Character graphical changes are NOT in an acceptable state, please make it optional

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Originally Posted by TheDruidOcelot

i mean, they deleted elezen cheekbones and took away keeper miqote fangs, they changed the apparent luminosity of eyes as well, not just the glints, they desaturated the iris colors to look 50% as colorful. like those are ALL HUGE changes that should never have happened. the glints and skin textures wouldn't be so noticeable and abrasive if they didnt also take away all the other stylization from the characters by smoothing everything to an absolute absurd level.

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Funnily, I have the opposite problem with my Viera: her eyes having gone from a deep blue to almost neon! And the eye shape appears to have been changed somewhat too, but that I can live with. We're being given fantasia to change such things as eye colour (which will be the first thing on my list).
However, I appreciate that physicalities of facial features are harder to change as the alternatives available may look worse than the changed version and options are limited.

As I said, there have been changes which I dislike of my own characters and I do agree there are some things which are questionable of why they were changed at all. However, the point remains that this is a very subjective topic and one which some players seem to be taking to extremes. Hopefully a balance can be found which pleases the majority, but for that to be the case, I think some players need to be a little more flexible on accepting some changes. When there's some complaining of 'pores too visible' or even just something as vague as 'lost charm', it's going to be difficult to find a compromise

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Originally Posted by AnnRam

Literally who cares? SE won't rollback the new changes because they know 99% of the player base uses mods/reshades and they endorse it by looking away.

Just wait for the mare lamentorum bunnies to fix everything.

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This is not necessarily true. The Japanese fanbase, for instance, is very adamant about their anti-mod stance and players go so far as to shutting down in-game photo studios if someone with a modded character uses their hashtag. And judging by the responses I'm seeing on twitter, this benchmark has been quite contentious around the globe. The first complaints I saw this morning were from Japanese twitter users. Western, mod-using fans are not the only people who play this game (and even if they were, I still think the integrity of vanilla characters matters.)

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Originally Posted by Scintilla

I'm curious and perhaps you could enlighten me, but where is the line drawn between 'make them better' and 'keep them the same'? Where is the limit? At what point are they no longer the same character?

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Changing the face shape should not have happened at all.

I am actually very happy with how my characters look right now and I don't think changing them was necessary.

What I would expect from an upgrade would be sorting out any issues with pixellation or rough edges, maybe improving the shadows and the way light sometimes behaves oddly.

There should be no change to the character's overall face shape or expression, because that is what gives a character their personality.

If I had the power to set people on graphic updates to the characters and gear, it would be customisation things: hats for Viera and Hrothgar (if there is no actual deep-seated programming issue blocking it) and customising things to better suit individual races: review Miqo'te hats to add earholes or pockets and make sure they actually fit the ears; likewise for Elezen and Lalafell; review hairstyles for each race and adjust them so they make sense – fix things that float off the head, fail to account for non-human ears or have Au Ra growing sideburns directly out of their cheek scales.

As it is, I feel like the character of my characters has been altered, while actual visual issues remain unfixed.

Already posted this in a different thread for screenshots, but we're not happy with it at all. Some of my characters, my friends' characters, and my siblings' characters are drastically changed. Sure some might think they look better, or that it isn't that different, but they're not the same characters we've all played with since 1.0/2.0 and 3.0 (in the case of au ra). So below are some comparisons and comments by the respective players:

https://i.imgur.com/SQQRKDJ.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/3nGkNHr.png
Here SE made the nostrils bigger, the philtrum smaller, the lips no longer have the tubercles, the oral commissure is less pronounced/barely visible, the bridge of the nose has changed entirely, the nostrils are wider and rounder, epicanthal folds were shortened and receded.
He looks soulless, aged, unhappy, like he's had blepharoplasty and rhinoplasty by force at the hands of some Steppe butcher. It's as if all of the characters' happiness and spirit was sucked out of them and shoved into their nostrils.
This is a character my brother helped design before passing away, so I'm especially displeased with how he's so drastically changed. It's not just different textures, his facial structure is affected. He looks similar, yes, but it's not the same character.
Also, his eyelashes are gone.. why?
https://imgsli.com/MjU2MTAw

Here's another picture of the same face, both using nose 6- before and after 7.0's changes.
https://i.imgur.com/YQAij3L.png
Some races have a nose that was taller before and gets noticeably shorter after, or the opposite issue of this image.

https://i.imgur.com/KQAUjyz.png
She doesn't even look like the same character, the lips look completely different, the philtrum is wider and more pronounced, the lips aren't as full and the nose looks more like they went for a Disney look rather than something that fits in the game. The eyes are okay, but the pupils are a bit wider now.. which looks strange if you've gotten used to looking at how they used to look
Her bottom lip seems to lack the "plump" that it used to have, as well.

https://i.imgur.com/fQnhM46.jpeg
This character is meant to be childish and alien looking, made by someone who at the time was a child. She looks like she's been given a redesign to look softer, conventionally attractive, and generally more appealing to men- yet somehow more uncanny and creepy.

Why are the nose shapes changing so much? You can increase the quality of a model without altering its aesthetic to this degree.

Additionally, everything looks washed out. The makeup is less drastic even on the dark settings with saturated colours. There's more shine on skin where it feels weird and oily and the shine from glossy lips has been almost entirely removed.
Certain light hair colours don't look good now;
https://i.imgur.com/xfNoDCa.jpeg

Another example where the shape of the lips and nose were changed rather than upscaled;
https://i.imgur.com/XuXZtyx.png
She's making a 2000s duckface.

This persons' duskwight looks like someone ripped the textures from the other older-looking male elezen face and put them onto the only youthful one
https://i.imgur.com/AQoF0bT.png

These are the *exact* same options on one character, the only difference is the new graphical 'update'. They're not even close to the same.
https://i.imgur.com/VfCM653.png

I know none of this will be amended either prior to or after the release of 7.0, but it's another dissatisfaction drop we've all had among many in the bucket with the direction being taken for FF14 right now.

I posted in another thread, but I figure it won't hurt to post here too. I cannot find the words to describe how bad these changes are. She looks like a completely different person. Every one of her features has lost their definition, her lips are the wrong shape, her eyebrows and eye shadow are weak, I could go on but the pics speak for themselves.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...d7d6e7823143a&https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...78079a086bbc1&

I will say... I get why people are unhappy, but it's really frustrating to see comparisons that don't have matching light conditions.

Sachiko's comparisons are really good, Mara's are not.

It's frustrating because it makes some of the comparisons feel misleading and if I didn't know better, I'd think they were made in bad faith. Many people are posting correct comparisons to talk about their grievances, so why are some people not really bothering to do so? If this is important to you and you want to give the best feedback, take the time to make sure your comparisons are accurate.

Some of you people need glasses. The lighting is not reshaping mouths and noses. The lighting is not sanding down Miqo'te fangs. A ton of parts were completely changed in their design. Trying to say its all just a misunderstanding of lighting is disingenuous, have some standards for once.

I'm noticing I'm having to include a lot more red when picking skin colors to avoid the waxy look, even for darker skin colors. I think this is a result of skin behaving more 'realistically' in DT.

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Originally Posted by DiaDeem

I will say... I get why people are unhappy, but it's really frustrating to see comparisons that don't have matching light conditions.

Sachiko's comparisons are really good, Mara's are not.

It's frustrating because it makes some of the comparisons feel misleading and if I didn't know better, I'd think they were made in bad faith. Many people are posting correct comparisons to talk about their grievances, so why are some people not really bothering to do so? If this is important to you and you want to give the best feedback, take the time to make sure your comparisons are accurate.

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https://i.imgur.com/M70lUgt.png

I posted on another topic but here's my mine with the gamma matching the original. I know for me, my only issue is my eyebrows as I feel they've been thinned out a bit much lol. But yeah, gamma corrections aside, I think some faces had some changes that are a bit offputting for some folks.

Okay. Reading through this thread is a trip and a half because I literally don't know what half of you are talking about...
Black hair is grey? I was literally asking myself why my character (with black hair) had so much darker hair in the bench mark then live game. His hair is PITCH BLACK, so dark I can't even see the detail of it.
Perhaps you should all check the settings you are using the benchmark. Check your gamma. It's probably way off from your game settings. A lot of you would probably be a lot happier if you imported your settings directly from the live game, gamma and all, in regards to the already existing settings.
I also commented about how much more life was in my character's eyes now, and how much more expression he had in the race specific emotes in the creator. Male viera look bored and dead in the live game, but in the benchmark they actually look like they FEEL something.

It's not perfect and yes there are issues with some textures they need to fix. But some of you do really need to take a step back and double check your settings.

90% of the 'my character looks like a different person' I'm seeing, they literally look like the exact same picture, or lighting position is causing all the issues they are pointing out. I get it, you're emotional about your characters, but take a step back, take a deep breath and reallllly look at it and think about it. Some of you, yeah okay... there are rare cases where WTF happened? but most of them are really not that different.