Dawntrail character graphics update - opinions, requests and discussion megathread

[MagicMush00]

I know some people may not agree with me here because they dislike their characters changing but my bigger issue with midlander and elezen is that most of the noses are too high up/too short leaving an unnecessarily big gap between the mouth and the nose and I always saw this as a product of the models being so old (remember older races like hyur are like decade old at this point) either forcing the modelers to basically create character with (imo) bad anatomy due to technical limitations or the modelers at the time just not being up to task and I hoped they would fix these anatomy issues in the update.

Not just noses as well but a lot of the chins are kinda tucked in weirdly and especially elezens' body proportions are pretty horrific. I know people meme elezen necks but they got more issues with things like the shoulders being sort of detached from the torso and the upper chest being too wide, the head being too small for the bodies overall, as well as other small stuff, especially when the concept art actually had proper accurate proportions.

I think the raising of the lips was a half-hearted attempt to slighly fix the anatomy and proportions without fully commiting to it.

My point is that personally I would've been fine with them altering the models more radically for the sake of objectively fixing past issues with anatomy and proportions even if it came at the cost of altering the characters appearance but I also know it's not a very popular opinion here and I understand it. I think part of the dissatisfaction is due to the fact that they're trying to do both at the same time making things look even more jarring.

I actually think the same too, i would have been happy if they took this opportunity to (properly) fix some of the issues the old models had, but right now, it seems that for like each thing that got slightly improved, they added or worsened another 2 or more.
Overall i think the new models (and some areas too) lost a lot of the appeal they used to have.

[Ashenfall]

I remembered female Miqo'te philtrum weren't as noticeable as they were because they looked like an anime character with some cat-like features. The mapping was a lot more subtle and soft that I never even noticed the philtrum at all. The new philtrum looks a lot more sharp and defined, which defeats the purpose of a race consisting of anime facial features. I agree that everyone looks more human instead.

[CantDecide]

Since CantDecide’s previous post went over most of the feedback I had been wanting to touch on, I want to make a followup post going over some other details that I think are worth pointing out and looking into.

Yay! Good eye and great catches. I agree with everything you've said, and your point at the end about the attempted realism making hyur look out of place now is very true.

I know some people may not agree with me here because they dislike their characters changing but my bigger issue with midlander and elezen is that most of the noses are too high up/too short leaving an unnecessarily big gap between the mouth and the nose and I always saw this as a product of the models being so old (remember older races like hyur are like decade old at this point) either forcing the modelers to basically create character with (imo) bad anatomy due to technical limitations or the modelers at the time just not being up to task and I hoped they would fix these anatomy issues in the update.

I agree with you about most nose options being too high up. Usually on any given face there's only one nose that's long, low, and narrow enough for my tastes, which is part of why the update changing its whole shape is so upsetting; the one nose I could use got borked. Yet another problem that would be solved by adding more options.

[JonborgVa]

Hey guys first time writing on this forum, so with the new graphic update I've ran into a couple odd things

1st y'shtola's hair has some strange white boxes around her hair
2nd When I Zoom out with my character my hair gets weird bald lines in it

If you want photo's for proof I'll show you later

Still new to this fourm and was wondering if anyone else is experiencing this

This is what I mean

https://www.reddit.com/media?url=htt...dt401aad1.jpeg

[JonborgVa]

I've noticed an issue that has to do with hair textures when using the AMD FSR setting at 99 resolution scaling. (It isn't noticeable on NVIDIA DLSS, but the game is a blurry mess on that setting so its not a viable solution)

The defect: Whenever I zoom out from my character, several hairstyles have rendering issues leaving gaps in the hair.
I have tried changing my in game settings and my LOD settings in Nvidia control panel and nothing has fixed this issue. I have a 4090 and running the game at max settings. The location and current fps of my game does not change the result.

This image shows the hair looking good when zoomed in:


This image shows how gaps start to show as I zoom out a little:


This last image shows the bald spot growing larger on the character as I zoom almost all the way out:


It's hard to get good images of this issue as it can get pixelated as I zoom out. The issue is more visible on darker hair colors and I have noticed the issue on other races such as female Au'ra as well. This only started post 7.0 graphics update.

Yeah I get that with my Hyur Hair too, though its in the shape of a Y in the back of my head

[Louhikko]

I agree with you about most nose options being too high up. Usually on any given face there's only one nose that's long, low, and narrow enough for my tastes, which is part of why the update changing its whole shape is so upsetting; the one nose I could use got borked. Yet another problem that would be solved by adding more options.

Let me guess, it's the nose 4? And I agree and I'm in same situation, the only nose I feel like fits nicely now looks off.

[Cyrtip]

Character options used:

Au Ra Xaela
Face: 4
Skin color: RGB(155,122,137)
Hairstyle: 31
Hair color: RGB(75,38,94)
Highlights color: RGB(186,177,191)
Jaw: 2
Eye shape: 5
Iris size: Small
Left eye color: RGB(117,31,72)
Right eye color: RGB(64,55,105)
Limbal rings: Right eye only
Limbal ring color: RGB(74,45,97)
Eyebrows: 2
Nose: 5
Mouth: 1
Lip color: N/A
Other features: 3, 4, 5 (Both eyeshadow, horn rings)
Face paint: N/A

(Graphics/display settings equal in all images)

Its been over a month since we've gotten our hands on 7.0's changed character graphics, and after seeing them for so long the discomfort I felt at launch day still hasn't gone away, so here's my feedback.
Content of my posts will be very similar to

snip

with a lot more visual explanation, I echo their sentiments that the promise to "maintain character impressions" and to "preserve the look you know and love" made multiple times before patch 7.0 was not adequately kept with this face.

Eyes

Ever since the graphics revisions, the pupil and iris have been raised in the eyes. Compared to the old position, these new eyes give off a feeling that you're being looked past, not looked at. This new gaze feels distant and makes my character appear disconnected, and I hope the eyes can simply be rotated slightly downwards to where they were before the graphics changes.



The pupils in the eyes are also much larger now, and far less sharply defined than they used to be. This completely changes the look of the character, and the less defined, muddy eyes darken the surrounding iris, making its colors harder to see too. I'd like if this racial characteristic could be returned to Au Ra, as it was an important part of the appeal of the race.


Additionally, the limbal rings saw drastic stylistic changes with the graphics replacements. Their colors are now far, far less consistent, with limbal rings appearing dark in bright conditions, but over-exposed/bright in darkness. This combined with limbal rings now being gradients versus the solid ring they used to be means that they even appear to grow/shrink based on the time of day. Before 7.0, their lighting behaved in the exact opposite way, and I hope this and the solid ring can be returned to how they once were as Au Ra's limbal rings were a very distinct feature of their appearance.
The green lines in the above image showcase more examples of the affect that the enlarged pupils have on the iris, making it almost invisible at times.

[Cyrtip]

Eyes (Continued)


While I don't think the 'realistic' eye catchlights look bad, I much prefer the old drawn ones. The old bright, defined catchlights had a lively aesthetic to them, they made characters' gazes look vibrant in even the worst lighting, while the new catchlights are often fuzzy and make most characters eyes look dead or cloudy in non-ideal lighting. I don't like the shift towards realism. I wish the new catchlights weren't realistic, for the sake of 'realism' sometimes they do not appear at all, and when the are visible they don't fit the aesthetic of the anime faces.


Adding on to my eye-based woes is the shape of the eye, the once sharp Au Ra♀ face 4 had its eye options softened, giving it a rounded appearance, with no recourse for anyone using the once angular and determined shapes.
The eyelashes are also now short and curved, reinforcing the gentle appearance.
I would like the old eye shape to be more faithfully recreated, and the eyelashes to be straightened again.



Eyeshadow has also changed significantly since 6.5. The outer corner of the eyeshadow is now incredibly thick and points away from the outer corner of the eye at a noticeable angle, no longer tracing the shape of the eye itself. This looks weird, like someone is trying too hard to appear fashionable. I'd like if eyeshadow could more accurately follow the shape of the eye.

Facial Structure

Au Ra in 6.5 had no visible skin indentation at the infraorbital margin (the lower margin of the eye socket). This was also a racial characteristic that made them unique from hyurs and the more human-like races, and gave them a smooth appearance that looked much better than the tired look they have now. This 7.0 change alters the structure of the face and very noticeably changes the way light interacts with it. I would like these to be removed, and the racial uniqueness of Au Ra to be returned.

[Cyrtip]

Facial Structure (Continued)

The cheekbones of face 4 are also much puffier and rounded than they were previously. The face was sleek and slender in 6.5, and has now completely lost that appearance. The deep infraorbital margins have also made these puffy cheeks even more distinct by sinking the skin above them. I hope the unnecessary fat can be removed from the cheeks again, as no option exists in character creation to fix this, and the now deleted sharpness of face 4 was its appeal.

Nose

I've noticed three major changes to nose 5:

• The base has changed shape, the sides of the base are angled more acutely and make the nose appear lower on the face.
• The nostrils which were previously shaped like gentle hills now have the appearance of tunnels.
• The bridge is a fraction as wide as it used to be.

The 7.0 nose is only similar to the 6.5 nose in that it has a similar size, could this have not been made into an additional nose instead of removing a previously existing one? I would like the old nose returned.


Also, the scales at the top of the nose have been stretched awkwardly. I hope this can be corrected.

Mouth


The curves on mouth 1's lips have been completely flipped. In 6.5, the lower lip was shaped with concave angles and the upper lip was convex. In 7.0 this was reversed. Why? Even the mouth line was changed from a neutral frown to a gentle smile.


Additionally, they rest closed at a very unnatural angle and are now puffier than before. Mouth 1 permanently looks puckered, or like the character is trying to exhale through their mouth while hiding it.
And lastly, face 4's lips (without lipstick) are now glossier than they were in 6.5. I want the option to have matte lips back. These glossy lips catch light in such a way that they often light up and blend in with my characters pale blue skin and make her appear as if she has no lips at all.
These changes to mouth 1 just make no sense. I would like the lips in 7.0 to look like they did in 6.5, not like this. Yet again, I sadly have no option to fix this by using a fantasia potion.

[Cyrtip]

Hair

Hair coloring looks off now. The root of the hair is far darker than it used to be, and individual strands are incredibly pronounced now compared to before. I hope hair color can be corrected to be more uniform again.


Also, hair is way too... greasy? Reflective? I even tested out pitch black hair, the darkest color option, and it looks really bad. Please tone this effect way down so hair doesn't look like it hasn't been washed in a month, or like its old and gray, when under bright lights.

Lighting

I hope the following can be addressed:

1. Hair will cast shadows over the eyes, but not over the forehead above them? Also, the shadows cast by hair and headgear are jagged, low resolution, and unappealing, even with max settings.
2. Cheekbones are very bright under most overhead lights, while the cheeks themselves are shrouded in complete shadow and look terribly sunken. I hope this can be corrected, as it looks far worse than any poor lighting I saw before the 7.0 lighting revisions, and this issue appears far more frequently now than any did with 6.5 lighting.
3. The new lighting makes noses look far more pronounced than they were previously.
4. Skin appears rough like sandpaper in many locations, and incredibly oily.
5. Lower eyelids, lips, and teeth glow impossibly as if light is shining through the skull to illuminate them.

---
To conclude, I wish 7.0 had simply increased the fidelity of the graphics I knew and loved, instead of deleting and replacing them with an unnecessarily changed parody. I wish the amount of care that went into preserving the style of graphics during the 1.0 -> 2.0 transition was present here. The style of the game has not been preserved, and I think the shift both towards realism and away from racial individuality is a mistake that should be reversed.