Dawntrail character graphics update - opinions, requests and discussion megathread

[Vhana]

I honestly held off on posting more because the pictures are so...bad? humiliating?

They are great examples of what is going on with some of the emotes. The new facial animations are, to quote Ilberd, “Sloppy!”. Some are better than others, but scoff and smile and beam all feel rough on my character…. And those the the ones I keep having to see in cutscenes.

[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

Something did change with 7.05. Stormy weather pulls much more on hair and clothing now. Thank you!
Also Euphrosyne Raid the first bit has now actual wind sweeping across, seen in characters hair and clothing. Thank you here too!

[Reinha]

I noticed something interesting in my characters' forum portraits: the eyebrows seem to have turned darker over time. These are pictures of 2 different characters but the hair and skin colors are the same. The significant thing is that all of these images were saved at different times. I tried to open multiple links of my character's current profile picture to see if they are generated with small differences each time, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Something in the color, lighting or how the eyebrows cast shadow has changed after expansion launch. Furthermore, the change seems to have been gradual. You can open the images in new tabs and click between them to see how the color has changed.

6 July


20 July


2 August


Could they be slowly fixing the bleached eyebrows? Anyone who has used makeup knows that a small enhancement on the brows makes a huge difference in the overall appearance and my character already looks better to me in the third image. I noticed how my character has become slightly easier to look at in game but until now I thought it was just me slowly getting used to it. The eyebrows still don't have black outlines like they used to but if I pan my camera to look at them from above they have a dark shadow. Unfortunately I don't have any screenshots taken at launch because my main was a Hrothgal at the time.

In any case, thank you for this small improvement and please continue to make the eyebrows darker!

[Kaziek]

Still waiting for a reply from the devs. The focus of the post this time is not about the changes to the character's faces but the new emote animations since the issues seem to be a two or three fold problem (face changes, animation, lighting).

I'm including two versions of each picture because it might be hard to see around the red lines I drew. I'm at a loss for words. I don't really feel the urge to take gpose pictures, farm glam, buy mogstation outfits, etc anymore because what's the point?

6.x is on the left, the uncanny one on the right is 7.0. Scoff emote.



Anyways I think the pictures are self-explanatory. Post to be continued.

Your screenshots highlight another big issue I have with the update, and that's making jawlines WAY softer. His face has the same issue that female midlander face 1 has in that there is way too much shadow on the sides of the face, which make it look both shorter and more acorn shaped. I'll have to do more comparisons to see if that's a problem with the new lighting or an actual change to the shape itself, but I get the feeling that it's both.

Either way it looks very odd to me and not at all more "realistic" as some people have argued. Light doesn't have that harsh of a shadow on most people's cheeks, at least not normal daylight which is often the culprit. I'll try to see if I can get some good comparison shots and post again later.

[Cheapshot]

I noticed something interesting in my characters' forum portraits: the eyebrows seem to have turned darker over time. These are pictures of 2 different characters but the hair and skin colors are the same. The significant thing is that all of these images were saved at different times. I tried to open multiple links of my character's current profile picture to see if they are generated with small differences each time, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Something in the color, lighting or how the eyebrows cast shadow has changed after expansion launch. Furthermore, the change seems to have been gradual. You can open the images in new tabs and click between them to see how the color has changed.

6 July


20 July


2 August


Could they be slowly fixing the bleached eyebrows? Anyone who has used makeup knows that a small enhancement on the brows makes a huge difference in the overall appearance and my character already looks better to me in the third image. I noticed how my character has become slightly easier to look at in game but until now I thought it was just me slowly getting used to it. The eyebrows still don't have black outlines like they used to but if I pan my camera to look at them from above they have a dark shadow. Unfortunately I don't have any screenshots taken at launch because my main was a Hrothgal at the time.

In any case, thank you for this small improvement and please continue to make the eyebrows darker!

I do notice that your eyes look different in the last shot as well. Either the colour is a touch lighter or there’s more reflection in the lower half of the iris. Could you switch back to the outfit you were wearing in the original July 6th image to rule out if that is having any impact? It would be good information.

[Reinha]

I do notice that your eyes look different in the last shot as well. Either the colour is a touch lighter or there’s more reflection in the lower half of the iris. Could you switch back to the outfit you were wearing in the original July 6th image to rule out if that is having any impact? It would be good information.

It's my alt and main who have identical designs. The first image is of my alt, she wears a Pearl White outfit and the earring. The second image is my main and the third is my alt again. I changed the lip color before saving the second picture and then fantasia'd the eye color for the third picture. Both characters now have lighter eyes and lips but everything else has remained the same.

I have now changed my main's hairstyle to match the alt to see if the eyebrows are dark on both characters' portraits. It will take a while before my portrait updates though.

Edit: it's updated now. The eyebrows seem a bit lighter again, similar to image 2. There is a bit of randomness involved after all. Looks like I had false hope...

[Rueby]

My bug report about the eyebrow twitching despite being detailed got thrown into duplicates...oh well...I guess there's one of it that I haven't seen...
I hope they at least would look at everyone's faces...

[smitten_miquitten]

I really really hope they actually bother to read and take info from ones that they decide are dupes at least. It's disheartening to think of useful info being lost/thrown out just because another similar, potentially less informative/detailed bug was already made.

[cutestfox]

My lodestone picture finally updated, but I was able to thankfully find another alt with the old picture instead
I hate the new freakazoid profile picture. Hope this one lasts a while or maybe I've just cursed it to change

[Peachyyyy]

I opened up the endwalker benchmark today to take a comparison photo because a month later and I still miss my old character. They are both in shadow here. I know she looks "better" to some people, but I struggle a lot with how different my character looks. It feels like this is a different person and I miss her old self. I think it's especially her eyes. I just wanted to share since I was attached to her and now I don't really like her anymore, and I'm still sad about it.