Final Fantasy 7 Remake has a texture problem. Part of it can be attributed to texture pop-in, which is when a game loads in high-quality textures slowly so objects at first appear muddy only to become high-rez with a pop. Final Fantasy 7 Remake definitely has this problem, but it's more than that. Surprisingly often, textures never seem to pop — they stay as lower resolution textures, and backgrounds especially seem to have these problems.
Twitter user necroalx created a threat detailing why they believe Final Fantasy 7 Remake is struggling with these issues, but the heart of it stems from the technical reasoning for pop-in. Namely, that objects in games typically have multiple textures associated with them. Lower resolution textures can be used at distance or by default until a higher resolution texture is loaded. In so many words, Final Fantasy 7 Remake either isn't loading the higher resolution textures at the right time, it isn't prioritizing the ones the player will see quickly, or there are just too many textures to load and the PS4 can't handle it.
Since the problem seems to be similar on both PS4 and PS4 Pro, it seems much more likely that prioritization and/or timing is the issue and not hardware. This, ideally, means that Final Fantasy 7 Remake could get patched so that the game would do this better. But, as necroalx explains, this isn't typically an easy or even necessarily possible option.
To fix many of the issues, Square Enix would have to log textures that aren't being updated appropriately and individually fix them. Each one would have to have its priorities adjusted so that it loads at the correct time. This could cascade, however, causing other textures not to load or other larger problems. The current pop-in might be the best option.
It's possible that Square Enix is looking at a house of cards with regards to its texture situation. A fix may not be possible, or Square Enix could be working on a solution right now.
Nexcroalx's outlook is that Final Fantasy 7 Remake will hopefully come to PC eventually. At that point, modders will be able to see what the problem is for themselves and will fix what Square Enix may not have had enough time or budget to deal with. In the meantime, he provided a look at Final Fantasy 7 Remake's "VERY HD" backgrounds that some players may never get to see in all their glory.
Final Fantasy 7 Remake is available now on PS4.
