Dawntrail character graphics update - opinions, requests and discussion megathread

[TheDustyOne]

Veering slightly off from the usual talk of how our characters have been altered, one thing I'd like to see in the future above most graphical improvements would be animation improvements.

Things like:

1. Inverse kinematics, this would allow for things like having our characters feet actually on the ground rather than floating or sinking slightly when on hills or stairs.
2. Transition animations, having our characters smoothly transition from idle to walk/run/sprint with a blended animation. Someone will likely bring up the 1.0 movement physics, but that's a separate system; it used transition animations, but it had heavy acceleration and deceleration with its movement. We don't need that here, you can still have believable transitions from idle to movement and back with the same movement physics we have now.
3. Extra cloth bones, namely for capes, loose sleeves like the high summoner sleeves, scarves, etc. Bonus points if we could have the cloth bones react a little more realistically than the baked animations we have now.

I know the IK and cloth physics can be very processor heavy, especially in an MMO, but it'd be nice if they were available even if we only saw them on a handful of characters at a time.

[Lnemoh]

Posting this here as well - the lip indent that came with the 7.0 update on Miqo F - Keeper of the moon characters, Face 4, is way too pronounced. It makes my character look old whenever she has direct light on her face. This was not the case before 7.0. The entire mouth area has some really weird shading to be honest, but the lip indentations are the worst.

[lunartears]

Slightly off-topic but I opened up the Endwalker benchmark today and I was so happy to see my WoL again. I honestly missed everything about it (the scales, the detailed hair texture, the way the makeup fades, the sharper eyelashes, the smaller and more stylized eyes, the list goes on) but I miss the expressions especially

[Moonfallen]

They've acknowledged feedback regarding the lighting in housing, but I have yet to see them acknowledge any issues regarding lighting in anything else like character portraits, adventure plates, character equipment, or character lighting in the environments. I hope they take a look at everyone's feedback regarding our characters and the way they look even more different with the new lighting not just the changes they made to our faces. I miss my old character, but I'd be okay if they just fixed the lighting so she looks as I want her to in character creation. Giving everyone a free fantasia is great and all, but it's not going to fix anything when the lighting is so awful to A LOT of our characters...

[Larirawiel]

They've acknowledged feedback regarding the lighting in housing,

If they fix the lighting in housing then it might fix the lighting in other areas. The lighting in the game works with shadow- and normal maps. If they screw those maps up then it will look bad everywhere.




Cheers

[Moonfallen]

If they fix the lighting in housing then it might fix the lighting in other areas. The lighting in the game works with shadow- and normal maps. If they screw those maps up then it will look bad everywhere.




Cheers

I honestly hope so.

[Kartoshka]

I wrote about my impressions of the Aura male before.

I decided to show a slightly tweaked version to better illustrate the difference.


What changes were made:
- Smoother shadow on nose bridge
- Narrower and slightly lowered nostrils
- Old eyebrows and eyelashes
- Lighter sclera on eyes
- Corners of mouth

Also, all the facial expressions with furrowed brows look very unnatural in my opinion. I feel like nose becomes shorter. Because of this, when my character furrows his brows, he looks very angry and ready for a fight, even during a conversation with a friendly NPC.

[Tahli]

The more screenshots I see, with some people saying their characters have lifeless eyes, the more I feel convinced that we didn't need more white catchlights over the eye but instead needed bits of lightened color in the iris.
Some races more than others were affected by dulled/darker eyes, Miqo'te I feel being a big example. But extra white catchlights over an already dull eyecolor don't improve the appearance.

(The new lack of colored iris highlights may all just be connected to the bugs of lighting putting lines on the iris/the grey film over eyes, though)

[MeiraStarborne]

I’m not typically a forum poster, but after reading (skimming) all 59 pages I felt there wasn’t nearly enough mention of Au Ra limbal rings. So, here’s my feedback:

Above is a crop of a goose I took at some point before the update. Below is what I compromised on after burning the free fantasia and finally giving up on the new rings.



And here’s my journey as to why I simply gave up on limbal rings (one of Au Ras’ defining features).

The ring is now a gradient that overlays the eye, going from opaque at the outside and fading to transparent. Previously it was a hard edged ring.



Given the changes in the iris and pupil, losing a bit of gloss in the update, adding this extra hazy overlay only makes the eye that much more lifeless.

I was going to simply deal with that until I got into low light situations what I found the rings now have a demonic emissive glow!



I had already used my free fantasia to lighten her overall eye color to try to get back to pre-7.0 vibes, but when I could finally no longer stand the glowing eyes, I bought a fantasia and I’m now a very saddened Miqo. I miss my Au Ra, but her eyes were her window to her soul, and they’re shattered now. If I’m going to play a character I don’t recognize, I might as well play one that doesn’t leave me with bitterness and longing for days gone by…

[Sairaag]

Hey o/

It's just me or female Miqo'te eyes don't look at the same direction ? Didn't notice it before 7.0 but now i can't unsee it... It's look more noticable on moon Miqo'te.

I already post a bug report on french forums but they move it to "Working as Intended" ^^'

Did you know if there is any way to ask devs for a patch ? I don't wan't to fantasia my character but i don't wan't to see her like that !

My Miqo'te is male, but he also has some trouble focusing his eyes after the update. Sometimes he's a little cross-eyed, and sometimes he just stops looking at shorter NPCs:



There have been a lot of posts about Miqo'te eyes. Problems with lighting, Seeker pupil shapes, colours, shadows, eye shapes in general, and apparently with animations/focus too. It definitely doesn't sound like "working as intended". However, there have been so many complaints about changes to all races that I think it'll take a while before the devs acknowledge any of it.