Final Fantasy XI PC Requirements Announced

PKFC writes "Square has begun taking applications for the Final Fantasy XI PC Beta test which starts on June 18 in Japan. The minimum specs are: Win 98, PIII 800 MHz, 128 MB RAM, a GeForce card and 4.5 GB of hard drive space, while the recommended specs include a 64 MB video card and a Pentium 4. The 4.5 GB is used for game data, the PlayOnline software and the ever popular, Tetramaster. The PC version will be fully compatible with the PlayStation2 version allowing people on either system to play together. Be warned that the links go to Japanese web sites."

Comments

Re:4.5GB on disk???

[Paladin128]

With the ps2 running at only around 300mhz, while I'd expected higher PC requirements I didn't expect that much extra.

Well, on the PS2, there is no large OS (like Windows) to deal with. Everything is designed specifically to do 3D accelleration and media streamin. The PS2's "emotion engine" is actually a 3 processor system: the CPU, VU0, and VU1. VU0 and VU1 (the "vector units") are specialized processors that are designed to do really fast matrix math. VU0 is connected on the same bus as the CPU, while VU1 is semi-coupled with the "Graphics Synthisizer" (GPU). VU0 is often used to do skinning, physics, and audio processing, while VU1 is often used to implement various procedural shaders and other programs similar to DX8 vertex and pixel shaders.

A PC, however, has only one CPU, a bunch of different busses, and games are traditionally run at higher resolutions. On a TV, every game is run at either 30FPS or 60FPS on an interlaced screen. Having a sharper, high-res, progressive display, a much higher fillrate is required for good viewing. So you need a higher pixel clock, higher filrate, more memory, more memory bandwidth, lower latencies, and more raw power. Throw a large OS on top of that (Windows 2000 or XP) and you're a tad short on CPU power, memory bandwidth, etc. compared to a simple, streamlined gaming machine.