Eorzea's Neo Talent Management
For this second week, I sent our photographers back into ARR dungeons to try to find an area that received a glow up as part of the 7.0 graphics update. We had a lot of amazing views of some of the earliest dungeons. Voting was very close, but the winner this week goes to the sun shaft in the Thousand Maws of Totorak.
Congratulations to Light in the Dark for winning Round 2!
One of the most exciting aspects of the new lighting engine in FFXIV is that it breathed new life into some of the older assets in FFXIV, even without the developers going back and updating those areas to have higher resolution textures or adding additional light sources outright. Video game lighting is a whole specialized field in graphics (trust me, I’ve read enough rants from my old friend Yonder who is now a developer with Sony over something something “voxel cone ray tracing” that is a mixture of English, Japanese, and calculus.)
The challenge this week was to go into an ARR dungeon and try to find one of these spots that we can see with “a fresh set of eyes” – that is, the new graphics engine – and look at them in a way we haven’t been able to before. This round is a background scenery challenge. Here are the entries from our photographers this week!
Click on each image to open it in a new browser window, and then vote for your favorite in the embedded poll at the bottom of this post.
If you are having trouble voting in the embedded poll, please click on this link to open it in a new tab instead: https://forms.gle/p3j6ahRmdNeZoe6B6
There’s always a risk of a tie in an ENTM cycle, and we start out with one from our judges right off the bat.
The first round winners are “Unseelie Storm” and “We Have Scree At Home!” Two very different moods from these different screenshots; literally night and day.
“We Have Scree at Home” was also chosen by the community as their favorite for the week.
Congratulations!
The winning photographers will remain anonymous in the weekly announcements until the contest is over (by their own votes), but after a round is complete, all photographers may choose to reveal their shots on Discord if they want.
Hello my lovelies! It is time for the first round of Scenic Cycle 4 – ENTM’s anonymously judged photography style screenshot cycle.
Each week, our photographers will share their photo on the theme, and then our judges will sort and rank them and provide critiques. We also have community voting just for funsies during this round, but the final winner of Scenic Cycle is done purely by the judges votes since everything is anonymous!
Last week you met the judges and the photographers – so this week let us see their beautiful works! The theme for Round 1 was “New Horizons” inspired by the song lyrics of the Dawntrail teaser cinematic. This round was free style, no restrictions – anywhere in Etherys that the photographer felt inspired by the phrase!
To view each image in a larger size, click on the center of the image. It should open in a new tab in your browser.
After looking at each image, please vote using the embedded Google poll below. Sign in is required to prevent ballot stuffing, but I do not collect email addresses.
If you are having trouble using the embedded poll above, you can instead vote using this link. It should open in a new tab.
We have nine photographers competing in Scenic Cycle 4. Our Scenic cycles are unique in that they are anonymously judges – only Katarh Mest knows which photographer submits each shot each week, and the judges will be judging and ranking each screenshot solely on what is presented.
Community judging will be scored completely separately and will be just for fun.
But we still want to know who decided to throw themselves into the chaotic fire of an ENTM cycle, so here they are!
| Photographer | Server |
| Alastor Izunia | Mateus |
| Netizen James | Balmung |
| Oaken Bookshelf | Mateus |
| Zukira Phaera | Odin |
| Damien Montclair | Odin |
| Oudine Aubemarle | Marilith |
| Escher Strange | Zodiark |
| Hilda Garde | Odin |
| Schan Starfall | Moogle |
We have three permanent judges and three rotating judges this cycle, with a mix of new faces and ENTM veterans! The permanent judges will be judging and scoring each week, while the rotating judges will be popping in and out, for a maximum of two weeks during each of the six week cycle.
Resident Judge Odharnait “Ona” Greene: “Ever walked down a street and had the sun sparkle through the trees. Dappling on your face with twinkles of warmth and hope? Yeah, that’s not Ona. Ona is a hyperactive, chaotic goblin bard who eats too many cheese sticks and drinks Monster like it’s her job.
Hailing from Goblin, Ona is a regular on the ENTM scene. She has never won a cycle, but just like a celebrity was given this honorary title of S-Rank.
She enjoys teaching others how to Gpose and will judge you (obviously referencing cookies while she does it). A song or a poem is Ona’s usual critique style, but occasionally she drinks too much or smokes too much and you get the most unhinged critique.
Irl Ona is a Regional Manager for disability services, a soccer coach, a mom, and exhausted. She is taking her motorcycle test in September and enjoys taking photos for friends and family in her spare time. Ona loves you all!”
(Katarh’s note: Ona forgets she was crowned Monthly Challenge Winner one year, which netted her an S-Rank title.)
Judge Penny Snowflake: Penny is new to judging, but not new to ENTM. She agreed to help out with judging so some of our other veteran judges can hang back as participants for this cycle. She most recently participated in Classic Cycle 13 and she is from Light server.
“Hey Penny, long-time player of FF14! Play time just passed 10,107 hours. I mostly do Gposes for the last 3 years. My last big achievement was getting both Beata and Saint of the Firmament. I look forward to seeing how everyone does in this competition and seeing different skills, ideas, and hearts in the photo.”
Judge Juzelle Apohrae: Juzelle is new to ENTM entirely and will give us a fresh perspective (because we do tend to be very naval-gazey here in ENTM.) She attended art school for industrial design and has a keen eye for both fashion and decoration. Juzelle is from Lamia server.
Two more veteran S-rank participants joined us, and one new face for the judging staff!
Judge Malkovich Malkovich: Malkovichis a previous S-rank winner of our Doubles Cycle along with Neisha Rayne, and 1st runner up of our All Stars Cycle a few years ago. He has been a judge for us many times before, and has graciously agreed to be a rotating judge for Scenic Cycle 4. Malkovich is from Faerie server.
Judge Rymmrael Bhaldraelwyn: In her own words: “1st Runner Up Classic Cycle 10, 1st Runner Up Classic Cycle 12, Winner Runway Cycle 2, The Ghost That Haunts ENTM Discord.” Rymm has been with ENTM for many years, and has also agreed to step in as a rotating judge during this cycle. Rymm is from Lamia server.
Judge Chaton Grincheux: Chat is joining us for the first time as a rotating judge! She’s an avid Gposer and loves photography. (She is also the nicest scholar any warrior could ever want in their raid static.) Chaton is from Lamia server, where she co-leads the Silk free company.
Webmaster Katarh Mest: Katarh returns for another fun cycle of serious photography using a video game engine! Competing since Forum (Classic) Cycle 5, Winner of Runway Cycle 1, and either judging or hosting for nearly every cycle in between, Katarh took over ENTM along with Kai Ulric in 2018 after our beloved founder Rongi Pongi had to step aside to focus on his real life fashion career. (We totally understand and we still miss you Rongi!) Katarh is from Lamia server and is the FC leader of Spin the Ascian.
