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[squidyj]

no tech info in this interview at all


As for the luminous team integrating with the FFXV team, It's the first title to ship with this engine. I'm sure there's a lot of things they need to work on, just because they're integrated with the FFXV team doesn't mean the things they fix add or change won't benefit other titles that use the engine.

 

[Famassu]

I get the feeling that stella model isn't gameplay version. Its probably a special zero level LOD that they can use for certain cut scenes where they can actually control the environment around the character to get the maximum amount of polygons. Don't expect that in general run of play i don't think.

On that note, i really hope they have ditched visual works CG cutscenes or atleast pared them back for only SUPER special scenes. Otherwise there's really no point in even having real time models on that Stella level if your just going to use CG like you normally do.

They've previously said hair is the only difference between cutscene "high quality" character models than the "low quality" gameplay models. Haven't you seen the tech demo where they fly around Noctis' extremely detailed in-game character model (that's pretty much as detailed as Luna) and then it transitions to gameplay seamlessly with the same character models?

And they still have Visual Works do some stuff, have you forgotten all the clearly-pre-rendered-CGI clips from even the most recent trailers?

It definitely sounds like the engine is healthy and will be beneficial to multiple (Final Fantasy titles I am sure) titles in the future. By the time FF15 is released the engine will be more than ready to make development of other games easy. I guess it's been a slow burner for them to get it to the quality they have seeked in terms of having big scale RPGs and the tools to make the development process profitable.

From the tiny snippet of other products I wonder if they have another team working on the next mainline Final Fantasy title?

Of course. They always have the future of FF planned past the next-to-release mainline title. So FFXVI has likely been at some level of planning/pre-development/early development for quite some time know, at least with a team big enough that they can lift the project off the ground.

 

[Asd202]

Are we reading the same interview? They basically said they've come really close to the Agni's Philosophy tech demo...

I they did I didn't see it in the footage.

So they confirm FFXV isn't the only game using Luminous at the moment. That's good to hear... Possibly.

They way It's worded I think that FF XV is the only game that is using Luminous at the moment but the plan is to use the engine there going to built (finally lol) on future games.

 

[Famassu]

I they did I didn't see it in the footage.



They way It's worded I think that FF XV is the only game that is using Luminous at the moment but the plan is to use the engine there going to built (finally lol) on future games.

They say "games in development", not "games we are planning to use Luminous for", so it sounds like they do have a few games that are under development at this very moment and not just future projects. I wouldn't be too surprised if Project Z uses it. I doubt those games are quite as big scale projects as FFXV, so they don't necessarily need as much help from the Luminous team to push the engine further than it is capable at the moment, they might be happy with the tools & performance that are available to them, for now.

 

[leadbelly]

The threads on GAF show a different picture.

I really don't know what you are talking about. Some people might prefer 60fps but no one expects 60fps any more. And certainly not for FXV.

Before the generation started people expected 60fps, but it didn't turn out that way. We're a year on now. As if like no one has figured this out yet. I'm sure you know this well.

 

[Sakujou]

Did we actually expect 60 fps?

its not a fast paced action game.

why do think like that?

60fps would make it better but i didnt expect that from SE since they only can disappoint you.

 

[jett]

30fps was obvious, but 1080p is pretty good news. I feel like they have been making decent progress there, the last batch of screenshots look almost 1080p native already.

 

[Mifec]

Expecting 60fps on current gen consoles in games that want to achieve the visuals of FFXV is just absurd.

Wait for the eventual PC release a year or so down the line.

Also I highly doubt KH3 is gonna be 60fps on consoles either.


Everyone here should be happy it's gonna be 1080p and not 900p

 

[koutoru]

I guess now we know how most of the 600 bones are being used.
Out of the 600 bones, 450 are used just for the face, hair and clothes alone.

Also hitting 1080p @ 30fps is great. I only hope they can maintain a constant 30 without dips.

In the future I would also like to know what (if any) anti aliasing methods they're using.

 

[qualitydisc]

When PS5/Xbox2 come out, we probably won't need Visual Works save for computationally huge stuff.

Sorry but I just don't see that happening. I've heard this mantra every new generation since the PS2 announcement (yes, the PS2, lol) : "the graphics will be so good that we don't even need pre-rendered scenes."

And yet pre-rendered stuff hasn't gone away. Yes, in-game graphics will always continue to evolve, but I think there will always be some need for Visual Works. For example, they do the key art/promotional art and there will always be a need for that.

 

[Philippo]

They say "games in development", not "games we are planning to use Luminous for", so it sounds like they do have a few games that are under development at this very moment and not just future projects. I wouldn't be too surprised if Project Z uses it. I doubt those games are quite as big scale projects as FFXV, so they don't necessarily need as much help from the Luminous team to push the engine further than it is capable at the moment, they might be happy with the tools & performance that are available to them, for now.

During the first introduction of Luminous in 2013, didn't they specifically said it was built to be scalable on all levels, from AAA titles to (ugh) smartphones?

Project Z could be the first middle-budget title to use it.

 

[Famassu]

Sorry but I just don't see that happening. I've heard this mantra every new generation since the PS2 announcement (yes, the PS2, lol) : "the graphics will be so good that we don't even need pre-rendered scenes."

And yet pre-rendered stuff hasn't gone away. Yes, in-game graphics will always continue to evolve, but I think there will always be some need for Visual Works. For example, they do the key art/promotional art and there will always be a need for that.

Pre-rendered cutscenes are probably not going to go away too soon from now in SQEX games, but each generation HAS made it less & less needed. PS1 still needed pre-rendered CGI if they wanted to show some more complex character interactions, effects & facial animations. PS2 could do that kind of "cinematic" stuff in real-time but anything more demanding was still largely pre-rendered. PS3 could do some more actiony scenes as real-time scenes, though still largely relied on pre-rendered scenes for anything more demanding & showy. PS4 seems like it can finally run a lot of the bigger scale stuff in real-time (i.e. a big airship armada flying accross the sky, Leviathan wrecking a big city), although there are still some scenes that are perhaps a bit too large scale & visually demanding for real-time graphics (the whole magical barrier dissipating from around Insomnia and the more epic shots like the far-out view of Accordo).

Also I highly doubt KH3 is gonna be 60fps on consoles either.

I think we really shouldn't make such statements before we actually see KHIII proper in action instead of just some super early stuff. If they don't really try to make anything too much more complex than, say, what they've shown of Twilight Town in the early footage, I don't see why 60fps would be so impossible considering the somewhat simple style of KH's graphics. It all really depends on if they'll even try to achieve 60fps or if they'll settle for getting the game to run at a smooth 30fps and won't try to push it beyond that.

 

[butman]

She's sooo Terra.

FF VI with Luminous Engine is my wetdream.

 

[Asd202]

They say "games in development", not "games we are planning to use Luminous for", so it sounds like they do have a few games that are under development at this very moment and not just future projects. I wouldn't be too surprised if Project Z uses it. I doubt those games are quite as big scale projects as FFXV, so they don't necessarily need as much help from the Luminous team to push the engine further than it is capable at the moment, they might be happy with the tools & performance that are available to them, for now.

Games in development doesn't necessarily mean there at the stage of making the game. It could very well mean games in pre-production so it doesn't use an engine at this point. Just like Versus was always in "development".

 

[jett]

Pre-rendered cutscenes are probably not going to go away too soon from now in SQEX games, but each generation HAS made it less & less needed. PS1 still needed pre-rendered CGI if they wanted to show some more complex character interactions, effects & facial animations. PS2 could do that kind of "cinematic" stuff in real-time but anything more demanding was still largely pre-rendered. PS3 could do some more actiony scenes as real-time scenes, though still largely relied on pre-rendered scenes for anything more demanding & showy. PS4 seems like it can finally run a lot of the bigger scale stuff in real-time (i.e. a big airship armada flying accross the sky, Leviathan wrecking a big city), although there are still some scenes that are perhaps a bit too large scale & visually demanding for real-time graphics (the whole magical barrier dissipating from around Insomnia and the more epic shots like the far-out view of Accordo).

I'd say that with the graphical quality they've achieved with FFXV, their high budget CGI-level pre-rendered cutscenes are absolutely unnecessary and even further, pointless. If they need to do it due to massive scale or some such, they should just be pre-rendering in-game quality cut-scenes, like Naughty Dog or Sony Santa Monica did on PS3, for a more cohesive experience. And they'd save money too.

 

[RaijinFY]

When part 2 is due?

 

[LegendofDragoonLives]

How upset are people going to be to know that it won't be 60fps?

Ughh, it's going to be unbearable reading FF topics if the 60fps crowd starts whining about fps on a RPG game.

 

[RoboPlato]

Nice to hear that they are going for 1080p. It's not there yet but if they get to that and add some decent AA this game will be gorgeous.

 

[threelights]

When part 2 is due?

I think the entire interview is out already. We're waiting SQEX GAL to translate it. So it's due to when it's finished =P

Ughh, it's going to be unbearable reading FF topics if the 60fps crowd starts whining about fps on a RPG game.

No one expected 60fps from this game...

You will get that talk if there's ever a PC version, but not for PS4/Xbone.

 

[Falk]

Ughh, it's going to be unbearable reading FF topics if the 60fps crowd starts whining about fps on a RPG game.

I dunno man, I still think KH would have massively benefited from a pure mechanics standpoint by being 60fps.

(Obviously it's not going to happen in this context after the 2013 E3 trailer, never was, never will)

 

[Skilletor]

There were people expeecting this to be 60fps?

Has there ever been a 60fps FF on consoles? KH will be 30fps as well.

 

[Armigr]

Glad to hear the game is running at 1080p! With how nice it looks, I wouldn't have been surprised by 900p or even 720p.

 

[Verder]

Sure. The engine wasn't build solely for FFXV, it was build solely for FFXV Trilogy.

ah shit.
here we go

 

[Soriku]

I wonder if they'll manage 60 FPS for KH3...

 

[Kagari]

No way this is 60fps

Open world + good graphics + 1080p is already hard to believe

Poor MGS5.

 

[DarkLordMalik]

Poor MGS5.

Cross-gen game though

 

[jett]

ah shit.
here we go

It's inevitable. We'll see Final Fantasy XVI sometime in 2025.

On mobile.

Cross-gen game though

Yeah MGSV is more like a souped up PS3 game...although despite that it's still an achievement that it runs at 60fps this day and age.

 

[Kagari]

Cross-gen game though

True, but given what we've seen so far it shouldn't be hard to expect SE to reach 1080p, at least on PS4 I suppose based on other games already out or in development.

 

[DarkLordMalik]

Yeah MGSV is more like a souped up PS3 game...although despite that it's still an achievement that it runs at 60fps this day and age.

I am sure that the engine (Fox Engine) has been specifically developed for 60 fps gameplay on current generation. Luminious Engine might have no such focus on 60 fps.

True, but given what we've seen so far it shouldn't be hard to expect SE to reach 1080p, at least on PS4 I suppose based on other games already out or in development.

They better reach 1080p otherwise it will be a massive disappointment. But they are talented in term of tech as compared to other Japanese studios so I have high hopes that the end game is 1080p. Stable 30 fps matter as well since XV is an action game and not a turn-based one like XIII.

 

[JNA]

20% of a character's polycount is dedicated to hair.

Japan sure has a really strange fascination with hair.

I think this is actually a good thing. I wish more companies in the US would put more attention to detail on hair.

Seriously whenever developers make characters with long hair, they always look like wigs made out of thick string. They also can't firgure out for the life of them make long hair without it clipping.

 

[RaijinFY]

I am sure that the engine (Fox Engine) has been specifically developed for 60 fps gameplay on current generation. Luminious Engine might have no such focus on 60 fps.

Not really... why do you say that? The reason MGS5 runs at 60fps on PS4 and X1 is because it's a last gen game which profits from more powerful hardware to run at 60. If there's a MGS6 (if Verendus is to be believed) and if they decide to push the PS4 hardware, automatically the game framerate will be lowered to 30.

 

[Kagari]

I am sure that the engine (Fox Engine) has been specifically developed for 60 fps gameplay on current generation. Luminious Engine might have no such focus on 60 fps.


They better reach 1080p otherwise it will be a massive disappointment. But they are talented in term of tech as compared to other Japanese studios so I have high hopes that the end game is 1080p. Stable 30 fps matter as well since XV is an action game and not a turn-based one like XIII.

The Witcher 3 does and it's pushing a lot more on screen currently.

 

[threelights]

The Witcher 3 does and it's pushing a lot more on screen currently.

Witcher 3 is 30fps with a battle system that doesn't do the same things as FFXV is currently doing (graphically speaking). FFXV has much larger enemies and the action is faster than Witcher 3 (with much better animations). I also have seen (that could just be me and I'm wrong here though) that FFXV has many more enemies on screen than TW3.

The difference on things on screen is mostly foliage/trees also.

 

[Koozek]

Not really... why do you say that? The reason MGS5 runs at 60fps on PS4 and X1 is because it's a last gen game which profits from more powerful hardware to run at 60. If there's a MGS6 (if Verendus is to be believed) and if they decide to push the PS4 hardware, automatically the game framerate will be lowered to 30.

I regularly stalk Verendus but this is the first time I hear about MGS6. Could you link his post?

 

[R10Neymarfan]

A non stable 60fps might be possible on PS4. Remember the tech demo ran on a gtx680 at 1080p60

 

[Newboi]

A non stable 60fps might be possible on PS4. Remember the tech demo ran on a gtx680 at 1080p60

A GTX680 can process far and above what the PS4's GPU can possibly handle, even in the most ideal circumstance.

If it took a GTX680 to run the Agnis Philosophy tech demo at 1080p60, I don't see how it's reasonable to expect that a full game that's near the quality of the tech demo can ever run at a 60fps framerate on inferior hardware, even unlocked (stare at a wall maybe?).

Either way if FFXV is able to achieve a 1080p resolution at a stable 30fps on PS4 then that would be awesome (and an achievement). I'm very curious if the Luminous Engine will employ an AA algorithm similar to what's possible in UE4? UE4's temporal AA is utterly fantastic and has very few visible artifacts.

 

[RaijinFY]

I regularly stalk Verendus but this is the first time I hear about MGS6. Could you link his post?

Didn't he hint at 2 MGS games in preparation?

 

[SniperHunter]

60 fps? What are you guys and gals smoking out there?

 

[Go_Ly_Dow]

The Witcher 3 does and it's pushing a lot more on screen currently.

Witcher 3's lighting looks a little flat in comparison to XV's.

Not knocking the games visuals because they're stunning but the lighting definitely looks behind. (on console)

 

[Koozek]

Didn't he hint at 2 MGS games in preparation?

I only know about another collection including MGS4 for PC or something like that, not sure. I might have missed his other posts, though.

 

[JuanLatino]

so looks like the engine isnt doomed or the dead. Glad to hear they plan with Luminous for the future.
Maybe the western studios can also use this engine later in this generation.

´
but for me the question is:

If Final Fantasy 16 is already in Full Production, do you think they use the unreal engine or luminous for that project? because the luminous team is currently working with the FF15 Team.
I remember Kitase saying FF16 will come out soon after FF15. So starting the real development of that game after the release of ff15 would be way too alte

Also If i remember correctly Verendus said, FF16 is in full production since the start of 2014

So my bet would be unreal Engine

 

[birthbysleep]

so looks like the engine isnt doomed or the dead. Glad to hear they plan with Luminous for the future.
Maybe the western studios can also use this engine later in this generation.

´
but for me the question is:

If Final Fantasy 16 is already in Full Production, do you think they use the unreal engine or luminous for that project? because the luminous team is currently working with the FF15 Team.
I remember Kitase saying FF16 will come out soon after FF15. So starting the real development of that game after the release of ff15 would be way too alte

Also If i remember correctly Verendus said, FF16 is in full production since the start of 2014

So my bet would be unreal Engine

Seems a bit of a waste for all this time spent on Luminous just to use Unreal.

As for FF16, they must have had some sort of idea ready to go as I'm sure they started planning what the original XV was going to be.

 

[JuanLatino]

maybe they the FF XIV Team is working with Luminous 1.4 right now. And after FF XV is finished, the Luminous Team is joining the FF 16 Team

 

[Blizzje]

Can i check out the original article online? Or did it published in the magazine?

 

[Koozek]

Can i check out the original article online? Or did it published in the magazine?

It's a feature in the Famitsu magazine. They'll apparently have 4 or 5 other parts for the next issues. SQEX☆GAL will be translating them - check out her Twitter or blog.

 

[Blizzje]

Cool, when was the first article of this feature published?

 

[Koozek]

Cool, when was the first article of this feature published?

Middle/end of December, IIRC. Don't know when the next parts are due to come.