Was This Face Change Ever Explained?

With the graphics update, I've seen alot of posts about face differences before and after. Alot of the differences I think are up to personal scrutiny on whether or not they are noticeable.

I've noticed this particular face difference that is glaringly different, however.

Were these ever explained by the developers?

I remember there was a mentioning that they wanted to keep faces close to how they originally appeared before the graphics update, but this change seems way too glaring to be a mistake.

The face markings have turned from a monochromatic gray to a strange, and personally off-putting, mix of bruise-purple of different shades.

Was there ever any word about this change in any live letter or such? Is it to conform to some lore behind miqote, or return to 1.0 graphics or something?

Has anyone noticed any other seemingly "intentional" changes to other races or faces with the graphics update?

Before:
https://i.imgur.com/OhPow2X.png

After:
https://i.imgur.com/dGTUHC5.png
Screenshots were snipped from another forum post.

Obviously, they wanted to do the graphics update, but they couldn't do very much with faces precisely because they knew this would be the reaction.

So they changed the faces just a tiny little bit. Resolution increase, smoothing the polygons on some faces, lighting/shader improvements, lip color/shader improvements, eye resolution increases...

And for those minor changes, they got all this backlash still, despite that it was a fraction of what they could have done within their new system requirements.

They have prepared a massive patch to address a lot of these concerns. I suggest waiting for that patch and then seeing if it's still a problem.

Oh I hadn't heard about an upcoming update! Thanks, I'll save my fantasia for now then. I wonder what's to happen for players who already spent theirs though.

This particular change on changing the colors of the face stripes seems so blatant to me however, that I assume it to be an intentional one. Instead of being a minor alteration of a lip or eye shape, this seems to be such a more... obvious, for lack of better words, change, so I assumed it was one they did on purpose. I just wonder if there was any word on "why".

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Originally Posted by Aimuari

Oh I hadn't heard about an upcoming update! Thanks, I'll save my fantasia for now then. I wonder what's to happen for players who already spent theirs though.

This particular change on changing the colors of the face stripes seems so blatant to me however, that I assume it to be an intentional one. Instead of being a minor alteration of a lip or eye shape, this seems to be such a more... obvious, for lack of better words, change, so I assumed it was one they did on purpose. I just wonder if there was any word on "why".

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It's fairly inconsistent. Here's the megathread where people have left the majority of their face feedback.
https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...ion-megathread

You'll be able to see that some faces received much more significant change than others, and oddly, there's not really any consistent philosophy across the board. Some facial features were made softer and more delicate on some faces while made sterner and sharper on others. Some faces were made more youthful looking and some were made more mature looking. Some faces had their features carefully recreated while others had them entirely replaced. Some faces lost racial traits. Some things changed colour for seemingly no reason. Some peoples eyebrows were made brighter, some made darker. Many features like lashes or eye textures were replaced with different ones, while still being the same resolution, so it's unclear why they were even replaced. It's kinda the wild west. It doesn't entirely feel like there was enough oversight or guidance.

As for people who have already used the free fantasia, well I still had my original. I loved my character so much that I never used it. I finally fanta'd for the first time recently and became an Au'ra with a friend to see if an entirely new character might work for me but it didn't. I'm hoping they adjust my original face and then I'll fanta back to my original appearance. I think that if I didn't still have a spare fanta, at this point I would just happily buy another and I wouldn't even dream of complaining. My attachment to my character was cementing my connection to the story and world. I want my face to look familiar again so badly that I'd pay money. I suspect a lot of people in that thread feel the same way.

I'm just waiting very patiently and anxiously for the statement they promised toward the end of this month regarding all the feedback on character appearances.

I feel like another slider is needed for fine tuning, not sure 'where' that slider should affect, and that that free fantasia needs to be given again with the upcoming update.

That being said, I do feel like the second picture of the OP is better than the first picture, but I don't make fem miqos often, so haven't got much stock in the affair.

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Originally Posted by Jeeqbit

Obviously, they wanted to do the graphics update, but they couldn't do very much with faces precisely because they knew this would be the reaction.

So they changed the faces just a tiny little bit. Resolution increase, smoothing the polygons on some faces, lighting/shader improvements, lip color/shader improvements, eye resolution increases...

And for those minor changes, they got all this backlash still, despite that it was a fraction of what they could have done within their new system requirements.

They have prepared a massive patch to address a lot of these concerns. I suggest waiting for that patch and then seeing if it's still a problem.

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It was a character update, not a character redesign, they shouldn't have changed anything to do with how our faces looked in the first place.

The backlash is because they heavily changed our characters' faces to the point where some people can't even recognize their WoL anymore. These were not minor changes, they didn't even bother trying to "keep the look of our characters".

N̶o̶,̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶y̶ ̶h̶a̶v̶e̶ ̶n̶o̶t̶ ̶p̶r̶e̶p̶a̶r̶e̶d̶ ̶a̶ ̶m̶a̶s̶s̶i̶v̶e̶ ̶p̶a̶t̶c̶h̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶a̶d̶d̶r̶e̶s̶s̶ ̶o̶u̶r̶ ̶c̶o̶n̶c̶e̶r̶n̶s̶.̶ ̶T̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶a̶ ̶s̶t̶r̶a̶i̶g̶h̶t̶ ̶u̶p̶ ̶l̶i̶e̶.̶ ̶T̶h̶e̶y̶ ̶s̶a̶i̶d̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶y̶ ̶w̶e̶r̶e̶ ̶g̶o̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶p̶r̶e̶p̶a̶r̶e̶ ̶a̶ ̶s̶t̶a̶t̶e̶m̶e̶n̶t̶ ̶r̶e̶g̶a̶r̶d̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶o̶u̶r̶ ̶c̶o̶n̶c̶e̶r̶n̶s̶.̶ ̶H̶o̶n̶e̶s̶t̶l̶y̶ ̶t̶h̶o̶u̶g̶h̶,̶ ̶I̶'̶l̶l̶ ̶b̶e̶ ̶s̶u̶r̶p̶r̶i̶s̶e̶d̶ ̶i̶f̶ ̶i̶t̶'̶s̶ ̶a̶n̶y̶t̶h̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶m̶o̶r̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶n̶ ̶a̶ ̶p̶r̶ ̶s̶t̶a̶t̶e̶m̶e̶n̶t̶.̶ ̶

Edit: My above paragraph is wrong, there is an update planned. Apologies to Jeeqbit.

To address OP's question, Au Ra's eyeliner was changed in a similar way to the Miqo'te markings. The eyeliner used to be dark and black but after the update it became a weak silvery gray. No idea why they decided to make these changes. Male Viera looks like they had the color of their nose smudge changed (I don't have a Viera so feel free to correct me if I'm wrong). And no, they have not explained any of these changes (and I'll be shocked if they ever do).

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Originally Posted by Silaryn

These were not minor changes, they didn't even bother trying to "keep the look of our characters".

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I get that they are a big deal to people who are into glam and appearance or have an attachment to their former look, but that doesn't mean most of them aren't technically minor. It is like how a dress can have a line curved in a slightly different way. That's a minor difference... but there are a lot of people that would find it a massive difference.

Same with lighting or shadow differences. I get it's a big deal to people, but from a technical standpoint, it's just adjusting sliders and clipping to try and make it similar under the new light settings and they tried their best.

They were definitely trying to keep the look of the characters because they explicity said they were trying to do that.

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No, they have not prepared a massive patch to address our concerns. This is a straight up lie.

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No it is not. Here is the link! https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...=1#post6570905

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They said they were going to prepare a statement regarding our concerns. Honestly though, I'll be surprised if it's anything more than a pr statement.

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They said an "update" that is "undergoing final inspectations". That is another way of saying it's a patch.

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Originally Posted by Silaryn

It was a character update, not a character redesign, they shouldn't have changed anything to do with how our faces looked in the first place.

The backlash is because they heavily changed our characters' faces to the point where some people can't even recognize their WoL anymore. These were not minor changes, they didn't even bother trying to "keep the look of our characters".

No, they have not prepared a massive patch to address our concerns. This is a straight up lie. They said they were going to prepare a statement regarding our concerns. Honestly though, I'll be surprised if it's anything more than a pr statement.

To address OP's question, Au Ra's eyeliner was changed in a similar way to the Miqo'te markings. The eyeliner used to be dark and black but after the update it became a weak silvery gray. No idea why they decided to make these changes. Male Viera looks like they had the color of their nose smudge changed (I don't have a Viera so feel free to correct me if I'm wrong). And no, they have not explained any of these changes (and I'll be shocked if they ever do).

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Accusing people of telling a "straight up lie", just because you're too lazy or incompetent to do your homework automatically disqualifies you from any form of public discussion.

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Originally Posted by Jeeqbit

I get that they are a big deal to people who are into glam and appearance or have an attachment to their former look, but that doesn't mean most of them aren't technically minor. It is like how a dress can have a line curved in a slightly different way. That's a minor difference... but there are a lot of people that would find it a massive difference.

Same with lighting or shadow differences. I get it's a big deal to people, but from a technical standpoint, it's just adjusting sliders and clipping to try and make it similar under the new light settings and they tried their best.

They were definitely trying to keep the look of the characters because they explicity said they were trying to do that.
No it is not. Here is the link! https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...=1#post6570905
They said an "update" that is "undergoing final inspectations". That is another way of saying it's a patch.

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The changes are not mostly minor though. There's a whole megathread where people have outlined the many changes made to the our characters' faces. Maybe you don't care about the changes but that doesn't make them minor. Even if a change was minor, it is still a change and should not have occurred.

No they did not bother trying to keep the look of the characters. Yes, they said they were doing that. They lied. Companies lie. Take a quick look through the megathread and it becomes obvious they didn't give a chocobo's arse about making our characters look the same. They managed to downgrade the character models while keeping the characters looking the same there is no excuse as to why they couldn't have done it while upgrading the character models.

Also, thanks for the link. I was wrong about there not being an update. I'll fix my post.

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Originally Posted by Aimuari

Were these ever explained by the developers?

I remember there was a mentioning that they wanted to keep faces close to how they originally appeared before the graphics update, but this change seems way too glaring to be a mistake.

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No, the changes weren't announced or explained; players just had to face reality when the first benchmark iteration was released.

The root of the issue is (as far as I can see) the universal mesh the developers replaced all the faces with (maybe except for Hrothgars; they are too extreme) and universal diffuse maps for some body parts (like the eyes, for example). And then SE designers tried to make the faces resemble their former selves.

Some faces got better treatment, some faces suffered severely, as if they were put in the hands of different designers with different skill levels or the QA team had no time (or intention) to verify them properly. Also, the universal mesh has some animation problems (especially with the smiles), and they are present across all unified races.

This Japanese post explains very well the issue with the universal mesh:
https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...=1#post6585636

P.S.
In case it's difficult for you to read Google-translated Japanese, there is an English post about the same issue illustrated by Lalafellin mesh.

https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...=1#post6580162

There aren't "tiny changes," "resolution increase," or "smoothing the polygons here and there." It's a complete character overhaul.

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Originally Posted by Jeeqbit

I get that they are a big deal to people who are into glam and appearance or have an attachment to their former look, but that doesn't mean most of them aren't technically minor. It is like how a dress can have a line curved in a slightly different way. That's a minor difference... but there are a lot of people that would find it a massive difference.

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That is true. Simultaneously, when you give many of those lines a slightly different curve, at some point you just have a different outfit. That thread shows many such wardrobe malfunctions.

Oh gosh if they're planning another major graphics update change to fix the current issues, I hope we get another Fanta to undo changes we made to try to work with how they look now <_>

Then its prop a me thing but i cant see any difference in my own characters.
I struggle to see a difference in a lot of side by side examples people post claiming their character is unrecognisable. To me it feels like a lot of hyperbole.

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Originally Posted by Caitlinzulu

Then its prop a me thing but i cant see any difference in my own characters.
I struggle to see a difference in a lot of side by side examples people post claiming their character is unrecognisable. To me it feels like a lot of hyperbole.

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You’re right, it’s a you thing. But that’s ok! As long as you understand you might just have a bit of face blindness. It’s normal. There’s a lot of divide on this because recognizing faces is a biological factor determined subconsciously in the brain. Recognizing things that are different is a survival instinct. Some people are gonna see two eyes a nose and a mouth and go “yep, face”, and some people are gonna notice immediately if someone shows up with a different nose. If someone has ever gotten mad at you irl for not noticing their new haircut or glasses, then you’ve run into this before. So when you or others who respond similar to you see people talking about the differences in faces but it all looks the same to you, try to be understanding. That’s probably just what’s going on.

I’ve tried to be accommodating of that with my feedback in that thread by showing as many detailed markups and direct overlay gifs as I could. If I can at least show people that “yes, there are physical changes to the shapes of features”, then I have a foothold. I can hope to convince others that if they know now things changed but can’t tell the difference, then they shouldn’t mind if things are made to more resemble the original faces again, right? If you didn’t notice things changed, then you shouldn’t mind if they change back. They can modify the new base mesh to more closely recreate the original feature shapes. Everything would look just as good in the new lighting with higher resolution textures.

And if people can see that things look different but they like the new features better, then that’s a different argument. Or rather that doesn’t have to be an argument at all. There can be common ground where everyone wants an improved character creator with more options. There’s an ideal world where almost everyone gets what they want, but SE just needs to devote the appropriate time and budget to making it happen. The graphics update should always have included an update to the CC.

I have a lot of criticism for rushing this graphic update out alongside an entire expansion while the lead dev was also split between this and FFXVI. I also am very anxious if they’re “putting the finishing touches” on an additional update for character appearances as they said. I appreciate that they let us know we’re being heard but it simply hasn’t been long enough to fix everything. If it’s more fixes like we saw between the benchmark and full release I’d rather they take their time.

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Originally Posted by Jeeqbit

I get that they are a big deal to people who are into glam and appearance or have an attachment to their former look, but that doesn't mean most of them aren't technically minor. It is like how a dress can have a line curved in a slightly different way. That's a minor difference... but there are a lot of people that would find it a massive difference.

Same with lighting or shadow differences. I get it's a big deal to people, but from a technical standpoint, it's just adjusting sliders and clipping to try and make it similar under the new light settings and they tried their best.

They were definitely trying to keep the look of the characters because they explicity said they were trying to do that.
No it is not. Here is the link! https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...=1#post6570905
They said an "update" that is "undergoing final inspectations". That is another way of saying it's a patch.

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"The company said so, thus it must be true"

lmao.

Hrothgar and viera hats would like a word with you, it's been 5 years its "allegedly" in the work. Lmao.

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Originally Posted by Cheapshot

You’re right, it’s a you thing. But that’s ok! As long as you understand you might just have a bit of face blindness. It’s normal. There’s a lot of divide on this because recognizing faces is a biological factor determined subconsciously in the brain. Recognizing things that are different is a survival instinct. Some people are gonna see two eyes a nose and a mouth and go “yep, face”, and some people are gonna notice immediately if someone shows up with a different nose. If someone has ever gotten mad at you irl for not noticing their new haircut or glasses, then you’ve run into this before. So when you or others who respond similar to you see people talking about the differences in faces but it all looks the same to you, try to be understanding. That’s probably just what’s going on.

I’ve tried to be accommodating of that with my feedback in that thread by showing as many detailed markups and direct overlay gifs as I could. If I can at least show people that “yes, there are physical changes to the shapes of features”, then I have a foothold. I can hope to convince others that if they know now things changed but can’t tell the difference, then they shouldn’t mind if things are made to more resemble the original faces again, right? If you didn’t notice things changed, then you shouldn’t mind if they change back. They can modify the new base mesh to more closely recreate the original feature shapes. Everything would look just as good in the new lighting with higher resolution textures.

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Why does it have to be one party having "face blindness" and not the other party having an overreaction to a miniscule change?

Why do the people who don't care about the changes care so much about the changes by being defensive over them towards people who care about the changes

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Originally Posted by PassinLay

"The company said so, thus it must be true"

lmao.

Hrothgar and viera hats would like a word with you, it's been 5 years its "allegedly" in the work. Lmao.

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Is there a link that shows they said they'd make hats for them eventually, because my memory is just that they would have none because of the model design, except a few devs decided to try on their own time. I haven't seen anything saying that they would have hats in the future.

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Originally Posted by Sacae

Why does it have to be one party having "face blindness" and not the other party having an overreaction to a miniscule change?

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I mean, they are not minuscule changes. My fish fin horn au ra alt looks like a total stranger to me, and that’s not hyperbole.

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Originally Posted by Sacae

Why does it have to be one party having "face blindness" and not the other party having an overreaction to a miniscule change?

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Well, when someone tells me I’m overreacting and nothing changed I gave them the benefit of the doubt. I considered I could be somehow wrong and the changes were just tricks of lighting or imagined.

So I looked at the literal meshes side by side. They changed a lot.

How about you? Face blindness is a real thing, it’s called Prosopagnosia and there’s a lot of types of it. Observing and remembering facial features is typically how our brains recognize others who we’re familiar with. Some people don’t recognize others that way. I was willing to consider that I might be wrong, so I went out of my way to test my perception. I don’t see people on the other side of the fence making much effort to consider they’re wrong though?

Well it's no longer August so I won't be holding my breath on the dev announcement lol. I've tweaked my boy and he looks mostly okay but the eyebrows still are just wrong, especially in scenes where he makes a >:( face, he looks like one of those oni masks. It really caused me to not enjoy Dawntrail as much as I was hoping--I even played the MSQ on an alt first before my main because I couldn't stand looking at the stranger they replaced my character with. They really, really dropped the ball on this graphical update, and now I can't even play it on my laptop because of the ridiculous leap in the minimum specs required to even launch it. I wish they had an option to turn the graphical update off and just continue playing with the old graphics.

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Originally Posted by glitteringcosmos

Well it's no longer August so I won't be holding my breath on the dev announcement lol.

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I'm not entirely sure if you were aware of this but the announcement has been pushed back to September, so there's still a chance to hear some good news (though i'd recommend to be grounded with your hopes)

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Originally Posted by Aimetrot

The Development team is currently still carefully reviewing all feedback and considering a planned course of action. However, we will require another week or so for translations before we make an official announcement.
We apologize that this is taking longer than expected, and we thank you all once again for your patience.

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Uh... graphics update? why else would it look better?

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Originally Posted by Wolf_Necros

Uh... graphics update? why else would it look better?

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Look better is extremely debatable lmao

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Originally Posted by lunartears

I'm not entirely sure if you were aware of this but the announcement has been pushed back to September, so there's still a chance to hear some good news (though i'd recommend to be grounded with your hopes)

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I did miss this, thank you! Still not going to hold my breath but I am curious what they're going to say about it.

:( They didn't address it in Patch 7.1 .

I knew something was different. My cat's face was looking uncanny compared to how it used to be