Dawntrail character graphics update - opinions, requests and discussion megathread

[Lucaon]

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.



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..



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.



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..



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



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.



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..



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

[OliverQ]

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.

[Mystifina_Freikugel]

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.

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?

[blueaether]

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.


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 :')

[Visthra]

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.

[Verschlafen]

I have really no words how bad it look now.
Endwalker


Dawntrail:

[Tsumdere]

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.

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.

[Barachim]

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.

[Boblawblah]

I have really no words how bad it look now.
Endwalker


Dawntrail:

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...

[AoifeAsturmaux]

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


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)