Dawntrail character graphics update - opinions, requests and discussion megathread

[Larirawiel]

DLSS is effectively disabled in cutscenes or /gpose. Because the devs thought, it is a good idea to disable pixel jittering during those scenes. And if pixel jittering is disabled, all TAA based mechanisms do simply nothing.



Cheers

[Winyumi]

From what I've gathered, setting FSR to anything below 100 will automatically apply a sharpening filter to account for the blurriness of upscaling. FSR 100 is the original look. Perhaps the filter should have been a separate setting in case whether we want it or not.

[Rueby]

I notice it when depth of field is on in gpose and cutscenes, but not otherwise. I don't recall seeing it before tbh.

Perhaps one of you could write a bug report for it and see if maybe they accept/fix it?

Edit: Nevermind I read other posts

[Moonfallen]

AMD FSR on 99 is disturbingly sharp for me... and 100 feels a bit blurry but resembles what I remember. I switched to NVIDIA DLSS because my game was running at 30fps~ with AMD FSR, I don't know if it's resolved itself by magic or if it's based on how much is in the room but I can't really confirm until later since my DC is inactive at these hours.
I can still see the pixelated effect, just a bit blurred, but to be honest I don't know if I'm noticing something that I didn't notice in the old engine.
I'm assuming AMD FSR 100 is closest to the original since it's the default setting, but I'm not sure and overthinking it is gonna give me a migraine.

Also, I noticed that I could see the eyebags and other details on Au Ra with AMD FSR 99 but couldn't really see them on 100 or NVIDIA DLSS.
I wish there was more conversation about AMD FSR vs NVIDIA DLSS regarding character faces, I didn't even realise how much of a role in perception it plays until now.

I have my FSR at 99 because of it previously being bugged at 100. I haven't kept up on if that has been fixed or not.

[eohippus]

I'm really struggling with getting all of my comparison images put in a format where they can be shared here. I'm hopeful that they implement the use of legacy faces because the longer that times goes on, the less hopeful I am getting. I can't shake the feeling that all of my wol's (midlander hyur face 5) features being changed (eyes made less round, lips made slimmer and narrower, rough skin pattern, makeup made lighter) were all done in a misguided attempt to make male characters look "more masculine." when I did not need or want that. I miss all the features that I had that made my wol look like my wol.

Additional issues:
1. hyur skintones have been made much more gray. the top two in the righthand corner are borderline inhuman skin colors.
2. many skintones were washed out because of that change. I would appreciate if midlanders could have access to the more human skintones that sun cats have, including a missing step between the darkest two columns, that sun cats have. maybe a color wheel could be implemented?
3. dark skin is now way, way too reflective. it seems to be more reflective on midlander hyur than on viera who are even darker than my wol. please reduce this reflectiveness. I should not see a bright white line running down the middle of his face in most lighting.
4. weird shadows. his nose casts a dark triangle down over his entire lower face (mouth and chin). this is not realistic, and distorts his facial features
5. odd expressions. as shown by others here, hyur smiles do not look correct.

Thank you for taking the time to consider these issues. I will try my best to compile and submit some of these as bug reports as well.

[ConantSivrha]

I can't shake the feeling that all of my wol's (midlander hyur face 5) features being changed (eyes made less round, lips made slimmer and narrower, rough skin pattern, makeup made lighter) were all done in a misguided attempt to make male characters look "more masculine." when I did not need or want that. I miss all the features that I had that made my wol look like my wol.

I have a similar feeling about my characters, especially the one who uses the female miqo’te model with face 4. I feel like the majority of the changes here—such as lips that contrast more with the surrounding skin and have the appearance of permanent makeup, a daintier lip shape, a smaller nose, eyebrows that look penciled-in, lighter skin, flattened features overall, and so on—were an effort to make face 4 female miqo’te characters look more traditionally feminine (including looking like they’re wearing makeup).

Another, a male lalafell, had his long eyelashes removed (face 4, eyes 4), presumably because someone on the team redesigning our faces arbitrarily decided that they looked too girly, and his lips also became smaller. My main, a male miqo’te, had his lip shape (face 1, mouth 4) changed and widened so that it’s more similar to the other lip options on face 1 and the lips of other male miqo’te faces, creating the sense that he was changed so that he “looks like a proper male miqo’te” (looks more homogeneous with other male miqo’te).

A similar issue can be seen with other races/faces (such as female au ra and female midlander), with unique features being removed from faces to make them look more gender-conforming, and more homogeneous and generic within their race.

[Moonfallen]

I can't seem to find their post now, but to the other face 3 keeper I saw mention the freckles of our old face in EW; I agree that we definitely should have our freckles back. It's been so long since seeing my old face in game that I almost completely forgot it was something we even had. I really do not like the look of all of our faces having makeup caked on our face hiding every pore, freckle, and everything else that made our faces unique before the update.

[Tsumomo]

I have NVIDIA DLSS turned off for that reason and am currently using AMD FSR at 99 3D Resolution Scaling. I thought maybe it was just me since the newer graphics have been messing with my eyes horribly (no other game does this).

its not just you! There are many people who have been having eye strain, motion sickness, headaches, migraines, and overall unable to play the game since the new graphics update. check out the Dawntrail Graphics Update - Eye Strain thread. (idk if its ok to link threads, I'm still relatively new to interacting with the forums.)

[Rueby]

its not just you! There are many people who have been having eye strain, motion sickness, headaches, migraines, and overall unable to play the game since the new graphics update. check out the Dawntrail Graphics Update - Eye Strain thread. (idk if its ok to link threads, I'm still relatively new to interacting with the forums.)

Actually same. I mentioned it in the eyestrain thread and asked about it on the official discord...I never experienced this in any game, there's a brief flicker when between moving/staying still (blur/sharpen) that caused me headaches...I also get headaches from circus tower...it's pretty bad what they did to the crystals, lava and the overstated contrast mixed with spot-light arenas where areas are too dark.

[mochabun]

I hope that this is the right place to put this, if not I apologize because I've never posted on here before. I just wanted to say that I'm not a huge fan of how much reflection is on this fem Au Ra hairstyle ? It looks borderline greasy

https://imgur.com/a/OU7Ghrl