---
author: einar
comments: true
date: 2007-11-20 07:45:05+00:00
layout: post
slug: final-fantasy-xi-windowed-mode
title: Final Fantasy XI windowed mode
wordpress_id: 338
categories:
- Final Fantasy XI
tags:
- bug
- Final Fantasy XI
---

And so, with [yesterday's update](http://www.playonline.com/pcd/update/ff11us/20071120wwnX41/detail.html), FFXI has gained a windowed mode. This has been a much-requested feature from the playerbase, especially from people who didn't want to use the "unofficial" windower.

However, being the first major touch to the rendering engine, I think something got broken along the way. Mainly, I'm talking about a 20% performance drop of the engine (which didn't shine before, but that's another matter).

<!-- more -->My tests have been done on two computers:



	
  * Intel Core 2 Duo 6600, 1 Gb RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 7950GTX: a **huge** performance drop, which was strongly reduced by updating the video drivers. Now it's about 10% slower than pre-windowed mode adjustments;

	
  * AMD Thunderbird 2100+, NVIDIA  Ge Force 6600,  1  Gb RAM:  a performance **increase**, at least 10% more.


So what  is to be gathered from this? By updating the codebase, which is stale and rather old, the developer team has probably broken something along the way. I expect a fix very soon, though.

Aside that, I like the new windowed mode. When the window goes out of focus, music stops, which is rather good when you're idling in Aht Urghan Whitegate (especially if you're looking for party the music can really get on your nerves).  Even with the issues, I would prefer it to the "unofficial" windower for a series of reasons, mainly because the developers inject code into the POL.exe executable and they won't release the source.

This poses a security risk, since you don't really know what the unofficial windower is doing. Add the fact that one of the people in the windower team {{post id="idiocy-at-its-maximum" text="has been involved in the Wiki fiasco"}}, and you have very good reasons for not using it.
