Dawntrail character graphics update - opinions, requests and discussion megathread

[Iscah]

4. I also noticed that light and shadows interact with a character's face in a weird way—both cheekbones and philtrum compose a brightly lit triangle, which looks unnatural. Not all faces are affected (it seems like most of the characters suffering from this issue are girls).

(more examples)

Yes, I've noticed this with my Midlander (female face 3) and while playing MSQ I was noticing it on Erenville as well.

I had filed a bug report which got rejected as "working as intended", but surely it can't be?

It looks awful, and (only after the report was rejected) I've found screenshots of the original model showing that it wasn't like this before.

[Moonfallen]

If changes are reverted or again completely changed....could we please see them as new options instead of completely reverting certain face/race features. it would make newly fantad players and the people who want to stick to the old look happy.

for example: i have seen a lot of mentions from Au'ra Face 2 fem players to have the "fish like" mouth returned.... and that's fine, however myself and others used the free fanta to move to face 2 specifically because the fish mouth was gone..
this could be fixed for both players by just adding the "fish shape" as mouth option 5

I'm sure there are players from every race who feel this way about certain new changes and we would see a completely different characters if certain changes got reverted.

IF the changes are made to revert anything could we P L E A S E see them as new options and not revisions to any current ones

i have fallen in love with my new au'ra and it would suck to see the new faces reverted/changed again to reflect something i did not create after already using the free quest fanta.

Personally I think the new changes they made should be the ones to be the additional options, but that's my opinion. I think the best option would be for them to have additional options overall considering how limited we are with character creation, it's pretty insane to not have more options after over a decade of the game. Everyone benefits from having more options in character creation. I hope one day we get even more options than the old and new ones.

Edit: just to reiterate, I'm a huge advocate for having both the old face options and the new ones. That's the best resolution to keeping players who miss their old characters and facial features, and the players who like their new characters and facial features.

[Aniya_Estlihn]

If changes are reverted or again completely changed....could we please see them as new options instead of completely reverting certain face/race features. it would make newly fantad players and the people who want to stick to the old look happy.

for example: i have seen a lot of mentions from Au'ra Face 2 fem players to have the "fish like" mouth returned.... and that's fine, however myself and others used the free fanta to move to face 2 specifically because the fish mouth was gone..
this could be fixed for both players by just adding the "fish shape" as mouth option 5

I'm sure there are players from every race who feel this way about certain new changes and we would see a completely different characters if certain changes got reverted.

IF the changes are made to revert anything could we P L E A S E see them as new options and not revisions to any current ones

i have fallen in love with my new au'ra and it would suck to see the new faces reverted/changed again to reflect something i did not create after already using the free quest fanta.

This is honestly one of my biggest concerns, I don't want reversions to any of the previous assets, shapes, lighting etc. I like the current look, I prefer it and if even half the changes (relating to lighting, material, textures, basic shaping, lips, expressions, hair and so on) proposed by people in this thread were taken into account and implemented, it would ruin most of what I've come to love about the graphical update as a whole. Which would be incredibly depressing and genuinely hurt my desire to continue playing for a while.

I don't want current, 7.0 assets, materials, etc. to be reverted, revised or removed, I genuinely like them.

I would much rather see they overhaul character creation and introduce "legacy" appearances and looks that use higher quality assets that are designed to be as close to the original as possible. As complete reversions like many people in this thread are calling for, the idea of it is just depressing—it makes me not want to play a game with people who are so unapologetically averse to any form of change, but its expected.

There are many of us who like the changes, players with multiple characters of varying races who are thrilled with them and aren't going through with a fine-toothed comb to fix every major, minor or moderate flaw they can find compared to pre-Dawntrail. I would argue that said players are likely the majority as well, as reddit, discord and the official forums only account for a fraction of the game's active playerbase and should never, ever, be considered the majority or the prevailing opinion.

The eyes are nice and add a lifelike appearance to characters that was sorely lacking when they were just basic textures and not a shader.

The new faces are lovely and have endeared me to my characters all over again.

The new expressiveness on characters with the stock expressions we've grown accustomed to over the years is a delight to see.

The new textures are great and materials are stunning in many cases and add a detailed vibrancy to the world that did not exist before.

There's so much I like about the update that many of you would seemingly see reverted, destroyed or removed outright due to an inability to even attempt to adapt to or accept change. It is, genuinely, depressing.

Have your criticism, complaints and feedback, but just remember that for every person here who speaks up, there's likely a dozen or so more who are silently enjoying the update as is and don't want to see any form or reversions or regression.

I genuinely do not envy Square Enix right now as they literally cannot win no matter what they do and many in here will never be satisfied short of them reverting the graphical update entirely.

[CantDecide]

I would much rather see they overhaul character creation and introduce "legacy" appearances and looks that use higher quality assets that are designed to be as close to the original as possible. As complete reversions like many people in this thread are calling for, the idea of it is just depressing—it makes me not want to play a game with people who are so unapologetically averse to any form of change, but its expected.

I think you're misunderstanding. We are asking for parts designed to be as close to the original as possible using the higher quality assets. That's what I mean when I say I want the old features restored.

[Opabinia]

(I also added this comment to a thread in the Japanese feedback)

Miqo'te Moon Keeper face type 2 - eyebrow type 2 used to be the gentlest one - the other eyebrows were angry. After the changes eyebrow type 2 is now angry too. I don't think fixing this will inconvenience other users who were enjoying the angy look.

for reference: screenshots of SHB benchmark vs DT benchmark/Game side by side:

[PaulusHamsteru]

I just want my old midlander's face. I had to fanta because of how weird his new face looks.

He has this blank look on his face all the time now. His eyes look dead.
His nose is completely different,so is his jaw and lips.

[Moonfallen]

This is honestly one of my biggest concerns, I don't want reversions to any of the previous assets, shapes, lighting etc. I like the current look, I prefer it and if even half the changes (relating to lighting, material, textures, basic shaping, lips, expressions, hair and so on) proposed by people in this thread were taken into account and implemented, it would ruin most of what I've come to love about the graphical update as a whole. Which would be incredibly depressing and genuinely hurt my desire to continue playing for a while.

Genuinely asking have you followed and read this thread at all? We are not asking for the changes to be reverted, we are asking for more options and especially the old options we've been using for our characters for the last decade be added back. The graphics update was half baked at best. You mention how depressed you'd be if the NEW CHANGES were taken away, how do you think most of us felt logging in on early access with our characters completely gone? The majority of people I have talked to do not like the majority of the changes the graphics update brought (and others), and there is a horrible eye strain being caused that I never had before the graphics update. You came here and are seemingly throwing accusations at everyone that we want everything taken away from players like you who are happy about the changes, and that is farther from the truth. This game is very story and cutscene driven, a lot of the graphic changes have really screwed with that story changing the tone in a lot of the cutscenes effectively taking the impact away from new players. Many people who like the changes have been able to share how they feel about the graphics update without attacking the people who are unhappy. There are many changes that were not properly thought out or given their full attention and it's not just the graphics either that have been suffering from poor planning and being half assed. Changes to jobs/classes that later get reverted or changed again which ultimately screwed with the mechanics of the new savage tier. They are clearly making decisions haphazardly. Also to add, literally above where you posted attacking all of us saying we want the changes reverted, I literally state that is the exact opposite of what we are asking for in this thread. People can be unhappy and happy about different changes within the update. I'm unhappy with the way my character looks and would like the option to have her back through ADDITIONAL CHARACTER OPTIONS, and the lighting, but I'm mostly happy with how the graphics for the environment looks but dislike the eyestrain the game now gives me. Many of us have been constructive in our feedback without attacking the people who enjoy every aspect of the changes. Maybe you should try and do the same.

Edit to add: It'd be in their best interest to find a way to make and add additional options to character creation. The changes they made SHOULD BE additional options that people can still use and change to as well as adding in the original options.

[Khryseis_Astra]

Just adding that I definitely agree the new looks should be added to character creation for those that prefer them. But after they make whatever fixes they’re going to do, I should be able to log in to my unedited character(s) and see the settings I chose looking as close as possible to what I had pre-update. That was what we were promised, remember: that the update would be as close as possible to our previous characters.

Honestly if they had just stayed true to the original shapes of the eyes/irises, noses and mouths, and not over-emphasized things like the philtrum, eyeshadow/eyeliner, and such, about 90% of complaints would be solved. If they wanted to get creative and make new shapes, they should’ve just been added as additional options and not replaced what we had before.

[Moonfallen]

I haven't seen this mentioned yet, but some of the head gear no longer sits on our head properly. It's like partially in the back of our head and there is a gap by our forehead. To show what I mean, the Moonfire hachimaki no longer fits on my character's head as it used to before DT.

Here is an NPC wearing the same head piece fitting perfectly fine albeit having a slight gap and what it used to look like on player characters before model updates:




Here is what it looks like when my character wears it:




There is now a HUGE gap and is partially in the back of my head. This was not how it was before. Things like this is why I mean the update was half baked not just the visual changes of our characters, environment, or changes to jobs.

[GreenLeafy]

Genuinely asking have you followed and read this thread at all? We are not asking for the changes to be reverted, we are asking for more options and especially the old options we've been using for our characters for the last decade be added back.

I'm gonna be honest from reading some of the posts of completely new people to the thread that have cropped up AFTER the community rep post it kind of really feels like they have not even glanced at the thread beforehand , let alone bother reading the hundreds of posts on it. A lot of posts like the one you quote seem like a kneejerk reaction of people who are happy about some of the things they received with the update and because of the preconceived notion they have of forum people providing feedback being put under the label of , " dumb whiners that are going to nitpick everything instead of getting gud and accepting the change" , that has been perpetuated across the community's social media , it in turn leads to miscommunication like this. When literally from Day 1 we got to lay our eyes on these changes these threads have been fighting for having the option to keep the old for those attached to it and the new for those who like it.

They're scared just like we were scared when the benchmark was initially released and we've been in these trenches for what is now months.
We don't want people to lose the things they've grown to love about their characters the same way we were unfortunate enough to experience. For goodness sake people , the depressing part is refusing to realize we're all on the same side here. To say seeing these posts has been exhausting is an understatement.