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

[gllt]

Yikes, so they made the game glow so much I can barely look at it but also somehow made the glowy places I actually like look incredibly dead. I love the burning wall.

How.

[CidHeiral]

Uncannily realistic is not a compliment and certainly not an equivalent to 'looks too good'

It looks good in isolation if photorealism was the goal; it looks bad in context because this game is not (or was not) trying to be photorealistic.

Seems pretty in line with the usual art style, it just has the added layer of a material texture now. Pokemon did the same thing in the latest entry.

[Selvokaz]

im seeimg Auri with Black scales, when did this become an option? I know Sigurd has black scales and pale skin, and I thought that was unique to him, but is it a common player option now or is it a mod, and if its a mod how is it I'm seeing it and not something that is just player side ie the modder?

[GreenLeafy]

Pretty to look at. No substance. Its going in a better direction with more clutter and stuff, but it's not there yet, far from it

Lot of exploring, sure. A few nice little hideouts here and there, but again a severe lack of enterable buildings.
Shalooani's closed off buildings, Mamook looks like a slum with empty buildings that are enterable for some reason, Urqopacha has barely any enterable buildings and a few joke ones for lalas only.

To be honest I've never felt like Square has been particularly good at doing environmental storytelling when it came to minutia in maps that aren't city hubs ; big strokes like the burning claw marks in the mountains from Valigarmanda or some ruins sure but when it comes to the details its just gotten more and more bland as time goes on. I don't mind them doing big maps but the bigger they go each expansion the more boring those maps are because they are filled with barely anything interesting to explore. DT felt like a big victim of this because there is practically nothing interesting to look at to tickle the storytelling brain when you're going from one quest to another. It really lacks that bit of personal touch. The first chunk of experiencing the maps for the first time will be on foot until you get the aetheryte currents so just because we can fly later doesn't mean that you shouldn't bother making the walkthrough experience enjoyable. A random bandit camp , some forgotten shrine that someone still leaves flowers at , a weird-looking tree with local decorations , some animal's shelter - just small points of interest that are away from the very obvious quest hubs thats something to see and be like , hm I wonder what that's all about and make the world feel more alive and inhabited.

Am unsure why they don't bother to make at least more enterable buildings to this day tbh. Something to just have fun looking through to break up the monotony of questing.(and man was it monotonous this time around) Or even RP purposes. Just because people can make RP venues in their houses doesn't mean they shouldn't bother adding interesting little places like that throughout the world.

[CidHeiral]

I don't think that's a very good comparison to make for your viewpoint, considering that the newest entry has a completely different art style to the previous games.

The point is adding material textures doesn't automatically make something photorealistic. That RDM set is not photorealistic by any stretch of the imagination. It's the same art style as usual, just with a velvety texture.

[Alyko]

I'm getting really tired of the reflective shine on everything.

It doesn't look realistic, it looks off, and the light sources have little to do with the actual position of lights in the room.

The whole update feels like the artists were tasked with making individual materials look as stunning as possible, without any mind to whether it serves the look of the world as a whole.

Metal glints distractingly, velvet looks amazingly realistic to the point of being uncanny (I had to immediately glamour over the red mage job gear because it felt unsettling), aetherytes can be seen from malms away in a way I don't recall noticing before.

The Glare setting is absolutely busted. Azys Lla in particular looks terrible like someone rubbed vaseline over the camera lens.

[Sivante]

The Glare setting is absolutely busted. Azys Lla in particular looks terrible like someone rubbed vaseline over the camera lens.

[Turnintino]

im seeimg Auri with Black scales, when did this become an option? I know Sigurd has black scales and pale skin, and I thought that was unique to him, but is it a common player option now or is it a mod, and if its a mod how is it I'm seeing it and not something that is just player side ie the modder?

All male Xaela have black scales.

[Argantaelle]

Some issues I noticed when slowly progressing through MSQ.

1. Lights are too bright in some environments. Example: the throne room in Ul'dah, which appears often in ARR story cutscenes. Light sources glow so brightly that NPC faces lose details.

(ARR & HW spoilers)

2. Loss of dramatic lightning, especially at the end of the 2.55 ARR patch.

(ARR spoilers)

This particular scene looked much more intimidating with the previous lighting and dark corners.

4. Flickering light sources cause distorted and constantly trembling shadows.

(HW spoilers)

4. Some old textures look weird after the DT launch. Let's assume they aren't updated yet.

5. The gentle glow of some open-world objects is gone.

Urth's Fount.


Zenith.

[Rueby]

Eorzea time : 8:15PM
Location : Upper Limsa

Anyone has screenshots of the old moon...? It feels oddly out of place in this shot....I thought the darker side was kinda less visible before and the light was more...glowy? It looks abit dull to me.