Dawntrail character graphics update - opinions, requests and discussion megathread

They've acknowledged feedback regarding the lighting in housing, but I have yet to see them acknowledge any issues regarding lighting in anything else like character portraits, adventure plates, character equipment, or character lighting in the environments. I hope they take a look at everyone's feedback regarding our characters and the way they look even more different with the new lighting not just the changes they made to our faces. I miss my old character, but I'd be okay if they just fixed the lighting so she looks as I want her to in character creation. Giving everyone a free fantasia is great and all, but it's not going to fix anything when the lighting is so awful to A LOT of our characters...

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Originally Posted by Moonfallen

They've acknowledged feedback regarding the lighting in housing,

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If they fix the lighting in housing then it might fix the lighting in other areas. The lighting in the game works with shadow- and normal maps. If they screw those maps up then it will look bad everywhere.




Cheers

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Larirawiel

If they fix the lighting in housing then it might fix the lighting in other areas. The lighting in the game works with shadow- and normal maps. If they screw those maps up then it will look bad everywhere.




Cheers

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I honestly hope so.

I wrote about my impressions of the Aura male before.

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Originally Posted by Kartoshka

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I decided to show a slightly tweaked version to better illustrate the difference.
https://i.imgur.com/qaypltb.gif
https://i.imgur.com/CPxCycx.gif
What changes were made:
- Smoother shadow on nose bridge
- Narrower and slightly lowered nostrils
- Old eyebrows and eyelashes
- Lighter sclera on eyes
- Corners of mouth

Also, all the facial expressions with furrowed brows look very unnatural in my opinion. I feel like nose becomes shorter. Because of this, when my character furrows his brows, he looks very angry and ready for a fight, even during a conversation with a friendly NPC.
https://i.imgur.com/f0bvLiu.jpeghttps://i.imgur.com/Ko1w5dE.jpeg

The more screenshots I see, with some people saying their characters have lifeless eyes, the more I feel convinced that we didn't need more white catchlights over the eye but instead needed bits of lightened color in the iris.
Some races more than others were affected by dulled/darker eyes, Miqo'te I feel being a big example. But extra white catchlights over an already dull eyecolor don't improve the appearance.

(The new lack of colored iris highlights may all just be connected to the bugs of lighting putting lines on the iris/the grey film over eyes, though)

I’m not typically a forum poster, but after reading (skimming) all 59 pages I felt there wasn’t nearly enough mention of Au Ra limbal rings. So, here’s my feedback:

Above is a crop of a goose I took at some point before the update. Below is what I compromised on after burning the free fantasia and finally giving up on the new rings.

https://i.imgur.com/7bxYVgR.jpeg

And here’s my journey as to why I simply gave up on limbal rings (one of Au Ras’ defining features).

The ring is now a gradient that overlays the eye, going from opaque at the outside and fading to transparent. Previously it was a hard edged ring.

https://i.imgur.com/7yL4LoM.jpeg

Given the changes in the iris and pupil, losing a bit of gloss in the update, adding this extra hazy overlay only makes the eye that much more lifeless.

I was going to simply deal with that until I got into low light situations what I found the rings now have a demonic emissive glow!

https://i.imgur.com/uk9qEHg.jpeg

I had already used my free fantasia to lighten her overall eye color to try to get back to pre-7.0 vibes, but when I could finally no longer stand the glowing eyes, I bought a fantasia and I’m now a very saddened Miqo. I miss my Au Ra, but her eyes were her window to her soul, and they’re shattered now. If I’m going to play a character I don’t recognize, I might as well play one that doesn’t leave me with bitterness and longing for days gone by…

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Originally Posted by sweetchort

Hey o/

It's just me or female Miqo'te eyes don't look at the same direction ? Didn't notice it before 7.0 but now i can't unsee it... It's look more noticable on moon Miqo'te.

I already post a bug report on french forums but they move it to "Working as Intended" ^^'

Did you know if there is any way to ask devs for a patch ? I don't wan't to fantasia my character but i don't wan't to see her like that !

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My Miqo'te is male, but he also has some trouble focusing his eyes after the update. Sometimes he's a little cross-eyed, and sometimes he just stops looking at shorter NPCs:

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

There have been a lot of posts about Miqo'te eyes. Problems with lighting, Seeker pupil shapes, colours, shadows, eye shapes in general, and apparently with animations/focus too. It definitely doesn't sound like "working as intended". However, there have been so many complaints about changes to all races that I think it'll take a while before the devs acknowledge any of it.

After seeing a similar expression in the cutscene (and seeing others bringing up expressions) I decided to take a closer look in /gpose and:

(uhhh sorry for phone camera thingie, I'm not sure how to record straight from the game xD)

https://i.imgur.com/5JkXnru.gif

With /scoff the inner eye corner straight up MOVES! Was it always like that?

Not sure if this is a bug or something, but it makes the eyes feel like they're rotating (and it's kinda unsettling).

I don't recall /smile and /grin from before very well, but included a similar expression from EW benchmark for overall comparison:

https://i.imgur.com/0i0nNwp.png

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Cheapshot

https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...97#post6514897

I filed it as a bug report in hopes they consider it a mistake and return "none" to having no gloss. I only have my one character though so I can't show any before and after of lips for different races.

If anyone else would like to reply to that thread and let them know if Dawntrail gave you permanent lip un-togglable gloss, that would be helpful.

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Unfortunately the thread is closed.

Another detailed comparison:
https://i.imgur.com/cb5E5bM.png

The lips have a permanent gloss, even without lipstick (clearly visible on the lower lip). In my opinion, "None" means none and not glossy.

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Originally Posted by Mr_Gucky

Unfortunately the thread is closed.

Another detailed comparison:
https://i.imgur.com/cb5E5bM.png

The lips have a permanent gloss, even without lipstick (clearly visible on the lower lip). In my opinion, "None" means none and not glossy.

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I understand the logic behind the base gloss, since real lips do have a natural shine, due to the different skin texture. But I don't see the harm in making this toggleable.

I'd also love a matte lip color option that doesn't essentially stack gloss effects with the base, at least for those races that include that (my miqo'te's lips are quite glossy, but my male au ra already has virtually none, even with lip color in use). They've already done a lot to reduce the shininess for what I feel is the better, but it's still a little too intense for my tastes under certain lighting conditions.

I would never ask to remove gloss altogether, because I know some of us love it, and there was already a lot of concern that lip color had become too matte with the first DT benchmark. But for those of us who are maybe not going for a "my character is wearing lipstick/gloss" look (I use it, personally, to compensate for a lack of natural pigmentation), and in the interest of providing more customization, I think this would be a great addition.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by antylamon

With /scoff the inner eye corner straight up MOVES! Was it always like that?

Not sure if this is a bug or something, but it makes the eyes feel like they're rotating (and it's kinda unsettling).

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I think I caught that during one of the VPR quests. I wasn't sure what I was seeing and thought I imagined it.

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Originally Posted by Lnemoh

Posting this here as well - the lip indent that came with the 7.0 update on Miqo F - Keeper of the moon characters, Face 4, is way too pronounced. It makes my character look old whenever she has direct light on her face. This was not the case before 7.0. The entire mouth area has some really weird shading to be honest, but the lip indentations are the worst.

https://i.imgur.com/YplrPDk.jpg

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Hey, I saw your bug report thread was closed like mine was for insufficient information. You'll probably have to add the system info printout that you can get from the launcher or they'll keep discarding it. I hope you remake the report because I'm really dissatisfied with Face 4's mouth across the board and desperately want them to fix it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mr_Gucky

Unfortunately the thread is closed.

Another detailed comparison:
https://i.imgur.com/cb5E5bM.png

The lips have a permanent gloss, even without lipstick (clearly visible on the lower lip). In my opinion, "None" means none and not glossy.

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Yeah, frustrating. I remade it with hopefully what they wanted. I'd love it if you added your screenshot and info in there too. It really helps get this stuff acknowledged.

https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...bles-lip-gloss

^For anyone it concerns: Go here and let them know if selecting "none" for lip colour now forces you to have lip gloss in Dawntrail when it used to give us a matte lip in Endwalker and prior.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Cheapshot

Hey, I saw your bug report thread was closed like mine was for insufficient information. You'll probably have to add the system info printout that you can get from the launcher or they'll keep discarding it. I hope you remake the report because I'm really dissatisfied with Face 4's mouth across the board and desperately want them to fix it.

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I remade it with all the info, and they flagged it as "unable to verify". Honestly kinda weird, it takes a few minutes to check under different lighting scenarios - then again, It's not really a "bug" per say, more like a consequence of an inadequate mesh. So I'm hoping by posting it both here and in the Japanese discussion forums this gets noticed. In my opinion, it is the most noticeable and egregious of the issues with the face at the moment - it really makes it ugly.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Lnemoh

Posting this here as well - the lip indent that came with the 7.0 update on Miqo F - Keeper of the moon characters, Face 4, is way too pronounced. It makes my character look old whenever she has direct light on her face. This was not the case before 7.0. The entire mouth area has some really weird shading to be honest, but the lip indentations are the worst.

https://i.imgur.com/YplrPDk.jpg

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if you want here are some up close pictures showing the lip gap on various expressions: link

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Originally Posted by Neviklink

if you want here are some up close pictures showing the lip gap on various expressions: link

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Your character is really pretty! And yeah, its visible - just hard to discern under flat lighting. Feel free to take some screenshots facing the light and share them here. I don't think they will accept this as a bug, so may as well leave as much feedback on this as we can.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Lnemoh

Your character is really pretty! And yeah, its visible - just hard to discern under flat lighting. Feel free to take some screenshots facing the light and share them here. I don't think they will accept this as a bug, so may as well leave as much feedback on this as we can.

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There so many things I'd like to submit as bugs but I just don't have the time or energy anymore. I already made that huge summary from a few pages ago but there's stuff I didn't even catch. Like for instance, check these out:

Here's what the hair lighting looks like in the CC. Lovely!
https://i.imgur.com/JhWGviA.png
Here's what it looks like in the actual game..
https://i.imgur.com/ia2RMSe.pnghttps://i.imgur.com/aNB5mrL.png
Did they get some values flipped or something? I've been noticing the back of hair strands turn nearly black in sunlight.

Here's my character, and here's my characters hair when under a gpose light source
https://i.imgur.com/CiIBZGe.png
Phosphorescent hair!

But the thing that's bothering me the most is this
https://i.imgur.com/8v5Acts.png
The drawn on super dark shadow on our lower lip that doesn't even make sense for the shape of the shadow to be like that. It also is there no matter what direction the light is. It looks awful. I bet they would reject it though and say "working as intended".

It's exasperating. This graphical update feels so unfinished. I wish they'd taken more time on it and held off if it wasn't ready.

So my portrait has finally updated and I think even this tiny image shows why my character is ruined to me. Her eyebrows are just... gone. They were gone in both the first and second benchmarks and despite being gaslit by forum trolls about how my character was "better" I wanted this mistake fixed and gave feedback both times. Still they shipped it like this.

Before and after
https://i.postimg.cc/qvHyKvPD/Pre-update-portrait.jpghttps://i.postimg.cc/fR7XfhZz/Post-u...it-resized.jpg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Reinha

So my portrait has finally updated and I think even this tiny image shows why my character is ruined to me. Her eyebrows are just... gone. They were gone in both the first and second benchmarks and despite being gaslit by forum trolls about how my character was "better" I wanted this mistake fixed and gave feedback both times. Still they shipped it like this.

Before and after
https://i.postimg.cc/qvHyKvPD/Pre-update-portrait.jpghttps://i.postimg.cc/fR7XfhZz/Post-u...it-resized.jpg

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My character uses Duskwight face 3 and he now looks like a heroin addict. People who play male Duskwight face 3 have an entirely new texture on their face (massive black bags) that was not there before. This is a facial feature of the other Elezen clan, but was not part of the Duskwight’s face graphics from 1.0 to EW. I was sure it was going to be fixed during the graphics iterations, but here we are. So, I feel your pain.

I am genuinely happy some people love their character changes. However, my character looks completely different. It’s not a contour or shape change on my character’s face, it’s an entirely new (incorrect) texture. I haven’t logged into the game since I saw it.

Devs, please fix our faces!

I just wanted to come in and chime in how I was getting along with my updated character since I posted earlier in the expansion. I still hate it. I used to look at my character's face all the time and smile b/c she was so pretty and now she looks horrible. No offense to those that enjoy your faces, but even when I look around I think it looks like a totally different game. The artstyle is totally different.

My personal biggest issue is due to how smoothed out all of the harsher shadows that created natural outlines on her face before, my female viera's face looks so incredibly puffy. Her lips are small, the distance between her lips and chin is huge, her eyes don't take up as much space and looks like her face (cheeks, jaw, chin) are swallowing all of her features - tiny face massive head.

I went into the character creator thinking I'd just make an all new bun, and literally they all have this problem. This huge puffy face with no harsh shadows to outline their features and instead just this massive puffy smooth cheeks. The face my character uses is Viera Veena face 3.

It sucks. I don't care how dramatic I'm being, that character was a massive reason why I enjoyed this game. I looked forward to Viera since Yoshi took over, sent a survey out over 10yrs ago with Viera as an example of one of their options. I was so happy for years with her since shadowbringers and I hate it. I don't want to play any of the other races, they don't hold a candle to the viera I had.

Between this and the MSQ I'm just at a loss to play this game. There are many races that ended up with great glow-ups but my Viera wasn't one of them.

[EDIT] I just wanted to add, I really wish they had just updated the armor / environment and not touched our characters beside maybe updating skin textures / hair textures a bit. The world looks great and armor looks incredible when I can notice the difference, but gah I wish they had just left our characters alone. There's no fixing this that I can think of. No amount of adjustments. It's just going to make the people that like it mad and I don't think they could come up with something better than what I had in the previous graphics.

I can't edit or add comments to this bug report about iris pattern shading issues since it's still in the Approved Bugs list and pending review, but I wanted to add that:
1. This issue still exists after the official Dawntrail release.
2. After looking at other races' eyes in direct lighting, all characters seem to have the same issue. It's just easier to notice on races with big eyes.
It's like the lines that make up the lower pattern of the iris are read wrong by lighting? The intensity of the off-color lines changes with the angle your character is turned under the light, too, so it looks like maybe those little iris patterns were given their own shadows.

In Ul'dah at daytime with shadows over eyes, with one gold and one silver (RGB: 179, 179, 179) eye
https://i.imgur.com/QXpn2pL.png

vs daytime with light shining on at least the silver eye
https://i.imgur.com/LPg9Sit.png

https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...bles-lip-gloss

This time instead of rejecting it for insufficient information, they kicked it away into “not a bug report” category. What does that even mean?!? Im so exasperated! are they saying that lip gloss being permanent and “light” looking identical to “none” isn’t a bug??? Even though “none” used to disable lip gloss? But they didn’t send it to “working as intended”? With zero feedback what am I supposed to do? What does this even mean?

I’m so sick of trying my best to be constructive and putting in days of work because I care about this game so much and I want my enjoyment of it back! I don’t want to be just another poster trashing the game without being useful, there’s more than enough of those, but this just sucks. This graphics update has been terrible.

Edit: can someone else report this bug? I just have zero clue what they want from me so maybe someone else will have better luck.

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Originally Posted by Cheapshot

can someone else report this bug? I just have zero clue what they want from me so maybe someone else will have better luck.

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In general, I suspect the key thing that gets reports rejected is when people remove the sort of table at the top where you fill out date / time / character / NPC / housing stuff. Even if it's all irrelevant, just leave it there and write "n/a" or "none" in the fields before explaining yourself below. They're certainly more picky about it than about filling in the PC/console info below.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Iscah

In general, I suspect the key thing that gets reports rejected is when people remove the sort of table at the top where you fill out date / time / character / NPC / housing stuff. Even if it's all irrelevant, just leave it there and write "n/a" or "none" in the fields before explaining yourself below. They're certainly more picky about it than about filling in the PC/console info below.

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I mean I looked through all the accepted reports and I have just as much of that form filled out as most of those. More than some of them even! I don’t know what leaving in “retainer:” would change. And plus it wasn’t rejected for missing information this time, it was sent to “not a bug report”, which I don’t even understand why or what that means instead of “working as intended”. I checked the description of the section and I’m still confused.

Hello and happy Dawntrail! I've been having so much fun in game with all the new characters and cultures - I'm in love! Unfortunately, my miqote is still a major distraction when it comes to cutscenes and just general walking around. Sorry if this is a little disorganized!
https://i.imgur.com/9ccPCVS.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/AvZcwD8.jpg
Eye 3
Still too round. The sharpness of eyes 3 has been rounded out and lost it's personality.
The color is dull, and while I changed my settings to be more saturated, they still are a lot darker than pre Dawntrail. They lack life in a lot of scenes, and are so dark most of the time. I tried to show the colors interacting with each other in my graphic and how there is a lack of high contrast in comparison to before.
Not only that, but I noticed that the pupil is slightly shorter than it was before and more round. This causes my miqote eyes to not look very cat-like anymore - they look almost similar to a Keeper of the Moon or just any eye without a fierce look. Due to the dullness, the lack of contrast, and shading, the eyes are a huge distraction to me.
The eye whites being so bright and blue toned are also unnatural.

Eyebrow 4: Too thin, I picked this eyebrow for it's thickness and angle and both of those are gone. Especially in cut scenes, it's very noticeable. I miss my cat's thick eyebrows!

Lips: The color is too unnatural. I have to put on a brown/orange lipstick on my character so it isn't distracting during cut scenes. I still would prefer if there wasn't such a smile in comparison to the other faces, but it looks much better than benchmark.

Edited Photo:
Eyebrows, Eye Shape, Eye Lashes, and Lips reverted.
More natural and cohesive colors on lips + less shine.
Eye pupil is thinner and longer.
Eye Color is brightened and lighter (as it was before.)
Shading on upper iris is darkened.
Hair darkened/desaturated.

https://i.ibb.co/mz5s797/hyur3.png
A small collage of my midlander face 3. She used to have a babyface, glossy pouty lips and doe eyes. The update removed : my round upper lip, the lip liner who got with it, my thick black eyelashes, and the single white dot light reflection in my eyes. All my signature presets got erased. They removed the anime touch in favor of more realism and it ruined my girl.

I tried to be cool about it and gave it time, but I'm still deeply disappointed. I hate how marked her eyesockets(?) are, how prominent her nose look like, and how far apart her eyes seems to be now. Plus, I have mixed feelings about her skin. I like how vibrant it is on her body, but don't like how it operates on her face, since I prefer matte finish. I wish they had given us the option via a cursor to choose a more matte or glossy finish. Heck, i wish they had simply added those "improved" presets plus a finish cursor in the create-a-character and offer us a free fantasia to try them.

ps: im french, but posted it here in hope to be noticed by SE. Im a new player, and dont know if european voices are often heard or not.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Cheapshot

https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...bles-lip-gloss

This time instead of rejecting it for insufficient information, they kicked it away into “not a bug report” category. What does that even mean?!? Im so exasperated! are they saying that lip gloss being permanent and “light” looking identical to “none” isn’t a bug??? Even though “none” used to disable lip gloss? But they didn’t send it to “working as intended”? With zero feedback what am I supposed to do? What does this even mean?

I’m so sick of trying my best to be constructive and putting in days of work because I care about this game so much and I want my enjoyment of it back! I don’t want to be just another poster trashing the game without being useful, there’s more than enough of those, but this just sucks. This graphics update has been terrible.

Edit: can someone else report this bug? I just have zero clue what they want from me so maybe someone else will have better luck.

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This got lost in the sauce due to how much discussion's around this topic, but it was mentioned in here and in the JP thread before: the Lalafell "dolphin teeth" issue was categorized as "Not a Bug Report" in the JP forums before getting fixed, too.

If you look at the stickied thread on the "Not a Bug Report" section, it'll explain that it holds reports that are also other types of issues...though, admittedly, not in a very in-depth or helpful way.

I assume that it's at least better than going into "Working as Intended," which feels like more of a death sentence, given what the stickied thread there explains, lol.

I've been speculating that certain changes that go into "Not a Bug Report" were done intentionally, but didn't have the intended result, if that makes sense. They did mention in the NA fanfest, after all, that they did add more shine to everyone's lips on purpose, but now more and more people are finding out it looks off.

The issue I reported with female Highlander makeup and dark hair against dark skin went to "Not a Bug Report" too, but it looks so bad compared to before that even my friends with less care for detail think it looks like a downgrade. So I'm hoping these are things they'll still readjust, like the Lalafell teeth issue.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MeiraStarborne

I’m not typically a forum poster, but after reading (skimming) all 59 pages I felt there wasn’t nearly enough mention of Au Ra limbal rings. So, here’s my feedback:

Above is a crop of a goose I took at some point before the update. Below is what I compromised on after burning the free fantasia and finally giving up on the new rings.

https://i.imgur.com/7bxYVgR.jpeg

And here’s my journey as to why I simply gave up on limbal rings (one of Au Ras’ defining features).

The ring is now a gradient that overlays the eye, going from opaque at the outside and fading to transparent. Previously it was a hard edged ring.

https://i.imgur.com/7yL4LoM.jpeg

Given the changes in the iris and pupil, losing a bit of gloss in the update, adding this extra hazy overlay only makes the eye that much more lifeless.

I was going to simply deal with that until I got into low light situations what I found the rings now have a demonic emissive glow!

https://i.imgur.com/uk9qEHg.jpeg

I had already used my free fantasia to lighten her overall eye color to try to get back to pre-7.0 vibes, but when I could finally no longer stand the glowing eyes, I bought a fantasia and I’m now a very saddened Miqo. I miss my Au Ra, but her eyes were her window to her soul, and they’re shattered now. If I’m going to play a character I don’t recognize, I might as well play one that doesn’t leave me with bitterness and longing for days gone by…

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Thank you so so much for this. I thought I was going crazy and I was the only one seeing it, nearly no one talks about this.
Literally what you said, Limba makes the eyes lifeless during daytime lightning while a demonic-glow appears during night.

What bothered me the most is the vast inconsistency between how the eyes with Limba rings look during Day and Night

Hi all,

I have encountered issues with Dllss and overall quality graphics update.
My system is good to run this on max, but max graphics making this worse.
Here is image below for your interest, hope this gets fixed soon.

https://imgur.com/a/JyxfjoP

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Holt9

Hi all,

I have encountered issues with Dllss and overall quality graphics update.
My system is good to run this on max, but max graphics making this worse.
Here is image below for your interest, hope this gets fixed soon.

https://imgur.com/a/JyxfjoP

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The game stops camera jitter during cutscenes, which breaks DLSS.

Howdy all. First time I've ever used these forums. I play on PS5 for reference but I figured I'd post my Duskwight Elezen fella cause the changes to him are pretty drastic and I'm wondering what happened...
I wasn't able to grab many before pics as IRL got in the way and when I got back the update was in progress. I never got to see him in the benchmark being a PS5 player. I managed to scrape together a before and after image and gif using his old and new Bard portrait which shows exactly how bad it is.

Black Cloak is his Endwalker graphics, Red Cloak is his Dawntrail Graphics.
https://i.imgur.com/Yg9aPXM.png
https://i.imgur.com/DOSUPuJ.gif

I used Face 2, Jaw 4, Eyes 3, Eyebrows 4, Nose 4, Mouth 1, and Ear Shape 1.

From what I can personally see his cheekbones have been lessened by a lot, while his lower jaw is larger between the ear and the chin, his eyebrows seem to have changed shape and placement, his lips almost always look like he's tiredly smiling now (when he isn't using his annoyed emote), his eyes have changed shape drastically (he always had a annoyed emote in his portraits cause that's his usual mood), and gotten bigger with very dark under eye bags, and his skin is very waxy/wet in appearance.
His nose is the least changed from what I can tell and I can live with that but the rest of all this changes him so much that I've been completely unable to play him. Tried several different combos of facial parts and nothing works.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FateweaverAlpha

snip

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It was nice that you combined the two images. Most of what you've been describing are not changes in shape or size, but in shading - in lighting itself. I can literally put my thumb to the upper and lower portion of your eyes and note that there is no change. Same with the contour and length of the jaw.

I have to say that the lips of the original have more of a "smile" to them than the new version. Most of that is due to lack of shading on the face of the original.

I've noticed a certain sheen to the skin of my own avatar (who has pretty close to the skin coloring of your avatar). Under most circumstances, the sheen is not there. It's definitely not the sheen we get with wet skin though I've yet to determine what lighting is necessary to produce it.

It may take a bit of time to get used to the changes. Or not. I haven't used a Fantasia on my avatar since he was created nearly 10 years ago (anniversary coming up this fall). Based on other MMORPGs I've played with graphics changes, WoW Cataclysm comes to mind, I know I'll grow used to any changes in the next two to three months. I'm sorrowed that your avatar, who I consider good-looking in both incarnations, has become a cause of dissatisfaction.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by pompompom

https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/my8xc5mn6k4.png

Her face feels completely different to me! I used a fantasia to switch to Viera, but it's just not the same. I miss my wonderful highlander girl.

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I tried to make some comparison photos. I couldn't replicate everything 1:1, because I already used the fantasia to switch to Viera, so I made an alt with the highlander face.
https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/d7ogc6nnqky.png
These are the 7.0 graphics.

https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/j7kzck33367.png
These are 6.x graphics. I wish the images were a bit more HQ, but I was playing on a PS4 in those days, so they'll have to do.

The biggest difference I can see is that my wol's nose now looks smaller. The length of her philtrum looks longer. It's not flattering.
In the older graphics, she had slightly dark shadows under eyes - and it looked great! I loved those shadows. In the new graphics, it looks like she applied way too much concealer, and in a color that's way too light. The shadows added a lot of dimension to her face.
I wish I could be more specific, but finally, the new graphics make my wol look younger and softer. Which isn't really what I wanted when I chose to play a highlander, you know? She used to be beautiful, mature, kind of scary. And now she looks like a callow high school girl. Like she's been replaced by a much younger sister.

Also, this is my subjective opinion, but I preferred it when she looked dead-eyed. The sparkles are a bit too much.

I hope these comparison pictures explain why the graphic update hasn't been great for me.

I love how my roe turned out, but my elezen alt feels so rough...
Her lips used to be more defined and glossy, her expression was more pronounced, her skin looked beautiful and her nose was cute
The new lips are less defined and juicy, she barely emotes, the skin looks off and her nose grew twice in size
Old:
https://lds-img.finalfantasyxiv.com/...7f791eba02.png
New:
https://lds-img.finalfantasyxiv.com/...56bbb4ced0.png

Fem elezen in general feel much less expressive, for example look at /smile:
https://lds-img.finalfantasyxiv.com/...c522567f18.png
and compare it to a straight face:
https://lds-img.finalfantasyxiv.com/...cb13a715fa.png
Why is she wincing and not smiling? It's so bizarre...

I don't know what went wrong during the yassification process, but to say I am disappointed is to say nothing
How did your fem elezen weather the update?

Besides the animations for emotes being slightly different, I noticed that the run and sprint animation for F miqo'te is also slightly different than before. It was bothering me for a bit and I couldn't quite put my finger on it until I started to watch my character run and sprint more closely. The animation is slightly different/off than what it was in EW.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Holt9

Hi all,

I have encountered issues with Dllss and overall quality graphics update.
My system is good to run this on max, but max graphics making this worse.
Here is image below for your interest, hope this gets fixed soon.

https://imgur.com/a/JyxfjoP

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I am having the same issue with my RTX 3060 on max

Thanks for making me feel that I have not lost my mind

This reminds me of when WoW updated their character models and people whined and whined, and nothing was ever done about it and they moved on.

I'm sorry people but they aren't going to revert the graphics engine update because your eyebrows look slightly different and your ear textures were improved.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mouthbone

Why is she wincing and not smiling? It's so bizarre...

I don't know what went wrong during the yassification process, but to say I am disappointed is to say nothing
How did your fem elezen weather the update?

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Funny how your tune has changed now that one of *your* characters were affected
What happened to "faithful adaptations" and not being able to tell a difference?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Brian25

This reminds me of when WoW updated their character models and people whined and whined, and nothing was ever done about it and they moved on.

I'm sorry people but they aren't going to revert the graphics engine update because your eyebrows look slightly different and your ear textures were improved.

---

The devs have already communicated that they're still making changes based on feedback, post-launch. Will they roll back or give us some of kind of toggle? I sincerely doubt that. Will everyone's concerns be addressed? Probably not. But the point of much of the feedback here is just to communicate where and how we'd like to see any future changes implemented, and raise visibility. That's how this works.

so my actual only issue with the graphical update is with the au ra racial hairs. i've been using this shorter hair that's meant for xaelas and it's so pretty but the like horn thing textures were completely untouched which sucks.

https://i.imgur.com/vQf75qv.png

i think it would be a good idea to either remove these horn things or make variants without them so there isn't the two horn colors going on. at the very least the textures should be brought in line with the actual horn textures.

here's a picture with more of my character's horns in shot just in case it wasn't apparent how stark the texture differences are:

https://i.imgur.com/9wdNyU2.png

My FC members are saying that they turned off DLSS and switched to AMD and that fixed the issue for now