Dawntrail character graphics update - opinions, requests and discussion megathread

[ShinShinShin]

I hate my scales now =( the outline is terrible

[Daralii]

<snip>

This is probably comprehensive enough that it's worth posting on the JP forum as well, though I don't know how well machine translation would convey the specifics.

[Anneliese_Lev]

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.

The gaze changes from looking at you to looking somewhere else

[noumen0nn]

Hello, I believe I've identified one of the primary culprits in Hyur Midlanders looking "off", which is that the shading at the top of our eyes cast by our upper eyelids has been significantly toned down, to the point where it looks functionally absent.



I believe this shadow is a critical aspect of Hyur's visual impression. From any distance besides very close up, it creates somewhat of an illusion of the eye being shut slightly, creating a relaxed and confident expression. Without it, Hyur look somewhat wide-eyed, as if maintaining an expression of high alertness or anxiety.



At first, I believed this might be an unavoidable consequence of the new lighting system. However, I then noticed that Viera have kept their similar eye shading into 7.0. If anything, it is very slightly stronger than before.



It should be noted that this shading varied in intensity across different Midlander faces in Endwalker, with face 1 having what I see as the strongest shadow.





I request that this shading be restored, with perhaps some softening at the edge if neccessary to make it seem more in line with the new graphics. Below, I have edited a screenshot of my character's new face in order to more closely mimic this shading, as well as other morph edits to make her facial features match her old face more closely.

[zipkin]

I don't have the energy to add yet more comparison photos to those folks have already shared and shared, especially since the graphics update has been giving me severe eyestrain, but I wanted to still chime in here and say that I am deeply disappointed in the changes made to character designs in a 'texture and shading focused' update. Some of my characters I could learn to tolerate (if I can somehow SEE them again without a headache x.x) but the majority look shockingly different. It's a million tiny things, a chin resized/shaped, a nose altered, the eyes changed in shape/size, lips recolored/shaped/positioned/etc that all add up to a vastly different face shape.

Shape. Not shading. Shape. Different shape. Not texture. Shape.

After seeing the Benchmark I opted against getting the expansion, and right now I'm glad I didn't bother hoping to be pleasantly surprised. Many key character facial elements remain forcibly changed, plenty of examples already in this thread and others. No amount of free Fantasias will bring back options that no longer exist... which means a LOT of peoples' WoLs no longer exist. If the devs want to add new face shapes, new eyes, new brows and jaws and noses, please do ADD them. There are people who like the new facial features, to the point where it has been cited that these are NEW FEATURES even by those enjoying them. Taking away the face elements people have used for years, with no way to get them back, seems callous. The player base was told "Overall appearance of player characters will be altered as little as possible" and that sounds like a lie right now.

[emecsek]

screenshots from endwalker benchmark and 7.0. the only thing i changed on the 7.0 side is the color of the limbal rings to better match the original look.

i also tried recreating an older screenshot, and while not perfect, i think it actually shows better how big the difference is than the screenshots from the character creator.

the most jarring difference is the shape of the mouth. the pupils have also changed in size, making it harder to see the actual color of the eyes. it just doesn't feel like the same character i've grown to love throughout these years.
it feels like au ra got hit especially hard with this graphical update. i just wish they could address these concerns. i've seen many au ra players give their feedback ever since the first benchmark released, but it feels like not much has changed.

[ConantSivrha]

In another post I made in this thread, regarding female miqo'te face 4 mouth 3, I wrote the following:

(...)the mouth itself looks narrower horizontally.

Since then, I have found that the mouth is not, in fact, narrower horizontally.

In the following comparison image, both faces have been turned away from the light, so there is no contrast between shadowed and unshadowed areas. The horizontal width of the lip texture is actually exactly the same, as demonstrated by the blue outline of the Endwalker lip shape over the image of the Dawntrail version of the lips.



The lips in the Endwalker version looked wider to me because the old lighting caused darker shadows to be cast by the lips and by the shape of the face near the lips. This is only a factor when light shines on the face, so it isn't visible in my comparison image, but it can be seen in images like this one from Ysmia, which I also quoted in my other post.

Other than that, in my comparison, you can see more clearly how the top lip shrunk, and how the cupid's bow has been smoothed out. The bottom lip, too, is smaller, but only slightly. The corners of the mouth have also changed, possibly in an attempt to mimic the shadows on the original version.

[Roido_Avingu]

While I'm glad there are those who are happy with the graphical update, I can't say I'm one of those people, sadly. I use Male Miqo'te Face #1, and the best way I can put it with regards to my character is, he now looks baby-faced, to the point any time I see close-ups of his face in cutscenes, he doesn't look like a battle-hardened adventurer, he looks like he belongs in a K-pop boyband.

Do I miss the old graphics? Yes, because my character looked fine and not doll-like. Do I wish the developers would allow us to choose between the new and old graphics? Also yes, but I would be happy with the developers giving us a solution that meets halfway. Have improved graphics, but not to the point that people's characters look baby-faced.

[Heavenchild]

I forgot to adress an important (imo) point. The character's bodys still look really low quality. Especially male chars still look wrong when wearing chest revealing pieces.
My male midlander Hyr hasn't even a normal visible belly button. That's because the visibility of the belly button is connected to the muscleslider.
And when turning the muscleslider to minimum then the belly button almost disappears. I really don't like that because it looks so wrong.

I don't expect SE to give us high resolution realistic nippels and belly buttons. That would be wrong, too. But I would like to see a middleway. A solution that looks kinda normal/natural.
Please! *prays*

[Len_]

If SE gives us nothing else I at least want them to acknowledge that a lot of people are unhappy. I wonder what will happen after official release.