Dawntrail character graphics update - opinions, requests and discussion megathread

[Turnintino]

Aye, that's basically why I am sending these comparisons to begin with. Whereas small tweaks would have sufficed, the changes on the NPCs are noticeable and they are pretty bad.

Yeah, I certainly would've been happy with no more than upscaled diffuse maps and maybe tweaked normals (a lot of the issues people have pointed out about things like misaligned lower lip lighting were just as bad if not worse before the update, almost entirely owed to weird normal maps), without touching the models at all. Completely overhauling the models like they have would be fine if it meant more nuanced customization options (which I believe is at least theoretically possible now, based on the techniques they've alleged to use), but that isn't what we got, and they've announced no intention to change that, so we have no choice but to beg them to make adjustments. It's a lose/lose situation where so many of us are unhappy and the devs have more work to do, when they might've gotten away with doing much less to begin with lol.

[Eien713]

Eyes are one of the worst "upgrades." Ryne looks dead inside or zoned out in the second pic. I also can't stand the weird light between the lips for all characters, NPCs or not. It's so jarring and unnatural.

[Jassie]

I tried to like my character's new look, I really tried, but after playing for two weeks I still can't come to like the way he looks now. My main issues are the new thinner and lighter eyebrows and the eyes. I prefer thicker and bushier eyebrows and these are the thickest option this face has, but now these too are really thin and look like they're pointed way more upwards than before.

His catlike pupils are barely showing most of the time and they look more like dots than slits now. I chose a sunseeker miqo'te BECAUSE of the catlike eyes, but now they are gone. The eyes also used to look like they were shining in most enviroments (kinda like the ancients' eyes, but milder), but now that effect is also mostly lost. The mouth also looks worse, but that is a much smaller problem to me than the eyes/eyebrows, kinda just wish that we could turn down the glossiness of the lips.

[GreenLeafy]

I tried to like my character's new look, I really tried, but after playing for two weeks I still can't come to like the way he looks now. My main issues are the new thinner and lighter eyebrows and the eyes. I prefer thicker and bushier eyebrows and these are the thickest option this face has, but now these too are really thin and look like they're pointed way more upwards than before.

His catlike pupils are barely showing most of the time and they look more like dots than slits now. I chose a sunseeker miqo'te BECAUSE of the catlike eyes, but now they are gone. The eyes also used to look like they were shining in most enviroments (kinda like the ancients' eyes, but milder), but now that effect is also mostly lost. The mouth also looks worse, but that is a much smaller problem to me than the eyes/eyebrows, kinda just wish that we could turn down the glossiness of the lips.

I feel much the same. I miss my old look. I miss my golden cat eyes aswell. I cannot stand the new look for them and I went through the entire MSQ with sunglasses because of it. Like you said it was a racial trait for Sunseekers and one which drew me to them and I wish it got as much attention as the Moonkeeper fangs...
Mouth animations feel so much worse , my eyebrows are also thinner, lips super glossy in random scenes just ugh. I miss my miqo so so bad, what a shit way to have to part ways after 9 years. And just any dev good will has been crushed since they haven't bothered at all to address any of the concerns put forth in forums in many , many threads even since benchmark releases.

[Khryseis_Astra]

I made this gif to add it to that post and you can clearly see the difference in the eyes and in lips and eyebrows too.

I really don't understand what they were thinking making so many unnecessary changes... And I'm pretty annoyed they've addressed the issue with the housing lighting but not a word about our characters' faces.

I’m glad they’re working on the housing issue, because it’s just as bad, but I agree they should’ve prioritized the characters! What players were expecting were more hi-res versions of their characters, not essentially digital plastic surgery that changed the actual shape of facial features.

In particular, they called out mouth scaling as an early problem, and it’s unclear whether so many of the issues we’re seeing fall under that already addressed error… did they make changes between Benchmark 2 and release? (Possibly, because my Hyur didn’t look as bad there as she does in game.) If they didn’t, maybe it’s on a hopefully high priority to-do list. If they did try to fix it, they failed, so it needs to be redone. So many characters look like their top lips have been reduced to the point that their expressions and emotes look totally different.

What hasn’t been called out by the devs yet is a similar issue with the eyes changing shape on most races. (Not to mention the color and luminosity!) You don’t really notice it as much on certain races until they do emotes. I had thought they fixed it on Lalas at first until I looked at my portraits. At least my Lala still looks “close enough” to before, I’m just sad I can’t use certain poses or emotes anymore because they look off. But my Highlander was totally destroyed…

I wish they’d at least address this again now that we’ve had the characters in game for a couple weeks, we’ve pointed out all the various issues, and we’ve shown that these are things the free Fantasia can’t fix.

[Daralii]

I’m glad they’re working on the housing issue, because it’s just as bad, but I agree they should’ve prioritized the characters! What players were expecting were more hi-res versions of their characters, not essentially digital plastic surgery that changed the actual shape of facial features.

In particular, they called out mouth scaling as an early problem, and it’s unclear whether so many of the issues we’re seeing fall under that already addressed error… did they make changes between Benchmark 2 and release? (Possibly, because my Hyur didn’t look as bad there as she does in game.) If they didn’t, maybe it’s on a hopefully high priority to-do list. If they did try to fix it, they failed, so it needs to be redone. So many characters look like their top lips have been reduced to the point that their expressions and emotes look totally different.

What hasn’t been called out by the devs yet is a similar issue with the eyes changing shape on most races. (Not to mention the color and luminosity!) You don’t really notice it as much on certain races until they do emotes. I had thought they fixed it on Lalas at first until I looked at my portraits. At least my Lala still looks “close enough” to before, I’m just sad I can’t use certain poses or emotes anymore because they look off. But my Highlander was totally destroyed…

I wish they’d at least address this again now that we’ve had the characters in game for a couple weeks, we’ve pointed out all the various issues, and we’ve shown that these are things the free Fantasia can’t fix.

I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the issues we have now were hidden to a degree in the second benchmark because they could tailor the lighting and scenes to look less bad. I think the topology changes were still there, but people couldn't do in-depth analysis like they can on live.

[Turnintino]

I tried to like my character's new look, I really tried, but after playing for two weeks I still can't come to like the way he looks now. My main issues are the new thinner and lighter eyebrows and the eyes. I prefer thicker and bushier eyebrows and these are the thickest option this face has, but now these too are really thin and look like they're pointed way more upwards than before.

His catlike pupils are barely showing most of the time and they look more like dots than slits now. I chose a sunseeker miqo'te BECAUSE of the catlike eyes, but now they are gone. The eyes also used to look like they were shining in most enviroments (kinda like the ancients' eyes, but milder), but now that effect is also mostly lost. The mouth also looks worse, but that is a much smaller problem to me than the eyes/eyebrows, kinda just wish that we could turn down the glossiness of the lips.

The eyes and especially eyebrows are two of the biggest sticking points for me as well. Why they'd change it, I can only guess, but I want my eyebrows back. u_u

[Reinha]

This is the change my character went through and it does not look like just a model update. It's a redesign.




- Noticeably darker and dimmer "dead" eyes.
- Thinner lips that look more flat and pointed towards the centre. It's not the same mouth shape at all.
- Lighter eyebrows that blend into the skin (they are lighter in-game but the preview window makes the hair and eyebrows look darker).

The look I was going for was slightly gothic style makeup with plump black lips and black eye+brow makeup on a youthful bright-eyed Elezen with silver hair. Now the character has no makeup in the eyebrows and has tired eyes and thinner old woman's lips.

I tried to recapture the youthfulness by making her eyes and lips lighter and this did make the overall look more balanced together with the light colored eyebrows. The lighter eyes pop more and look less "dead". But it's not the same bright lavender eyes my character had. Nor can I restore the lip shape I originally chose. Those options were removed in the graphics update.



My request is to have the eyebrows, eye color and lip shape fixed and made to look like they used to.

[Eien713]

Another female Elezen victim

I feel your pain so much it hurts *cries in female Elezen* :')

[Reinha]

I feel your pain so much it hurts *cries in female Elezen* :')

I'm coping by hiding my face with the long bob haircut but it's not working. It's like I'm playing someone else's character.