Much of the meaty graphical content from the last three years of FFXI has been derived from reskinned older graphics. Things such as areas, armor, weapons, weaponskills, enemies, etc. Accompanying this trend is a popular myth stating that the purpose is because reskinning old graphics helps the PS2 to conserve disc space. I've heard people say this all the time, and I'm sure you have to. But it is false, and here I'll show you very plainly and evidently (with simple pics for proof) that it's false.



Why is this notion so common? And how are graphic files presented in the game?

Before I get to the point, it's important to consider the causes. I think the reason this idea is so popular is that most people just don't understand how zones are presented as data. People are familiar with some of the usual graphical data, like armor and weapons. There's one single file for the leather armor graphic. And then when the game needs to show it, it just loads it on any instance of it. So if there's 10 people standing around in the same leather armor, it's only using the graphic of that one same file. It works the same way for most common things like weapons, weaponskills, magic etc. Even enemies of different SCALE that are the same mob. For example, the large Fafnir wyrm enemy is the same graphic file as the tiny Naul enemies in Abyssea. Only the scale of its size is adjusted on the fly.

This just makes natural sense but I think the problem is when people extend this same method to zones. Zones do not work in the same way. I can't say why, but I'd speculate it's because of their size and the way the game handles them. Each and every zone has it's own individual data file. Bastok Markets and Bastok Markets (S) are seperate files. Bastok Mines and Dynamis Bastok are seperate files. Tahrongi Canyon and Abyssea Tahrongi are seperate files, etc. And so each individual file takes up it's own individual disc space. So much for that myth.

And now just to kill it dead here's some visual proof. Follow along and click the images to see a larger version.

Confirming Konshtat is the file shown.

Confirming Konschtat-A is the file shown

These are pictures taken from a program called EWH. It just lets you look at the FFXI zones like a model viewer. The box shown circled in red indicates the file being displayed in the window. In this case you see the file is 90 for Konschtat Highlands, and then the Abyssea version. It's just a way to show you this file is for certain for this zone.

The individual file/file size for Konschtat.

The individual file/file size for Konschtat-A.

Now that we know which zone is which file you just have to check the actual data files. These pics show each of the files for Konschtat and Konschtat-A. As you can see they're their own seperate file with a large file size of several MB.

Looks good eh? Time to call this myth busted. But wait, I know there's a contentious few of you out there still unconvinced. I can hear you saying "Aha! But the file sizes are different! The Abyssea version clearly is smaller than the original, so you proved yourself wrong". So here we go, let's finish this off.

Let me start by saying that zone data files are the biggest files in the game. At around 5~20MB each, they outweigh music, animations, items, etc. So even though a reskinned zone can be slightly smaller than the original, a 10MB file is still big, and can hardly be considered "saving disc space".

Reskinned zones are not a smaller size as a rule, it just happens the Abyssea areas are because they're stripped down. All the stormy/sunny/foggy weather, ambient things like birds, the huge crags and windmills were taken out of the zone textures. That just (barely) makes the file smaller. But reskinned zones aren't usually much smaller. In fact sometimes they put more crap in and turn out bigger than the original, like Bastok Markets (S).

The textures comprising Konschtat Highlands.

The textures comprising Konschtat-A.

One last thing to address here. These pics show the texture tile graphics used within each zone file. They each have their own textures, even though the tiles they use look the same. This just shows that each zone isn't somehow taking one single seperate texture and then applying it to stuff when the zone calls it. For example, you might think there's one single "bone structure" tile picture. And when you load the crag bone stuff in Qufim and Behemoth's Dominion it's the same texture graphic. But it isn't. Each zone has its own copy. So there's no space saving going on there either.

So what the hell is the point of reskinning old graphics?

I've shown how reskinned content doesn't "save disc space". So if that's not the purpose then what is? To save the FFXI team time versus making brand new stuff from scratch. It may not save space, but it does save a hell of a lot of time. And we know the true cliche about time being money. For example, time you could be spending on overhauling your miserable and stillborn sister MMO. But that's just me speculating.

That's about it I guess. Maybe it seems like a weird thing to have to delve into but I'm sick of encountering this myth stated like it's just a natural truth. So if you ever hear someone tell you this now you know better. Refer them here for some info if needed, I have a feeling this is an idea that won't die easy. Anyways, I hope you liked this post. See you guys in Wajoam Woodlands-Z when it comes out!