Dawntrail character graphics update - opinions, requests and discussion megathread

From the get-go, I didn't like how they changed the limbal rings to look.. How it merges more with the eye and no longer feels like it is its own thing.
On top of that, my eye shape has been softened at the outer eye corner and now the lashes are more downcast.. I don't generally mind the rounding of the upper eyelid, but I do mind the lashes and corner part. These were the only sharp eyes for this face and it's been taken away.

The lips seem to generally be the same, but slightly less wide - but that could be partly due to the new shaders.. but it does seem like the corner doesn't go as far out anymore.

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

It would also seem like the horns have been moved. I was trying to line these up by using the horns as the reference and noticed this.

EW is the face further out while DT is the face further in. A weird choice..

https://i.imgur.com/bucKKd6.png

Also there's something about the 'Simper' expression's mouth that just.. seems off to me. The corners of the mouth is going much higher up than it used to and seems more tight-lipped.. But this could just be me nitpicking.

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

But again the eyes are just.. so wrong.
The limbal rings don't stand out anymore except in the dark which is cool but the rest of the eye just kinda blackens out instead. Its like its either no limbal or only limbal visuals and it shouldn't be like that IMO. And without limbal rings she looks like a dead fish.
I know they joked about that pre-DT but like IMO the update seems more dead-fish-eyed than pre-DT. Same goes for Male AuRa.
The edit on this pic is how I prayed it would've looked after the initial previews we got of the updates. Alas..

https://i.imgur.com/Os4xeCL.png

And speaking of looking dead... My miqo'te is soulless.

https://i.imgur.com/7G4y7nC.png

His eyes has no light in them and overall look super dark, whereas before they had this slight glow to them.
And unless you see him up-close, you can barely tell he has slit pupils and looks more like Moon keeper rather than the Sun seeker he is.

And I loathe the way his lips look now. I hated this weird shading on the bottom lip the other faces had - thankfully this face didn't. But now it does and it looks like the other faces.
And again, the Simper expression's smile is not the same.. and his eyes generally feels more blurry and faded.. lifeless and no light. Not even the catchlight is visible as much anymore.

https://i.imgur.com/OFN0ekA.png

And his face shape also feels.. off. It feels fatter or smaller in height. It's like it's been merged with the face G'rahra uses or something..

https://i.imgur.com/upXpl8H.png

They changed everything that made the face stand out from the other 3 and it was all the things I loved about it.

Wasn't sure I liked the update based on the benchmark, but playing through the MSQ it's really grown on me and looks pretty good, at least for my character. To be fair, I play a basic Hyur, which probably has the least noticeable chances. First one is EW, other 2 are DT.

https://i.imgur.com/Zj1l54p.png https://i.imgur.com/U43Mu3M.png

https://i.imgur.com/OjzMa5U.png

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mercelia

Please SE, give us the old models back as an extra-option in character creation, so that we can make our WoLs look again like they used to, but also give those who are happy with their updated WoL the choice to keep it as it is now. :(

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I would advocate for rolling back or adding more options to satisfy people who liked their old WoL's look. Got to look at the Benchmarks for my AuRa, there's a stark difference. :(

I'm not going to say the work SE put into the visual update was poor, it's just not what some of us expected when it applied to our characters. Also when are we getting swappable horns, SE?

Do SE read the boards regarding being unsatisfied with updates/changes and do they take it to consideration?

https://media.discordapp.net/attachm...ality=lossless

https://media.discordapp.net/attachm...ality=lossless

Already posted a comparison post of the changes in facial features on the JP forums (Endwalker vs Benchmark 1.1) but honestly the biggest thing that has gotten to me personally is the change in expressions. I think the biggest advantage anime/less realistic art styles have is that they can exaggerate facial expressions and it can look really great. But with realistic looking faces it can look odd, so I feel like they toned down the expressions a lot. Because of that though, I feel like my character has lost the warmth in his smile. I feel like the smile doesn't quite reach the eyes and look more fake and subdued.

https://i.imgur.com/Hyl3tIP.png
I tried my best to match the angle of the new picture with the old one, but I apologize, it's not perfect. Also I'm not sure why but the Dawntrail image is not as clear. Some people pointed out that having 3D resolution scaling to 100 blurs the game, so mine is set at 99, but something still looks off. I think it's something on my end though, not the game, so my apologies for that as well.

Honestly I really miss his old eyebrows and lips. I'm not sure why they changed the shape so much :')

I play a male Duskwight with face 3. This update places massive black shading under and around the eyes. My character didn’t have this before the update.

It’s irresponsible of the developers to make my Duskwight eyes completely different than they were before. I’m reasonable and expect some contour changes, etc. But I specifically chose a Duskwight to avoid the dark eye shading that the other Elezen clan has. Now I have them, and I didn’t ask for them.

I won’t play the game looking like this, and I’m not willing to play another race/clan/face. I have no choice but to cancel my subscription unless this change is reverted.

Please fix male Duskwight face 3.

I have really no words how bad it look now.
Endwalker
https://i.imgur.com/byqYhcf.png
https://i.imgur.com/bh3LGHv.png
Dawntrail:
https://i.imgur.com/7RFlYU6.png
https://i.imgur.com/VQfpiIo.png

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Cheapshot

If it existed prior it wasn’t anywhere close to this pronounced. My character did not suffer from this problem before Dawntrail and v2 of the benchmark.

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The shaded pupil was always pronounced. That's what gave bright eyes on Keepers that ethereal shine and the "moon eyes". Definitely don't want to see unique traits removed.
Here is my partner's cat from EW. Her pupils are greyish purple.

https://i.imgur.com/ce8UZZv.png

My main request is to eventually update the body as well. It feels weird to have a more detailed face, but the body is the same low polygon model.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Verschlafen

I have really no words how bad it look now.
Endwalker
https://i.imgur.com/byqYhcf.png
https://i.imgur.com/bh3LGHv.png
Dawntrail:
https://i.imgur.com/7RFlYU6.png
https://i.imgur.com/VQfpiIo.png

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I don't think she looks 'bad' necessarily, but she's a different person that's for sure. I'm sorry you've lost your character :( I had to dye my hair and change the style, which I've done before, but that change has distracted me enough from the other issues, but you character is waaay different now...

Wanted to add my two cents to this thread... overall I'm positive about how my character looks with the update, but... she only looks fine until she smiles :( This was something I had noticed in the benchmark as well and was hoping would get fixed before 7.0...

I don't have a ton of non-reshade pics of her from endwalker so I have to use an old screencap from back when I was playing on console but I hope this is enough to illustrate the difference
https://64.media.tumblr.com/3efddce1...fedb3f4565.pnj

Before /biggrin was my favorite animation to do with her, and I loved taking screencaps with her cute smiles. Now... She just doesn't look the same. It looks like she's squinting more, and the way the game treats lighter eyes makes her look vacant. /simper and /beam look okay, but /smile gets into similar uncanny valley territory for me.

I'll see what I can do with the free fantasia (maybe making her eyes a darker color?) but when I tried changing her eye color in the benchmark it just made her look like a different person with a straight face. And I don't know how much a change in eye color would do to help the fact that her face just seems to be animated differently.

I'm not sure what to do. I don't really want to fundamentally change the character I've become so attached to over the years, but knowing I may never see her cute smile again is putting a damper on my excitement for Dawntrail. I want to see her enjoying her vacation; right now when she smiles it looks like she's not all there :( (and she's definitely had some weird looks in cutscenes because of her eyes, too)

My forum avatar has updated now and it is doing outright bizarre stuff with the shadowing – half the hair casts a shadow and then it just stops.

Shadows are behaving oddly in the game as well. They're pixelated and can flicker badly as the camera moves. (Edit: Though I do need to keep reminding myself that despite having switched to playing on my PS5 console, I'm stuck playing the PS4 program as it was the only version I could download, possibly because PS5 Endwalker was taken off the store and PS5 Dawntrail isn't available until the official release date.)

And of course there's the eyes that look nothing at all like their proper shape, which is also my main sticking point in the game itself. My bug report on it was accepted, last I checked, so I can only hope it will get addressed. For now she looks half-asleep any time the camera is on her and it's extremely uncanny having the rest of her body look the same but the face is effectively someone else's.

On the other hand, they rejected the puckered face shape as "working as intended" but perhaps I can try again once I've encountered more instances of it – there have been a couple of shots where it's really noticable.

The curse of the eyebags has struck Alphinaud and Alisaie as well.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Spooky_Biscuits

Also as many have commented. Hair sheen is in consistent. Look at the hair vs the Ear texture. Like who let this past QA?

https://lds-img.finalfantasyxiv.com/...8112deaba7.png

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I am more and more getting the impression that they made wide-sweeping changes that were tested in only a very narrow set of scenarios.

And when even those narrow set of scenarios had issues (everything that was pointed out in the Dawntrail benchmark character creator), the response was to shift the goalposts. Instead of fixing the shaders to act properly in such and such lighting conditions, they changed the lighting of the character creator scenes instead. That's the common mistake of fixing the symptoms and not the causes.

That sort of attitude in addressing feedback doesn't leave me exactly hopeful for a proper follow-up :(

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tsumdere

The shaded pupil was always pronounced. That's what gave bright eyes on Keepers that ethereal shine and the "moon eyes". Definitely don't want to see unique traits removed.
Here is my partner's cat from EW. Her pupils are greyish purple.

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While there has always been a glow from the iris color over the pupil, I agree that it does seem more pronounced now.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tahli

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

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In some lightings, it feels like a white/grey film more than a glowy moon eye. I think the iris colors losing colored lighting that made them pop probably also makes the cataract look more pronounced.

I posted yesterday but wasn't able to get very good pics to illustrate the differences like I wanted to. So I went back and got more.

I reiterate. My femroe has been completely changed. Pretty well beyond recognition.

EW Benchmark 1:
https://lds-img.finalfantasyxiv.com/...a843d5f3e4.jpg

DT Benchmark 1:
https://lds-img.finalfantasyxiv.com/...04b4996714.jpg

EW Benchmark 2:
https://lds-img.finalfantasyxiv.com/...7f219bb0ba.jpg

DT Benchmark 2:
https://lds-img.finalfantasyxiv.com/...ea7014523b.jpg

DT In-Game:
https://lds-img.finalfantasyxiv.com/...8d5e91f8e2.png

Final Comparison:
https://lds-img.finalfantasyxiv.com/...82f84be83e.png

Thank you to anyone who reads, and I hope these images better illustrate the issues. Those being: massive pupils, no nose-smudge, and a different-shaped mouth.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Plasmaspy

Yeah I think the mouth changes are the biggest culprit for complaint with turning characters into wholly different people.
https://i.imgur.com/UWDaWxc.gif

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I really wish they implemented this change, it's not that I think the new faces are bad or anything, but its just not my character, and the fantasia won't fix this because they just removed that mouth completely.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by IndraSyngiwyb

I posted yesterday but wasn't able to get very good pics to illustrate the differences like I wanted to. So I went back and got more.

I reiterate. My femroe has been completely changed. Pretty well beyond recognition.

EW Benchmark 1:
https://lds-img.finalfantasyxiv.com/...a843d5f3e4.jpg

DT Benchmark 1:
https://lds-img.finalfantasyxiv.com/...04b4996714.jpg

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These two pictures do a wonderful job of showing how much the eyes changed for the worse. If you don't mind, I'll take the liberty of sharing these with the Japanese thread.

Keep the lips as they were! and the emotes too. For some reason /simper looks so different now. Keep everything consistent please. You cant just put something new that looks so different than the older one.

Thats not updated graphics, thats a completely new look that you might as well make it as one of the options in character settings than overwritting the older one.

Also some eyes are too glowy and as a result have that crazy eyes look.

Really shouldn't be able to see a seam on my neck in cutscenes... There wasn't ever a seam before.

Still the complaint of lifeless lips just smacked onto me.

https://i.vgy.me/moSG65.png

I've discovered that they've implemented changes after the 1.1 Benchmark.

https://lds-img.finalfantasyxiv.com/...25a556c26b.jpg

The mouth gap of Miqo'te Moonkeeper Face 4 has been added back (a feature that existed prior to the Graphics Update). With the new changes with lighting and texturing, however, this feature is now a glaring issue. Idle movements of the character make the rendering of the mouth appear to have a moving white line rather then teeth. This existed prior to the changes, but the teeth are brighter now.
https://lds-img.finalfantasyxiv.com/...4dd6bf6c35.png

Through cutscenes, especially in dark zones, this is made more obvious as the lips are darker in contrast. (I'm personally not a big fan of curving the ends of the mouth to make the character smile more, but I digress.)
https://lds-img.finalfantasyxiv.com/...4f9c1238c3.jpg

Unrelated to the Benchmark: There is a significant amount of gloss with the new changes.
https://lds-img.finalfantasyxiv.com/...8c74014ad7.jpg
(Changing the gamma levels help, but it also darkens the brightness of the game.)

These are only observations and not demands. What does not appeal to me might appeal to others so I cannot make suggestions.

I'm pretty sure they just used the same lip shape for everyone so they can simplify the "speaking" animation.

As captured in 6.58:
https://i.ibb.co/QNR0wrF/2024-06-23-...43-11-787e.png
As captured in 7.0:
https://i.ibb.co/SKYSfkX/2024-06-29-...06-57-057e.png

Now that I see it, the lower-eyelash placement is ... wrong. There is something wrong with the lower-eyelid

I think I found out why hair shading seems so inconsistent from place to place. You can easily reproduce this using GPose.

https://i.imgur.com/6YfeeW9.gif

Seriously, what is going on here? It's like half of its shading contribution is a uniform term.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ysmia

I've discovered that they've implemented changes after the 1.1 Benchmark.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...62f03add61a0d&

The mouth gap of Miqo'te Moonkeeper Face 4 has been added back (a feature that existed prior to the Graphics Update). With the new changes with lighting and texturing, however, this feature is now a glaring issue. Idle movements of the character make the rendering of the mouth appear to have a moving white line rather then teeth. This existed prior to the changes, but the teeth are brighter now.
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...b069b8c25b12d&

Through cutscenes, especially in dark zones, this is made more obvious as the lips are darker in contrast. (I'm personally not a big fan of curving the ends of the mouth to make the character smile more, but I digress.)
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...55a5649fc3124&

Unrelated to the Benchmark: There is a significant amount of gloss with the new changes.
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...2ec4633d5f363&
(Changing the gamma levels help, but it also darkens the brightness of the game.)

These are only observations and not demands. What does not appeal to me might appeal to others so I cannot make suggestions.

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I agree with the lip gap being a glaring issue, it was also an issue before DT but i think depending on graphics settings it was less visible.

The gap seems to exist because of the overbite and the lower jaw.

more gap pics on different emotes, cutscenes show from slightly below emphasizing it
https://i.imgur.com/dUyd1HR.pnghttps://i.imgur.com/8GfVcYC.pnghttps://i.imgur.com/dypBcMe.pnghttps://i.imgur.com/1ucRGLk.png
asked a midlander friend if their pucker up had a gap and it did not


album with a few more https://imgur.com/a/pggLB4i

EDIT: With the skin that's part of how they changed the specular lighting and if you look at pictures of actual people in the sun we do have some shine to our skin, it can be a bit hard to portray though.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MaxL

I think I found out why hair shading seems so inconsistent from place to place. You can easily reproduce this using GPose.


Seriously, what is going on here? It's like half of its shading contribution is a uniform term.

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That's definitely a head scratcher.

I would like to add to this thread by linking one that myself and a few others contributed to, we did a lot of work and I really hope that it is seen by those overseeing this graphical change. Our feedback covers both Sun and Moon Miqo'te Face 3 with Eyes 3 + 4 and Mouth 4. OP and I really went into depth about our grievances and I feel that the majority of them are still present in 7.0.

https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...-Eye-3-Mouth-4

I haven't really seen anyone else mention this, and I sadly do not have comparison pics, but wondering if anyone else thinks their character looks kind of dirty? I play a fairly dark-skinned Rava viera, though not the darkest, kind of a medium-to-light brown, and while I do like that I can see him better in cutscenes, I just keep thinking he looks like he has dirt all over his face. Like the skin looks almost mottled or something, instead of the smooth matte look of before.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by maddragonqueen

I haven't really seen anyone else mention this, and I sadly do not have comparison pics, but wondering if anyone else thinks their character looks kind of dirty? I play a fairly dark-skinned Rava viera, though not the darkest, kind of a medium-to-light brown, and while I do like that I can see him better in cutscenes, I just keep thinking he looks like he has dirt all over his face. Like the skin looks almost mottled or something, instead of the smooth matte look of before.

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I think they might've tried to either add realism/detail or remove some of the glossiness by adding extra bump mapping. I can notice it in a screenshot I just took of a closeup, though only if I zoom in. It might be more noticeable in different lighting or on male characters.

https://files.catbox.moe/wchnd3.png

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MaxL

These two pictures do a wonderful job of showing how much the eyes changed for the worse. If you don't mind, I'll take the liberty of sharing these with the Japanese thread.

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By all means, please do.

Anyone else notice that the night skies have become more washed out and gray post-update? Some of the zones used to have such clear, dark starry skies and now they have diffused lighting where the stars all cast this hazy look across the sky. I was also disappointed the moon skybox now has whisps of moon fog? dust? that obscures what used to be a really gorgeous celestial sky.

Speaking of lighting, not a fan of the ambient light inside my personal house. It used to be saturated and moody and golden glow. Now no matter what I set it to it seems super bright and washed out.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Iscah

My forum avatar has updated now and it is doing outright bizarre stuff with the shadowing – half the hair casts a shadow and then it just stops.

Shadows are behaving oddly in the game as well. They're pixelated and can flicker badly as the camera moves. (Edit: Though I do need to keep reminding myself that despite having switched to playing on my PS5 console, I'm stuck playing the PS4 program as it was the only version I could download, possibly because PS5 Endwalker was taken off the store and PS5 Dawntrail isn't available until the official release date.)

And of course there's the eyes that look nothing at all like their proper shape, which is also my main sticking point in the game itself. My bug report on it was accepted, last I checked, so I can only hope it will get addressed. For now she looks half-asleep any time the camera is on her and it's extremely uncanny having the rest of her body look the same but the face is effectively someone else's.

On the other hand, they rejected the puckered face shape as "working as intended" but perhaps I can try again once I've encountered more instances of it – there have been a couple of shots where it's really noticable.

The curse of the eyebags has struck Alphinaud and Alisaie as well.

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I am playing the PS5 version with Dawntrail now.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DynnDiablos

I am playing the PS5 version with Dawntrail now.

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Good for you, that doesn't help me to download it when it's marked unavailable and just displays a timer to the official release date.

It does say the expected download date is 30 June so maybe I'll be able to get in there today, but there's no manual option to tell it to download any sooner.

"I haven't noticed any change."
"I have!"
https://i.imgur.com/kI2dczG.jpeg
Farewell, my love
https://i.imgur.com/wjW4RIU.png

unfortunately, i really can't say i'm a fan of the changes made to female hyurs (especially face 1). i don't have a lot of screenshots from before the update, but i tried compiling a couple examples i thought showcase the change

https://i.gyazo.com/d49bc795a467b2c9...df1ba0e491.gif

https://i.gyazo.com/e0d545caf6a25ec3...8d4bb4186e.gif

there's been a loss of quality in making the gifs, but i'm more pointing out the difference in features rather than the graphic update quality!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ysmia

Unrelated to the Benchmark: There is a significant amount of gloss with the new changes.
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...2ec4633d5f363&
(Changing the gamma levels help, but it also darkens the brightness of the game.)

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I would like to add that, in some lighting conditions, there is the appearance of gloss in Endwalker but not in Dawntrail. (Note: The character in my images has lip color enabled.)

https://i.imgur.com/ZRdRnb0.png

But...man. The changes to the size and shape of face 4 mouth 3 are so obvious. I was going to make a separate post about it, but your picture is a better example than mine. The lips look thinner, and the mouth itself looks narrower horizontally. It almost looks like it got even smaller since the benchmark---I think they might've shrunk the lips a bit to add the gap back in? Personally, I'd like it if the gap was optional.

The bottom and top lips have changed from a tapered shape to a rounded shape, especially near the corners of the mouth on the bottom lip. On the top lip, the cupid's bow looks smoothed out and less prominent. Along with the change in overall mouth size, these shape changes were introduced in the benchmark and seemingly intensified in the release version.

The release version's resting face seems to frown a bit more than it used to, though it's less noticeable outside of the character creator or aesthetician menu.

https://i.imgur.com/2XjY2PU.jpg

Even though I disliked the benchmark version, too, I think this mouth was better in the benchmark than it is in Dawntrail.

Also, in-game, and depending on lighting conditions, the bottom lip can seem to have a dark line on the bottom, and the area above the top lip and right below the corners of the lips can look lighter than the rest of the skin and/or catch the light weirdly. These things sometimes create the look of harsh lines around the lips and/or a milk mustache.

Got graphics?

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

Gave my feedbacks for Elezens during the 2nd benchmark, as well as others who took the effort to feedback. However, nothing was done by the developers and I was extremely disappointed not only for my elezens, as well as others' elezens. I shall just post what I'd feedback before.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GRT-fnga...name=4096x4096
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GRT-fnea...name=4096x4096

Male Elezen, Wildwood, Face 2
Generally am very happy with the update. However there are some issues I do not fancy.

• The original ear clasps texture is matte. For mine, it looks like bone-white material. In 7.0, the ear clasps are so small and metallic. The colours do not in any way present them as matte.

• The lips look dry in 7.0, the reflection is gone. Not a big issue but it will be nice if the lips can look slightly dewy.

• The neck polygons look awful. Necks are big part of Elezens. It will be great if the polygons can be increased in that area.

• There are shadows under the eyes which annoyed me. This made Face 2 male elezen look so tired and old.

While enjoying 7.0, I noticed there is this weird shadow cast on Male Elezen's face. The shadow extended from the cheekbones to the nose, making them look super old in sunlight.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GRT-fnlb...pg&name=medium
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GRT-fnab...pg&name=medium

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GRT-98zb...jpg&name=large
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GRT_AXia...pg&name=medium

Female Elezen, Duskwight, Face 4
Originally, my female elezen has a sharp look. However in 7.0, her sharp look is gone. She looks softer, like a good wife, instead of a badass.

• Her eyebrows in 7.0 has been altered to a lower ark. I have tried looking at other brow types available but the edges are so drastically high in ark. They make her look very angry instead of sharp. The brows made a huge difference to her vibe. I am extremely annoyed by this. Please fix it.

• In 7.0, Her lips were drastically altered. The corner of her lips has been edited into a slight smile. The edge of the original lips are travelling downward, not smiling. 7.0 lips are also slightly thinner than the original lips. The top part of the original lips looks like two Mount Fujis, but 7.0 lips looks like 2 hills. The bottom part of the original lips is more plump than 7.0 lips. Again, this affects the vibe of the character.

• I'd checked her portraits in 7.0, she looks hideous. They messed up her lips for sure. The smile is so different from original, and awkward. The eyes are also very dark. I dislike the model being altered this way.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Daralii

I think they might've tried to either add realism/detail or remove some of the glossiness by adding extra bump mapping. I can notice it in a screenshot I just took of a closeup, though only if I zoom in. It might be more noticeable in different lighting or on male characters.

https://files.catbox.moe/wchnd3.png

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That's interesting, I'm not sure I really see the same issue in your character that I see with mine. But then, I'm not used to looking at your character's face for hours as I am with my own. I think when I get home later I will play around with the settings and see if it fixes it, but it is very strange. It was present in the benchmark too but I tried to reserve judgment until seeing the finished product.

I am not sure if it has been mentioned but I feel the face paint textures are still low res

I wanted to point out the dramatic change to the overall face impression of Midlander Hyur face 1, using my character as an example.

https://i.imgur.com/fODrV2R.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/4GE6KUt.png

I'm not the world's best artist, but here is a sketch I made to emphasize the difference in features. I used photoshop to morph my initial pencil sketch to be as accurate to the in-game images as possible.

The most stark difference is the eyeliner. In Endwalker, the eyeliner facial feature was very dark, very thick and accentuated, and was shaped very dramatically up-and-out at the outer corners like wing eyeliner. It made Midlanders who used it look sharp, intense, and even intimidating with some facial expressions, which I loved. In contrast, the new eyeliner is thin, uniform in thickness, almost non-existent on the lower eyelid, and changes nothing about the shape or impression of the eyes. The difference between enabling or not enabling the eyeliner in Dawntrail is barely noticeable, whereas in Endwalker it could totally transform the impression of the eyes. I request that the new eyeliner be re-shaped and made darker to match the old eyeliner.

The eyes themselves (I use eye shape 5) are also smaller than they were in Endwalker. This gives midlanders the impression that they are squinting. Exacerbating this issue is the "eye bags", which, while not all that different in terms of geometry, are affected very differently by the new lighting. In Endwalker, the eye bag shapes would be smoothed out and practically invisible in most lighting conditions, whereas in Dawntrail they are pronounced in almost all lighting conditions. This gives Midlanders the impression of having swollen eyes, as if they are having an allergic reaction. I would request the eye shape be changed to match it's pre-Dawntrail shape, and the normal map of the eye bags be adjusted to make them appear less prominent.

https://i.imgur.com/03ChDXz.png

(Here is an example of what I mean. As you can see, on the half of her face that is in shadow, the "eye bag" is nearly invisible.)

(1/2)

(2/2)

The nose (nose 4 in this instance) has become slightly wider at the nostrils. This is the least egregious change, but because the eyes and lips are both much smaller, the nose is now a much more prominent aspect of facial balance.

The shape of the lips (type 4), specifically the philtrum and cupids bow, have completely changed. The philtrum is much narrower and straighter, and the cupids bow is "pinched", with the 2 apexes of the upper lip shape being much closer together. This gives the face a much more "aged" impression. I would request the lip shape be changed to match it's pre-Dawntrail shape.

Finally, the lip color shape has also completely changed. The old lip color was full, had a natural and pleasing contour, and reached the corners of the mouth. The new lip color is unnaturally round and doesn't fully cover the lips corner-to-corner, which gives the impression of permanently pursed lips. The lower lip in particular is much more round than it was in Endwalker, making it seem like it has gotten a botox injection. I would request the lip color shape be changed to match it's pre-Dawntrail shape.

Lodestone update finally hit my main character... The hair color is off like I thought it'd be, but I already attempted a second bug report and MaxL posted a considerably better example of what's going on with that just a few posts earlier.

However, in spirit of this thread, I will say that I still feel like female Elezen are one of the considerably luckier ones in the graphic update (though I still understand and encourage feedback from those who feel they have more problems with them).

My character's nose, jaw, eye shape, brow shape, etc. are a little different but still fundamentally keep the same feeling as before.

https://i.imgur.com/icaz4NE.jpeghttps://i.imgur.com/EvKFEiV.jpeg
(The bigger one is the new one.)

But I do still request that the lips be brought closer to their previous iteration... The stern lip shape going to a slight smile is really distracting, and, after looking more at the shape, I feel like the more frowny/neutral shape can be brought back by just editing the upper lips to again be wider than the lower ones, and lessening the "curve" on the upper lips just slightly.

I mean, the feeling of the stare in even the forum icon change is notably different when they're at the same size:
https://i.imgur.com/rtZudtC.png
(<- New | Old ->)

I'd also like her colored pupils back, but those were so subtle compared to other races that I admittedly feel silly asking...and I can cope with the black pupils even though I'd rather not, haha.

In general though, I feel like adjusting the lip shape should be a big priority for a lot of characters. They've been too homogenized.

And as several people have shown with ♀ Au Ra Face 2 edits (which is one face I must keep whining about until it's fixed!!), just adding the shape of the old lips back does a LOT to restore the character feeling.