Dawntrail character graphics update - opinions, requests and discussion megathread

[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.

[KageTokage]

I think they really need to add variable settings for LoD instead of just on/off because it's become obvious to me that it's the game attempting to render full detail on extremely distant objects where I can't even see the detail that's causing the lag.

The problem is having it toggled on makes the game look awful because it affects things that are close as around 100 yards and it causes jarring and extremely noticeable pop-in while you're moving around.

Being able to set it so it only things beyond 200-400 yards away are subject would allow for performance increases without immersion breaking rendering issues.

[Cheapshot]

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.

If it’s true that the new basemesh has about double the polycount of the average pre DT face, and I can see in this example it is, where did they put them all on my face??



They put em all in my nostrils or something? It looks like they subtracted polys from my forehead and lips. Why did they use twice as many polys to make my nose completely flat? Man fml.

I really wanna see the before and after wireframe of moon face 4. I just need to understand what happened.

[Doopliss]

If it’s true that the new basemesh has about double the polycount of the average pre DT face, and I can see in this example it is, where did they put them all on my face??



They put em all in my nostrils or something? It looks like they subtracted polys from my forehead and lips. Why did they use twice as many polys to make my nose completely flat? Man fml.

I really wanna see the before and after wireframe of moon face 4. I just need to understand what happened.

Oh, wow... I know you've posted this image a few times, but I was so focused on the unnecessary changes to the nose and eyes (and mouth...but that's like, the case for every race) that I didn't notice the side profile's curve of her forehead and upper lip get more flat and jagged with the update... That somehow makes things even more confusing. I really do wonder if some faces were more rushed than others. Again, I hate theorizing, but...ugh. Why did they show off the same faces over and over again during the initial live letters?

[lunartears]

Also on a sidenote, WHY ARE OUR EYEBALLS NOT WHITE? They are like skin colored after 7.0. It's kinda gross. xD

I know what you're talking about and it's because the eyeball texture was changed to look more realistic and veiny. There's a pinkness around it to replicate flesh, that might be what you've seen. The old texture was just greyish and flat, no veins or pink at all.

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Each time I open the Endwalker benchmark to get some screenshots, I feel so sad. I'm always thinking "Oh so that's where you've been." when I load my creation data.

It would be nice to hear something from the development team about all of the things discussed thus far.

[Doopliss]

Sorry for another lengthy post, I just kept feeling bothered by this and would like to see it adjusted. The option to add colored eyelashes to ♂ Viera Face 2 feels like it's severely diminished if you pick darker colored hair in comparison to before.

For reference, I used the same apartment and same GPOSE lighting settings as before, the general lighting is just brighter now...

It's a really small detail that's difficult to see and doesn't really change the impression, but it's something I thought was endearing...and, more importantly, it's just a thing that feels like it got worse for no reason.

You can see the smallest hint of color in the 7.0 version if you look really closely, mostly between the upper lashes now; but I vastly preferred the detail being focused on the bottom lashes, and how it was more easily noticeable during close-ups.

Trust me, I already feel ridiculous for feeling bothered enough to want to point even this out! But I'm goin' to continue anyway! I especially felt a little bitter since I noticed the other two ♂ Viera faces that have this Facial Feature option (Face 1 and Face 3) seem to fare fine with dark hair colors.

I'm sorry I can't get closer screenshots of those faces to show what I mean...I don't have other characters available with those faces that I can use in-game to zoom in more.

Anyway, it's even more perplexing to me, because if you change the hair color to a lighter one, it shows up just fine. Like, even the black roots at the inner edges of the eyelashes seem to become shorter with light hair colors...? I'm not sure if I should report this as a bug...

Also, man, the eyelashes in general sure do look worse now. They used to have a sort of fluffiness to them...but now they're more thin and brittle-looking...

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On a more general note, I do think this face changed a fair bit overall, too.

I'm actually mostly okay with how it's been updated, like with my ♀ Elezen, but, much like that face, there are still things I'd like to see adjusted to get it closer to its original impression (eyebrows for this one; the corners of the lips; the cupid's bow).

A more important one (to me) that I want to point out, though, is the nose.

This is just, straight up, again, a different shape? The little rabbit nose mark makes it fairly obvious, too... I chose the widest nose option for him (Nose 4) for a reason. Why make it less wide? It just looks like a slightly blown-up version of Nose 1 now.

The tattoo on the nose bridge is also no longer smooth like it was before, even from a distance. Please look over this...

[Cheapshot]

Also, man, the eyelashes in general sure do look worse now. They used to have a sort of fluffiness to them...but now they're more thin and brittle-looking...

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On a more general note, I do think this face changed a fair bit overall, too.

I thought that Veria were one of the races that got more attention and came out alright but clearly I was mistaken. Your lips, nose and eyelashes got an unnecessary remodelling just like my cats did. I’m sorry this happened to you

I hope they at least address this soon and eventually fix all this. I really want to play the game again but every time I try I just can’t do it. All the fun and joy is gone for me. I don’t feel that connection to the world anymore.

[Sorimachi87]

I didnt read everything in this thread, just wanted to voice my feedback.
Only gripe i have with the graphics update is the movement of the wind. Yeah it seems more gusty at times and way smoother but i am kinda missing the flow or pulling rather in stormy conditions. Neither hair nor clothing gets really affected like it did before the update.
Its a minor issue i have though. Rest is really cool in my opinion

[GreenLeafy]

I wanted to make a new character on a race I've never used before and typically I love putting a bit of blush on but , um , why does the au'ra blush go over their scales?