Dawntrail character graphics update - opinions, requests and discussion megathread

[Len_]

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

Oh this one really made my heart sink. That's a beautiful character that the update does not do justice at all.

[Basteala]

I'm just glad they got rid of the matte lips from the early benchmark. I personally *like* the update, but I think it's very YMMV depending on what race you're playing. Sharper contrasts are going to work better with some races than others. Fem Highlanders are looking good with them I've found.

Also male Roe of all things had a massive upgrade. Good god. They actually look like people now!

[P360Crispy]

The widening of the mouth types makes them look worse on the face in this graphical update compared to before. It seems like they were only widened horizontally and weren't thickened vertically, making them look very odd and unnatural. Type 4 mouth is the only one that looks somewhat "normal", but even that is a major disappointment. It feels like there's now no real variety between them whereas before the update at least they all fit the face decently.

The jaw and face overall looks like it was widened as well, or the facial features are now smaller so there's more face to be shown

Now my female viera's face just doesn't look "right" and I bought a fantasia to make the change to another face, but even the other faces look weird now in the eye shape and mouth departments too. It's like the features are either too large or too small in whatever combination that I try and none of them create the same "beautiful", "gorgeous", or "heroic" feel when I looked at my viera in my profile picture. It honestly makes me not even want to play the game since the first experience with an FFXIV expansion is extremely precious.

The eye shapes also look like they've lost definition. Eye shape 3 looks less "sharp" and instead makes her look a bit "dead" in the face.

Other than these, textures are an improvement. But with that said, I'd much rather have the mouth and eye shapes to resemble what they were before the graphical update. So, as a request, please revert the face feature shaping back to what they were before the graphical update.

[Basteala]

The widening of the mouth types makes them look worse on the face in this graphical update compared to before. It seems like they were only widened horizontally and weren't thickened vertically, making them look very odd and unnatural. Type 4 mouth is the only one that looks somewhat "normal", but even that is a major disappointment. It feels like there's now no real variety between them whereas before the update at least they all fit the face decently.

Now my female viera's face just doesn't look "right" and I bought a fantasia to make the change to another face, but even the other faces look weird now in the eye shape and mouth departments too. It's like the features are either too large or too small in whatever combination that I try and none of them create the same "beautiful", "gorgeous", or "heroic" feel when I looked at the character before the update.

The eye shapes also look like they've lost definition. Hardly any difference between type 1 and 3 eye shape.

Other than these, textures are an improvement. But with that said, I'd much rather have the mouth and eye shapes to resemble what they were before the graphical update. So, as a request, please revert the face feature shaping back to what they were before the graphical update.

Wait why did you buy a fantasia? There's a quest in Ul'Dah near the retainer vocate for a free one now.

[Adrameliya]

Before and after. Same cutscene, same outfit, same facial expression. And he looks weird now.

I’m trying really hard to get used to it but it’s bothering me so much.

There’s sometimes during cutscenes where he looks good, but it’s when light shines super brightly on him. So I think this weird look is mainly because of the new lighting. I could turn the character lighting to max (it’s currently at 30) but that would make him look like a lamppost lol, and that’s ridiculous.

[P360Crispy]

Wait why did you buy a fantasia? There's a quest in Ul'Dah near the retainer vocate for a free one now.

I had no idea honestly. I'm kind of a solo player I guess? So, there's a lot of things I don't know and I rarely come to the forums for anything. Only reason I had posted today was because this update made me so disgruntled that I felt like I had to make a post to add to the pile of requests for a reversion, or some type of change. But thanks for that info! I'll definitely go and grab that

[RulerKelso]

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.

... just wanted to add, it is still possible to simulate the "old", homogenic lighting in Gpose by using 3 cardinal, gradient lightings sources: 1st type 1 in front of character, 2nd type 2 on side of character, and 3rd type 2 behind Just try to find the sweet spot in the lighting source distance

*here is similar picture taken in the past in old graphics - not 1 to 1 comparison, pose and expression is different, just comparing lighting and overall character appearance

[WeaverOfDreams]

The team did a good job on a lot of graphics but I thought they will make it as close as possible to the old shapes for the facial features. I think that didn't happen here.
I am looking at my character and I can’t help but feel… robbed... I can't currently play.

Race: Miqo’te, Seeker of the Sun, F
Face: 1
Eyes: 4, large iris
Nose: 2
Mouth: 4

1. Cat’s eye slits – Shape
The shape for all Seekers was completely changed.

• In EW, they were thinner at the bottom of the eye and was giving that mysterious, fatal, feral look of a cat.
• In DT, they are plump and taking larger area of the eye.

That is quite a major factor for a change in the expression and I would very much like the old shape back.



https://i.postimg.cc/Wp5Br9Tf/Eyes3.png

2. Cat’s eye slits – Incorrect position and turning
For some reason, the slit is not following the direction of the gaze properly causing the effect of CROSS-EYED! When the face turns, the faraway eye's slit is not following the direction at all.


https://i.postimg.cc/tCY4VnQW/cross2.png

3. Iris size
In DT, the iris size was changed to take a larger area of the eye. This only amplifies the effect of overly big eyes and the cross-eyes feel.

https://i.postimg.cc/qv2088mh/big-eyes.png
https://i.postimg.cc/269fzT5J/big-eyes2.png

4. Upper Eyelid's shadow
It is not casting shadow on the sclera in DT at all. The shadow just merges gradually down and doesn’t look like a cast shadow .
In EW, the dark parts were darker, the light parts were lighter where the eyes are lit by the light. In DT, the eye just stares at you.

https://i.postimg.cc/Hsx9czkz/eyelidshadow2.png

5. Eyelashes
In EW you had those doll-like beautiful curved eyelashes. In DT they are just straight…



6. Lips shape
Lower lip:

• In EW, Mouth 4 had that pretty shape – not too plump, not too big just delicate.
• In DT, they made the lower lip look bigger which made the overall mouth look bigger.

Upper lip:
Looks acceptable on some light but could be better.


https://i.postimg.cc/652GxmQk/lips2.png

7. Nose
Nose looks good enough but still the light makes it a bit bubbly.

[Turnintino]

I had no idea honestly. I'm kind of a solo player I guess? So, there's a lot of things I don't know and I rarely come to the forums for anything. Only reason I had posted today was because this update made me so disgruntled that I felt like I had to make a post to add to the pile of requests for a reversion, or some type of change. But thanks for that info! I'll definitely go and grab that

It's a very new addition (arrived with Dawntrail, in fact), so it's easy to miss if you haven't been paying attention to the press tour or patch notes. But now ya know!

[SaraSin]

First and foremost, I'd like to apologize for my terrible tracing, so some features might look worse than they actually are. I just want to add my alt with a more detailed explanation than my previous post to our voices.

1. The light from our eyes are gone! I think the new lighting makes our eyes look a bit awkward at times and the pupils look bigger now.

2.The lower punctum (? i think thats what it is lol) size has been increased. In my opinion, it kind of gives our characters a more sickly/tired look and puffier eyes.

3.The nose appears a bit larger and more rounded with the nostrils more visible.

4.Cheeks more round and puffy. It's like she ate a mild bee almost.

5. The lips look like have been squished a bit, and the color is changed. Personally not a fan of the larger mouth corners.
I can not recreate the lighting of my old plates no matter how hard I try, and its either my hair or my skin or both that will look dull no matter how much I mess with it. This goes for all of my characters.
Also there's less of our dark eye makeup I'm extremely happy for those who are happy with the changes, some of you guys look fantastic. Some people might call us crazy but with enough small changes to our characters that we've been playing for so long, they do not feel like the same character. It's not all about looking better, it's about too many changes for what we thought was a graphics update that would be minimal to our characters.
Sorry if this was hard to read I'm sleepy ty for your time