Dawntrail character graphics update - opinions, requests and discussion megathread

[azaleai]

First thing on my agenda today was to retake the screenshot from a cutscene I used for comparison with the new graphics to make a bug report...



She's... hideous. The definition between brow ridge and nose is utterly gone and there's no shape to the brow muscle anymore, both replaced by an awful, ugly, tattooed-on shadow. The orbital rim (the bone surrounding the upper side of the eyesocket) is gone, replaced by a bizarre dent that makes it look like she's got two black eyes. It completely and utterly changes the shape of her brow and makes it look like she doesn't even HAVE a forehead or brow ridge anymore.



There's also a highlight/shadow from the normal map that appears between the bridge of the nose and the inner corner of the eye completely CROSSING the painted shadows on the diffuse map. It looks as if they just grabbed a normal map from Hyur and slapped it ontp Roes as well.

I know Roegadyn have an inhuman shape to their brow ridge, but it looked so nice before, this is... a mess.



On top of that, the normals and the diffuse of the lips STILL don't line up. The lip colour exceeds the line where the lip peaks at the cupids bow and doesn't reach it at the dip in the middle; the normal map has the upper lip very very flat, but the diffuse does not. Additionally, the philtrum doesn't make sense - the philtral columns should meet the peaks of the cupid's bow on either side, but they instead go completely straight down, see below.



The ash mark is STILL lighter and the pupils are STILL blackened. Goodbye to those racial traits too, I guess.

I can only really bear to look at her in the fitting room, since the lighting there is so even the glaring issues with the normal map aren't obvious.

[Conroy]

The new mouths for lalafell are not the same, the charm is gone for them we have resting "bitch" face for all of them now, theres no smiling allowed for default lalafell mouths now.

[riani]

Unpopular race here...

There's not much changed from the benchmark.
My character is not herself, but to be honest, I was expecting that.

original - benchmark 1.1 - DT


Regarding the changes between the benchmark and 7.0, it seems the skin shade was readjusted, there might be something different around the inner eyes and the eyes seem a tad longer. Maybe, if I zoom in. These do help a little (?).

I thought I was somewhat okay with the results if not happy, then saw the character in-game - and oh boy, all wrong, none of the portraits work and my recent cutscenes talk for themselves:





All and more images here: https://imgur.com/a/Blb3XAr

The vulnerability from the eyes and the tomboyish charm are gone. I'm sorry, it's a malign doll.

I'm disappointed, especially as I don't expect anything to change. And to be honest, it is tiring after all the changes, the hopium and the let-downs...
At least some races are looking a little bit more themselves...

[BeoCat]

Extremely disappointed that the male elezen hasn't been changed at all ever since the new benchmark. And I logged in excited and hopeful that my feedback was heard, but alas, apparently was not taken into account at all.

Eyebrows are still different from the original.

Dawntrail:


EW (top), Benchmark (bottom) comparison:


Nothing was changed. I am honestly really disappointed and demoralized.

How are people disappointed in a literal model improvement? They increased the polygon of the models so that your character does no longer look like he came from a 2007 game and you still whine... I swear to god attachment bias has made people blind.

[Riavell]

Oops, didn't notice I was on the English part of the forum.

My Aura now has the eyes of a dead fish...

[noumen0nn]

How are people disappointed in a literal model improvement? They increased the polygon of the models so that your character does no longer look like he came from a 2007 game and you still whine... I swear to god attachment bias has made people blind.

I dare you to look at my comparison picture for more than 5 seconds and tell me how it's an """improvement""". What the hell is with you people? Why do you feel the need to act like this on every single feedback thread? Why is it so hard for you to accept that some people don't like these changes?

[JokoCGN]

tbf 80% of the before / after, U looking better after.

[Daralii]

Just a small complaint, but beards (especially Miqo'te Face 2) seem to reflect light way too much. They're downright shiny and become colored by light hitting them which makes them look a bit odd like its an entirely different color of hair. Hope they can work on how the facial hair looks with the new lighting.

There were a lot of issues with the normal/alpha maps in the first benchmark, and some of the more blatant edge cases(like some viera ears glowing) were at least mostly fixed, but there are still plenty of issues.

[Aetheral]

How are people disappointed in a literal model improvement? They increased the polygon of the models so that your character does no longer look like he came from a 2007 game and you still whine... I swear to god attachment bias has made people blind.

This has to be bait. That or dudes playin on an old CRT monitor on exceptionally low graphics.

[MaxL]

First thing on my agenda today was to retake the screenshot from a cutscene I used for comparison with the new graphics to make a bug report...

Came here to echo those sentiments. I also have a Hellsguard character and the change to the eyes is terrible.

• The white of the eyes is far too bright compared to the skin color now
• The "baked-in shadow" at the top is too strong
• The pupils are way darker for no sensible reason
• The glint in the eyes is far too subtle and small compared to the previous stylized "eye shine"

It's immensely disappointing and has really soured me on the graphics update as far as my character is concerned

EDIT: here's a thread that goes more in depth about roes/hellsguards in specific https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...-Roegadyn-Eyes