Dawntrail character graphics update - opinions, requests and discussion megathread

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Originally Posted by Astronis

Those all look fine to me, with maybe one out of the whole bunch being over-lit. Mostly they've just had that godawful grey overlay that used to make everything look bad removed. The lighting issue a few posts up in the scene after defeating Thordan, now THAT is a radical shift for the worse that needs to be fixed. These though? They're hardly different at all, certainly not enough to affect the plot.

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Hard disagree. The expression differences are subtle, but so are microexpressions in real life, and those are enough to fully change the emotion being displayed by a face. Facial emotes as a whole need another pass, they look wooden in screenshots and alien in motion.

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Originally Posted by noumen0nn

Hard disagree. The expression differences are subtle, but so are microexpressions in real life, and those are enough to fully change the emotion being displayed by a face. Facial emotes as a whole need another pass, they look wooden in screenshots and alien in motion.

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I can damn near guarantee that someone playing FFXIV for the first time is not going to come away from the game thinking the plot is substantially different than you think it is, based on these subtle differences.

(I say substantially, since at the level of microexpressions, one person's interpretation of another's emotion becomes subjective.)

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Originally Posted by Astronis

Those all look fine to me, with maybe one out of the whole bunch being over-lit. Mostly they've just had that godawful grey overlay that used to make everything look bad removed. The lighting issue a few posts up in the scene after defeating Thordan, now THAT is a radical shift for the worse that needs to be fixed. These though? They're hardly different at all, certainly not enough to affect the plot.

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It's not about the lighting and colors here (I agree in most of these the new lighting looks better), it's about the structural changes to the Hyur face model Ardbert uses making his expressions look different and just in general him looking like a different guy. Yeah, new players won't notice or care, but it kind of sucks for players that love going back through the story or their favorite cutscenes to have a character they liked have expressions that are different and just generally look like a stranger to them.

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Originally Posted by CuteBucket

It's not about the lighting and colors here (I agree in most of these the new lighting looks better), it's about the structural changes to the Hyur face model Ardbert uses making his expressions look different and just in general him looking like a different guy. Yeah, new players won't notice or care, but it kind of sucks for players that love going back through the story or their favorite cutscenes to have a character they liked have expressions that are different and just generally look like a stranger to them.

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I understand that and sympathize with people who dislike it, though of course it's subjective. To me they all look like the same characters with higher fidelity graphics. Ardbert looks like Ardbert to me. I've gone back through some of the cutscenes and enjoyed how much better they look with the update. Urianger looks soooo much better now. To me at least!

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Originally Posted by Astronis

I understand that and sympathize with people who dislike it, though of course it's subjective. To me they all look like the same characters with higher fidelity graphics. Ardbert looks like Ardbert to me. I've gone back through some of the cutscenes and enjoyed how much better they look with the update. Urianger looks soooo much better now. To me at least!

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Dunno if it's on purpose or not that you didn't mention Thancred, who does look noticeably different and younger, which actually I think hurts his portrayal. Hard to see him as the worn, emotionally fraught man who's gone through the wringer when he looks fresh-faced and younger than before. His HW face (ninja one) I believe hasn't been changed yet so you can actually see how his face reverses all traumatic change as the expansions go on.

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Originally Posted by Gaddes

Dunno if it's on purpose or not that you didn't mention Thancred, who does look noticeably different and younger, which actually I think hurts his portrayal. Hard to see him as the worn, emotionally fraught man who's gone through the wringer when he looks fresh-faced and younger than before. His HW face (ninja one) I believe hasn't been changed yet so you can actually see how his face reverses all traumatic change as the expansions go on.

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It wasn't on purpose, no. There are a lot of NPCs I didn't mention; I just happened to be struck specifically by how good Urianger looks (especially his eyes, but everyone has much nicer eyes now). TBH, I'm more concerned about Thancred's eye color changing for no given reason after Heavensward, but that doesn't have anything to do with the graphics update. I'd really, really like to know why his white (presumably blind?) eye changed back when Y'shtola's didn't! I did go back and look at HW Thancred and he looks pretty rough, but before and after he doesn't look so different to me that it gives me pause. A little younger, maybe, but that could be chalked up to the shave, bath, and losing the tan. I agree he looks a little different though and can see why that might affect some people's perception of him.

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Originally Posted by Astronis

Those all look fine to me, with maybe one out of the whole bunch being over-lit. Mostly they've just had that godawful grey overlay that used to make everything look bad removed.

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I can't say that I agree with you. Some facial expressions turned out to be quite awkward, like the new version of the Warrior of Darkness when he stares at the red crystal. Sibold's facial expression changed entirely; instead of a stern young man, I see a constantly smiling person, which (imo) distorts the message of the story. Poor Granson just suffers from the issue with smiles we've discussed in this thread a lot.

I can't say that all the new facial expressions are horrible, but they need to be worked on to better convey the main message of a cutscene.

Also, almost all HW cutscenes are overexposed with unnecessary bright character lighting and weird shadows; sometimes it seems like characters are cut from paper and just slapped on the background without interacting with it in any way.

(very mild HW spoilers)

https://i.imgur.com/YMfuPKS.png
Just compare Alphi and Ga Bu. Ga Bu interacts with the environment; they cast shadows and reflect light, but Alphi looks like an apparition.

I've collected many similar screenshots. HW cutscenes leave much to be desired after the graphical update (ARR and SB are better). I assumed they just hadn't been touched by SE designers yet when I was going through the story on my alt about a month ago.

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Originally Posted by Argantaelle

I've collected many similar screenshots. HW cutscenes leave much to be desired after the graphical update (ARR and SB are better). I assumed they just hadn't been touched by SE designers yet when I was going through the story on my alt about a month ago.

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Except that on PS5 :
- 5 ARR Cutscenes have unexplainable FPS drop (the same goes with 3 outpost)
- SB have 2 Cutscenes with unexplainable FPS drops

HW have 0

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Originally Posted by Doopliss

I consider adjusting facial features 10000% more important, but, I just wanted to say that several months later, I still hate the "intentional" way light interacts with a bunch of hairstyles now.

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https://i.imgur.com/uYVQ5cG.png
Awesome. I can't escape this on any character.

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Originally Posted by Gaddes

Dunno if it's on purpose or not that you didn't mention Thancred, who does look noticeably different and younger, which actually I think hurts his portrayal. Hard to see him as the worn, emotionally fraught man who's gone through the wringer when he looks fresh-faced and younger than before. His HW face (ninja one) I believe hasn't been changed yet so you can actually see how his face reverses all traumatic change as the expansions go on.

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If we're talking about Thancred, I strongly suggest that everyone visits the thread dedicated to him where there's so many examples of how he changed. They gave him default Midlander Face 1 when he'd had a custom sculpt since Heavensward and as a Thancred fan it's honestly devastating. I feel like the character I loved has been lost and there's no way to get him back, and I am hoping desperately that they change him. The lips are such a big issue, like with a lot of the player character models, because they're just taken from the default Midlander face.

Any upvotes or replies on that thread are hugely appreciated to help get the issue more widely noticed by the devs.

This is just sad :(

https://i.imgur.com/Z13kxiR.gif

Lip comparison
https://i.imgur.com/co340Tt.gif

Nose/eyes comparison
Note how much narrower his nose becomes!

https://i.imgur.com/TCKlIDk.gif