Dawntrail character graphics update - opinions, requests and discussion megathread

[Wildwiccan]

Wow great to see feedback is being read! Awesome news!

I may provide pictures later but my biggest grievance as a female Viera player is that lip shine and lip colors are very off. I am unable to make a character that is not wearing lipstick.

The “none” option for my female veena is orange lips that are glossy looking and the light lipstick options are incredibly glossy. I am hoping the none option can be improved a lip glossiness is toned down.

[Cornet]

So, while hopefully there's still a chance this thread is still being read, I wanted to have a try at adding my concerns to the pile/lending my voice to anyone else who have spoken of any of these issues. (Had a slog back far as I could, but so many pages! lol Saw it sorta brought up, but not indepth...) I'd have probably posted far sooner, but only just got new computer that could run the game properly and not at super potato settings. lol

I know Lalafell have been fairly lucky, getting through this with not too many issues. When 1st benchmark dropped, I sure thought mine looked relatively fine! I didn't really check her during the 2nd version, cause I was more concerned for my poor (face 3) bun. It was a surprise when I got in game and discovered her eyebrows had been VERY changed in shape sometime after that first benchmark, in a way that really took away from her softer look.

And worse, something happened to her smiles! D:

All the closed mouth ones look faint/weak/half hearted etc. (So /smile /beam /changepose with weapon drawn as a WHM etc.) The changes causing it are subtle, but they really do give them entirely a different vibe. My Lala's warm, bright smile is one of my favourite things, so this really sucks.

I feel too like her face is faintly wider? Like, I thought it was my imagination, but the more I put new caps beside old, the more I see it. Not just in the cheek, but also the gap between the eyes. Some time ago I actually swapped her to jaw 3 specifically for a longer/less pudgey face... so go figure. lol Sigh.

She's a Dunefolk with face #2, with eyebrows #2, Jaw #3 and eye shape #6 and with the 1st facial feature (the filled in eyebrows) toggled on.

Here are some comparisons, tracings and notes:









Please at least give my Lala (who I've been lookin' at a VERY long time now, since I'm legacy lol) back her lovely smile (and possibly her eyebrows too?!) SE! ;A;/ Thank you!

[Aurumis]

This pretty lala also got ruined... *sigh*
You know, I don't expect them to fix anything of what we are asking them in this thread. I'm pretty sure the announcement at the end of this month will be another dissapointment. I hope I am wrong and THEY DO LISTEN. All the evidence is in their forums, all the work already showed to them and done by the fans. It's not hard to fix the faces, like, at all....
I just want my miqo'te to have his old eyes shape and color and not look dead inside.

[Lunux]

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.

Thank you SO much for bringing this up!
A bunch of headpieces that previously fit me aren't sitting the same way anymore and it's been driving me insane. I'm most sad about the schoolgirls ribbon that would fit perfectly in Endwalker and is now floating above my head with the same hairstyle used.

[Mr_Gucky]

I am glad that feedback is still being listened to. I had a lot of fun playing through Dawntrail but unfortunately I still am not used to my WOL's new look and this took away from my experience as she just looks so very different from what she used to.

PRE DAWNTRAIL




DAWNTRAIL




Eyes: Outer eye corners lack original wing making eyes look massively bigger/rounded. The bottom inside corners also had a little stylistic swoop to them which made the eyes feel defined. Now they just feel very round. The black pupil is HUGE, this combined with new Limbal rings washes out the over all color of the eye. The new starburst pattern does not do any favors in this department as well.

Nose: From the front the nose looks upturned, I assume this is due to the shadowing and the new over definition of the Philtrum.

Mouth: I would say the mouth is my biggest grievance as the mouth is fundamentally a different shape now and this results in the character looking completely different. The outside corners of the mouth no longer look elongated, looks like her mouth got cut off at the ends abruptly as if there is only the full part of the lip instead of the mouth lines that extend out. This results in the loss of dimples for the character as well as the angularness of the mouth and lips in general. The lips feel almost too round. Her cupids bow is no longer prominent either. After staring at my characters smile for almost 8 years it now brings me sadness instead of joy.

In general: The T zone where her cheeks are shaped and meet her nose have lost their angularness, again her features feel more rounded instead of defined. Especially her jaw line as well as where the top part of her face scales & eyes meet the bangs/hair line. There are no defining features or bone structures.....

Same disaster with Au Ra face 4.



I think the picture sums it all up. Especially here shows the significant changes to the mouth, which now looks like a duck's mouth. The shape is different and too striking. The lips are also glossy, even though no lipstick has been applied. I won't go into further details now, I've already done that in previous posts.

Another thing I notice in this comparison is that the light looks strange. The nose seems to stick out of the face. Also the skin colour seems to be lighter. It looks like the face is glowing.

[Moonfallen]

Thank you SO much for bringing this up!
A bunch of headpieces that previously fit me aren't sitting the same way anymore and it's been driving me insane. I'm most sad about the schoolgirls ribbon that would fit perfectly in Endwalker and is now floating above my head with the same hairstyle used.

Oh no, now that you mentioned it I definitely notice the ribbon being farther up/in our head. I didn't notice it before but I just looked since I am online now. It used to be farther back because it covered the clip in my hair (I use hair 5) so that's how I know that one is also messed up.

[Leon-Valeren]

I have noticed the characters have been worked on since the benchmark, sadly they still remain different in a way i can't use fantasia without losing their typical characteristics.


1. MIQO'TE face 4 ♂ (seeker of the sun), eye shape 3, mouth 1

main issues:

• eye shape has changed to be more fox like in appearance

• eyes appear to be darker due to a dark shadow cast above iris

• typical seeker of the sun eye slit is not visible anymore, makes eyes look more human. it seems to be changed to a smaller size even

• mouth appears still to be smiling, makes certain emotes look confusing. it has no neutral shape anymore

• character doesn't look as grumpy and neutral as he did before

eyes and mouth:



seeker of the sun eyes:



emote SMILE:



emote SIMPER:



emote FURROW:


---


2. ELEZEN face 2 ♂ (wildwood), eye shape 1, mouth 1

main issues:

• character appears to be younger and softer. i miss the mature look he had before. his dark eye shadows got cleaned aaaah

• the emote SCOFF has been changed so much that it doesn't look mocking anymore how it should be but instead looking soft and apologising

emote SCOFF:


---


3. AU'RA face 3 ♀ (raen), eye shape 5, mouth 2

main issues:

• eye shape has been changed and became more narrow

• eyes appear tired, less lively

• eye bags are visible from afar, further make the character look less energetic

eyes:



another example for the eyes:

[Kaziek]

One thing that I don't think anyone has pointed out directly is that several faces have a dark shadow underneath their eyes hear the nose now that doesn't go away in pretty much any lighting (though darker, more contrasted areas make it worse). This is definitely due to the more prominent eyebags along with the harsher lighting, but I figured it might be helpful to point out. This really seems to me like an actually unintended consequence of the new lighting and models rather than an artistic choice. I've seen it on several different faces so it seems to be a fairly universal issue.

[Larirawiel]

Those dark shadows are messed up normal maps. I made a bug report here:
https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...e-Elezen-faces

But they closed it as "Insufficient Information". I still do not know why it is insufficient. But SQEX does SQEX things. Maybe it is too difficult for them to fix it.


Cheers

[Doopliss]

I don't play this combination, but I haven't seen it mentioned in a while, so I wanted to add that the nose smudge option for ♀ Dunesfolk Face 4 has still not been fixed.

Here's a comparison of the same option on the Plainsfolk variant of the face to show what it's supposed to look like:



I only feel a need to mention this again because, for some reason, the nose smudge issue had been fixed on every female Plainsfolk face, and faces 1-3 for female Dunesfolk, but not 4. So it feels easy to potentially miss.

I know ♂ Viera Face 1 is also having issues with its dark nose/nose smudge option's colors--particularly against dark skin--so please also look over these.