Dawntrail character graphics update - opinions, requests and discussion megathread

[Shnrnr]

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 don't mind if it takes extra time if it means my WoL might return from the dead. We appreciate the effort that went into the update and the time being taken to make it a positive change for our characters.

[Argantaelle]

Well, next week is going to be the test, if SE understands the wishes of a part of its players.

[Iscah]

I've been saying all along that I intended to do a more thorough review of all my characters and I wanted to take the time to get all my notes in order, but after going through 40,000 screenshots of glamour + lore-noting looking for good comparison screenshots I am still not properly sorted....

So for now, some unformatted screenshots and notes.


GENERAL FEELINGS

Overall I feel like the appearance of every character has become harsher and less appealing. Details have become blurrier, messier, less defined while dark and unpleasant shadows have been emphasised. It doesn't feel more realistic, it has just ruined the stylised beauty that the characters previously had.

Recurring changes across multiple character designs include:
Darkened shadows and creases
Wrinkles under the eyes
Upper eyelid partly closed, perhaps intending to move from slightly anime proportions to more realistic
Strongly shaped lower eyelids that cast shadows
Eyelid rims becoming over-large
Pinched look to upper lips


AURELIE (face 3 Midlander)

Original:


Dawntrail:


Original:


Dawntrail:

(this used to be the "my character will look reliably stunning" shot)

In addition to the model changes, she has a shocking tendency to go puffy-faced in any degree of bright light. I don't know if this is an issue with the particular character model or with pale-skinned characters in general.

As covered in a previous bug report, the eye shape has changed:
- eyelids are lowered
- outer edge of eyelid rim is stretched
- eyelashes are at a different angle and no longer seen from a front view
- changed makeup

Additionally while collecting screenshots I have noticed that the shape of the eye is very different when closed, and in some lights can have a strange shadow on the inner corners, which can also be seen on NPCs. (e.g. Alphinaud in the cutscene for post-Shadowbringers MSQ "A Grand Adventure".)

Nose shape has changed - the original shape has quite a large tip that dips down over the nostrils and partly conceals them from a front view. For the updated graphics it seems the nostril bases have been stretched further down the face and are more visible.

As noted in a previous bug report (rejected as "working as intended", but surely this can't be right?) the upper lip has a pinched or puckered look and produces unnatural shadows in many lights.

The shadow below the lower lip used to be a sort of bow-tie shape giving definition to the chin; now it is more of a semicircle.

Chin and jaw shape has changed - Aurelie has quite a rounded jawline and pointed chin. The updated character is more of an even curve and the underside of the jaw has become smaller, altering the overall size of the face - it was a defining aspect of this face that it was relatively large compared to the others.

The hairstyle has something odd going on with the underside of the fringe/hairline - it's like it's semi-transparent and hovering.

The one stray strand along the edge of the hair framing the face is thinner than before and looks unnatural.

Additionally, in the Lodestone portrait only, the shadow cast by this hairstyle onto the face is incomplete.


BRYNWYDA (Face 1(?) Roegadyn)

Original


Dawntrail:

(I think I may not have the same eyebrow type between thee pictures)

Overall harshness of shadows on the face

Increased shadow on lines over the eye, and wrinkles underneath

Eyelids are bigger

Eyelashes reduced and lines outside the outer corner of the eye have been lengthened so they still meet the eye.

Nose rounded off and thinner

Mouth is less broad

Increased blotchiness of skin - more not-green

Hair strands along hairline have become thinner; back of hair is structured oddly


HARU (Face 3 Raen Au Ra)

Despite the general perception of Au Ra as permanently grumpy-faced, they can actually be quite cute and have a nice smile. Or at least they did.









Shadow under eyebrow that will not budge in any amount of light - it did not previously behave like this.

Eyebrow angle is more slanted and angry looking, in addition to the shadow making it look even more angry

Eyelids wrap tightly around the eyeball instead of previously being quite flat

"swoop" of the upper eye makeup is quite different depending on angle (see Amaurot screenshot with constellation stone)

Eyelashes have increased and they disrupt the line of the eye makeup

Eye makeup has become smudged

light spot in makeup at outer corner of the eye

Eye surface is smaller

Mouth has downturned corners and has lost the upwards curve on the upper lip

Shadowing under the lower lip has changed (plus the lower lip is more distinctly coloured instead of skin-coloured) and now creates a pouting look rather than a softly rounded lip

Facepaint has shifted and colour has changed

Chin is either pointier or has the appearance of being so due to changed scale pattern on "beard"

Scales look dirty


SYLVIEL (Face 2 Duskwight Elezen)

My beautiful Duskwight has turned haggard and shadowy.









General harshening of features

more pronounced eyelids and shadows both over and under the eye

Under-eye was previously quite flat and now has a strong crease at the base of the lower eyelid; in addition to generally changing the character's appearance, this has affected the downward line of the racial tattoo and gives it a sharp crease at that point.

Changed lip shape

Changed lines within ear shape

Jaw seems more rounded. Was already the most rounded shape.

Eyebrows are thicker and lower on the face



REJN (Face 3 Veena Viera)





Rejn came out of this relatively well*, but his "bunny nose' marking has gone from light to dark and the actual shape of the nose has changed as well. Shadows are generally darker as well.

May be something off with the over-eye "eyeshadow" facepaint, or else the eyelids have been shaded pinker by default.

* on second thoughts I'm revoking this. Something's off but I'm just having a harder time saying what is different. I haven't been playing him for as long as the others and have spent less time post-update trying to figure it out.

I think he may have the same "pinched face" issue I mentioned with Aurelie above - MSQ character Erenville is also a face 3 Viera and I noticed a few times that he had a similar strange cast of light and shadow on his face.



U'ZOLWE (Face 4 Sunseeker Miqo'te)





Basic face structure looks different

Excessive shine on skin (not so much in this screenshot but very bad in general)

Possibly due to shine, face markings are less strongly contrasted with the skin colour

Eyebrow shape is different and changes the character's expression - loses all its intensity.

Underlying shape of the brow ridge does not line up with the actual eyebrows.

Wrinkles under the eyes

Skin shine creates a very sharp narrow line down the middle of the nose

Mouth shape has changed, giving more of a smile to what was previously a serious expression.

Makeup closer around the eyes, makes them look smaller

Hard to tell if the exact eye shape has changed, but I assume it has to some extent based on other Miqo'te characters.

Face markings may be on a different angle? And/or they extend further outwards and have an uptick at the lower point.


Hairstyle - small braids around the face are not well attached to the head. They also cast shadows, which I don't think they previously did.




ZI'ABA (Face 3 Sunseeker Miqo'te)





As I previously wrote regarding G'raha, the eye structure for face 3 has changed, lowering the eyelid and shortening the eyelashes, then makeup added to the eyelid to conceal the altered shape. It's extremely disappointing. (Previously if I had to describe the character's features I would have told you he has beautiful thick eyelashes, because that's what the dark line below the original eyelid position looked like, even though that was an illusion once all this made me study the character designs more intensely. Now even the illusion is gone and he's left with half-closed eyes and ugly makeup.)

At a distance like this it looks convincing, but up close it doesn't look the same.

If we must keep this redesign, can we please at least have the makeup with a neat edge to it and not smudgy? But I would much rather have the proper eye shape back.



(I will be back later to expand notes and clean up formatting, or hopefully do some more in-depth individual posts. But at least I've got stuff written down for now.)

[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.

[CuteBucket]

As a fellow male Miqo'te face 4, yes, they absolutely ruined the eyes. My character looks stoned at all times now with the shadowed eyes and placid smile they slapped on him. My man looks like he's about to fall asleep. Fitting through the Dawntrail MSQ but certainly not on purpose.

Why is that shadow over the eyeball texture there? Why is it SO DARK? My character is supposed to have these striking orange eyes and now I can barely see them, let alone see the "cat eye" pupil shape with how heavy they made the shadows.

[switchblades]

I wonder what happened to the people that posted early on in the thread when DT first launched. Have you guys gotten used to the changes or has the graphics update just demotivated you from logging in whatsoever?
I ask because it looks like a lot of people didn't fanta into something else despite their grievances. Not trying to antagonize or belittle anyone; disliking the update is totally valid. Just curious where you all stand 2 months later.

[Shnrnr]

Wildwood Elezen
Face: 3
Skin RGB: 247, 214, 189
Jaw: 1
Eye: 4
Iris: small
Eye RGB: 147, 157,89
Brow: 1
Nose: 6
Mouth: 4
Lip: Dark
Lip RGB: 74,26,66
Facial feature: 1 (dark brow)
Face paint: 4 (outer eye shadow)
Face paint RGB: 168,120, 185



The upper lip (mouth type 4) has been flattened:
Endwalker:

Dawntrail:


...but the biggest change is the eyes (settings: eye shape 4, small iris, color RGB: 147,157,89, eyebrow 1):

• DT brow is thinner, with hairs at a different angle
• DT lashes are thinner
• DT eyeliner on upper lid extends to the inner corner
• DT pupil is smaller
• DT iris is lighter, with greater contrast with the outer ring
• DT eye whites are more grey, with less contrast between the white and the iris (this alone helps account for much of the sense that the "light" has gone out of our characters' eyes)
• DT eye has darker shadow below the upper lid
• the inner corner of the DT eye is higher (note how the corner of the EW eye white lines up with the flesh corner, while the DT eye white does not)
• there's significantly more space between the DT eye and the brow

Endwalker:

Dawntrail:


These changes may seem "minor", but the overall effect definitely changes my character into someone I don't recognize. They make her look bored/annoyed or "soulless", as many others have commented about their characters. There was no reason for the basic design and geometry of any of these facial features to change. I tried a few fanta tweaks, but nothing makes my character look the way she did. If I had the option to "turn off" the entire graphics update just to get my character back, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

Going to try to stop obsessing about this now. Thanks again to the devs for listening. My fingers are crossed.

[Doopliss]

I wonder what happened to the people that posted early on in the thread when DT first launched. Have you guys gotten used to the changes or has the graphics update just demotivated you from logging in whatsoever?
I ask because it looks like a lot of people didn't fanta into something else despite their grievances. Not trying to antagonize or belittle anyone; disliking the update is totally valid. Just curious where you all stand 2 months later.

In this thread, from what I've seen, it's a bit of everything. A lot of people have specifically mentioned taking a hiatus so they can quite literally no longer post, while others are still subscribed so that they can simply keep giving feedback and/or keep their house.

For me, personally, I'm just dealing with it because I still do love the game in spite of all my complaints, and have been coping for the past two months that they'll fix things up eventually. I'm also luckier because I'm mostly okay with my Elezen, but two months later her mouth line having an upwards, smile-like curve when it didn't before still bothers the hell out of me.

Several of my alts remain really difficult to look at, though, so I've just been doing as much on my main as possible and hoping they'll get fixed up (again, I'm not actually expecting things to be 100% the same, but I want the options I picked pre-DT to still resemble those options) by the time I "run out" of things to do on her, lol.

A lot of people in this thread specifically didn't fantasia because they're roleplayers or writers of some kind, and so what their character is and how they look are very important to them--myself included. Changing a character I've had for years to an entirely different race or even face, admittedly, just makes them no longer that character to me...and, well, to be plain, it's depressing to lose them, you know?

That's why some of the face/option changes being so drastic hurt, because there's really no equivalent to what you had before that you can switch to with a fantasia. That's why a lot of us are simply dealing with the face changes; it's still technically the closest option, even if we think it looks too different from before. Sorry, I hope that made sense.

[CuteBucket]

I wonder what happened to the people that posted early on in the thread when DT first launched. Have you guys gotten used to the changes or has the graphics update just demotivated you from logging in whatsoever?
I ask because it looks like a lot of people didn't fanta into something else despite their grievances. Not trying to antagonize or belittle anyone; disliking the update is totally valid. Just curious where you all stand 2 months later.

I have not gotten use to the changes at all and it does keep me from logging in and playing. I log in to raid with my static because that is a social commitment with friends that I agreed to, and then I log out. I keep my camera zoomed out and don't look at my character very closely because he looks wrong. I could fanta, yes, but I like my catboy. He's based on a character I love from Fire Emblem, so I don't want to change him into something different.

I've logged in on my Au Ra female (face 3) alt a few times, but she made it out of the graphics "update" even worse than my catboy, and it genuinely depresses me to look at her. She is a character that is very close to my heart who I have commissioned artwork of and has a whole detailed background and story. The face and the features I chose when I created her influenced what kind of person I decided she should be. To change her face is to change who she is.