Dawntrail character graphics update - opinions, requests and discussion megathread

[noumen0nn]

Something I see with the players who like the update that I think is worth mentioning: Very few of them mention specifics when talking about the changes or what they like. It's not "the eyes are smaller and more upturned so they're cuter", or "the philtrum is thinner so it looks more mature", it's just "she looks cuter/older/etc". This is not to disparage people who feel that way at all, it is simply to give the perspective that, if adjustments were made to change the faces to be closer to their original looks, the vast majority of players who are happy probably would not be able to really tell the differences anyway. "It looks the same to me" was the OVERWHELMING majority opinion of players during the first benchmark, after all. I don't think there would be an outcry if changes were made now, I think most people who are already happy would log on and say "I can't tell what's different so whatever", whereas the players who are unhappy wouldl get the fixes we deserve.

[ApolloGenX]

I just want to add that I like the graphics update. I think things look a lot better and I really like the crystals... and metals...

That said: There are some great documented examples here that I think the art teams need to look at!

People have REALLY taken time to give examples and I hope the teams pay attention.

[CidHeiral]

Apologies for the late reply, was probably not the best idea to post all of that right before savage release.

I actually made a similar bug report during the second benchmark release. However I'll put my gifs into your report. If yours get declined, I'll repost them into mine.

No worries, thanks for adding your examples to the post. I would be surprised if the post gets declined since the issue is so incredibly blatant but I guess we'll see!

[GalahGriff]

I recently resubscribed to FFXIV & It's a very unpleasant surprise that the graphics "upgrade" situation with respect to character customization hasn't changed much since the first Dawntrail Benchmark, despite the developers' reassurances that they would keep our characters as similar as they were before the graphics update.

Comparing my male viera in Endwalker graphics(left) & Dawntrail graphics(right) side-by-side reminds me of the before & after comparison photos/diagrams of an Ozempic user's face.



The narrower jaw, hollower cheeks, & lighter eyebrows— which I personally really, really hate— the prominent eye bags, different lip shape, tanner skin, & brighter irises— which I'm neutral about, & would perhaps see as a positive change if not for the negatives...

& that's just one of my player characters (I'm a bit of an alt enthusiast). Most of my characters give me the uncanny valley effect & are so different that they make it hard to enjoy playing sometimes (except for my male aura who I'm glad looks slightly less goofy & scowly), & I'm glad to see that I'm not alone.

I think that the changes are so extreme &, as a whole, were underdeveloped/under-tested based on some of the before-&-after lighting comparisons for some cutscenes with dark or dramatic lighting & that female hrothgar are misaligned in some cutscenes (has anyone else seen the super wonky Ardbert & hrothgirl WoL fistbump clip?), that they shouldn't have been implemented in the first place.

I talked about this in a previous post I made when the first Benchmark came out, but I'll say it again: replacing existing character customization options with new ones, instead of simply giving us more customization options to choose from, is a huge misstep on the developers’ part.

FFXIV's character customization is really limited as is. There is some good & some bad with the graphics changes, & maybe the developers just don't see a way forward without pissing off either the people who love the changes or those who hate them. But the way I see it, if you can change a customization option so drastically, you're fully capable of restoring the original version & adding the changed version as an option alongside the original, at the very least.

I'm really hoping for a focus on character customization development for the next while— starting with what I mentioned above. There is so much to improve & I feel like customization tends to be neglected; just take a look at the state of hrothgar customization in general, the implementation of hats & hoods on hrothgar & viera, gender locked gear, the modding community of which a majority focus is on making more character customization options, etc.

[Cheapshot]

The issue is you now have a large portion of the population who adore their characters and the new updates and looks. To revert it, or change shapes of things now would require not only a free fantasia for people to once again have to readjust their characters, but then you have people who will be furious because they've known grown used to new their characters as is. It's simply too late. I expect they will make minor adjustments over things in future patches, but I wouldn't expect them to make big enough changes where a fantasia would once again need to be required.

I realize that a number of people have already responded to you but since you were replying to me I’ll answer. I feel this view is perhaps misguided for a number of reasons.

Firstly it’s anecdotal in nature. We don’t know the size of the player base who prefer the new features, and we don’t know what people are actually responding positively to in many cases. There’s very very little, if any, specific feedback highlighting what people like better. It’s very possible much of the positive reaction is driven by higher resolution skin and hair textures as well as more complex lighting with higher resolution shadows. The number of people highlighting specific changes they like such as “I like the new lashes better” is even smaller than the amount leaving negative feedback so I don’t think we can confidently make assumptions either way. It’s just as likely that people would be equally happy if the facial features were adjusted more to their original shapes, since it would still look “improved” due to the higher resolution textures and lighting.

Secondly the fantasia was provided as an effort to accommodate those unhappy with the changes, not those who aren’t. It was a nice gesture but I don’t think it ever really helped with this particular issue. People who want their original looks back have nothing to fantasia to. So I don’t know that it should be much of a factor. If they added my original feature shapes as additional CC options I would happily pay for a fantasia if I didn’t still have both the new free one and the original from ARR. And they can always give away another free fanta. In don't think they’d need to, it would be an unnecessary loss, but there is no reason they couldn’t.

Thirdly. It is strange to make the argument that it’s “too late” and we shouldn’t make changes that might upset players who have grown attached to facial features they’ve had for a month, while simultaneously telling players attached to the facial features they've had for up to ten years to cope. It just doesn’t make sense. How could one weight the latter group not more, not even equally, but less? That’s backwards. I think it makes much more sense to modify the face options to look more like their original shapes and add new CC options for those who like the new ones they’ve obtained recently. That makes more sense, but I would honestly happily settle for being the one who has to fantasia if I could have my character looking like I remember them but HD.

[KhujaRela]

I'm really sad that Yoshida said they would adress and keep working on it after first patches but still no words... (it doesn't matter that much because I can't play ayway with the motion sickness isue tho...)

[Moonfallen]

The issue is you now have a large portion of the population who adore their characters and the new updates and looks. To revert it, or change shapes of things now would require not only a free fantasia for people to once again have to readjust their characters, but then you have people who will be furious because they've known grown used to new their characters as is. It's simply too late. I expect they will make minor adjustments over things in future patches, but I wouldn't expect them to make big enough changes where a fantasia would once again need to be required.

A lot of us that are calling for the changes they made to be fixed, are also saying in the same sentence that the changes they made to our faces should be additional options, not to completely revert or remove them. That has been echoed by so many of us within this whole thread that the changes they made to a lot of our features like making our mouth, nose, face/jaw shape completely different should have been additional options added since some races look near 1:1 and you can tell which ones received more care. There are issues with all the changes and some people are going to be happier than others, we're not asking to take away their happiness we're asking to have the changes they made be additional options and give our characteristics back.

Another thing to add is a lot of us that have given feedback are players of varying years of experience. I myself have been playing for a decade (ARR closed alpha) and have had the same character my entire time playing. I also have various alts for different races and looks. My alts I am not that unhappy with since they don't look as bad as my main that I've been playing the game with for a decade. Some of my characters I've only had during EW so I'm not that attached to their appearance. The entire time they were referring to graphic updates regarding player characters they made us all believe we would look damn near 1:1 to our old graphics and seeing bench 1, 2 AND DT that is farther from the truth. I noticed immediately the changes in the first benchmark about my character that made me feel uneasy about the whole thing. By the time the second benchmark came out I was even more worried by the changes they made because I really didn't like the changes they made to some lighting and characteristics (like the mouth). When I logged on for day one of early access I did not like my character at ALL and she looked nothing like she did compared to both benchmarks, EW and character creation.

[lunartears]

It's frustrating that reporting clear graphical issues as bugs results in a relocation to "Insufficent Information" despite being able to provide as much as possible. I'd appreciate if they could give a reasoning, but I suppose it's not realistic considering how many reports they get.

[EdwinChucklenuts]

"..Firstly it’s anecdotal in nature. We don’t know the size of the player base who prefer the new features"

No one's coming to the forums with positive feedback. The truth is the vast majority of people seem to enjoy the update (tune in to any random vod/stream of someone playing right after the update). The people who enjoy the graphics, enjoy the game don't need to come into the forum. This place is purely to grumble and complain lol.
The new textures/lighting/character updates are *chef's kiss*
Change is scary but eventually you'll come to accept your character in glorious high definition!

[Einnecy]

No one's coming to the forums with positive feedback. The truth is the vast majority of people seem to enjoy the update (tune in to any random vod/stream of someone playing right after the update). The people who enjoy the graphics, enjoy the game don't need to come into the forum. This place is purely to grumble and complain lol.
The new textures/lighting/character updates are *chef's kiss*
Change is scary but eventually you'll come to accept your character in glorious high definition!

If you had read even a single page of this thread instead of cherry-picking what you wanted to read you would come to the conclusion that people here are giving feedback and you would be aware of why they are giving feedback. Following your logic, I can also pull a statement out of my ass and say that a vast majority of people seem to dislike the update. I know of a dozen people who aren't posting on the forums, so surely those people I follow on social media and my friends speak for everyone, eh?