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131-400: The engine powered the tech demos Agni's Philosophy and Witch Chapter 0 initially, and has since been used in two of company's titles— Final Fantasy XV , an entry in their Final Fantasy franchise, and an original IP titled Forspoken . In early 2018, the development team of Final Fantasy XV was established by Square Enix as a new subsidiary studio dubbed Luminous Productions . The aim

262-414: A Blu-ray edition of Kingsglaive , while the "Ultimate Collector's Edition" included both Kingsglaive and a version of Brotherhood with additional footage related to Luna. In 2018, a version of the game called Royal Edition was released, which contained both all DLC published to that point in addition to further story and gameplay additions alongside technical improvements. A version for Windows

393-462: A shader is a computer program that calculates the appropriate levels of light , darkness , and color during the rendering of a 3D scene —a process known as shading . Shaders have evolved to perform a variety of specialized functions in computer graphics special effects and video post-processing , as well as general-purpose computing on graphics processing units . Traditional shaders calculate rendering effects on graphics hardware with

524-612: A "Wait Mode" option available, where if all player input stops the battle pauses, and players are able to select new enemies to attack or actions to take within a time limit. An option available for both Noctis and Ignis in Wait Mode is Libra, an ability which displays an enemy's health, strengths and weaknesses. Noctis can find and equip a wide range of weapons, including single and double-handed swords, polearms, axes, shields, firearms, daggers and Royal Arms. The weapons manifest from thin air as Noctis fights, and can be manually shifted by

655-471: A better approximation of a curve. As of OpenGL 4.0 and Direct3D 11, a new shader class called a tessellation shader has been added. It adds two new shader stages to the traditional model: tessellation control shaders (also known as hull shaders) and tessellation evaluation shaders (also known as Domain Shaders), which together allow for simpler meshes to be subdivided into finer meshes at run-time according to

786-426: A color value; more complex shaders with multiple inputs/outputs are also possible. Pixel shaders range from simply always outputting the same color, to applying a lighting value, to doing bump mapping , shadows , specular highlights , translucency and other phenomena. They can alter the depth of the fragment (for Z-buffering ), or output more than one color if multiple render targets are active. In 3D graphics,

917-403: A final rendered image can be altered using algorithms defined in a shader, and can be modified by external variables or textures introduced by the computer program calling the shader. Shaders are used widely in cinema post-processing , computer-generated imagery , and video games to produce a range of effects. Beyond simple lighting models, more complex uses of shaders include: altering

1048-565: A geometry shader if present, or the rasterizer . Vertex shaders can enable powerful control over the details of position, movement, lighting, and color in any scene involving 3D models . Geometry shaders were introduced in Direct3D 10 and OpenGL 3.2; formerly available in OpenGL 2.0+ with the use of extensions. This type of shader can generate new graphics primitives , such as points, lines, and triangles, from those primitives that were sent to

1179-471: A geometry shader include point sprite generation, geometry tessellation , shadow volume extrusion, and single pass rendering to a cube map . A typical real-world example of the benefits of geometry shaders would be automatic mesh complexity modification. A series of line strips representing control points for a curve are passed to the geometry shader and depending on the complexity required the shader can automatically generate extra lines each of which provides

1310-612: A high degree of flexibility. Most shaders are coded for (and run on) a graphics processing unit (GPU), though this is not a strict requirement. Shading languages are used to program the GPU's rendering pipeline , which has mostly superseded the fixed-function pipeline of the past that only allowed for common geometry transforming and pixel-shading functions; with shaders, customized effects can be used. The position and color ( hue , saturation , brightness , and contrast ) of all pixels , vertices , and/or textures used to construct

1441-618: A lack of depth compared with other action games, with several reviewers comparing it to Kingdom Hearts ; Patterson positively compared normal battles to the CGI cutscene-exclusive battles of earlier Square Enix titles, while Leack called the combat system " Kingdom Hearts meets Dissidia " and praised its depth and accessibility. Digital Spy ' s Kirk McKeand praised the behaviour of Noctis's companions in battle, saying they were effective supporting units. The linear second half drew criticism, with Roberts predicting that it would be one of

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1572-521: A lower social class. Guest characters include Cor Leonis , a legendary warrior of Lucis and the leader of the Crownsguard who acts as an early guide to Noctis's party; Iris Amicitia , the younger sister of Gladiolus; and Aranea Highwind , a mercenary dragoon in service to Niflheim. Other key characters are Lunafreya Nox Fleuret , the current Oracle and former Princess of Tenebrae who is betrothed to Noctis; Regis Lucis Caelum CXIII , king of Lucis and

1703-418: A mathematical function. The function can be related to a variety of variables, most notably the distance from the viewing camera to allow active level-of-detail scaling. This allows objects close to the camera to have fine detail, while further away ones can have more coarse meshes, yet seem comparable in quality. It also can drastically reduce required mesh bandwidth by allowing meshes to be refined once inside

1834-479: A per-vertex basis. Newer geometry shaders can generate new vertices from within the shader. Tessellation shaders are the newest 3D shaders; they act on batches of vertices all at once to add detail—such as subdividing a model into smaller groups of triangles or other primitives at runtime, to improve things like curves and bumps , or change other attributes. Vertex shaders are the most established and common kind of 3D shader and are run once for each vertex given to

1965-647: A pixel shader alone cannot produce some kinds of complex effects because it operates only on a single fragment, without knowledge of a scene's geometry (i.e. vertex data). However, pixel shaders do have knowledge of the screen coordinate being drawn, and can sample the screen and nearby pixels if the contents of the entire screen are passed as a texture to the shader. This technique can enable a wide variety of two-dimensional postprocessing effects such as blur , or edge detection /enhancement for cartoon/cel shaders . Pixel shaders may also be applied in intermediate stages to any two-dimensional images— sprites or textures —in

2096-404: A pre-set character, players take the role of a customizable avatar who takes part in a portion of the story skipped over by the main narrative. The game begins with players choosing their gender, hairstyle, clothing and other aspects. Using the in-game city of Lestallum as their base, the player is assigned missions with three other characters—either other players or AI-controlled. During missions,

2227-433: A real competitor to Unreal Engine 4 . VG24/7 called the graphics "drop dead gorgeous". IGN cited the technology as a "hurdling leap into the future", and other reviews emphasised realistic 3D modeling of the human eye and real time rendering of graphics. Final Fantasy XV Final Fantasy XV is a 2016 action role-playing game developed and published by Square Enix . The fifteenth main installment of

2358-580: A reconciliation. It is also revealed that the nights are growing longer, causing more Daemons to appear. Ardyn tricks Noctis into pushing Prompto off the train, and holds Prompto and the Crystal captive in Gralea's military fortress Zegnautus Keep, the primary laboratory where Niflheim creates its military infantry, cybernetic robots which use daemonic energy. Noctis discovers that the Crystal's power can destroy Daemons. Noctis continues to Tenebrae, where Aranea

2489-594: A scene, Final Fantasy XV can use about sixteen times this amount on the PlayStation 4 console. 2048×2048 and 4096×4096 texels are used for the HD textures. For the Microsoft Windows port, Luminous Studio was upgraded using technology from Nvidia . In April 2015, Square Enix announced that the engine would support DirectX 12 , and Nvidia revealed a new real-time tech demo developed by Square Enix for

2620-516: A shield-type weapon, a successful block staggers an enemy, leaving them vulnerable to attack. Noctis can launch a special attack with the Royal Arms dubbed "Armiger", when the meter fills during combat: while more powerful than standard weapons, Royal Arms consume HP with each use. Noctis can also use two classes of firearms—Guns, which range from handguns like pistols to rifles; and Machinery, powerful weapons that have varying effects depending on

2751-536: A single attack. Magic is separated into two types: Elemancy and Arcana. Elemancy is separated into three types: Fire, Ice and Lightning. Elemental energy is drawn from points across the world map, being absorbed into special flasks and used to craft magical bombs that can be used on enemies. Elemancy can also be combined with specific items to add new effects, such as healing party members while damaging enemies. Both Noctis and his companions are able to use Elemancy. Arcana, accessed when Noctis has acquired and equipped

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2882-540: A story-related item called the Ring of the Lucii, has access to more powerful magical abilities such as "Death", which drains an enemy's health. After a certain point in the game, Noctis can call upon summoned monsters called Astrals, which aid the party by launching a devastating attack. The summons featured are series regulars including Titan, Ramuh, Leviathan and Shiva. Their types of attack, and even whether they assist at all,

3013-610: A variety of weapon types from normal swords to maces and shurikens, which are enhanced using materials to increase passive abilities such as their damage capacity. The multiplayer mode was shut down in June 2020, though the Comrades campaign can still be played with NPC party members. Final Fantasy XV takes place on the Earth -like world of Eos, which is divided between four nations: Lucis, Accordo, Tenebrae and Niflheim. Lucis, occupying

3144-434: A vertex, while pixel shaders describe the traits (color, z-depth and alpha value) of a pixel. A vertex shader is called for each vertex in a primitive (possibly after tessellation ); thus one vertex in, one (updated) vertex out. Each vertex is then rendered as a series of pixels onto a surface (block of memory) that will eventually be sent to the screen. Shaders replace a section of the graphics hardware typically called

3275-425: A whole landmass, possesses a magical artifact known as the Crystal, gifted to the reigning Caelum dynasty by the world's deities in antiquity and accessed through the hereditary Ring of the Lucii. Accordo, located in the southern part of Eos, is an island nation formed through a union of free trading cities. The western continent is home to the technologically advanced empire of Niflheim and the nation of Tenebrae, which

3406-468: A year to produce, and was running on a PC with four GeForce GTX Titan X graphics cards . In October 2016, Square Enix registered for the trademark "Luminous Studio Pro" before the release of Final Fantasy XV . The existence of the gaming engine surprised many critics when it was unveiled in E3 2012. Kotaku described the graphics of the game engine preview as "jaw dropping" and "stunning", and called it

3537-468: A year. Unlike previous technology demos created by the company, which were based on pre-existing games, Square Enix decided to create something completely original. The demo was themed around the Final Fantasy series: during discussions, the team asked the question "What is Final Fantasy ?", broke down its basic components and used them, along with added unusual elements, in the demo. A focus during

3668-575: Is Noctis Lucis Caelum , the Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Lucis, who loses his father in the Niflheim invasion. Noctis is accompanied on his journey throughout the world of Eos by his three friends: Gladiolus Amicitia , the scion of a family sworn to protect Noctis's family; Ignis Scientia , a prodigy military tactician and Noctis's aide; and Prompto Argentum , a childhood friend of Noctis from

3799-479: Is a large pixel matrix or " frame buffer ". There are three types of shaders in common use (pixel, vertex, and geometry shaders), with several more recently added. While older graphics cards utilize separate processing units for each shader type, newer cards feature unified shaders which are capable of executing any type of shader. This allows graphics cards to make more efficient use of processing power. 2D shaders act on digital images , also called textures in

3930-482: Is a scene where 100,000 illuminated firefly -like insects appear on screen, each one a full polygon mesh model with body and wings, which proceed to merge to generate a summoned monster. Production for the demo began in June 2011, and was initially produced as pre-rendered CGI animation by Visual Works before Square Enix attempted to reproduce it entirely in real-time with the Luminous Studio engine, using

4061-536: Is aiding refugees from across Eos. There, Noctis learns that Lunafreya was dying from waking the Astrals, and that Ravus now supports him. On the final journey to Gralea, the train is ambushed by Daemons. After defeating them, Noctis receives the Astral Shiva's blessing from Gentiana, revealed as Shiva's human form. Arriving to find Gralea overrun by Daemons, Noctis is separated from his friends and forced to use

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4192-589: Is also confronted by a hostile Ravus, spars with the mercenary Aranea, and receives further aid from Ardyn. The group eventually recover parts to repair Regis's old yacht, using it to travel to Altissia. The party arrives in Altissia, where Lunafreya has taken sanctuary. Lunafreya awakens the Astral Leviathan so Noctis can obtain her power, only for Leviathan to go on a rampage when Niflheim attacks. Ardyn appears and mortally wounds Lunafreya, disrupting

4323-408: Is dependent on the environment: for instance, Leviathan can only be summoned in the open when there is a body of water nearby. At certain points in the story, Noctis is joined by guest characters who have their own Link-strikes and Techniques. After each battle, characters earn experience points (EXP), but they do not automatically level up when a certain amount of EXP has been gathered. Instead,

4454-415: Is depleted whenever a character is attacked, while Noctis's MP recovers over time when not in combat or when not using associated abilities such as warping or special weapon skills. If a character's current HP reaches zero, they enter Danger Mode, during which the maximum HP cap steadily decreases; the character is defeated when all of their maximum HP is lost. Some enemies, such as Daemons, are able to lower

4585-499: Is divided into skill trees called "Astralspheres". Each Astralsphere is sorted by type, being associated with magic, combat or passive abilities. Spending AP opens up nodes within the Astralsphere, which in turn grants access to further nodes which require higher amounts of AP to unlock. Noctis' companions each have their own skills which themselves level up based on usage, and affect equipment. Noctis' fishing ability improves

4716-550: Is implied to have caused the spread of the Starscourge across the planet, hastening the fall of Solheim. For centuries, Lucis has been at war with the militaristic Niflheim, who seek to emulate Solheim's glory. To that end Niflheim has subjugated most of Eos, including Accordo and Tenebrae; Tenebrae retains limited political autonomy due to the Oracle's influence. Only Lucis's capital city of Insomnia remains unconquered due to

4847-450: Is revealed that Noctis opened up to his companions before the final battle, and finds rest with Lunafreya in the afterlife. Final Fantasy XV was primarily developed by Square Enix 's Business Division 2. Additional studios that helped with development included HexaDrive , XPEC Entertainment , Plusmile, and Streamline Studios . Staff included director Hajime Tabata ; producer Shinji Hashimoto ; main writer Saori Itamuro, who wrote

4978-464: Is ruled by the Oracle—a priestess who can commune with the gods. The Oracle's main task is curing the Starscourge, a plague that absorbs all natural light and turns those infected into nocturnal monsters known as Daemons. Central to the lore of Eos are the Astrals, six divine beings who serve as the guardians of the natural world and are based on summoned monsters from the Final Fantasy series; and

5109-454: Is the world's first GPU microarchitecture that supports mesh shading through DirectX 12 Ultimate API, several months before Ampere RTX 30 series was released. In 2020, AMD and Nvidia released RDNA 2 and Ampere microarchitectures which both support mesh shading through DirectX 12 Ultimate . These mesh shaders allow the GPU to handle more complex algorithms, offloading more work from the CPU to

5240-795: The Final Fantasy series, it was released for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in November 2016, Windows in March 2018, and as a launch title for Stadia in November 2019. The game features an open world environment and action-based battle system, incorporating quick-switching weapons, elemental magic, and other features such as vehicle travel and camping. The base campaign was later expanded with downloadable content (DLC), adding further gameplay options such as additional playable characters and multiplayer . Final Fantasy XV takes place on

5371-555: The Bahamas . Due to the scale of the game's narrative and Tabata's wish to release a single game rather than a series of games similar to Final Fantasy XIII , aspects of the planned narrative were refashioned into supplementary media projects. Known as the " Final Fantasy XV Universe", the projects were split into two parts; media designed to reach a wider audience than the game might manage alone, and additional game-related content such as ports to other hardware and DLC. The project

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5502-415: The Final Fantasy series than allowed in the main series. Nomura was the original director, designer, and created the initial concept and scenario. The project suffered from a prolonged and troubled development, only making fragmentary appearances over the following six years. As early as 2007, the project's scale prompted talks of rebranding it as the next mainline entry. With the internal unveiling of

5633-456: The Metal framework . Modern video game development platforms such as Unity , Unreal Engine and Godot increasingly include node-based editors that can create shaders without the need for actual code; the user is instead presented with a directed graph of connected nodes that allow users to direct various textures, maps, and mathematical functions into output values like the diffuse color,

5764-465: The PlayStation 4 and Xbox One , it was decided to change it into a mainline entry, with a proposed PS3 version being scrapped due to technical troubles. The game's engine also changed, shifting to the company's new proprietary Luminous Engine . At the time of its rebranding and shift to next-generation consoles in 2012, Versus XIII was described as being on 20-25% complete, with Tabata saying it never took shape. When Tabata took over from Nomura,

5895-460: The Unity engine from Unity Technologies in that it incorporated all the development tools needed from asset editing onward, as well as being "high quality, easy to use, flexible, high speed, compact, and supporting both manual and automatic [game development methods]". The development team drew inspiration for this concept and approach from Unreal Engine and Crytek 's CryEngine . The name "Luminous"

6026-477: The Wii and Nintendo 3DS was doubted, as those consoles did not support shaders. During this early stage, they were looking into the possibility of adjusting the engine for use on Wii U . The company were hoping to promote Luminous as a kind of brand, showing off the logo and tech demo when they were ready. Agni's Philosophy is a tech demo created by Square Enix to show off the capacities of Luminous Studio. The demo

6157-427: The hue , saturation , brightness ( HSL/HSV ) or contrast of an image; producing blur , light bloom , volumetric lighting , normal mapping (for depth effects), bokeh , cel shading , posterization , bump mapping , distortion , chroma keying (for so-called "bluescreen/ greenscreen " effects), edge and motion detection , as well as psychedelic effects such as those seen in the demoscene . This use of

6288-433: The pipeline , whereas vertex shaders always require a 3D scene. For instance, a pixel shader is the only kind of shader that can act as a postprocessor or filter for a video stream after it has been rasterized . 3D shaders act on 3D models or other geometry but may also access the colors and textures used to draw the model or mesh . Vertex shaders are the oldest type of 3D shader, generally making modifications on

6419-425: The "True King", destined to use the Crystal's powers to save Eos from eternal darkness. The game shares a thematic connection with Fabula Nova Crystallis Final Fantasy , a subseries of games linked by a common mythos which includes Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy Type-0 . The game's development began in 2006 as a PlayStation 3 spin-off titled Final Fantasy Versus XIII . Tetsuya Nomura served as

6550-570: The 15th Annual Game Audio Network Guild Awards . In 2017, the game was nominated for "Best Visual Design" at the Golden Joystick Awards , and for "Best Role-Playing Game" at The Game Awards 2017 , but lost to Cuphead and Persona 5 , respectively. The Comrades DLC was nominated for "Best Add-on" at the Gamescom 2017 Awards. The game was also nominated for "Evolving Game" at the 14th British Academy Games Awards . At

6681-513: The 2017 Japan Game Awards , Final Fantasy XV was one of eleven recipients of the "Award for Excellence". In 2019, NHK conducted a Final Fantasy poll in Japan with over 468,000 voters, including 51% male and 49% female voters. Final Fantasy XV was voted the tenth best game in the series, with over 71% of its votes coming from female audiences, a higher proportion than any other Final Fantasy title. Shader In computer graphics ,

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6812-506: The Astrals and the Crystal, after being infected by the Starscourge. He sought revenge on the family bloodline and the Crystal, spreading the Starscourge while waiting for the True King to appear so he could destroy them both. Within the Crystal, Noctis meets Bahamut, and learns that he is the True King of prophecy, who will cleanse the Starscourge and restore light to Eos at the cost of his life. Noctis returns to Eos after ten years, finding

6943-550: The Crystal and reclaim his throne. While staying in the city of Lestallum with Iris, Noctis is contacted by the Astral Titan; encouraged by Ardyn, Noctis endures Titan's trial and earns his power, learning that Lunafreya is traveling ahead of Noctis to awaken the Astrals from their slumber. The group continues to travel across Lucis, retrieving the Royal Arms and meeting the Astral Ramuh with assistance from Gentiana. He

7074-487: The Fixed Function Pipeline (FFP), so-called because it performs lighting and texture mapping in a hard-coded manner. Shaders provide a programmable alternative to this hard-coded approach. The basic graphics pipeline is as follows: The graphic pipeline uses these steps in order to transform three-dimensional (or two-dimensional) data into useful two-dimensional data for displaying. In general, this

7205-795: The GPU, and in algorithm intense rendering, increasing the frame rate of or number of triangles in a scene by an order of magnitude. Intel announced that Intel Arc Alchemist GPUs shipping in Q1 2022 will support mesh shaders. Ray tracing shaders are supported by Microsoft via DirectX Raytracing , by Khronos Group via Vulkan , GLSL , and SPIR-V , by Apple via Metal . Tensor shaders may be integrated in NPUs or GPUs . Tensor shaders are supported by Microsoft via DirectML , by Khronos Group via OpenVX , by Apple via Core ML , by Google via TensorFlow , by Linux Foundation via ONNX . Compute shaders are not limited to graphics applications, but use

7336-448: The HP cap with their attacks. If Noctis is defeated, there is a brief period where a revival item must be used. Should the player fail to do so, the game ends. Noctis can perform four actions in battle: the standard attack; defending, which blocks and parries attacks; warping, which takes Noctis to a targeted area such as another enemy or an out-of-the-way warp point, and using items. There is

7467-436: The Luminous Studio team. During 2012, one third of the final development team was from western subsidiaries of the company. Luminous was developed based on high-end DirectX 11 technology. While designed for eighth-generation video games, it was said to also be compatible with any console and hardware that could handle shaders , such as PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 . Its compatibility with Nintendo's seventh-gen hardware such as

7598-399: The Ring of the Lucii and survive Zegnautus Keep. After reuniting and rescuing Prompto, the party continues through Zegnautus Keep, defeating Ravus and Emperor Aldercapt, who have been transformed into Daemons. Forcefully leaving his friends behind, Noctis reaches the Crystal, only to be pulled into it. Ardyn appears and reveals himself as Ardyn Lucis Caelum, a healer ostracized with support from

7729-565: The Tech Bar fills. When full, Noctis can command his companions to perform special moves called Techniques: Gladiolus performs a sweeping attack with his sword, Ignis uses his daggers to mark enemies so Noctis can perform a warp strike attack, and Prompto uses his firearm to fire a powerful shot that pierces through tough opponents. After each of these, Noctis can initiate a follow-up attack. Noctis can also trigger an Armiger Chain, where he splits his Royal Arms between his companions before launching

7860-502: The True King, a legendary figure prophesied to appear when the Starscourge threatens to plunge Eos into eternal night. A key part of Eos's backstory is the Great War of Old, a conflict born when the ancient human civilization of Solheim turned on the Astrals, one of whom was Solheim's patron Ifrit. Ifrit's subsequent attempt to destroy humanity defied the Astrals' duty to protect Eos, forcing their leader Bahamut to kill him. This conflict

7991-421: The beginning of the graphics pipeline . Geometry shader programs are executed after vertex shaders. They take as input a whole primitive, possibly with adjacency information. For example, when operating on triangles, the three vertices are the geometry shader's input. The shader can then emit zero or more primitives, which are rasterized and their fragments ultimately passed to a pixel shader . Typical uses of

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8122-484: The body. For the characters' hair, the team used the same technique as with the characters in Agni's Philosophy . The inner hair for each character uses about 20,000 polygons, five times more than seventh generation hardware. The data capacity for textures is also much greater than before. Each character uses 30 MB of texture data, and ten levels of detail . While seventh-generation games used 50 to 100 MB of texture data for

8253-469: The capital of Accordo, where Noctis's wedding to Lunafreya will take place. Finding the local boat services stopped, they receive news of Niflheim's attack on the city of Insomnia and theft of the Crystal ; King Regis has been assassinated, and both Noctis and Lunafreya are declared dead. Meeting up with Cor, Noctis is tasked with retrieving the Royal Arms—the magical weapons of past Lucian kings—to rescue

8384-591: The categories of "Best PS4 Game", "Best Use of Pro", "Best Soundtrack", and "Best Visuals"; and in Game Informer ' s 2017 RPG of the Year Awards awarded the game for "Best Post-Launch Support". At the 2017 National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers Awards the game won Game, Franchise Role Playing and Song, Original or Adapted . It was also nominated for "Best Original Soundtrack Album" and for "Best Original Instrumental" ("Valse di Fantastica") at

8515-423: The characters lacked interest during the early parts of the campaign, and Hardcore Gamer ' s Adam Beck called the main story a "monumental disappointment" despite enjoying the lead cast. The minimal representation of supporting characters was also frequently faulted. David Roberts of GamesRadar , Electronic Gaming Monthly ' s Mollie L. Patterson and Destructoid ' s Chris Carter also noted

8646-438: The company, citing personal reasons. While still working as an advisor for Luminous Studio, his position as project leader was filled by Remi Driancourt, a senior engineer who had worked with games featuring Luminous technology. The version of XV shown off at Tokyo Game Show and Jump Festa that year ran on Luminous 1.4, which combined Luminous with components created for Ebony. The Episode Duscae game demo ran on version 1.5, and

8777-477: The crucial part played by the game's expanded media in grounding or fleshing out the main story. The visuals and realistic style were positively received, with IGN ' s Vince Ingenito enjoying the unusual use of realistic aesthetic details for the towns and environment. Roberts, Brown, Leack, Beck and Kollar praised the open world design and depth of detail, in addition to its scale and similarity to open worlds from recent Western games. Beck also noted

8908-528: The current environment rather than transitioning to a separate arena, and can range from open plains to enclosed building interiors. When approaching enemies, a threat meter appears on the top of the screen, growing in intensity the closer the party gets to the enemy. When the party gets close and attacks or is detected, the battle begins. Running away from enemies and out of the combat zone in normal battles ends combat. During battle, each character has health points (HP), and Noctis also has magic points (MP). HP

9039-478: The demo's development was the creation of Agni, the central character. For the demo, as it was a work-in-progress, they optimized it for graphical performance. While the story and themes were created by the Japanese staff, many of the character designs were done by staff from their western subsidiaries. The technology to create the demo was all sourced from then-existing high-end PCs. An initial mock up of Agni's hair

9170-471: The developers plan for the final game to run on version 2.0. With Luminous Studio, real-time scenes in XV have five million polygons per frame, with character models made up of about 100,000 polygons each. Character models for XV were constructed with 600 bones, estimated as roughly 10-12 times more than seventh generation hardware. About 150 bones are used for the face, 300 for the hair and clothes, and 150 for

9301-453: The engine, Merceron said that he advised the company to avoid sharing between companies or internally between games until the engine had been finalized with the released game: this resulted in Luminous Studio being restricted to what would become Final Fantasy XV during development, while other major next-generation titles would use other outsourced engines. The construction of Luminous was similar in concept to Epic Games ' Unreal Engine or

9432-478: The engine, called Witch Chapter 0 [cry] , featuring the character Agni from the earlier Agni's Philosophy demo. The demo renders over 63 million polygons per frame, uses "8K by 8K" resolution textures, and her hair is rendered with over 50 shaders , with each strand of hair rendered as a polygon. It also portrays human crying with a high level of detail, and the quality of the real-time graphics have been compared to pre-rendered CGI animation . The tech demo took

9563-431: The entire development team was reshuffled and development started over again, although he worked as a co-director with Nomura until late 2013 to ensure the project remained as true as possible to its original vision. Among the changes were the removal of the original story's opening, and the replacement of the original heroine Stella Nox Fleuret with the similarly named Lunafreya. The connection to Fabula Nova Crystallis

9694-433: The father of Noctis; and Gentiana , Lunafreya's attendant. The empire of Niflheim is ruled by Emperor Iedolas Aldercapt . Aldercapt's notable subordinates include Ardyn Izunia , the imperial chancellor and the game's main antagonist; Ravus Nox Fleuret , Lunafreya's brother and the high commander of Niflheim; and Verstael Besithia , the empire's head researcher. Noctis and his three friends begin their journey to Altissia,

9825-484: The fictional world of Eos; aside from Insomnia, the capital of Lucis, all the world is dominated by the empire of Niflheim, who seek control of the magical Crystal protected by the Lucian royal family. On the eve of peace negotiations, Niflheim attacks the capital and steals the Crystal. Noctis Lucis Caelum , heir to the Lucian throne, goes on a quest to rescue the Crystal and defeat Niflheim. He later learns his full role as

9956-417: The field of computer graphics. They modify attributes of pixels . 2D shaders may take part in rendering 3D geometry . Currently the only type of 2D shader is a pixel shader. Pixel shaders, also known as fragment shaders, compute color and other attributes of each "fragment": a unit of rendering work affecting at most a single output pixel . The simplest kinds of pixel shaders output one screen pixel as

10087-404: The game a score of 38 points out of 40. Various game designers stated Final Fantasy XV was their favorite game of 2016, including Final Fantasy series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi , Atlus ' Shigeo Komori, Koei Tecmo 's Takashi Morinaka, and Sony Interactive Entertainment 's Teruyuki Toriyama and Shuhei Yoshida . Opinions on the story of Final Fantasy XV were mixed, although the main cast

10218-654: The game by a smaller development team from the core Final Fantasy XV staff. The team was supervised by Tabata and headed by new producer Haruyoshi Sawatari. Among the DLC were additional story elements intended to address player criticisms of the game's narrative structure and missing details. The journeys of Noctis' friends during their absence in the main story are expanded through the character-driven DLC episodes— Episode Gladiolus , Episode Prompto and Episode Ignis —which were released respectively in March, June and December 2017. A story-driven multiplayer mode called Comrades

10349-548: The game to "break even" on development costs. This gave Final Fantasy XV the biggest launch in the franchise to date, the most first day digital sales in Japan for a game up to that point, and set records for physical shipments and downloads in mainland Asia. Commenting on the large numbers, Tabata revealed that the strong sales saved the Final Fantasy franchise as a whole, which had seen declining commercial success in recent years. According to Square Enix, shipments had reached over six million worldwide by January 2017. In May of

10480-468: The game's most divisive elements. The summons were seen as spectacular, but either lacking meaning in gameplay or being too difficult to activate. Several reviewers noted the in-game camera's occasionally erratic behaviour. In Japan, the PS4 version topped Japanese gaming charts, selling 690,471 units. The Xbox One version sold nearly 3,800 units. Total sales of both versions came to 694,262 units, with

10611-569: The game's release boosting console sales for the PS4 over the previous week by over 42,000 units. Second week sales in the region were 79,792 units, down 88% from launch week and causing the game to drop to fifth place. Different rankings in January the following year placed the Japanese sales of Final Fantasy XV as between 900,000 and one million copies. In the United Kingdom's all-format gaming charts ending December 3, Final Fantasy XV

10742-461: The graphics processor. The purpose is to transform each vertex's 3D position in virtual space to the 2D coordinate at which it appears on the screen (as well as a depth value for the Z-buffer). Vertex shaders can manipulate properties such as position, color and texture coordinates, but cannot create new vertices. The output of the vertex shader goes to the next stage in the pipeline, which is either

10873-518: The large number of individual codes needed. For Luminous, the team created a single unifying flexible framework to control the scale of the AI while also making it intuitive. It was intended to be used in-house rather than licensed out to other developers, but that western subsidiaries of the company would have access to it. In addition, they also built in the ability to blend graphical assets designed for CG scenery with highly advanced real-time animation, making

11004-417: The more times he fishes and the better items he uses, which in turn spreads to his equipment. Gladiolus' Survival skills increase based on the distance the party has travelled in a day, which improves the quality of their equipment and items. Ignis' cooking can be improved based on ingredients either purchased at shops or found in the wild, and his meals grant stat boosts to the party. Prompto takes photos during

11135-495: The opening narrative of Final Fantasy XV . Also forming part of the project were Platinum Demo: Final Fantasy XV , a game demo detailing an incident in Noctis's childhood which tied into the events of Brotherhood ; Justice Monsters Five , a mobile game based on a minigame from Final Fantasy XV which was active from August 2016 to March 2017; A King's Tale: Final Fantasy XV , a promotional beat 'em up featuring Regis as

11266-403: The original director and character designer. After a development period of six years, it was changed to the next mainline title in the series in 2012; Nomura was replaced as director by Hajime Tabata , and the game shifted to eighth generation platforms . Due to the changes, the story needed to be rewritten and some scenes and characters were repurposed or removed. The setting of Final Fantasy XV

11397-485: The party must go to safe zones called "Havens", namely rest sites like inns or campsites. When the party rests at night, each character gains levels depending on the amount of EXP earned. If defeated in battle, all EXP gained up to that point since the last level up is permanently lost. Activities in the overworld earn the party Ability Points (AP). AP is spent on the Ascension Grid, the game's leveling system, which

11528-470: The party's car "Regalia", or chocobos , recurring galliform birds in the Final Fantasy series. Both the Regalia and chosen Chocobos can be customised by the player, and Chocobos can join in battles if their connection to the characters is strong enough. While Chocobos are controlled manually, the Regalia can be either manually or automatically controlled. The party can also fast-travel to areas unlocked on

11659-444: The party's journey, and the quality of his own skills increase over time. A post-release update enables control of all four characters during battle after unlocking a dedicated node in the Ascension Grid; each character uses specific weapon types and abilities tied to them. A multiplayer mode called Comrades was released as an expansion , with gameplay and combat lifted from the main game and tailored for multiplayer; rather than

11790-523: The playable character; Monster of the Deep: Final Fantasy XV , a virtual reality simulation game released in 2017 for PlayStation VR ; and Final Fantasy XV: A New Empire , a massively multiplayer online strategy game published by Machine Zone in 2017 and developed by their Epic Action subsidiary. Initially announced in 2006 alongside XIII and Type-0 , the game was publicly rebranded at E3 2013 , with regular updates on

11921-481: The player fights monsters either on sorties or to defend transports; at the end of each mission, the player is awarded Gil, materials used for crafting and enhancing weapons, and "Meteorshards" which can power up settlements around Lestallum and open up new quests. Some areas unlock Royal Tombs which grant the player a Royal Sigil; these Sigils both increase specific statistics and grant new themed abilities such as healing or increasing combat moves. The player has access to

12052-462: The player. The type of weapon equipped determines the attack speed and the amount of damage on normal attacks. In addition to normal attacks, there are attacks that deal more damage based on Noctis' position such as "Side Strike" or "Blindside", in addition to the Warp Strike attack. Attacks from enemies can be parried, and depending on the quality of the parry Noctis can counterattack. If wielding

12183-512: The power of shaders. The first video card with a programmable pixel shader was the Nvidia GeForce 3 (NV20), released in 2001. Geometry shaders were introduced with Direct3D 10 and OpenGL 3.2. Eventually, graphics hardware evolved toward a unified shader model . Shaders are simple programs that describe the traits of either a vertex or a pixel . Vertex shaders describe the attributes (position, texture coordinates , colors, etc.) of

12314-428: The presentation, guest speakers paused the demo and adjusted elements of the characters on the fly to show off the engine's customization features. It was also shown at SIGGRAPH 2012. The Agni's Philosophy tech demo was running at 60 frames per second , used 1.8 GB of texture data per frame, and pushed ten million polygons per frame, with approximately 300,000 to 400,000 polygons for each character model. There

12445-466: The ritual, but she succeeds in awakening Noctis's powers, allowing him to defeat Leviathan. While unconscious, he is visited in a dream by Lunafreya's spirit, who gives him the Ring of the Lucii. Noctis wakes to find Lunafreya dead, Altissia in chaos and that Ignis was blinded during the battle. The party continues towards Niflheim's capital of Gralea by train. Ignis' blindness and Noctis's mourning of Lunafreya cause friction with Gladiolus until Ignis forces

12576-406: The same assets as the CGI version. Prior to its rebranding from Final Fantasy Versus XIII and full move onto eighth-generation consoles , Final Fantasy XV used lighting technology from Luminous along with a purpose-built proprietary gameplay engine. For its E3 2013 re-reveal under its new title, the company used a specially-created engine environment named Ebony. In July 2014, Hashimoto left

12707-404: The same execution resources for GPGPU . They may be used in graphics pipelines e.g. for additional stages in animation or lighting algorithms (e.g. tiled forward rendering ). Some rendering APIs allow compute shaders to easily share data resources with the graphics pipeline. Shaders are written to apply transformations to a large set of elements at a time, for example, to each pixel in an area of

12838-635: The same year, the game and Rise of the Tomb Raider helped to increase sales and profits for the 2016-2017 fiscal year. By May 2022, Final Fantasy XV had sold ten million units worldwide across all versions, making it one of the best-selling Final Fantasy games of all time. Final Fantasy XV won numerous awards from various gaming publications, including "Game of the Year" from RPG Site and RPGFan , and "Best RPG (People's Choice)" from IGN , PlayStation Blog awarded Final Fantasy XV awards in

12969-568: The scenario based on the original draft by Kazushige Nojima ; and art directors Tomohiro Hasegawa, Yusuke Naora and Isamu Kamikokuryo . Character designs were by Tetsuya Nomura and Roberto Ferrari, with later revisions by Naora. The main characters' clothing was designed by Hiromu Takahara, lead designer for Japanese fashion house Roen. The soundtrack was composed primarily by Yoko Shimomura , while both real-time and CGI cutscenes were directed by Takeshi Nozue of Visual Works , Square Enix's in-house CGI production studio. Logo illustration

13100-585: The screen, or for every vertex of a model. This is well suited to parallel processing , and most modern GPUs have multiple shader pipelines to facilitate this, vastly improving computation throughput. A programming model with shaders is similar to a higher order function for rendering, taking the shaders as arguments, and providing a specific dataflow between intermediate results, enabling both data parallelism (across pixels, vertices etc.) and pipeline parallelism (between stages). (see also map reduce ). The language in which shaders are programmed depends on

13231-500: The selected option altering the response from NPCs. The game also contains two difficulty modes, with players being able to freely switch between the two. The game uses an action-based real-time battle system, called the Active Cross Battle system. Instead of using a menu interface, the player selects commands directly mapped to buttons on the controller, such as "Attack", "Defend", and "Item". Battles take place within

13362-399: The setpiece moments as beautiful in appearance despite weak narrative elements and confusing or convoluted gameplay. Leack positively noted the main cast's eye-catching design, which he felt helped maintain a connection during the early sections of the game. Shimomura's score was also positively received by critics. The gameplay was praised for its fast pace and engaging mechanics despite

13493-618: The shader units instead of downsampling very complex ones from memory. Some algorithms can upsample any arbitrary mesh, while others allow for "hinting" in meshes to dictate the most characteristic vertices and edges. Circa 2017, the AMD Vega microarchitecture added support for a new shader stage—primitive shaders—somewhat akin to compute shaders with access to the data necessary to process geometry. Nvidia introduced mesh and task shaders with its Turing microarchitecture in 2018 which are also modelled after compute shaders. Nvidia Turing

13624-460: The target environment. The official OpenGL and OpenGL ES shading language is OpenGL Shading Language , also known as GLSL, and the official Direct3D shading language is High Level Shader Language , also known as HLSL. Cg , a third-party shading language which outputs both OpenGL and Direct3D shaders, was developed by Nvidia ; however since 2012 it has been deprecated. Apple released its own shading language called Metal Shading Language as part of

13755-472: The term "shader" was introduced to the public by Pixar with version 3.0 of their RenderMan Interface Specification, originally published in May 1988. As graphics processing units evolved, major graphics software libraries such as OpenGL and Direct3D began to support shaders. The first shader-capable GPUs only supported pixel shading , but vertex shaders were quickly introduced once developers realized

13886-607: The title beginning the following year. A demo titled Final Fantasy XV: Episode Duscae was released in March 2015 as a limited addition to Final Fantasy Type-0 HD . The game's localization was handled by Dan Inoue, who used different accents for characters to denote their origins on different parts of Eos. In addition to English, Japanese and European languages, the game was localized for Latin America with Latin American Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese text: this

14017-409: The two graphically similar. Luminous Studio was publicly revealed in 2011. The head of the project was Yoshihisa Hashimoto, Square Enix's Chief Technology Officer, who had moved over to the company from Sonic Team in 2009 and became involved with development in 2011. Other key Square Enix staff members working on Luminous Studio include Takeshi Nozue, Akira Iwata and Hiroshi Iwasaki. While ground work

14148-404: The type used, from generating a powerful shockwave to dealing high melee damage. Noctis's companions, controlled by the game's artificial intelligence (AI), can perform contextual commands. When Noctis successfully parries an enemy attack, or performs a Side Strike or Blindside, cooperative attacks between him and his companions called Link-strikes can be triggered. During battle, a meter called

14279-429: The use of the Crystal's power, which is slowly draining the current king's life force. At the game's beginning an armistice is declared between the two nations due to the king's failing health; as part of the peace agreements, Niflheim will gain control of all Lucian territories outside Insomnia, and a marriage is arranged between the heirs apparent of the royal families of Lucis and Tenebrae. The game's protagonist

14410-514: The world engulfed in darkness. Reuniting with his friends, Noctis heads for Insomnia, fighting Ifrit—revived and corrupted by the Starscourge—before facing Ardyn. After killing Ardyn in single combat, Noctis ascends the throne and sacrifices himself, using the Crystal and Ring of the Lucii to purge the Starscourge from Eos. In the afterlife, with the help from Lunafreya, Noctis destroys Ardyn's spirit. In mid-credits and post-credits scenes , it

14541-505: The world map. The Regalia must be refueled periodically at petrol stations. In towns the party can visit, there are inns and hotels where they can stay, shops where items and equipment can be purchased with the in-game currency gil, and local tipsters, non-playable characters (NPCs) who provide information on quests, from main story missions to side quests. Side quests are also available from individual NPCs found in towns. During some story sequences, dialogue choices appear for Noctis, with

14672-408: The world of Eos. While accompanied by his three companions Gladiolus, Ignis and Prompto , Noctis is the only character directly controlled by the player: he can navigate through movement, jump over small obstacles, sprint for a limited time, and perform context-based actions such as taking cover behind objects. The kingdom of Lucis is a large connected landmass that can be explored on foot, by using

14803-444: Was "a fantasy based on reality", with locations and creatures based on elements from the real world. To supplement the game, Square Enix created a multimedia project called the " Final Fantasy XV Universe", which includes a few spin-off games, as well as an anime series and a feature film . Gameplay and story-based DLC was released between 2017 and 2019. Upon release, Final Fantasy XV was well received by critics. Widespread praise

14934-410: Was a collaboration between the cinematic Visual Works division—a section of the company generally associated with CGI movie production for the company's video games—and Square Enix's R&D department, Advanced Technology Division, with a goal to create a real-time graphics tech demo that has a quality coming as close as possible to pre-rendered CGI. Development of the demo took approximately half

15065-567: Was also reduced, with branding and mythos-specific terminology removed to aid in the game's marketing. Thematic, aesthetic and design elements were retained due to their core place in the world and backstory. The main concept behind Final Fantasy XV was "a fantasy based on reality", with the world being very similar to Earth and having fantasy elements gradually intruding into an otherwise normal setting. In pursuit of this, locations in Eos were based on real-world locations such as Tokyo , Venice and

15196-503: Was being laid for Luminous, members of the team traveled to look at engine technology being developed by IO Interactive , Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montréal , western video game developers who became subsidiaries after the company bought out Eidos Interactive . Square Enix's western subsidiaries shared information about game engine development from their experience developing the CDC and Glacier 2 game engines and shared their source code with

15327-629: Was by regular series artist Yoshitaka Amano . Development began in 2006 as a spin-off for the PlayStation 3 called Final Fantasy Versus XIII , as part of the Fabula Nova Crystallis Final Fantasy , a subseries of games linked by a common mythos, and ran in Square Enix's proprietary Crystal Tools engine. Developed by the team behind the Kingdom Hearts series, it was intended to be a darker entry in

15458-487: Was chosen to reflect the crystal theme of the Final Fantasy series. There were many major factors that the team considered while building the engine, as they wanted to ensure the highest possible quality for high-end games. Some of the environmental factors included lighting, shading and modeling. A core feature of the gameplay was the artificial intelligence (AI), which had previously been liable to become unstable or poor under certain conditions or with poor programming due to

15589-409: Was created using a mannequin and wig styled by a professional make-up artist. Each character's face was constructed around mo-capped footage of live actors, then tweaked and expanded in post-production. The entire development process, from conception through development, took approximately a year. Agni's Philosophy was first shown at E3 2012 as part of a special presentation by Square Enix. As part of

15720-408: Was first revealed at a March 2016 press event called "Uncovered: Final Fantasy XV ". Tabata later stated that those who just played the game would miss context for story events shown in other related media. The two central parts of the " Final Fantasy XV Universe" are the feature film Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV and the original net animation Brotherhood: Final Fantasy XV . Brotherhood

15851-402: Was given for its gameplay, visuals and soundtrack, while reception towards its story and presentation was mixed. As of May 2022, the game has sold ten million units worldwide, making it one of the best-selling Final Fantasy games of all time. Final Fantasy XV is an open world action role-playing game where players take control of protagonist Noctis Lucis Caelum during his journey across

15982-410: Was hitting technical barriers as it transitioned to open-world environments its original Crystal Tools engine could not handle, and Final Fantasy XIV had met with a disastrous launch due to development and technical problems. Faced with these issues, Square Enix decided to bring in former developers from Sega to create new engines for their products, including Luminous Studio. Talking about sharing

16113-423: Was praised for its chemistry. Game Informer ' s Andrew Reiner praised the change to a simple straightforward plot after the complex lore of Final Fantasy XIII . Peter Brown of GameSpot and Philip Kollar of Polygon praised the mundane activities and character interactions, with Kollar calling Noctis's companions the game's "beating heart". In contrast, Jonathan Leack of Game Revolution found

16244-486: Was produced by anime studio A-1 Pictures under supervision from Square Enix; the narrative focused on the backstories of Noctis and his companions. The series was released online between March and September 2016. Kingsglaive , which received a limited theatrical release in 2016, was a collaboration between Visual Works and Western studios including Digic Pictures and Image Engine ; the story, which mainly focused on original characters, recycled story elements cut from

16375-468: Was released in February 2018 for iOS and Android . The game was co-developed by Square Enix, SummerTimeStudio, and XPEC Entertainment. Development began in 2015 following the release of Episode Duscae ; the game was produced by Kosei Ito, who was producer on Tabata's first major Square Enix title Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII . Multiple pieces of downloadable content (DLC) were created for

16506-805: Was released in March 2019, and was the final post-release update for Final Fantasy XV . Originally part of a tetralogy of story-based DLC episodes dubbed The Dawn of the Future , the other episodes were cancelled due to structural changes within Square Enix. Story material for The Dawn of the Future DLC has been turned into a novel of the same name . It was first released in Japan in April 2019, and worldwide in June 2020. Final Fantasy XV has received "generally favorable" reviews from critics for all versions, according to review aggregator Metacritic . Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu gave both versions of

16637-548: Was released in November 2017, with Final Fantasy XV becoming the first mainline single-player Final Fantasy to include multiplayer content. A standalone version of Comrades was released for PS4 and Xbox One in December 2018 to replace the DLC version of Comrades . Episode Ignis was intended to be the last story-based DLC, but positive player feedback resulted in Square Enix wanting to develop further content focusing on other main characters, such as Ardyn. Episode Ardyn

16768-465: Was released on March 6, 2018. Square Enix developed the port with Nvidia using an upgraded version of the Luminous Studio engine, featuring graphical enhancements and all DLC. These improvements and additions were also released as part of the console-exclusive Royal Edition . The game was also ported to the streaming-based Stadia platform, releasing on November 19, 2019, as a launch title. Another version, titled Final Fantasy XV: Pocket Edition ,

16899-516: Was the first time a Final Fantasy title was localized into these languages. Its initial worldwide release, September 30, was announced at the "Uncovered" event. Despite this intended date, further polishing work resulted in the date being pushed back to November 29. Further fixes were applied to the game through a Day One patch released concurrent with the game. The game was published in multiple editions, called "Day One", "Deluxe", and "Ultimate Collector's Edition". The "Deluxe" edition included

17030-614: Was the second biggest launch for the series after Final Fantasy XIII . According to the December data released by the NPD Group , Final Fantasy XV was the second best-selling title of the month behind Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare . The game also became the month's best-selling PS4 title, and saw the best console launch month in the franchise's history. Within the first twenty-four hours, Square Enix reported that Final Fantasy XV had shipped five million units worldwide in both physical shipments and digital sales—a figure which allowed

17161-554: Was to create new AAA video games for a global audience using the Luminous Engine. According to Julien Merceron, the Worldwide Technology Director for Square Enix in the early 2010s, the concept for the new engine was born in 2011 while he was in the final stages of working on Final Fantasy XIII-2 . This was a difficult period for Square Enix: the project then known as Final Fantasy Versus XIII

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