Dawntrail Graphics Update - Feedback on changes to the world's aesthetic and feel

[Rumi-ko]

I feel the same way… I always thought the graphics were great for such an old game! New zones look great, but the old places have suffered for it. Is updating the old zones one of their projects to work on over the patches, or is this really the way things are going to look now? I think I remember them saying they weren’t updating any textures and such in housing at this time, but there’s something so wrong with this lighting inside. 0 used to be total darkness, and it looks about mid-level brightness from before.

From what I understand, they started with DT and the ARR zones, and are going to work toward the center until eventually everything gets the overhaul treatment. But its going to take a while before its completely 100% done. Like a year at least.

[lunartears]

Some of the old aetherytes haven't been updated for whatever reason:

Not getting ANY feedback on the bugs, whether they're Accepted or moved elsewhere, is so so frustrating. No indication on fix timelines, no indication if a thing actually is going to be fixed, how that fix might be addressed, etc.

I wrote another bug about the Amaurot style aetherytes because only the Elpis ones got updated, and it got moved to "Unable to Verify" despite clear screenshots, and I can't add clearer screenshots because you can't edit or add to bugs after they're moved Which is so stupid because that particular bug is extremely easy to verify!
Go to Elpis, see shiny aetheryte. Go to the Moon, Amaurot, or Ondo Cups and see the 100% un-updated aetherytes. Ez pz. I just don't get it.

Elpis -


Mare Lamentorum -

Also, I still think the new crystal textures are worse. I can't really find the right words but they just look messier, too reflective, maybe too realistic (to me).
The old design/texture but HD with some lighting changes would've been prettier in my opinion.
I don't get the need to make the world's graphics look as real as possible.

[Rueby]

I went to Yanxia to gather some stuff for custom deliveries. Got the custom deliveries and a headache.
I wanted to enjoy the scenery but the grass/ground textures feel too sharp, especially the white bits. It's hard to show a picture of it since it occurs when stopping/running and it hurts...My internet isn't good enough to upload a vid and make a gif of it sadly.

[Wyssahtyn]

sea of clouds looks terrible now.

[Serilyn]

Some of the old aetherytes haven't been updated for whatever reason:




Also, I still think the new crystal textures are worse. I can't really find the right words but they just look messier, too reflective, maybe too realistic (to me).
The old design/texture but HD with some lighting changes would've been prettier in my opinion.
I don't get the need to make the world's graphics look as real as possible.

I know exactly what you mean as I thought the same thing when I first saw the new ones and figured I was the odd one out as everyone else thought they were great.
The old ones look like cloudy ice and one solid structure. The new ones to me look like a crystal with a whole ton of cracks and imperfections in it causing all the reflections and the more fragmented look.

[Kuro_Matsu]

I feel this is some areas. Textures are fine so far, since some older ones are still being worked on, but the majority of them look good. I won't be too nit-picky about that though, since I don't/ can't play on high graphics. But I have gripes with the lighting. Sometimes it's inappropriately bright. For instance, Daniffen Pass in Central Coerthas. It's a cave, yet it's lit up like a Christmas tree. The same is happening with the inn rooms of Gridania and Ishgard. Also, the wet surfaces when it rains is too glossy. Metal textures only have 2 options, gold and silver.

My other gripe is the fog. I understand they are very proud of it (it is beautiful), but it happens too often or is permanent in some areas. The Sea of Clouds, Churning Mists, and even the housing area of Ul'dah has fog instead of clouds. It's just an unmoving blob in the distance. On the upside to the fog update, the ravine beside Whitebrim Front is lovely now. There used to be a weird illuminated fog in there that is now gone.

[GreenLeafy]

I think the graphical update is a huge hit and miss across the board. Some areas remain the same , some now have a completely different hue to them ,some just outright look worse and like they've lost their magic.Same applies to the textures for literally everything else in the game aswell - clothes, furnishing , structures , characters,etc. My biggest gripe about the whole thing is the incredibly prevalent inconsistency across the entire game.
Some might argue - but there were always some inconsistencies , to which I can say , yes that is certainly the case but I think the gap between updated and non-updated things now is so drastic that it just takes you out of it entirely because its more jarring seeing it than ever before. (And I really think in the past they were really actively trying to keep some level of cohesion across the game too.) One cutscene I step into Tural and see a guard with the most shiny smooth metal pauldrons I've ever seen in the game and in the next side quest cutscene I'm shown a close up of a book with a 6 pixel family crest on it. It just terrible. And you are CONSTANTLY reminded of it because every other cutscene has a close up on something that is still double digit pixels right next to a scene or character who has the realistic shiny render of some metallic accessory or incredibly excessive fabric texture. The whiplash never ends. Its reminiscent of modding an older game like Skyrim with the HD texture packs more than anything. Except that's just the base product.

When it comes to the overall feel and update to the zones themselves it really makes me think of the broad strokes of HD remastering old 90s series that's been happening that unless done with care and thought in mind just strips the original of the many post-production edits done for colour grading and masking various scenes with the idea of evoking different emotions. Imagine Fallout New Vegas without that old yellowy tint or the first Twilight movie without the overall blue filter. It just won't carry the same vibes.

There's a video that goes in depth about the issue which happened with the remaster of Buffy which I highly recommend to get an idea of how much something like this can change a locale or a scene because its an issue that is now also part of old expansion cutscenes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZWNGq70Oyo

And another interesting video that compares a lot of places in DT to how it was before.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aUOQeVF7EU

One of the saddest thing is seeing so many crystal structures losing their soft glow.

[Kuro_Matsu]

One of the saddest thing is seeing so many crystal structures losing their soft glow.

I noticed this as well and thought I was simply misremembering the glow. It seems they put all effort into the aetherytes and forgot about the overworld crystals. On that note... I wish they would tone the aetherytes down along with the increase glow in the Gold Saucer.

I went to Yanxia to gather some stuff for custom deliveries. Got the custom deliveries and a headache.
I wanted to enjoy the scenery but the grass/ground textures feel too sharp, especially the white bits. It's hard to show a picture of it since it occurs when stopping/running and it hurts...My internet isn't good enough to upload a vid and make a gif of it sadly.

Foliage does have a heightened sharpness to it now. Both grass, and to a slightly lesser extent, trees/ bushes. Though with the dwarf bamboo you see there in Yanxia is pretty true to life. What bothers me is during movement the grass is sharp while everything around it blurs, and it hurts my eyes. I don't use DLSS or the AMD equivalents and my anti-aliasing hasn't changed from FXAA since I play on a popato. It's weird they baked in the smoothing effect even when you turn off the settings for it.

Edit:

It looks like they didn't forget all of the crystals! Just ARR areas, lol. I understand prioritizing DT since it's made with the graphics update in mind, but you would think ARR would be the 2nd most important since all of the new players would be getting their first impressions there.

[Rueby]

Foliage does have a heightened sharpness to it now. Both grass, and to a slightly lesser extent, trees/ bushes. Though with the dwarf bamboo you see there in Yanxia is pretty true to life. What bothers me is during movement the grass is sharp while everything around it blurs, and it hurts my eyes. I don't use DLSS or the AMD equivalents and my anti-aliasing hasn't changed from FXAA since I play on a popato. It's weird they baked in the smoothing effect even when you turn off the settings for it.

It does not look great in motion. It's way too sharp and then it flickers between sharp/blurry as you stop/move.

I found this gem when me and my friend went to Slitherbough to help me do the post EW MSQ...I didn't write down the time because I thought it'd be this bad all the time. Seeing that turned me off enough to actually go play Wuthering Waves instead. I hate seeing these kind of bugs...



Edit : I went ahead and reported it. I hope they accept the vague-ish game time because I honestly wasn't intending to bug report this. I tried to be thorough regardless...fingers crossed I guess

[Kuro_Matsu]

Such pixelation!

Something is definitely wrong with the way lighting hits textures in some areas. At launch, your character and even chocobo had a radioactive glow on them if you were in certain spots in the Tempest. I haven't been able to replicate it, so I assume it's fixed.

My WoL going super saiyan:


That SS of yours looks like it was possibly taken at night time. And I found that moonlight looks a bit weird on cloth here and there. It's not all cloth though, which confuses me. I know nothing about 3D modeling and applying lighting - so maybe it's just cloth that has certain properties?