Dawntrail character graphics update - opinions, requests and discussion megathread

[smitten_miquitten]

The lighting on these is so dark and there's a bunch of stuff everywhere so it's honestly kinda hard to see still. It'd probably be best to just go in Gpose with neutral lighting and zoom in. The whites of the eyes on the unmodded pic definitely look a good bit darker, but the modded ones are totally lacking the reddish bits at the corners you'd expect to see.

[Zakuyia]

I just hope they update more of the sandals in game the texture looks wonky and lazy

[Neytirhi]

I found some other shots I took comparing the same emote in EW vs in DT...



Just... ew
Tired eyes and strange puffy lip corners
Doesn't even look like the same emote...

I loved it before it had such a cool vibe, but now it looks kinda stupid

[smitten_miquitten]

I know I'm on about basically nothing else, but gosh what did they do to your eyebrows. Like white -> grey makes a little sense even if I hate it, but blonde -> grey?

I so SO hope they listen and give us the same ones Seekers have.

And her eyes were such a pretty orange before! I'm so sorry that vibrancy isn't there anymore.

[Doopliss]

And when I leave my feedback people tell me I look better now. Drooped blurry dead fish eyes, 1000 yard stare, an over-straightened nosejob, flatter eyebrow texture, completely different yet same resolution lashes, my skin colour changed, and a lip replacement with forced on colour and gloss is what I got. The skin texture around the eyes is about the only non-lighting based improvement I see. The hair texture is even just machine upscaled.

The only reason people can even say the new versions look "better" is because light interacts more smoothly across the face now. Except not always lol. Even in new areas, like the third fight of the new raid, the lighting on the faces is actually some of the worst I've ever seen. How did that happen in an entirely new zone...?

Anyway, I really, really do hope they adjust ♀ Miqo'te Face 4; the differences in options are really plain to see to anybody who cares about character design. And I don't even have a female Miqo'te character. I never will.

And still I can tell yours got hit hard by their blanket decision to make upturned and downturned eyes (upturned in your case) way less noticeable. They also decided the definitely intentional nose bump (because that is a real nose shape that real people have) is actually an error that needs to be smoothed out. So much for being one of the only feminine faces with that option. They did the same to a ♂ Viera Face 1 nose option too, if it helps you feel any better. Though I think both losing that feature sucks.

I hate theorizing things because there's no proof and ultimately theorizing here leads to nothing, but it really, really feels like they outsourced the facial graphic updates to a way less careful and competent team than before, while the internal character artists worked on female Hrothgar (whose faces look great and have a lot of character to choose from reminiscent of the standards they'd have prior to this).

But, uh, muh polygons, I guess. When the polygon count barely increased.

[Neytirhi]

I know I'm on about basically nothing else, but gosh what did they do to your eyebrows. Like white -> grey makes a little sense even if I hate it, but blonde -> grey?

I so SO hope they listen and give us the same ones Seekers have.

And her eyes were such a pretty orange before! I'm so sorry that vibrancy isn't there anymore.

Thank you (╯︵╰,) ♥ yeah I loved her amber eyes... and those grey eyebrows looks so weird (when you can see them lol)

[CidHeiral]

But, uh, muh polygons, I guess. When the polygon count barely increased.

Are you referring to the body or the face? Because the face poly count increased significantly.

https://x.com/kailn_ffxiv/status/1780969950204612815

The body poly count I agree could have used more love. I've noticed the shadows often get caught on the angular lines running down the arms and freak out. The shadows are doing a lot of weird things right now though so maybe that will get addressed.

[Doopliss]

Are you referring to the body or the face? Because the face poly count increased significantly.

https://x.com/kailn_ffxiv/status/1780969950204612815

The body poly count I agree could have used more love. I've noticed the shadows often get caught on the angular lines running down the arms and freak out. The shadows are doing a lot of weird things right now though so maybe that will get addressed.

Oh, no. Admittedly I was bitter when writing this but I was specifically thinking about individualistic parts like eyes and nose here, which some people have flippantly claimed changed only due to polygon count. They have seen an increase, but not enough for some options to suddenly become barely distinguishable from others (again thinking about how eye shape 1 looks barely different from eye shape 3 for ♀ Miqo'te Face 4, as an example, when eye shape 3 used to be distinctly much more upturned). I'm aware the polygon count for the face overall has increased significantly which allows for the more easy expression manipulation (which I do still think is fun).

The body is part of my complaint too but I feel like that's a whole other beast I don't have the energy to put into words. I never minded it before, but with the new face textures the lack of fidelity increase for it is a lot more stark...

[CidHeiral]

The body is part of my complaint too but I feel like that's a whole other beast I don't have the energy to put into words. I never minded it before, but with the new face textures the lack of fidelity increase for it is a lot more stark...

I agree with you there. It bothered me before and bothers me even more now that the heads are so much higher fidelity than everything else. I can understand where the devs are coming from in that regard since people are usually covered in gear anyway but as a highlander player my glams often display the guns so the difference sticks out to me more.

Edit: Saw a great example as I was sitting down a minute ago. High fidelity face sandwiched between PS1 elbows.

[Doopliss]

I agree with you there. It bothered me before and bothers me even more now that the heads are so much higher fidelity than everything else. I can understand where the devs are coming from in that regard since people are usually covered in gear anyway but as a highlander player my glams often display the guns so the difference sticks out to me more.

Edit: Saw a great example as I was sitting down a minute ago. High fidelity face sandwiched between PS1 elbows.

Yeah...that is really, really noticeable now. Ouch. I'm honestly surprised that the few gearsets we have with updated textures don't seem to update the arms or legs; just the hands and feet. The update in its current form makes the game feel disjointed enough that it bothers my OCD to the point that I wish they had delayed it until it was 100% complete...but I know that's not really how game development works these days.

At the risk of sounding, uh, suspicious I guess, I thought it was weirdly apparent on the bust for the updated female Au Ra starting gear too. The details added to the equipment itself are so nice, and I can tell the hands and feet look better than before...but the chest is still extra square, lol. I've noticed this on the female Hyuran chest piece as well, I just thought the Auri one was more apparent.