7.0 Graphic Update - Lalafell Feedback (please give me back my smudge!!)

How are we feeling, Lalafell WoLs? I was very optimistic about the graphics update while viewing all the pre-release material, but now that we finally get to play with the new character creator...Personally, I'm really not happy.

https://i.imgur.com/iNn38hf.png

My skin color is much greener, but I'm sure I can find a different skintone closer to the old one. I'm also not a fan of the thinner eyebrows/upper eye-lashes, but I can live with that. What I can't abide by, however, is that they stole the dark smudge on my nose!! While it's still technically a facial feature, the difference between smudge/no smudge is much harder to see now. ...but only for females.

https://i.imgur.com/nfeu2az.png

The males got to keep their darker noses! I don't want to use a Fantasia in order to keep mine. In general, the girls' face is SO SHINY compared to the boys', and I don't understand why. Are we just assuming that because my WoL's a female, she moisturizes hourly? This gender difference seems extremely arbitrary. Devs, please tone down the shine and give back my dark nose. This part is probably not feasible, but something that would be ideal is if we could get the "light, dark, none" toggle for this particular facial feature, like we have for face paint and lip color.

EDIT 6/3/24: The smudge has been restored! <3
https://i.imgur.com/KlWkas7.png
Current (6.55) → Benchmark v1 → Benchmark v2

Lalafell faces have some weird broken/jagged model parts on the cheeks under the eyes on all of the jaw options except the fat cheeks :S I hope they redo this. Also please make the Dunesfolk eyes look closer to how they look in the current game, somehow the new ones look darker most of the time. Other than this, they look pretty good.

Old: https://i.imgur.com/9BHOANp.png New: http://blob:https://imgur.com/399bd1...7-eefcdba884ddhttps://i.imgur.com/kyRWUDc.png

Dissappointed falls short on how I feel about my lalafell changes...
She's been stripped of all life force, personality, and appearance

-Eyes dead, no shine, also why now you can see the pupil? She is supposed to be a Dunesfolk, all the eye should look yellow and bright.

-Lips have changed shape and shine, now they are like a stripe of paint, she also lost her smile?? why

-She has dark circles under her eyes now, why?? She looks like she hasn't sleep in 3 days

-Hair looks like plastic strings...

I honestly don't understand all these changes, and I don't like it, I'm sad and frustrated, specially on the eyes and lips, changed their face completely



https://i.ibb.co/0XSHtQf/nooooo.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/TMNg2DR/segundacomparacion.png

Quote:

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Originally Posted by KhujaRela

https://i.ibb.co/0XSHtQf/nooooo.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/TMNg2DR/segundacomparacion.png

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Their true nature is just coming up to the surface for all to see.
Soulless, evil potatoes. /s

They somehow made the actual child-like race look more like dolls than ever.

There is some weird direction going on at SE these days.

I quite like the changes for mine overall (I suppose it depends on personal preference and creation choices - not all seem to have benefited from the changes).

He seems a little more grown up and in the benchmark itself the hair looked a lot better. I think the one thing I don't like is the smoothness of the skin - there's almost no texture/imperfections, making it almost porcelain like.

https://imgur.com/a/Ba5uBl9
https://imgur.com/a/F7sJm8x

The changes don't look as strange from an angle, but face-on they look particularly odd. These are comparison shots from current character creator vs benchmark:

https://i.imgur.com/BxhBz7K.png

https://i.imgur.com/S2UKT2Z.png

Main things that stood out to me were:
1. The new mouths look weird; Type 02 in the new version is a closer match for the current Type 01 than the new Type 01 is.
2. Some of the jawlines have changed; type 2 looks like it's chubbier on the sides and has a flatter bottom than the more rounded lower jaw at present. I think this contributes to the mouths looking odd.
3. The old noses are button-like, but the new one has a long bridge which changes the profile of the face. Less noticable face-on, but it contributes to the nose looking flatter in the new version even though it's the same size. Very obvious if you compare from the side.
4. The new eyelash design is awful. The upper lashes now curl around the eye rather than ending in a point as they used to (this is what's causing the dead eyes, I think). The lower lashes are now poorly defined and look like a smudge under the eye rather than lashes. You can also see the eye shape has changed a bit which makes this more obvious / look worse

At this point I'd guess there's minimal time left for fixing these things, but it's disappointing more care wasn't taken to match like for like.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by HermitUK

The changes don't look as strange from an angle, but face-on they look particularly odd. These are comparison shots from current character creator vs benchmark:

https://i.imgur.com/BxhBz7K.png

https://i.imgur.com/S2UKT2Z.png

Main things that stood out to me were:
1. The new mouths look weird; Type 02 in the new version is a closer match for the current Type 01 than the new Type 01 is.
2. Some of the jawlines have changed; type 2 looks like it's chubbier on the sides and has a flatter bottom than the more rounded lower jaw at present. I think this contributes to the mouths looking odd.
3. The old noses are button-like, but the new one has a long bridge which changes the profile of the face. Less noticable face-on, but it contributes to the nose looking flatter in the new version even though it's the same size. Very obvious if you compare from the side.
4. The new eyelash design is awful. The upper lashes now curl around the eye rather than ending in a point as they used to (this is what's causing the dead eyes, I think). The lower lashes are now poorly defined and look like a smudge under the eye rather than lashes. You can also see the eye shape has changed a bit which makes this more obvious / look worse

At this point I'd guess there's minimal time left for fixing these things, but it's disappointing more care wasn't taken to match like for like.

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Ahhh so I wasn't hallucinating that some characters faces looked chubbier...interesting.

What happened to my nose?! The dark spot needs to be darker or I look like a completely different character. Otherwise I absolutely love how I look.

I'm generally happy with how the update treated my character (might make a few minor color changes though since the new lighting seems to make things brighter) but I do miss my darker Tarutaru style nose smudge:
https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...=1#post6436985

I wonder if it's part of the "black isn't as black" issue people are seeing in other areas, the shape of the smudge is more natural but the reflection of the light washes out the darker black area.

For my Lala, I really dislike how dark they made the eye outline. Our nose also seems to melt into our face (this is hopefully just lighting dependent), and we seem to have lost our upper lips. :(

Before:
https://i.imgur.com/8WXX0yG.jpg
After:
https://i.imgur.com/XsF0iqa.jpg




Also, this horror:
Before:
https://i.imgur.com/Tak78Z5.jpg
After:
https://i.imgur.com/I1B9fil.jpg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Skivvy

and we seem to have lost our upper lips. :(

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Ah, I though something was off about the mouth but I couldn't place it, wondered if it was because I'm using lip color and how it seems to react differently to lighting now, but the same without it. Now that you've pointed it out it looks so obvious, there is little to no upper lip.

Hello I also have some Thoughts! I play a Plainsfolk female character, so my impressions are about them
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLJN2mtX...jpg&name=smallhttps://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLJN5_UW...jpg&name=small
I imported my character settings from the normal game and my biggest concern by far is that the dark nose dot doesn't show up (but it DOES show up fine on light-skinned characters, it just doesn't scale with skin color)
And then I think the other thing that bothers me quite a bit is the eyes... I don't think they radically changed the shape, but between the outline, less shine, and the top of the eye using different shading (the top eyeball/eyelashes/eyelid is different) it looks like her eyes are really wide open??
Finally, like others have said, the mouths are a little off (but they've given better descriptions than me!)

On the positive side! I love how I can see my dark-skinned character in low-light settings on the benchmark! Thanks so much for doing that!!

Similar things happen with Hellsguard roegadyn's nose ash. Just super diminished and barely visible on darker skin tones.

The lack of upper lip and reduced definition of the lower one are very much deal breakers for me.

https://i.imgur.com/DcAMa5u.png
https://i.imgur.com/rWK9NLo.png

I feel like so much character identity is lost, and none of the available options in the editor are even close to how it was before.
It looks bad enough by itself, but makes expressions outright look uncanny.

https://i.imgur.com/0LUvbPA.png

Since Fantasia cannot fix this, if it's unchanged in the final release I'm not sure I could make myself swap to a different race, or if I'd just quit FFXIV entirely.
My Lalafell has accompanied me for so much of my life and I love her so very dearly, seeing her like this is causing me horrible heartache.

I personally really like the updates! Made my character look a little older and I especially love the look of the plainsfolk eyes. The ears are amazing.

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

The benchmark character creator's lighting is a bit... off I think though? That and I don't like how the eye highlights disappear in the case of shadows. The highlights should be stronger and keep the eyes lit up or else it looks dead (much like other's complaints).

https://i.imgur.com/U24sk1G.jpeg

Other than that though, really impressed with the benchmark appearance in cutscenes! Just really hope they tweak out the eye highlight issue

https://i.imgur.com/xZO0F4s.png

https://i.imgur.com/zfeD3nz.png

Once I got out of the character creator and into the benchmark I was very happy. He looks great!

Yeah, I'm pretty okay overall with my character's looks but it makes me sad they snatched her already tiny lips away. I use the largest eyes/nose/lips so her face looks "fuller" but now, no lips. :(

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLJsvKpW...name=4096x4096

I want the dark nose back. Lips seem to have been downgraded for all races. Also, those teeth while cheering... They are so wrong.

https://media.discordapp.net/attachm...8&height=1004&

You can see how light the nose gets in direct sunlight in the benchmark. I don't like it.
https://i.imgur.com/39ojro5.png

I gave my old Lala design a spin (she's now a retainer) and this is what I got:
https://imgur.com/6Ugvj5s.png

As I said both my Viera and Miqo (who used to be this Lala), the difference is staggering.
Between the low res hair, the pale flat looking skin and the absolutely horrendous shadows... I'm just so ready to move on from these PS3 characters.

Also: Please make sure to match lighting conditions and pose if you're looking to make a proper comparison. I mean no disrespect, but Khuja's comparisons are really poorly executed.

That said, I'll give you guys the upper lip argument, though I don't personally think it's game breaking.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Emitans

https://i.imgur.com/39ojro5.png

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I love how your character looks. I'm getting serious 1.0 CGI vibes from how Lalas were originally intended to look.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DiaDeem

I love how your character looks. I'm getting serious 1.0 CGI vibes from how Lalas were originally intended to look.

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I love *everything* except how the smudge looks. The boat scene in particular looks so good it looks like its pre rendered

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Pyshiro

I personally really like the updates! Made my character look a little older and I especially love the look of the plainsfolk eyes. The ears are amazing.

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I do think your Lala is one of the best before-and-after samples I've seen. His key traits transitioned over to 7.0 very well!

Overall, not much changed with my Dunesfolk Lala… I do notice a little thinness to the lips, but maybe a different lip color will fix that.

The eyes though… while not much different than before, I’m definitely considering going a shade lighter on color to make the glow show up a bit better. I have really dark blue eyes, but fiddling with it in the character creator, the shade right before it seemed to look more like what I’m used to. But it’s been a pet peeve of mine for awhile that the darker blue you go, the more the eyes look more greenish than blue.

I saw a suggestion elsewhere that adjusting your gamma might help if things are looking too pale and washed out… I may try that and see what it does for the eyes, even though my problem is that they look darker now.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Vuro

I do think your Lala is one of the best before-and-after samples I've seen. His key traits transitioned over to 7.0 very well!

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I'm curious if most of the bad transitions happen to be female lalafell... I've seen most of my male lala friends super thrilled but the female side is here and there with it.

I tested with my npc alt and I at least know I'll love seeing cutscenes with Pipin again :cool:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLHLqa4X...jpg&name=large

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLHLvK9W...jpg&name=large

Quote:

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Originally Posted by LuminaLumi

I want the dark nose back. Lips seem to have been downgraded for all races. Also, those teeth while cheering... They are so wrong.

https://media.discordapp.net/attachm...8&height=1004&

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those teeth do look a bit cursed...

the lack of an upper lip or darker nose just makes my character look completely different to me
(current look)
https://i.imgur.com/EUiOFJx.jpeg

(dt benchmark)
https://i.imgur.com/or2SIVL.png

Face paint has also been left untouched, and now looks even worse on darker skin. Darker skin also seems to have become more green? I don't mind the rounder face but looking through all the dunesfolk options there's just no more upper lips or dark noses. Even going through other eye/nose/face options they've all become much more feminine and eyes especially are larger and rounder. Feels like they just changed all the female character options to be more generically feminine :( I tried the gamma correction change but it just makes the background hurt my eyes to look at(it makes darker skin look slightly less washed out though)

I just find the eyes very odd now.

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

When I first looked at my character, I was disappointed by the way the eyes look. The different eyelash structure really affected the overall shape of the eye. Before, when the lashes ended in a point and are longer at the top than in the corners, it gave a sort of cat-eye appearance which I liked and why I chose this eye type. The new "eyeliner" they gave us is also now thicker past the upper corner of the eye and is really dark and inky looking, which gives that rounded look now instead.

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

That said, maybe I can play around with things and find a fix.

I feel like I'm obsessing over this but the eyes are the biggest part of their faces so that's what's really bugging me with my character. I'm pretty much okay with the rest of her face.

The lala smudge, miqo face 4 smudge, roe ash smudge...they're all important features (and all cute!) please don't take/fade them away...

I really dislike the change to the smile :|

https://i.imgur.com/Dy5gxbY.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/eivEtZk.jpg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by michifu

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

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Yeah, I noticed this too and really don't like what they've done. Completely changes the look of the eyes, and the character as a result. I could not find any options to fix it. Type 3 eyes bring the top eyelid down a bit which looks better, but still nothing like my current character.

Popoto looks like popoto to me. I'm not seeing any problems with the nose smudge
https://i.imgur.com/t7YJgz1.png

https://files.catbox.moe/1vzszl.png

I really don't like the fact that my lalafell's eyebrows are so different in the Dawntrail benchmark, they're thinner and they don't match her hair color anymore. I really hope they do something about this.

The main thing I'm not too happy with is the changes made to my Lala's eyes:

https://i.imgur.com/lZb0NHB.pnghttps://imgur.com/sefdEYG.png

- The shape is a bit more rounded in general and the slight droop of the outer bottom corners has been removed. You can no longer see the bottom of his irises.
- I also really liked that the eyelids/shadow along the top looked straighter. It gave him an anime-style deadpan look.
- Eyelashes have either been nerfed, or are hidden by...
- My biggest gripe: it looks like he is now wearing thick eyeliner. The shadows(?) around the eyes are too strong in my opinion. A two minute smudging job in GIMP has him looking much closer to the current version:

https://imgur.com/3Y1tSOt.png

Apart from that are the changes made to the mouth and smile Skivvy showed on post #12. They've massively narrowed our palate and changed the shape of the smile from a diamond/almond shape to a crescent. It was such a charming smile before and now it looks kind of cursed if I'm honest.

my wol feels so different and its just kinda unfortunate, i really dont like my eyes

https://i.imgur.com/gHwjMYr.png https://i.imgur.com/XiFR4hg.png



https://i.imgur.com/5zIzjkf.png https://i.imgur.com/3iZDJPK.png

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Skivvy

https://i.imgur.com/I1B9fil.jpg

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Holy sh...it's the G-MAN SMILE
https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca88...Z3cKVNM6usHVuw

I'm saddened that my Lalafells lip shape has completely been changed- I would have liked it to remain the full, bowed shape - but now there's no real visual difference between the mouth/ lips shapes.
And her sweet, lost looking expression is also gone.
If the devs see this; I would ask that the unique lip shapes remain or are updated to stand out better ^^

Exact same face & presets:
Original, in game
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...08f23705cf851&


DT Benchmark
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...4f328dff0091d&

Quote:

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Originally Posted by VictorSpoils

Holy sh...it's the G-MAN SMILE
https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca88...Z3cKVNM6usHVuw

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Male lalafells sure became scary…

The teeth arrangement is drastically different from previous. I see jp players also pointing it out.

i'm pretty happy with how my lalas look, they're different but i can work with it
the nose smudge is really muted on darker skin tones though
current | benchmark
https://64.media.tumblr.com/d1b21d92...efaa808be9.png
https://64.media.tumblr.com/210f632c...523328ff09.png
(she doesn't have the nose smudge i'm just posting her too for comparison)

on darker skin adding the nose smudge looks like it makes it lighter? like the texture isn't adjusting for different tones. but even on pale skin it's not as strong
current | benchmark
https://64.media.tumblr.com/3992ba70...294de124c6.png
no smudge | with smudge
https://64.media.tumblr.com/aa63e4b0...509ae157ca.png

Didn't see this thread, so I'll repost what I put in another thread since it's lala-relevant here:

The benchmark changed the shape of my character's eyes by removing the dark/heavier upper eyelids and it makes her look shell-shocked. It's a little upsetting because I recall Yoshi-p mentioning that he wanted to move away from characters having "empty dead-eyed" stares and to me it seems like some fundamental eye shape change has inadvertently caused what he was wanting to avoid. I rather enjoyed that my character held a kind of "aloof" or "bemused" expression that made it seem like she was always quietly thinking to herself.

I have the benchmark photo (left), an edit I drew the heavier eyelids onto (right), and the original/before (center). I feel silly because it's just a game I don't usually care to make a fuss over or be a nuisance about.

https://i.imgur.com/8NQLkGL.png

I'd like it if the update could retain the original characteristic of her eyes and appreciate the hard work of the developers.