Dawntrail character graphics update - opinions, requests and discussion megathread

[gllt]

I was grumbling looking at the eyes on one of my characters.
One of my Hrothgar looks like it's just checked out.

But then I noticed no matter what settings I changed, the game just looked wrong.

Then I realized. Glare (Bloom lighting) is forced on.
I appreciate that glowy lights make the game pretty..
But now it hurts my eyes to play. I can't even hang out in the gold saucer.

So my characters have wonky looking eyes and mine feel wonky from trying to play them.

Sub cancelled. Ridiculous changes. I hope they actually look at the forums and do something about this.

[Eilous]

Opened up all my portraits and Elezens' eyes are extremely dark. Since we only have 2 sources of light, it's impossible to brighten the eyes. Please do something about it Square Enix...

6.5


7.0

[MaxL]

I have that same exact hairstyle on my Seawolf alt and the issue is the same as yours. It seems like the lighting and color issues are specific to certain hairstyles for some reason. That particular hairstyle now looks even flatter with lighter colors, too, because it hardly has any shadows anymore.

Yep, there's something seriously wrong with hair shading in general, see my earlier post:

I think I found out why hair shading seems so inconsistent from place to place. You can easily reproduce this using GPose.



Seriously, what is going on here? It's like half of its shading contribution is a uniform term.

[Print_Screen]

Female Highlander
Face: 1
Jaw: 1
Eye Shape: 3
Eyebrows: 1
Nose: 3
Mouth: 2
Lip Color: none
Facial Features: 1, 2, 3

Screenshots from PC version, max graphic settings of their respective versions. Taken inside the Innocence trial instance.





I am unhappy with the changes to my character's eyebrows, eyeshadow and upper lip. The eyebrows are smaller, and the outer edges of the eyeliner have been turned downwards. In my opinion, it changes my WoL's piercing look to one of boredom.

I'll link the full images for better comparison:
example A - 6.x
example A - 7.0
example B - 6.x
example B - 7.0

[Larirawiel]

The pizza was way too hot.
https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...ctly_with_the/



Cheers

[Aco505]

This is so strange to me because I feel like my Elezen actually looks more accurate in my equipment window... It's not 1-1, but it's helluva more close than any game lighting that isn't nighttime for her, and basically good enough for me.

I took the opportunity to take some pictures to show my case. I think the difference between the character information window and a recent screenshot I took in a cutscene is clear:



The second picture looks pretty similar to how things were in 6.58, minus very specific stuff such as the mouth being wider of course.


The next two pictures show the same portrait before and after 7.0:



The expression on the new one simply does not convey the same feel as it used to do due to the way the face emote has been changed and because of the lighting, as well as the faded eyebrows and stubble. I do apologize for how small the 6.58 portrait looks, I didn't take screenshots of these so I had to cut it from a video I recorded.

[Eilous]

It is impossible for me to take the exact same picture with the exact same lighting and background for comparison. 7.0 Female Elezen smile is different. Her sharpness is gone. Her expression looks concerned (I used "simper" for both 6.5 and 7.0). It really feels like the developers have altered the animations and facial features so much that they do not look the same anymore, in a bad way. This is so upsetting.





Ingame Portraits

[aiqa]

Since fem hyur face #1 wasn't changed since the latest benchmark. These older screenshot still apply and I am still very very unhappy with the changes to female hyur.

[RulerKelso]

Hi, just adding my voice to the choir. I appreciate the work that went into the graphics overhaul and the new textures look amazing in the overworld. My main grievance are the significant changes made to the faces. I tried giving it a few days to see if I would warm up to my WOL's makeover but three days on and I still can barely bring myself to look at her in cutscenes.

I have three main issues with my WOL's new face: 1) Darkening of her upper eyelid to the point where she looks like she's in a perpetual ಠ_ಠ face, 2) complete lack of depth on the eyebrows, and 3) entirely new shape of lips and smile. Here's a before pic:



... and after pic (both taken on PS5--not sure why the antialiasing is so bad in gpose):



Her eyes were heavily shaded before, but there was still a softness to the irises that made her eyes bright and open. Without that softness, it just looks like her eyes are half-shut in every cutscene:



The lack of shading on her eyebrows makes them blend into her skin. It's visible everywhere but it's especially bad in low lighting. And her upper lip is shaped completely differently than the same set of lips pre-7.0. Instead of having a soft smile with a full upper lip, the combination of a differently shaped upper lip with only the corners turning up in a smile gives her a C: smile rather than a (:




All in all, she used to have such a soft, lovely face. I was prepared for some differences but this is such a drastic change and I feel the end results are much more severe than I was expecting. Different lighting/shaders giving different effects I could understand, but I'm not sure why an entire reshaping of certain facial features (like lips) was necessary. One last before pic for good measure:



Thanks for hearing me out. I really did try to give the graphics upgrade a fair shake but the faces just aren't sitting right with me.

Your character is really gorgeous. Even after the update. You are right in differences, those looks more like a twins than the same person (similarity like Alphinaud and Alisaie)
I guess the lighting and slightly changed lip shape is the worst offender.
New lighting engine is very harsh on our charcters, maybe it will be adjusted in the future, or added to system option like character lighting with the slider.

-In flat lighting (char/equipment window, barbier), face on my Fviera looks almost the same as my old Endwalker face. With right colors and face contours.
-During gameplay it depends on a light source direction. Areas, where before the character looked great under all circumstances, can now looks like a clown depending on daytime and lightsource.
-It also affect hair color and skin tone, which are rarely rendered in right color during gameplay.
For example Im using pitch black hair color and it mostly looks grey or dark brown in most lighting settings

About the animations, mine also looks different, like really different. Vieras had the most cute smiles and smirks, all gone now. I hope devs will adjust this too It would be shame otherwise.

[Arlessa_Ezzy]

My Au Ra (face 2) is barely recognisable - round face shape gone, eyes look dead, mouth choices are pursed lips or look inflated. Overall it looks like they had an allergic reaction, I don't know why they changed it so much unnecessarily, especially since I've played this character for years. With re-editing, I could make her look a bit better, but she's not at all the same character I loved before.