Dawntrail character graphics update - opinions, requests and discussion megathread

[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.

[Eien713]

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.

I sometimes think to myself: "This is fine (insert the meme of the dog in a burning house). I can learn to like the new look." And I succeed at times. But then I look at my character at certain angles and something breaks, along with what little connection I'd managed to build with the new look, and I go back to mourning the old graphics :'( There are certain lightings in which I can't stand looking at my character. Whenever I take pictures of her, I make her face away from any source of light.

[Kaziek]

I sometimes think to myself: "This is fine (insert the meme of the dog in a burning house). I can learn to like the new look." And I succeed at times. But then I look at my character at certain angles and something breaks, along with what little connection I'd managed to build with the new look, and I go back to mourning the old graphics :'( There are certain lightings in which I can't stand looking at my character. Whenever I take pictures of her, I make her face away from any source of light.

That is definitely something I wish they'd look into. I find it odd that in a graphics "upgrade" it makes lighting considerably less flattering on most characters unless you are facing away from a light source. Sunny lighting that used to be very neutral on a character's face now often harshly highlights areas like under the eyes.

[Moonfallen]

I didn't do a great job but I did the best to my ability (I forgot to do the nose for EW). The biggest change is the extension of the lower lip, the jaw is a little more rounder, eyebrows slightly bigger, eye shape is only slightly changed. I liked her old mouth because she had a slight neutral/frown expression and when I did the annoyed expression she looked angry. Now she just looks like she's always smiling no matter what the expression is. All the small changes add up. Sorry it's not more detailed as I'd like it to be, I'm chronically ill and this took me way too long just to do the bare minimum.

Keeper of the moon
Face 3
Jaw 1
Eye shape 1
Iris Small
Eyebrows 1
Nose 1
Mouth 3
Lip Color None

EW

DT


Side by Side


EW


DT

[Daralii]

That is definitely something I wish they'd look into. I find it odd that in a graphics "upgrade" it makes lighting considerably less flattering on most characters unless you are facing away from a light source. Sunny lighting that used to be very neutral on a character's face now often harshly highlights areas like under the eyes.

They added a lot of definition to skin folds around some eyes for some reason, which obviously get highlighted. It looks weirder and weirder the more you zoom in.

[CantDecide]

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.

Edit: I was referring to this post in the bug report forum https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...82#post6533282

Oh gosh, this gif shows the downgrade especially clearly. What they've done to face 1 makes me so, so sad. They stripped away all its beauty.

[Asteri]

Because I enjoy torturing myself and I'm extremely worried of the lack of communication on this topic, I decided to make a gif as well and, well, yeah. :<

I miss my Au Ra so much, it's sapped a lot of my enjoyment of the game since launch from having played MSQ on basically a stranger at this point. Couldn't we have only gotten better skin without the new sculpts man? Were these *really* necessary?? :/



The eyeshape is completely different, the lips are shaped differently and permanently smiling, the cheeks are higher... At this point I'll also try making a Bug Report to see if that can get something fixed...

[Edit] Bug report: https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...52#post6534952

[BigCheez]

To be completely honest, I see a lot of people complaining about massive glow ups. Your characters definitely look better after the update.