Dawntrail Graphics Update - Feedback on changes to the world's aesthetic and feel

Bumping to share that I recently reported a scene from ShB (beware post-ShB spoilers) for its poor lighting. And I've got some great news! This is what "working as intended" looks like:

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

You're not meant to be able to see literally anything in a scene where literally nothing else is going on! :3

At first, this was moved to 'Accepted Bugs', but upon further review, I guess they decided it was fine after all lol. Despite the fact that, as you can see in this YouTube video, the scene had much better visibility before DT -- even considering that the sun is just setting in my screenshots, while it's full nighttime in the video.

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Originally Posted by Turnintino

At first, this was moved to 'Accepted Bugs', but upon further review, I guess they decided it was fine after all lol.

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Just FYI for how the process works, "Accepted Bugs" is basically just saying "you filled out the form correctly." Then they review the bug report to determine if it's working as intended, a verified bug that needs fixing, etc and sort it appropriately.

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Originally Posted by CidHeiral

Just FYI for how the process works, "Accepted Bugs" is basically just saying "you filled out the form correctly." Then they review the bug report to determine if it's working as intended, a verified bug that needs fixing, etc and sort it appropriately.

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That makes sense, thank you! But I remain baffled by their reasoning nonetheless, especially after they asked us to continue reporting scenes that were affected by the graphics update lol.

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Originally Posted by Turnintino

Bumping to share that I recently reported a scene from ShB (beware post-ShB spoilers) for its poor lighting. And I've got some great news! This is what "working as intended" looks like:

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

You're not meant to be able to see literally anything in a scene where literally nothing else is going on! :3

At first, this was moved to 'Accepted Bugs', but upon further review, I guess they decided it was fine after all lol. Despite the fact that, as you can see in this YouTube video, the scene had much better visibility before DT -- even considering that the sun is just setting in my screenshots, while it's full nighttime in the video.

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I've checked the cut-scene, and it does seem to work properly for me.
I wonder what could cause the discrepancy between two PCs. From what I can see in your original post, my specs are worse than yours, at least for the video card.

Screenshots:

https://i.ibb.co/pvZ4Kkdg/2025-09-19-08-08-19-124.png

https://i.ibb.co/zvfqmBt/2025-09-19-08-09-51-523.png

https://i.ibb.co/x81j6vM9/2025-09-19-08-15-18-617.png

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Originally Posted by Halivel

I've checked the cut-scene, and it does seem to work properly for me.
I wonder what could cause the discrepancy between two PCs. From what I can see in your original post, my specs are worse than yours, at least for the video card.

Screenshots:

https://i.ibb.co/pvZ4Kkdg/2025-09-19-08-08-19-124.png

https://i.ibb.co/zvfqmBt/2025-09-19-08-09-51-523.png

https://i.ibb.co/x81j6vM9/2025-09-19-08-15-18-617.png

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It must be predicated by time of day then. But interestingly, when I rewatched the scene with the Unending Journey while it was daytime in-game just now, the scene defaulted to nighttime as in the video I linked (and in your screenshots), suggesting the weather/time of day is scripted. But as you can see in the initial screenshots I took while running the MSQ...

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

https://i.imgur.com/l0IZKqB.png

... That wasn't the case. Instead, the sun was setting when I experienced this scene on my alt. So something's certainly off.

Wouldn't it be funny that your issue is because of some kind of shader usage :)

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Originally Posted by Shialan

Wouldn't it be funny that your issue is because of some kind of shader usage :)

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I play vanilla (except that I force DLAA through the Nvidia app, which has nothing to do with shaders), so yes, it would be pretty funny.

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Originally Posted by Turnintino

It must be predicated by time of day then. But interestingly, when I rewatched the scene with the Unending Journey while it was daytime in-game just now, the scene defaulted to nighttime as in the video I linked (and in your screenshots), suggesting the weather/time of day is scripted. But as you can see in the initial screenshots I took while running the MSQ...

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

https://i.imgur.com/l0IZKqB.png

... That wasn't the case. Instead, the sun was setting when I experienced this scene on my alt. So something's certainly off.

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Now this got me genuinely curious, so I want to see if I'll be able to recreate it in the open world, instead of Endless Journey. None of my alts are close to that MSQ point yet tho (and some are past it), so I'll go with New Game+, which is the closest thing.

I only use shaders for screenshots and otherwise play full vanilla, so in theory the cut-scene should be borked for me as well if I enter it through NG+ during the sunset. I'll report back once I'm there.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Turnintino

I play vanilla (except that I force DLAA through the Nvidia app, which has nothing to do with shaders), so yes, it would be pretty funny.

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Wouldn't be the first time something like this caused an issue.

Also, that they put your report into "working as intended" does not mean that how your screenshots looked as intended, but that the quest / the cutscenes were working as intended with no issues on the PC of the support team member that checked it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Turnintino

It must be predicated by time of day then. But interestingly, when I rewatched the scene with the Unending Journey while it was daytime in-game just now, the scene defaulted to nighttime as in the video I linked (and in your screenshots), suggesting the weather/time of day is scripted. But as you can see in the initial screenshots I took while running the MSQ...

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

https://i.imgur.com/l0IZKqB.png

... That wasn't the case. Instead, the sun was setting when I experienced this scene on my alt. So something's certainly off.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Halivel

Now this got me genuinely curious, so I want to see if I'll be able to recreate it in the open world, instead of Endless Journey. None of my alts are close to that MSQ point yet tho (and some are past it), so I'll go with New Game+, which is the closest thing.

I only use shaders for screenshots and otherwise play full vanilla, so in theory the cut-scene should be borked for me as well if I enter it through NG+ during the sunset. I'll report back once I'm there.

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Took a bit longer than it should have because I accidentally skipped the very cutscene I was interested in, so I had to redo it again. Oh well.

I entered the cutscene at around 16.00 Eorzean Time, Fair Sky weather. Not really a sunset yet, but I figured that we'll at least find out if the cutscene has scripted time or not. And as it started, it was dark night, so it does look like the time along with the weather for this cut-scene are locked in. This checks out with the video from YT you've linked, which also has the cutscene happen during dark night with clear skies.

This explains why it looked so dark for you - devs most likely only adjust lightning for specific time and weather when cut scenes have a scripted environment, as there's realistically no need to do the adjustments for an environment that normally shouldn't be seen.

What it doesn't explain is why exactly the script bugged out on you, and why it didn't on me - NG+, by all means, is identical to MSQ in all things but rewards, so theoretically we should be as close to the same entering point as possible.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Halivel

Took a bit longer than it should have because I accidentally skipped the very cutscene I was interested in, so I had to redo it again. Oh well.

I entered the cutscene at around 16.00 Eorzean Time, Fair Sky weather. Not really a sunset yet, but I figured that we'll at least find out if the cutscene has scripted time or not. And as it started, it was dark night, so it does look like the time along with the weather for this cut-scene are locked in. This checks out with the video from YT you've linked, which also has the cutscene happen during dark night with clear skies.

This explains why it looked so dark for you - devs most likely only adjust lightning for specific time and weather when cut scenes have a scripted environment, as there's realistically no need to do the adjustments for an environment that normally shouldn't be seen.

What it doesn't explain is why exactly the script bugged out on you, and why it didn't on me - NG+, by all means, is identical to MSQ in all things but rewards, so theoretically we should be as close to the same entering point as possible.

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I appreciate that you went through so much trouble to try to replicate the issue -- especially because I was thinking about doing it myself, and obviously I don't need to tell you how tedious that would've been lol. I probably still will, just to verify whether it was somehow a DLAA interaction after all (though it hasn't been an issue in the past that I've noticed).

At the very least, I'm glad it's not a universal issue, since that was the main reason I bothered to report it to begin with; I didn't think it was fair that sprouts should potentially see such a pivotal set-piece for the very first time in the state that I witnessed it here. Although there's nothing to say that they won't if they happen to be playing in whatever conditions broke the script on my end. ┐(￣ヘ￣)┌

If I manage to replicate the issue, though, I'll be able to make the report again with greater clarity now that I know it's not strictly a lighting problem but a weather-script problem. (Or if forcing DLAA is the culprit, take the L lol.)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Turnintino

I appreciate that you went through so much trouble to try to replicate the issue -- especially because I was thinking about doing it myself, and obviously I don't need to tell you how tedious that would've been lol. I probably still will, just to verify whether it was somehow a DLAA interaction after all (though it hasn't been an issue in the past that I've noticed).

At the very least, I'm glad it's not a universal issue, since that was the main reason I bothered to report it to begin with; I didn't think it was fair that sprouts should potentially see such a pivotal set-piece for the very first time in the state that I witnessed it here. Although there's nothing to say that they won't if they happen to be playing in whatever conditions broke the script on my end. ┐(￣ヘ￣)┌

If I manage to replicate the issue, though, I'll be able to make the report again with greater clarity now that I know it's not strictly a lighting problem but a weather-script problem. (Or if forcing DLAA is the culprit, take the L lol.)

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The moment I realized I skipped through the scene I needed, there was a very audible groan lol, but it's okay. I've spent way more time replicating and debugging some of the bugs in our code base at work, so it wasn't anything I'm not used to. If anything, replicating bugs in games (as a player) is at least somewhat fun and engaging. ( ´ ▽ ` )

From my understanding on how DLAA and DLSS work (which admittedly isn't much, as it's not my specialization), they shouldn't really have access to settings that determine what kind of environment is shown, so it will be really surprising if it's DLAA. I honestly suspect it's probably some kind of a very weird mix of active quests combined with specific time and weather clashing with the condition checkers.

So it will be really interesting to see if you'll be able to replicate the issue with and without forced DLAA later on, or if it was a one-time thing that happened because of some convoluted mix of conditions.

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Originally Posted by Halivel

The moment I realized I skipped through the scene I needed, there was a very audible groan lol, but it's okay.

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Oh, I can just imagine lol. I probably would've had to step away myself.

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Originally Posted by Halivel

From my understanding on how DLAA and DLSS work (which admittedly isn't much, as it's not my specialization), they shouldn't really have access to settings that determine what kind of environment is shown, so it will be really surprising if it's DLAA. I honestly suspect it's probably some kind of a very weird mix of active quests combined with specific time and weather clashing with the condition checkers.

So it will be really interesting to see if you'll be able to replicate the issue with and without forced DLAA later on, or if it was a one-time thing that happened because of some convoluted mix of conditions.

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This is my understanding as well, it being little more than anti-aliasing, so I'm not optimistic it'll be anything so simple. But I'm half-hoping, since as you said, whatever internal conditions led to this otherwise would be just about inscrutable to me, as just about all I've done on my alt is MSQ, porting from place to place as I imagine anyone does. And in that case, whatever I can glean probably isn't going to be incredibly helpful to whomever reviews/troubleshoots bug reports. But I'm intrigued now!