Final Fantasy XIV’s first graphical overhaul since the release of version 2.0 in 2013 is here with version 7.0, including changes to lighting and ambient occlusion (AO), the addition of DLSS upscaling on PC, 120Hz support on current-gen consoles and a 30fps cap most useful for last-gen machines. It’s a substantial effort that even includes reworked textures, models and shading work for some (but not all) characters and environments, helping the game feel a little closer to its modern contemporaries.
Most of what’s here is impressive, but there are some definite trade-offs with some of the new options – alongside some features that don’t seem to be working as intended as of version 7.05. This piece summarises the highlights and lowlights of the new changes, and offers some recommendations for the best balance of performance and visual fidelity on different classes of console and PC hardware.
Let’s start with one of the most noticeable improvements between version 6.58 and 7.0, ambient occlusion. The new version moves to what’s described as “ground truth” ambient occlusion, or GTAO, which comes in standard and quality flavours on PC and standard only on current-gen consoles. Like other AO methods, GTAO provides shading in crevices and under objects to make them look more natural and grounded, but GTAO is more accurate and affects more elements of a scene. The standard version misses out some spots that the quality version fills in, but otherwise the two variants look similar – and both look better than the HBAO+ quality mode which was the previous best option.
