Hi all,
I have no idea how Ambient Occlusion works - but just wanted to tell you my story in case it also helps any of the rest of you ^^.
After the recent 25/11/10 update when I first logged on LAG. Now, I'm running an i7 930 with a gtx 460 geforce card (recently upgraded from a gtx 260 due to recommended specs), so I'm wondering 'wth?'
At first I drop back my FFXIV config settings from highest to standards and that improves things greatly so that I'm not so much experiencing lag and slow loading background, but I'd still noticed a dramatic drop off in graphic performance from prior to the update, including, for some reason, a delay in DoL chop/jag response time.
Then I notice - 'hey, is the background slightly blurred? Has ambient occlusion come back?' And so I re-checked FFXIV and, yep, it had.
Unchecked Ambient Occlusion. Logged back in - perfect. I had to get used to immediate DoL chop & jag actions again instead of the 1 sec delay I was starting to get acquainted with.
Next time I logged off I went back to FFXIV config and adjust all the graphics settings from standard to high again.
After that, next time I logged in again, hmmm, yes, slightly slowing performance, but still easily acceptable, and still far better than when Ambient Occlusion had been checked.
Long story short - if you're having a hellova time with lag/graphics response - log in to your FFXIV config and (a) uncheck your Ambient Occlusion (if it is checked) and (b) consider adjusting your graphics lvls better low-standard-high.
But then if your smart enough cookies to be playing an MMORPG, hopefully you would've picked up on this already. ^^