Dawntrail character graphics update - opinions, requests and discussion megathread

I really can't get past the login screen. Why did they give this task to people who clearly didn't care?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by HawkeScream

Good:
The large nose issue from second benchmark is SIGNIFICANTLY better, so thank you so much for that. Pupil size also looks like it was adjusted and looks perfect to me.

Issues:
Eye shape is still off due to the change in shape to the eyeliner/upper lash line. The bottom lashes are very smudgy and undefined.
Lip shape is still quite off. The cupid's bow area has more defined peaks and the bottom lip is thicker.
DT version feels younger looking to me, like her face is more round in the jawline and chin area and a little more puffy.
Eyebrows are too light.

Of all the things at the moment, I think the change in eye shape/perceived eye shape bothers me the most and makes her feel the most different, and if I could only get one more thing adjusted before devs decided they were done fussing with it, it would be that. I could live with that. Thank you very much for continuing to consider feedback. I'll try to do a draw-over in the near future and add it to the post.

(left is DT, right is EW
https://i.imgur.com/3IwPu4m.jpeg

(left is benchmark 2.0, right is EW character creator)
https://i.imgur.com/KJqK60Q.jpeg

---

Something is too basic with the normal map play Square Enix did for the character, i would have imagined they would have played with emissive and subsurface scattering to accomplish a more stylistic/ artsy look then just going for plain old mild normal map use for face structure without helping the shape with a play of subsurface and emissives scaling even if a little gentle mix of it... Kinda disappointing for how basic they went with this.

Are the fem aura the only ones who have now lifeless, soulless eyes?...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Riavell

Are the fem aura the only ones who have now lifeless, soulless eyes?...

---

Femroes arguably, at least among those of us who preferred their colored pupils. https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...-Roegadyn-Eyes

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Riavell

Are the fem aura the only ones who have now lifeless, soulless eyes?...

---

Male Mi'qote too.

it's kinda like that episode of spongebob where sandy dares spongebob, patrick, mr. krabs and squidward to go on land for 1 minute and all their appearances changed.. except the only reaction is the one for squidward

from what I see so far

the good:
Environments are looking really pretty at max setting

I think my characters skintone was adjusted between the benchmark and the live game. I like it in game so yay!

the bad:
Tanned characters are looking a little greasy with the lighting update. Even in some night scenes my character's eyebrow and nose bridges seem to glow. I think viera's nose shading kinda makes this more prominent? It doesn't look too bad on Erenville because he's so dark you can't really see his "bunny nose", but my main is more in the medium brown rava range so its more noticeable

From "I hate you all" to "Please let me leave".
https://i.imgur.com/whzJj91.png

The irises in general are much less defined and you can hardly see your pupil. Making the sun-cat option kind of redundant since you won't notice the cat eyes.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by BeoCat

How are people disappointed in a literal model improvement? They increased the polygon of the models so that your character does no longer look like he came from a 2007 game and you still whine... I swear to god attachment bias has made people blind.

---

Brother, are you blind or are you unable to see that he has completely different eyebrows now? If you read my post, you could see that I was disappointed with the eyebrows, specifically, not the rest of the face. A tapered eyebrow is very, very different from a thick at the end eyebrow, right now he looks aggressive rather than neutral. I specifically picked the eyebrows I did because I greatly dislike thick at the end eyebrows.

Is this too difficult to understand? If you are happy with your character, that's great. However, coming in here and not reading, then telling people that it's an "improvement" is rather uncalled for.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Riavell

Are the fem aura the only ones who have now lifeless, soulless eyes?...

---

Mviera too

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Argantaelle

It's kind of hilarious that the graphical update has given my [Au Ra] character a second pair of eyebrows :D

---

Interesting thing with that, because I suspect it might be one of the things that was there but invisible before the update, or at least I was getting that impression when I was trying to make sense of the cast shadows on face 3.

The "old man" face 4 actually does have a double eyebrow with two swooping lines of eyebrow hairs if you have the "thicker eyebrows" option switched on, so I suspect that the other faces might have the same structure but with more conventional eyebrows only running along the first ridge and not the outer part.

That said, I feel like the original faces have a number of structural parts that we aren't really supposed to notice. If the artists intended for them to stand out with shadows on them, they would have manually added shadow there.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by GrizzlyTank

From "I hate you all" to "Please let me leave".
https://i.imgur.com/whzJj91.png

The irises in general are much less defined and you can hardly see your pupil. Making the sun-cat option kind of redundant since you won't notice the cat eyes.

---

It looks like your character has a completely different personality :/

I made a thread mainly regards to face expression changes
https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...58#post6502558

I also see that in some au-ra and hyur faces pupils got bigger for no reason...eyebrows also changed in thickness and expressions. some lips are wider or thinner. I honestly don't understand, this has nothing to be with better graphic resolution...

https://i.ibb.co/S75jMRC/Final-Fanta...1-23-12-07.jpg

Long hair is as stiff as a board and does move any.

Why can I go to a country where the hrothgar have a high visibility and population but they can't wear all the hats that their vendors give out?

i just hate this fanbase lol. I feel like they destroyed all the good stuff about this graphic update. The first pictures of the graphic update that was released in january looked AMAZING, and i feel like the the release looks nothing like those pictures because of the stupid feedback that was given by this giant crybaby fanbase.

Sadly disappointed with nothing having changed from the feedback and I'm going to submit a bug for the lower eye lids because they are just wrong and catching the light wrong and distracting ways.

That said.
I would really love the EW options for the lines of the face and mouth 3 available as it originally was. In addition to smaller pupils so the iris color shows more.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Rikizza

i just hate this fanbase lol. I feel like they destroyed all the good stuff about this graphic update. The first pictures of the graphic update that was released in january looked AMAZING, and i feel like the the release looks nothing like those pictures because of the stupid feedback that was given by this giant crybaby fanbase.

---

If you've been paying attention at all, the negative feedback didn't start with the previews in February. They primarily started with the first benchmark, which not only looked nothing like the previews, but was objectively poor quality and full of bugs. Don't blame us for giving genuine feedback, blame the devs for doing a poor job.

Also... Jandelaine is really angry since the update, for some reason... it looks even scary :eek:

https://i.ibb.co/TLPr7yw/Final-Fanta...1-46-27-46.png
https://i.ibb.co/kDzBqBt/Final-Fanta...1-45-20-68.png

Hair has lost a TON of its luster and now looks really inconsistent between various lighting scenarios. Easily noticeable just by pulling the Character window next to your character standing in the world. Another disappointing bit.

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

I really got no words for this. I do not recognize my WoL anymore. It's like a different person almost, as others have mentioned. Hopefully things can improve in the future, but as of right now I'm quite dissapointed in this.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Rikizza

i just hate this fanbase lol. I feel like they destroyed all the good stuff about this graphic update. The first pictures of the graphic update that was released in january looked AMAZING, and i feel like the the release looks nothing like those pictures because of the stupid feedback that was given by this giant crybaby fanbase.

---

Who would have thought that people aren't to fond of what should have been a shader and texture update became a model replacement and a general change in art-style.

They really messed up F Au Ra on this one.

Idk if im over exaggerating, but this does not feel like the same character ive been playing for years.
https://i.imgur.com/1ZdUXXl.png
https://i.imgur.com/Uw7XyG2.png


https://i.imgur.com/zaya8Bv.png

Not a big fan of the new lips and eyeshadow. Not to mention those dead fish eyes that are trying to forget everything they've seen...
I feel some characters do look improved in some areas but man, miqo and au'ra female don't feel the same at all :/

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SugaryMiraa

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

I really got no words for this. I do not recognize my WoL anymore. It's like a different person almost, as others have mentioned. Hopefully things can improve in the future, but as of right now I'm quite dissapointed in this.

---

Absolutly agree, i play human too, and not very happy about the nose and some face changes looks like a surgery fail.

:(

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SaraSin

Idk if im over exaggerating, but this does not feel like the same character ive been playing for years.
https://i.imgur.com/1ZdUXXl.png
https://i.imgur.com/Uw7XyG2.png


https://i.imgur.com/zaya8Bv.png

Not a big fan of the new lips and eyeshadow. Not to mention those dead fish eyes that are trying to forget everything they've seen...
I feel some characters do look improved in some areas but man, miqo and au'ra female don't feel the same at all :/

---

Some characters, along NPC's sharing features got this uncanny "shocked" "war flashbacks" face on them... I got to avoid it on mine but I still get jump scared with the new npc looks, I think this has to be adressed soon or later

Face 1 M! seeker miqo'te

its legitimately a downgrade.

they made my favorite alt UGLY.

they made his eyes 1/3 the size AT BEST, made his mouth TRIPLE the width, and narrowed and straightened his nose, removing his major charm point of having a rounder nose that was upturned at the end.

i hate everything about it.

he looks like he was a sitcom actor replaced by a cheaper person who the producers thought people watching wouldn't notice.


he's 100% hideous now.

squeenix should have taken an extra 2 expansions to actually do the upgrade right instead of what they did.

I didn't have much time to test the game yet, but there's one hairstyle that's clearly unfinished.
This long wavy hairstyle does not have any shine whatsoever, it's just very very flat. The textures were upscaled, but it still looks like its lacking something.

How it looks in Dawntrail:
https://i.imgur.com/L1TbPPl.jpeg

To compare, this is how other hairs look, with proper shine and all:
https://i.imgur.com/cByG01T.jpeg


I will be using another hairstyle with proper shine for the time being, but I'd be happy if they fixed the long wavy one, as it is one of the prettiest hairstyles of the game.

Comparing to the benchmark, this hairstyle had some issues with how it cast shadows in the characters' face and this seems to be fixed and looks pretty now, so my thanks to the team for the effort.

Look how they massacred my girl

Eyebrows are thinner
Lipstick has lost its gloss
The irises are darker, this makes the character look tired
Shape of the nose has been changed and the shiny/plastic skin makes it look less "flat"
Philcrum is also more pronounced

6.58 - looks vibrant and warm
7.0 - looks like me in real life, tired and "dead inside"

DT graphics update killed all hype for me. I will probably stop playing the game when my subscription expires.

https://i.imgur.com/W7rnG1i.png

https://i.imgur.com/l2OIXj1.png

https://i.imgur.com/h6TUJTp.png

I have always played with the slightly thicker option applied, and after the update they are barely prominent. Why even offer the thicker version if you're just going to make them both subtle and thin? This really messes up the character's features, since on fem Roegadyn the eyebrows have quite a unique shape, and up until now were able to be rather prominent. This is really disappointing, I hope they get modified to look thicker like they did before :(
The zoomed in version shows the difference well - the character customisation options are the exact same in the before and after.
https://i.postimg.cc/G2FgdNQZ/vivaldi-Cl-HBfh-Lnhp.png

I grabbed an image from a friend that shows the changes to Roe eyes — how 1) the whites are overbrightened, 2) the pupils are darkened, 3) the glint is so much weaker than before, and 4) the "baked-in shadow" at the top is far too strong

https://i.imgur.com/SXxr2AG.jpeg

Top row is original, bottom is benchmark

(EDIT: and of course this isn't even getting into the ash mark being way different, or the nose looking less broad, etc — just talking about the eyes here)

Good thing this isn't the forums game and it is SEs.

I really don't know how to convey my disappointment right now with the graphics update as it's put me in such a bad mood but I really wish they hadn't changed the character models at all and had just improved the lighting instead or something. My duskwight face 2 boy looks like an entirely different person, all of his features have been changed (the only thing I've deliberately changed is his ear shape), his skin looks like wax, his hair has lost its shine and brightness, and all of his facial expressions in the update look Horrifically bad. The new dimmer lighting in houses looks especially bad on him, he's lost all definition on his features. Not to mention the new ambient occlusion settings on both indoor and outdoor furniture is so intense it looks like everything is growing mold and needs to be changed to a lower setting to look decent. I would literally do anything for a toggle or something that restores the old character models, this update has not done justice to any of my characters or the NPCs I've seen so far in the slightest.

https://i.postimg.cc/nh3VMcW1/lumi.png

I'll try to get a picture of him in outside lighting as well later (which isn't any better at all but the Endwalker picture above was all I had on hand at the moment to use for comparison, I'll also get a picture of his adventurer plate/duty portraits as well as those have also been ruined in the update) but right now I'm really not in a good enough state to log back in and I'd rather someone else take my space to have a chance to play the new content while I mourn :'|

Male Highlander eyebrows, or lack there of, has been driving me INSANE- Especially so now that there are multiple Highlander NPC models with eyebrows. "Lore" is an insufficient excuse. Taking away the option for players to give their male Highlander a different backstory than Gyr Abania for something as superficial as eyebrows is disappointing at the very least. Furthermore, even if all Highlanders must be from Gyr Abania, surely not all are warriors and would shave their eyebrows. I was somewhat appeased by the makeup option before Dawn Trail because option 2 is a shape I like. Still, now that they've changed them significantly post Dawn Trail, I seriously cannot stand it anymore and have considered using the free fantasia to switch to another race. I hope they either give us eyebrows in the future or go back to how the makeup is applied to the face. I love this game and I love my character. I hate to have something as simple as eyebrows/lore restrictions sour the experience.

To say I'm disappointed would be an understatement.

My femroe looks like a completely different person. The nose smudge is basically gone. The facepaint makeup around her eyes is so much lighter you can barely see it. Her mouth is shaped different. The pupils are enormous and positioned so that her eyes look like they're rolling into the back of her head.

And before anyone suggests it's the lighting, it's not. I've looked in several different kinds of lighting and it doesn't make a difference. She still looks nothing like she used to. I just didn't have another EW pic on hand for comparison.

I don't know, y'all. I'll try playing with the makeup and stuff to see if I can fix it, but I don't think it's gonna make a difference.

https://lds-img.finalfantasyxiv.com/...490525e6b3.png

I'm not happy to see the graphic change.
My cat girl is face 1, it is completely different from before, which makes me feel terrible.
The eyes are lack of gentleness, it looks like a hot-blooded manga girl from animation. Im not mean to say hot-blooded manga girl is bad. I just say everything is hugely different from b4. It is the thing Im not happy to see it.
The cat girl also looks like a too-detailed doll figure and puts a lot of sun oil on her face somehow.

I'm unimpressed with the graphics update and do not consider the loss of my main character's appearance through unnecessary changes to be worthwhile.

Another comparison picture, DT on the left and ENW on the right. (Again ignore his ears being different shapes, I fanta'd them between the 2 screenshots)
The new mouth has completely ruined his face and all of his facial expression emotes. They've given him eyebags, a different nostril shape, a squared chin, thicker eyebrows and taken away his pointy nose and chin when seen from the side of his face. The lack of light bouncing onto his jawline makes it incredibly difficult to be able to tell where his face ends and his neck begins. I've also noticed his hair is completely stiff and doesn't move in the wind or when I move around at all.
https://i.postimg.cc/SRz6gvBn/lumii2.png

Also while I'm here taking comparison pictures, I also noticed this lighting glitch coming from the aetheryte in Tamamizu against the bubble dome in the background lol (the curved stripe pattern). It flickers rapidly as well.
https://i.postimg.cc/mZ0JTf26/tamamizu.png

Follow up on my post earlier. I don't have many screenshots on hand due to computer issues, but I was able to make this quickly. I posted this on the JP forums as well. I think it gets the point across well enough.

The dark circles on Duskwight males are horrendous. I played through the first cutscene and the moment I saw his face I knew that I couldn't continue like that. I thought I could but it's just super awful in cutscenes. It's not even a minute detail, but just a full blown in your face alteration to the clan. He genuinely looks like he got punched in both eyes.

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

Duskwight players on NA and JP have been asking for the removal of the dark circles since the moment the benchmark dropped. There are posts with hundreds of likes about it. We asked again for benchmark 2. Seems we were completely ignored again as there wasn't even an attempt to lighten them. In fact - they seem darker!

Combine that with them completely ignoring the Roe nose smudges, they just don't seem to give a damn about lesser played races.

-

Edit: I'm putting this revelation in this previous post instead of making a new one so I don't fill up the thread with Duskie woes.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Iscah

I'm not certain that it's only a texture change.

---

After some Duskwight players have played around with the Duskie male textures using specific methods, it has been determined that it is only the texture causing darkness under the eyes. A quick two minute paint over has produced results extremely close to pre-DT graphics. I imagine given another hour or two it would be high-quality enough to officially put in the game - especially when it could be done by professionals and not the players themselves.

As I prefer not to use such methods (and console players can't), it is disheartening to know that is the case.

This is clearly either a result of the dev team projecting their own wishes onto player models or pure negligence. I personally think it would be impossible to miss the amount of Duskwight players in the JP thread requesting this very specific thing. It didn't require long paragraphs or in-depth breakdowns of differences since it was so obvious and it was a racial trait just like Keeper fangs are, but they didn't touch it. I'm inclined to believe they simply think they can skirt by not addressing the issues of the least played races.

This image is from the dialogue option in the first cutscene of the quest "Shadowbringers."
https://lds-img.finalfantasyxiv.com/...cf69590f38.jpg
She's supposed to look angry or determined (I know this because both are reflected in the dialogue options, and the context of the SS), but instead looks detached from reality.

Next is during the dialogue option from the final cutscene of the quest "Extinguishing the Last Light."
https://lds-img.finalfantasyxiv.com/...807e065ddb.jpg
She's supposed to look shell shocked, having woken up after falling unconscious during events I won't explain to avoid spoilers (Both dialogue options are questions about what happened, showing her confusion), but after the DT graphics replacement again looks quite blank. I don't know what emotion, if any, is supposed to be expressed in the right image. The SS looks as if she is just mouth breathing with a neutral face.

As another example to show the radically changed character impressions in Au Ra♀ face 4, here is my current adventurer plate.
https://lds-img.finalfantasyxiv.com/...c9e9c37df1.png
The expression of the portrait has changed from one of determination, to that of a room temp corpse.

Even looking past the loss of expression in Au Ra♀ face 4, the appearance of the eyes, pupils, eyebrows, nose, mouth, and more have all changed to be completely different to their 6.58 counterparts (contributing to this problem). I would like if these differences could be rectified, as I believe the graphics update should be an update and not a replacement, impressing those previously comfortable with their characters first and foremost, as appealing to any other demographic of player makes little sense. Why would a player make a character they are dissatisfied with, and wait for a graphics replacement? I don't know who the intended audience of these changes is supposed to be.

On a slightly funnier but still sad note, she now reminds me not of a lizard or of a dragon, but of a chipmunk whenever she smiles (I believe this SS was taken from the second cutscene of "The Coming Dawn"), as her cheekbones are larger and her smile is awkward.
https://lds-img.finalfantasyxiv.com/...303a498c2b.png