will there be player-owned land?

 

A. We will be making announcements shortly, so look forward to that. We are trying to impliment that so players can have something that they own.

 

Q. Do you intend to have things like guilds and guild banks for people to share?

 

A. For FFXI there was Linkshells and for FFXIV we will have Linkshells as well along with something like a higher level Linkshell system called a Company. In this Company, things you do will affect things you own in the game. Also, larger Companies will be able to have something like a community website that is more personallized that will display stats. There will be more information about this Company later on in development.

 

Q. Is there anything unique in this game? Anything that makes it stand out?

 

A. There are a few points about this game: The armory system and the guild link system. In the armory system you will be able to change you class or even create your own class and even learn your own abilities, which is something unique, we believe. The Guild Link system will allow people to play on their own or in a group if they want. We think it's a really good system.

 

Q. What kind of measures are you taking to prevent the RMT (Real Money Trade)?

 

A. We will not accept any real currency in exchange for in-game currency, we will forbid it by agreements. We all contiuously work with operations teams to help prevent it.

 

Q. Will there any type of achievements or trophies to show off defeated bosses or special things done?

 

A. Yes, we do have a lot of plans. For example, for some quests there will be special rewards. You might be able to get special title depending on what you do, there will be several different things you can get to show off what you've done.

 

Q. Is there anything else you would like to tell the players and fans about the game?

 

A. We are pleased to announce the beta verson coming out soon. In this beta version, there is a new system called a Retainer, which means players will be able to leave their character or avatar so they will be able to enjoy the game while their offline and people will be able to see them.

 

Also from a community standpoint, comments and suggestions we've recieved from the alpha were very helpful and we want the players know that the game has evolved a lot and we will continue to look forward to comments and suggestions in the beta. We also plan to open the beta window much wider so we can have more people try the game and test it.

[Renaise]

Not the best quality but itll do for now

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2P2s8hro9I

[Kylin]

The full trailer is now up: http://na.square-enix.com/e310/index.html

 

Moogle, "summons," a mysterious horned boy, and so much more!

[Aveline]

I just screen-captured the moogle:

 

 

Wewwwwt. Still not as impressive to me as the FFXI trailer, with the destruction of Tavnazia, but I guess this will have to do.

[Renaise]

What is a good score on that benchmark then?

[Aveline]

It seems pretty arbitrary to me... my score was 2082 on high, my boyfriend's was 3840 and they both ran/looked equally well.

[Kylin]

Scores are as follows (though you should just pay attention to how the scene plays on your PC and mostly ignore the score). My personal score was less than 200 lol. Not sure if it has something to do with my settings or what though since my specs should be good enough to get at least 2,000 ><

 

[8000 and over] Extremely High Performance

Easily capable of running the game on the highest settings.

[5500â7999] Very High Performance

Easily capable of running the game. Should perform exceptionally well, even at higher resolutions.

[4500-5499] High Performance

Easily capable of running the game. Should perform well, even at higher resolutions.

[3000-4499] Fairly High Performance

Capable of running the game on default settings. Consider switching to a higher resolution depending on performance.

[2500-2999] Standard Performance

Capable of running the game on default settings.

[2000-2499] Slightly Low Performance

Capable of running the game, but may experience some slowdown. Adjust settings to improve performance.

[1500-1999] Low Performance

Capable of running the game, but will experience considerable slowdown. Adjusting settings is unlikely to improve performance.

[under 1500] Insufficient Performance

Does not meet specifications for running the game.

[Kylin]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eONoACmL ... eature=sub

 

New battle system revealed. Supposedly much speedier than the alpha version.

[Smiling River]

Maybe they are just in cut scenes but it looks like there are different types of masks... hopefully we can wear em, would make for fun villains haha

 

EDIT I watched the battle systems video... I was kinda taken out of the experience because of the artificial sounds that are made when (I guess) you give the command. That "button" beeping sound, if it could be turned off, that'd be awesome.

[Aveline]

Yeah you can wear masks Mason, and there's different types. Some look really creepy on Lalafells haha.

 

Also... yeeah... those benchmark scores are really suspect, IMO. This guy here http://img691.imageshack.us/img691/3821/ffxivbench.jpg running TWO graphics cards and a crazy load of other things scored 4246, which that chart says is only "fairly high." Meanwhile it ran perfectly and beautifully for me on my much less optimized system at a score of just over 2000. Considering the Nvidia plugs all over the benchmarking I think that chart is simply a way to gain more graphics cards sales. ;P

[Seraphine Felstar]

Zane bought me laptop in November and it scored a whole... 121 Thankfully we have the ps3 and he's going to be getting a desktop for me to play on before the game comes out.

 

However, I am so completely relieved female hyur will be able to have long hair. All the screenshots so far showed shorter haired hyur or showed them from the front only. I was starting to feel a little disappointed that my character might not be able to look the way I wanted it.

[Sunny Dove]

I'm not sure what is going on. I scored a 1661 but my desktop should be more like 3000-4000 range at least. I've got an nvidia geforce gt 230 1.5gb vram.

[Aveline]

Sunny I think part of the issue is that the benchmark is windowed.. if it were in full screen we'd probably have much higher scores.

[Varov]

I have a desktop that should easily run around 2000-3500. It's about 4 years old, but 4 years ago it was 2 years ahead of its time. I think I'll probably get a new processor - got an AMD 64 Athalon. Need to get a 64 bit proc though. I'm running an NVIDIA 8800 512mb GPU. Might get another one since Ive got an SLI motherboard. Need to open this thing up and clean it real good and probably invest in another fan.

[Pointy-Eared Molly]

My computer's like...only a year old. I think. I really hope it's good enough for ffxiv. Computers become obsolete at the snap of a fingers and would really be disappointing as I'm getting excited about this game.

[Guest]

On High Res/Low Res I got: 1200/2450 (overflood of my full screen/windowed)?

 

Processor/Graphics Card/DDR2 RAM/OS: [My system age: 2.25 years]

Q6600 2.4GHz

Geforce 9600GT with 512RAM

2GB

Vista Business 32bit version.

 

My computer's like...only a year old. I think. I really hope it's good enough for ffxiv. Computers become obsolete at the snap of a fingers and would really be disappointing as I'm getting excited about this game.

 

Computer's do not become obsolete that quickly. Yes, new items come out every couple of years, but software and hardware usually lag behind at a pretty good pace and games rarely utilize optimal capacity. I think all the new computers are being built with 6-8GB DDR2 now, but anything over 6GB is wasted right now at our current tech level. Heck, 4GB usually can get most if not all of the hardcore crap running smoothly. Gamewise, when you buy/build a new computer it should have playability for new games out to 5 years. I believe console games also rotate around every 5 years for playability (not positive on this number though).

[Renaise]

I managed a 3077 on low and a 2250 on high, looks like itll be ok

[Sunny Dove]

Sunny I think part of the issue is that the benchmark is windowed.. if it were in full screen we'd probably have much higher scores.

 

Maybe fullscreen will help but I'm still a bit concerned and confused. My computer is pretty solid in my opinion and only a month or so old. I retested my scores this morning: 876 high/1661 low. The high resolution did look admittedly choppy, which upsets me if that is how the game will run. I purchased this computer for my video editing and production but playing ffxiv at high settings was the only reason I went for a stronger video card. Here are my specs:

 

Intel i5 3.20 ghz (4 cores)

nvidia geforce gt230 with 1.5gb RAM

8GB DDR3 RAM

Windows 7 64-bit

[Kylin]

FFXIV Core scored an interview with SE at E3. It is as follows:

 

 

Q. Will end game content contain more open area boss fights or will there be more focus on dungeons?

 

A. We do know the ending of the first story but of course we can't tell you what the ending of the story is. The story that will lead you to a secret area, but we can't reveal anything about that right now.

 

Q. Will classes have their own special sets of armor?

 

A. Yes, there will be because in FFXIV the equipment itself is going to be meaning more for the class the player is being. There will be high end equipments for that class.

 

Q. Is there going to be chocobo breeding and chocobo racing in this game?

 

A. For this Final Fantasy, chocobo have a unique place but we can't tell you anymore about them at this time. There will be more information closer to release.

 

Q. About how many classes do you plan on releasing in this game?

 

A. We will be introducing more classes even after the launch of the game, so it will be continuously increasing. It will depend on how development goes and how the users react to see how far we go. We already have tens of thousands and we should be able to impliment them at any time.

 

Q. Will there be player-owned land?

 

A. We will be making announcements shortly, so look forward to that. We are trying to impliment that so players can have something that they own.

 

Q. Do you intend to have things like guilds and guild banks for people to share?

 

A. For FFXI there was Linkshells and for FFXIV we will have Linkshells as well along with something like a higher level Linkshell system called a Company. In this Company, things you do will affect things you own in the game. Also, larger Companies will be able to have something like a community website that is more personallized that will display stats. There will be more information about this Company later on in development.

 

Q. Is there anything unique in this game? Anything that makes it stand out?

 

A. There are a few points about this game: The armory system and the guild link system. In the armory system you will be able to change you class or even create your own class and even learn your own abilities, which is something unique, we believe. The Guild Link system will allow people to play on their own or in a group if they want. We think it's a really good system.

 

Q. What kind of measures are you taking to prevent the RMT (Real Money Trade)?

 

A. We will not accept any real currency in exchange for in-game currency, we will forbid it by agreements. We all contiuously work with operations teams to help prevent it.

 

Q. Will there any type of achievements or trophies to show off defeated bosses or special things done?

 

A. Yes, we do have a lot of plans. For example, for some quests there will be special rewards. You might be able to get special title depending on what you do, there will be several different things you can get to show off what you've done.

 

Q. Is there anything else you would like to tell the players and fans about the game?

 

A. We are pleased to announce the beta verson coming out soon. In this beta version, there is a new system called a Retainer, which means players will be able to leave their character or avatar so they will be able to enjoy the game while their offline and people will be able to see them.

 

Also from a community standpoint, comments and suggestions we've recieved from the alpha were very helpful and we want the players know that the game has evolved a lot and we will continue to look forward to comments and suggestions in the beta. We also plan to open the beta window much wider so we can have more people try the game and test it.

[Eva]

Finally got around to running the Benchmark this morning before work, a few times actually. First pass was with several apps open (half dozen firefox tabs, photoshop, digsby, and a couple others - stuff I normally leave open). Scores were H:2417 L:4209. Rebooted the PC and ran both benchmarks again and I think I squeezed maybe an extra 20 points out of each, if that. Prior to first test, PC hadn't been rebooted since Saturday. lol

 

Also there's a ton of different masks - not really sure why so many. And yeah, some of them look a bit creepy.

 

Finally:

A. For FFXI there was Linkshells and for FFXIV we will have Linkshells as well along with something like a higher level Linkshell system called a Company. In this Company, things you do will affect things you own in the game. Also, larger Companies will be able to have something like a community website that is more personallized that will display stats. There will be more information about this Company later on in development.

I'm intrigued by this...

[Varov]

A. For FFXI there was Linkshells and for FFXIV we will have Linkshells as well along with something like a higher level Linkshell system called a Company. In this Company, things you do will affect things you own in the game. Also, larger Companies will be able to have something like a community website that is more personallized that will display stats. There will be more information about this Company later on in development.

 

So, with that... I've decided to apply to start a guild Aetheryte Holdings LTD - it's actually an idea I was tossing around and when I saw that Company idea in the interview, I've decided to go with it. Hopefully I get approved!

[Eva]

Not Whiskeyjack's House of Crappe? lol

[Nanapariri]

Well some file isn't installing so I can't run the benchmark apparently....

[Zakrin]

I'm having the same issues as Tsumi... so... yea.

[Brynhilde]

Is it dxd9_41 or something? I had that problem. All you need to do is download the direct X files form microsoft.com. Google the file name.

 

I got 250... Gonna need to upgrade.