Dawntrail character graphics update - opinions, requests and discussion megathread

[Asteri]

Your characters definitely look better after the update.

Better? Sure, the horns look amazing, especially in the light! The hair texture is much less pixelated than before, that's awesome. The skin looks a lot more detailed, that's cool too! The eye texture looks really beautiful too!

But there are changes that happened. Her eye shape is now completely different. Her bottom lip is more plump than it used to with the lip shape having changed.

It feels like my character underwent facial reconstruction surgery, it's uncanny to me. As someone who spent ungodly hours staring at my character from gposing to taking over 15k+ screenshots of the entire MSQ because I'm weird like that, it's just no longer the character I created and loved, the choices I picked for her face no longer exist and no amount of fantasia can bring her back. It's disappointing to see the character you loved so completely changed in ways that were not expected, were reported both on the first and second benchmark releases, and still nothing has been done or acknowledged. It's been over two weeks now, it's been months since the benchmarks, and I tried to get used to the changes but I still don't see my character.

These changes fuel emotional responses because it affects the avatar we chose for the story, which is very much the focus of this MMO as we all know. She might look better to you, heck, she looks better to me too, but in my eyes, she no longer looks like the character I created at all. I was expecting a texture upscale, not a resculpt of the face and features I loved to the point where my character feels alien to me. :/

[BigCheez]

Better? Sure, the horns look amazing, especially in the light! The hair texture is much less pixelated than before, that's awesome. The skin looks a lot more detailed, that's cool too! The eye texture looks really beautiful too!

But there are changes that happened. Her eye shape is now completely different. Her bottom lip is more plump than it used to with the lip shape having changed.

It feels like my character underwent facial reconstruction surgery, it's uncanny to me. As someone who spent ungodly hours staring at my character from gposing to taking over 15k+ screenshots of the entire MSQ because I'm weird like that, it's just no longer the character I created and loved, the choices I picked for her face no longer exist and no amount of fantasia can bring her back. It's disappointing to see the character you loved so completely changed in ways that were not expected, were reported both on the first and second benchmark releases, and still nothing has been done or acknowledged. It's been over two weeks now, it's been months since the benchmarks, and I tried to get used to the changes but I still don't see my character.

These changes fuel emotional responses because it affects the avatar we chose for the story, which is very much the focus of this MMO as we all know. She might look better to you, heck, she looks better to me too, but in my eyes, she no longer looks like the character I created at all. I was expecting a texture upscale, not a resculpt of the face and features I loved to the point where my character feels alien to me. :/

The eyes, nose and lips do look different.

The eyes and nose have a slightly more realistic shape, which looks much better to me. The lips are a little fuller and the expression is much happier. The neutral expression of the old model looks looks almost worried to me. I find the new version to be much nicer.

I think it's normal for something to feel a bit off because the characters that some of us have played for literally years of /playtime look slightly different to the way that we're used to them looking, but I also think that the vast majority of people will grow to prefer their characters new looks with time.

Personally, I'm jealous of players of the other races because hrothgars look almost identical to how they did before the update, aside from the hair being more well defined.

[Cheapshot]

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

The problem is, and I appreciate your perspective, but it really doesn't matter if the characters looked next gen and beautiful across the board. I don’t think they do. Model complexity hasn’t increased much despite facial features changing sometimes dramatically. Many textures on characters changed without becoming any higher resolution. The way new lighting illuminates characters is often odd, unflattering, and buggy. Some characters look better than others for sure.

But even if all those details were higher resolution, higher polycount and calibrated perfectly, it was never the issue. We’ve spent years loving our characters and building a connection to them. In real life, familiarity and connection is one of the most meaningful and important aspects of humanity. If your family were taken and replaced with “more beautiful” imposters you would have to be a psycho to just think “oh, my family is better now”. Obviously characters aren’t as important as family, but the point I’m making is that there are important aspects beyond just beauty that people care about and are sensitive to. Losing that familiarity we feel for our characters is too uncomfortable and upsetting a blow for a lot of the player base. Pretty much everyone in here is mourning. That’s an awful thing for a product meant to be enjoyed to make people feel.

[Moonfallen]

Tossing a gif of my WoL before and after. I think if the mouth didn't change how she looked so drastically I might be fine with the other changes to the rest of her features, but I don't know. She just doesn't look or feel the same to me. :/

[BigCheez]

The problem is, and I appreciate your perspective, but it really doesn't matter if the characters looked next gen and beautiful across the board. I don’t think they do. Model complexity hasn’t increased much despite facial features changing sometimes dramatically. Many textures on characters changed without becoming any higher resolution. The way new lighting illuminates characters is often odd, unflattering, and buggy. Some characters look better than others for sure.

But even if all those details were higher resolution, higher polycount and calibrated perfectly, it was never the issue. We’ve spent years loving our characters and building a connection to them. In real life, familiarity and connection is one of the most meaningful and important aspects of humanity. If your family were taken and replaced with “more beautiful” imposters you would have to be a psycho to just think “oh, my family is better now”. Obviously characters aren’t as important as family, but the point I’m making is that there are important aspects beyond just beauty that people care about and are sensitive to. Losing that familiarity we feel for our characters is too uncomfortable and upsetting a blow for a lot of the player base. Pretty much everyone in here is mourning. That’s an awful thing for a product meant to be enjoyed to make people feel.

Yeah, not sure about comparing pixels to your family members, chief. One of these things should be markedly more important to you than the other.

[Reinha]

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

Could you tell me what about my character looks better now? I would appreciate if someone who likes the look of my updated character would help me see what there is to like.

[cutestfox]

Yeah, not sure about comparing pixels to your family members, chief. One of these things should be markedly more important to you than the other.

Not sure where your argument is, chief
The character isn't same person, "technical glow up" or not. I don't wanna play someone elses character, it's not that hard to understand

[Lnemoh]

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

Facial features are subtle. A few mm can make a huge difference to how a facial feature / face is perceived - after all, we use our faces for communication, so we kinda tend to stare at them. So what you are saying here is highly subjective, and frankly comes across as flame baiting. It looks better *to you*. The fact of the mater is, the dev team promised to keep the original shape and feel of the faces, and they utterly failed to deliver on that. They instead gave us digital plastic surgery nobody asked for. Some faces fair better than others - never mind all the technical issues with shadow casting.

They need to do a better job of preserving what was already there, and if they want to change things they can just add it as an option to the character creator. More options is always better afterall.

[Evergrey]

the dev team promised to keep the original shape and feel of the faces, and they utterly failed to deliver on that.

"As close as possible" which is what they've always said is not the same like a promise for a 1:1 update though.

[Cheapshot]

Yeah, not sure about comparing pixels to your family members, chief. One of these things should be markedly more important to you than the other.

Obviously characters aren’t as important as family, but the point I’m making is that there are important aspects beyond just beauty that people care about and are sensitive to.

Uhhhh yeah dude, I know. I said exactly that. I guess you missed it in your rush to reply to me condescendingly. I kinda regret also saying this now:

and I appreciate your perspective

Why do the majority of people coming into this thread with a conflicting opinion act so antagonistic? I wasn’t rude to you. I tried to explain my point of view respectfully. I’m getting tired of giving people the benefit of the doubt and having it be a wasted effort.