Dawntrail character graphics update - opinions, requests and discussion megathread

[Aimetrot]

We would like to thank everyone for their feedback regarding the graphical update.
The Development team has been carefully reviewing this thread and many others, including bug reports and concerns raised outside of the official forums.

We are currently working on an update based on the feedback provided, as well as preparing to share details about our planned course of action.
As these are undergoing thorough final inspections, we expect to make an announcement in late August.

Thank you all for your patience as we continue fine-tuning the graphical update.

The Development team is currently still carefully reviewing all feedback and considering a planned course of action. However, we will require another week or so for translations before we make an official announcement.
We apologize that this is taking longer than expected, and we thank you all once again for your patience.

[Hatsuoki]

The Development team is currently still carefully reviewing all feedback and considering a planned course of action. However, we will require another week or so for translations before we make an official announcement.
We apologize that this is taking longer than expected, and we thank you all once again for your patience.

Thank you for the update. I'm still grateful to know some kind of communication and possible action is on its way.

[MsQi]

The Development team is currently still carefully reviewing all feedback and considering a planned course of action. However, we will require another week or so for translations before we make an official announcement.
We apologize that this is taking longer than expected, and we thank you all once again for your patience.

I am 99% pleased with what we got with Miqo'te Face 4 in the Dawntrail release. The pupil shape on Sunseekers is a little too "cut out" looking compared to the original, and the nose lacks definition. I am exceedingly glad you added back the lip gap, a defining feature of that face. However, it seems some do not like it.

Au Ra face 2 was a drastic change to me and it affects an important lore character: Cirina. The new face is not a bad face, but it's not her.

That is the thing, very few of the changes for any of the characters can be said to be objectively bad, but I think it is very bad to force them upon people. Many are still noticeably different, and change drastically how people feel about their own and other characters. I think rather than going back and forth trying to please people the main focus at this point should be to add additional features to character creation/customization: More face options, more mouth shapes, more eye shapes.

I also think main characters like Thancred and Cirina should be closer to their original appearance as possible.

[Fiel_Tana]

The Development team is currently still carefully reviewing all feedback and considering a planned course of action. However, we will require another week or so for translations before we make an official announcement.
We apologize that this is taking longer than expected, and we thank you all once again for your patience.

Thank you for the update!

Will the dev team also be looking at the other problems caused by the graphics update? Both by the bloom being unable to be disabled, blurriness (etc.) and the combat graphics (boss + arena that can't be turned off/down) now causing major headaches and eye strain that is way worse since the update? Some of us can't play at all now without physical pain.

This thread covers a lot of these issues:
https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...ate-Eye-Strain

[Aurumis]

The Development team is currently still carefully reviewing all feedback and considering a planned course of action. However, we will require another week or so for translations before we make an official announcement.
We apologize that this is taking longer than expected, and we thank you all once again for your patience.

Pls take note on the male miqo'te face 4 eyes 3
pls fix the eyes, pls pls pls fix the eyes, they look so dead and closed compared to before, give us the old eyes, the iris color is just too shadowed, and the pupil of the Sunseekers is almost not visible at all........... also the mouth of the models that now smiles upwards for no reason in neutral expresion, erase that and give us the old mouth back pls, also nobody asked the team to make the eyebrows thinner on almost all the models, that should haven been a character customization option...

I'll just upload this yet AGAIN:

[Kaziek]

I think this gif of yours really goes to show how confusing some of the choices they made were. They specifically made face 4 M miqo'te have heavier eyeliner/eyelashes as well as bringing the upper lid down over the eye more, which is the exact opposite of what they did to F midlander face 1 where they took away a lot of the eyeliner/lashes and gave the eyes a much wider appearance.

[Aurumis]

I think this gif of yours really goes to show how confusing some of the choices they made were. They specifically made face 4 M miqo'te have heavier eyeliner/eyelashes as well as bringing the upper lid down over the eye more, which is the exact opposite of what they did to F midlander face 1 where they took away a lot of the eyeliner/lashes and gave the eyes a much wider appearance.

I know right? They FUCKED UP the eyes of this face, I hate them so much. It takes away all the life and expression the face has... It looks ugly.

[Turnintino]

I think this gif of yours really goes to show how confusing some of the choices they made were. They specifically made face 4 M miqo'te have heavier eyeliner/eyelashes as well as bringing the upper lid down over the eye more, which is the exact opposite of what they did to F midlander face 1 where they took away a lot of the eyeliner/lashes and gave the eyes a much wider appearance.

Thicker eyeliner is a facial feature setting for Face 4 that the character in question doesn't appear to be using in the Endwalker screenshot.

Here's a comparison of my character, for clarity:



I agree with Aurumis's conclusion, but to your point, the eyeliner 'facial feature' was not made thicker -- though it was certainly altered in other ways. At least on the eye option I'm using, I appreciate that the additional eyeliner's lumpiness was smoothed (for the most part lol), but that's about all I can say for it.

You can also see the way his profile's been changed in these comparison shots I took previously:



(The annotations are about the shape of the nose and lips. The upper lip, in particular, is now pressed flatter against the face in DT, making it unusually uneven with the lower lip, unlike the previous model. The shape of the nose has lost the feline sleekness it had previously as well.)

And gods, I miss my thicker eyebrows (which is also a facial feature option my character's using in all screenshots).

[Aurumis]

Thicker eyeliner is a facial feature setting for Face 4 that the character in question doesn't appear to be using in the Endwalker screenshot.

Here's a comparison of my character, for clarity:



I agree with Aurumis's conclusion, but to your point, the eyeliner 'facial feature' was not made thicker -- though it was certainly altered in other ways. At least on the eye option I'm using, I appreciate that the additional eyeliner's lumpiness was smoothed (for the most part lol), but that's about all I can say for it.

You can also see the way his profile's been changed in these comparison shots I took previously:



(The annotations are about the shape of the nose and lips. The upper lip, in particular, is now pressed flatter against the face in DT, making it unusually uneven with the lower lip, unlike the previous model. The shape of the nose has lost the feline sleekness it had previously as well.)

And gods, I miss my thicker eyebrows (which is also a facial feature option my character's using in all screenshots).

He is using the thick eyelashes in the old screenshoot one too, it's something I choosed because it made the eye look more feline. But even so, now in DT they changed too much the form of the eyes and how much they closed the eyelids and painted over the iris is still there, obscuring even the SHINE in DT, that little white bubble of shine that only appears when they open the eyes in cutscenes or looking from the character from under. I also had the thicker eyebrows that now are nonexistent no matter if you choose the option or not. It's all a mess. I'm so angry. I don't get how some answers say this is better, they are BLIND.

Also agree on the mouth and nose too (apart that as you can see in endwalker they didn't have that corners up and they added it and looks horrible when you do some emotes, in some cutscenes my miqo'te looked distorted as fuck when smiling sly and challenging and such). But if they fix the eyes, I would be happy...since it's the worst change and the one that make them look dead... Also the color of the iris obscured for no reason too, and the pupil...

[Turnintino]

He is using the thick eyelashes in the old screenshoot one too

Sorry, I was referring to the GIF they quoted where it seems to be missing in the EW bit. (I probably should've linked to that directly in my response for clarity, but I thought it would be more valuable to link your whole post, since it brings up many points I agree with.)

Also agree on the mouth and nose too (apart that as you can see in endwalker they didn't have that corners up and they added it and looks horrible when you do some emotes, in some cutscenes my miqo'te looked distorted as fuck when smiling sly and challenging and such). But if they fix the eyes, I would be happy...since it's the worst change and the one that make them look dead... Also the color of the iris obscured for no reason too, and the pupil...

Agreed on all counts. During emotes that furrow the brow, the ends of his eyebrows turn up more than they did previously and it looks so strange lol. Sadly, I don't have any 6.x screenshots of what it used to look like (it's probably possible with the old EW benchmark I use, but male miqo'te are so animated that it's difficult to get a good mid-emote screenshot without being able to pause like we can with gpose), but it's something I noticed immediately. The eyes, in general, are so frustrating as well because the slit pupil is so obscured in most lighting now that you can forget they have them, not helped by the males' smaller eyes, compared to their female counterparts.