Dawntrail character graphics update - opinions, requests and discussion megathread

[Plasmaspy]

Right. It won't turn you back into a blurry pixel mess.

Thats not the issue.
The face is different.
I wouldn't have any issue at all if they just ugraded the texture/quality.



Just editing the mouth back to the old makes it so much better.
The eyes need to change back too and then the issues people are having would be 99% solved.

[FuwafuwaMii]

Thats not the issue.
The face is different.
I wouldn't have any issue at all if they just ugraded the texture/quality.

Yeah of course they're different. They said they'd keep the "spirit" of the face and warned that some features will look different. They delivered exactly what they promised. If you were fond of exactly those changed details, then that's regrettable, but I don't see them roll back all their changes, or iterate on and on forever, until the last player is satisfied.

Perfection is the enemy of progress.

[Nebty]

Just block them (you can go to their profile and select "add to ignore list"). Clearly they just want insult people rather than engage on this topic in good faith.

[HauntedLasagna]

Yeah of course they're different. They said they'd keep the "spirit" of the face and warned that some features will look different.

[Nabril]

When this was first announced, I made the comment that I could barely see any change at all in the comparison videos I watched. I was attacked and laughed at. And now, the graphics update is here and people are discussing the fact that nothing really changed. I'm over here eating popcorn as I read this thread.

[Plasmaspy]

When this was first announced, I made the comment that I could barely see any change at all in the comparison videos I watched. I was attacked and laughed at. And now, the graphics update is here and people are discussing the fact that nothing really changed. I'm over here eating popcorn as I read this thread.

The changes are much more obvious to people that have been familiarized with their character for many years.
The only people that hand wave or complain that people are wrong for reporting their personal feedback either;
don't care,
like the changes,
their character wasnt impacted,
use fantasia often,
or use mods to alter their appearance anyway.

[ZephyrMenodora]

Most of these characters look pretty much the same. Mine does - just sharper. I think if I blew up pictures of my face and really scrutinized I could find some thing to dislike but why would I?

A lot of these comparisons I have no idea what the complaint is. If the pictures were not labeled I wouldn’t be able to tell which one is supposed to be the bad one.

[aiqa]

Exactly that. And fem hyur #1 hasn't preserved the overall look I know and love. At all.

When this was first announced, I made the comment that I could barely see any change at all in the comparison videos I watched. I was attacked and laughed at. And now, the graphics update is here and people are discussing the fact that nothing really changed. I'm over here eating popcorn as I read this thread.

Less popcorn, more reading. The complaints are not that nothing changed.

[RepairCat]

Thats not the issue.
The face is different.
I wouldn't have any issue at all if they just ugraded the texture/quality.



Just editing the mouth back to the old makes it so much better.
The eyes need to change back too and then the issues people are having would be 99% solved.

Holy mother of popotos, reverting the change to the mouth shape goes SUCH a long way to restore the original characters identity. Please SE!

[Turnintino]

First of all, I'd like it to be clear that I'm not comparing over-all graphical fidelity, which has clearly been improved (exacerbated by the fact that my pre-7.0 screenshots were taken with one of the laptop graphic presets, with anti-aliasing turned off, etc.; I wish I'd had the foresight to take more screenshots for comparison with my new PC, but alas). Rather, I'm comparing the differences between the shapes and proportions of the models, normal and diffuse maps, etc.

This is a male Seeker of the Sun Miqo'te with face #4, jaw #1, eye shape #3, large irises, eyebrows #4, nose #1, mouth #2, and facial features #1 (thicker eyebrows) and #2 (thicker eyeliner). For full transparency, I'll take note of any minor differences in makeup settings between screenshots where applicable.

In this first comparison, the pre-7.0 example (on the left) features 'light' red lipstick and 'light' black face paint #1 (eye shadow). In the 7.0 screenshot (right, if it needs to be said), the lipstick is 'dark' and the face paint is absent. This scene has also seen dramatic changes in lighting, which I acknowledge makes it a little harder to properly compare (I believe the lighting conditions in this scene are static, but it's possible I just coincidentally observed identical conditions during each attempt to view this scene at different times of the in-game day cycle lol). Still, it's the best front-on example I had available to me for this comparison, so please bear with me.



All that said, a few things still become clear: dramatically different lip shapes, a difference in thickness of the eyebrows (I personally prefer thicker, which is why I selected them), and the shifted diffuse map (the painted texture that includes the base eyeliner, lip pigmentation, skin blotches, and other baked-in shadows). Notice how the lower eyeliner now sits inside the waterline instead of outside it, making the eyes appear more closed. The outer corners of the lips also still appear to be upturned compared to before, but the difference in lighting may be affecting this.

Let it be known that I also believe the visible under-eye wrinkles in 7.0 are both unattractive and sit too low on the face.

For emphasis:

As before, the pre-7.0 screenshot features the same 'light' black face paint, which I've since removed from my character in the 7.0 side. This time, the lipstick is the same in both screenshots, clearly showcasing the difference in the lower lip shape. I'd like to note how much happier I am with the more subdued gloss of the lipstick in 7.0, which I thought looked far too dramatic before the update.



Although I miss the comparative fullness the lips had before 7.0, I do appreciate that the update removed the strange bump near the outer corner of the upper lip, created by the old diffuse map being distorted by the larger lip shape. Ideally, though, this would be fixed without so dramatically changing the shapes.

For emphasis:



You can see clearly that the eyes appear smaller in 7.0, and the face is rounder and wider.

This final example is from the same scene as the last, with the same differences, showcased from a different angle. I believe these screenshots show most clearly how the slitted pupils appear much reduced in 7.0, as well. It can be hard to tell, under certain lighting conditions, that he has cat-like pupils at all now.



For emphasis:



(Please forgive the differences in the character's position between these screenshots; this was difficult for me to correct for, but I did my best.)

My thanks to the devs for their hard work. Though some of us are unhappy, it's clear to me how much time and energy must have gone into this graphical update, and I don't wish to downplay that. I hope any further changes are able to please as many of us as possible.