Dawntrail character graphics update - opinions, requests and discussion megathread

https://imgur.com/H9lcylX.png

My character doing /fear, 6.0 is on the left, 7.0 is on the right.

I am sorry Square Enix, but that is really not the same character. The expression is so fundamentally changed, mainly due to lips and uppershape-eyelids-eyelashes. My character has gone from being an "OoO" kind of character to become a "-_-" kind of character.

The mouth is positively 30% larger, outstretched and less puffy. The upper eyelid construct is so heavy that it barely looks my character can lift them in comparison to the old ones, and it changes the shape of the eyes itself, away from very round eyes to rather oval ones.

The fact that the nose seems a bit wider and the lighting makes the face less detailed doesn't help either (sure the details of the face being less defined may well be a consequence of lighting, but if it is such a consistent change that I almost never see my character with the same detail-profile as before, then something is wrong, no matter if it is due to lighting or not). Also, why does my character never seem to have the correct hair colour anymore, no matter the lighting? It is way too bright, no matter what I do.

Out of curiosity, I tried remaking my character as she was for HW and StB(I lost all my screenshots and presets because a drive died, so from memory) in the EW benchmark and then ported it to live. I tried to match shadows over camera angle(the Shroud's lighting has changed so much that the same position has completely different shadows), and I can't get over how badly they botched the eyes. I also didn't realize that they gave all Raen horns the same pink highlights that Yugiri's have, and while I don't dislike it, it seems like a weird thing to make mandatory.


https://i.imgur.com/bb48zMz.png

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Originally Posted by Soren_

Viera, face 1 here. The portraits in the new lighting look... off. The eyes especially, they're so extremely soft you can't even see the whites of your eyes here, just a very dark pupil. Before we had much more defined/sharper looks, feels like they've been airbrushed a few too many times. And overall the facial features have been softened, the cheeks look much more plump compared to before (sadly I wasn't wise enough to take shots of these before DT)

https://i.imgur.com/iDYMDOY.png https://i.imgur.com/ZLNZvby.png
https://i.imgur.com/j5ssPrG.png https://i.imgur.com/yt5HyGx.png

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I am not hallucinating then. With current lighting on the portrait system, somehow the sclera part of the eye is less visible.
I need to redo most of the lighting to direct light on the face because all of sudden face contour/eyes (and in whole, the face mimic) is unreadable.
It might be more realistic to have less visible sclera IDK, but I admit that I am used to me able to just see the eyes easily.

(This is also reason why I end up changing my character skin color to tan. With tanner skin I can read my character eyes better due to better contrast between skin and eyes)
And also shoutout to Astroni's Highlander because the moment I saw his character, I still can recognize the pre-updated graphic eye gaze.
https://lds-img.finalfantasyxiv.com/...000d84dfd6.jpg
(Contrast is upped to 100 while saturation is made to 0 to make identifying the problem easier)

--Also I just wish the eye contrast to the skin is still retained somewhat on lighter skin. Man is just looking from serial killer gaze to sleepy, droopy gaze!

I tried and I played the first quest in the MSQ but I just felt hollow the entire time, I never felt this way when I played MSQ content prior. Despite everything during the Benchmark, I really wanted to enjoy Dawntrail as like everyone I love the story in this game but I just don't feel the joy and excitement for the new content the way I had back in 6.x at all. I even found myself disliking the way that Alphinaud and Alisaie looked, they looked really lifeless to me indoors. I'm envious of those who are able to enjoy it and are making their way through the story, I wish that the graphics update had more time than this. I don't know if it's even worth playing through the MSQ feeling like this, it's just going to feel empty, painful and bitter.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Plushy

Why are you picking on me? telling people to not talk to me? All because I said I think their character looks the same?

I can say the same about you. YOU need to call it quits. This is what your character looks like now and she looks pretty much like your 6.58 model, play the game more. You'll get over it (and I say that nicely)

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I am gonna have to make a comment for this response. First person is simply stating to not argue with you. As you are very deterred and confrontational when people have shown issues and you have been in your text given a very hostile toned response to those who have been pretty civil on their detailed showing of what they feel is off.

example 1.)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Plushy

This is going to sound harsh but I have no idea why you're complaining. Other than that...yeah harsh but I think your au ra looks pretty much the same, its odd youre so upset...

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This here you are not saying in your opinion you are implying it's a fact when it is not you to judge if they are pretty or that they are the same
or not but, the said person behind the B]character.[/B]

You also disregarded their own feedback which the second person who brought it up who you got offended when they stated

Quote:

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Originally Posted by noumen0nn

Lunar's feedback was incredibly detailed and well thought out, and the things she pointed out are plain if you give them more than a cursory glance.

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example 2.)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Plushy

You can even see the polygon slit on her au ra bottom lip on the 6.58 picture lmao.

But if you want to believe its having some "eye for detail" to make yourself feel better go off. ((hint: Its not))

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Once again you are brushing people who have valid concerns/personal taste. And then giving a snide side comment when it is not needed. You can simple just say I disagree and move on.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SchwarzwaelderTorte

It's not worth it, you're not gonna convince them of anything, they obviously don't care about your opinions.

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You are focusing on the part of where they said don't interact with you and instead not the part where they are giving advice to not instigate with you as your view and others do not match up and to just not bother trying as you tend to disagree with people and to not bother to change your mind and to just move on.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by lunartears

I even found myself disliking the way that Alphinaud and Alisaie looked, they looked really lifeless to me indoors.

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Yeah, the first cutscenes in Sharlayan are really rough on everyone in terms of lighting.
For Alphinaud and Alisaie it gets a little bit better later on (or maybe I'm getting used to it? when I'm done with MSQ I'll start comparing cutscenes), and now that I've gone past the first impressions MSQ is going... alright. On NPCs at least. For now. I'm still pretty early in.

Since you spend a lot of the time with the camera in the back of the character, you can almost forget about what's going on in the front... until you either turn the camera yourself, or a cutscene has a close up shot of the WoL, and then I start cringing again (although in my case, even from far away, in direct sunlight, it hurts).

https://i.imgur.com/3VJKjc6.gif

(and that's technically not direct sunlight, it can get a lot more overexposed)

I did consider the new Facewear feature or other pairs of sunglasses as a temporary measure, didn't find anything to my liking personally, but if you want to try progressing through MSQ despite everything you could try doing that? I think some people are even using full face masks (Rabbit etc) in protest lol
(which, yeah, is not a great solution if you want to enjoy your cutscenes with your WoL in their usual appearance as you did until now, but you know...)

I really don't notice much difference. I don't pay any attention to my character's face, since the only times I see it up close is in cutscenes. The rest of the time, I see him from the back at max camera distance.

I made a thread as well, but my Xaela Au Ra geniuenly don't look like how she used to - particularly how the lips look "puckered"(?) in and how lifeless the eyes look bother me - they almost look blurred out and the contrast that made the eyes "pop" is gone.

Endwalker vs. Dawntrail ver 1.1 benchmark
https://i.ibb.co/wgqF3qq/dawntrail-b...egular-aya.png

When they said "Overall appearance of player characters will be altered as little as possible" I expected a few, small, unnoticeable-at-first-glance changes, but this feels too different??

In my opinion the update looks better than before. But there are some issues. For example the eyecolors are often darker/less vibrant. Let's wait and see how it goes on.

Apologies for the low quality, it's the only screenshot I could find besides the one I already posted:

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

I have a theory: remember how lightning/shadows looked in the old Benchmark, before they updated it? I have a feeling the Portraits are still using those pre-update settings. It looks dull and lifeless :s
I cannot achieve the same results as the picture on the left with the Ambient/Directional Lighting settings in Edit Portrait no matter what I try (my character's hair color looks darker and gray no matter what, it's supposed to look light blue and it does look accurate outside of Portraits!)

edit: my forum picture on the left gave me a jumpscare holy moly...