Dawntrail character graphics update - opinions, requests and discussion megathread

[Hatsuoki]

Thank you so much Argantaelle As a huge Thancred fan (he's my favourite character) I felt genuinely touched by your words! As Khryseis_Astra said, there's so many little things that have been changed about him that he looks like a different person. Still sort of recognisable as the same character, but off, almost like an uncanny version of him, a Ship of Theseus in a way. As soon as I see a picture of the old Thancred, I can immediately see the difference.

For people who might not care as much for Thancred, it might not be a huge deal, but when you love a character this much it really hurts

I can only desperately hope that they revert him to his SHB appearance and rig the model up for 7.0. I know it can be done, and I'll keep fighting for him as I know it means a lot to me and a lot of other people.

I've also talked about the same thing here for Hancock and much more often in private since he's not as popular but it's like all personality and background was wiped away. He no longer has the thin, pursed lips with a slight, cruel expression, doesn't have dark under eye circles so he doesn't look as tired, and he's slightly more bulky, as if he wasn't malnourished as a child. Speaking generally though, characters were more likely to have been designed with these physical characteristics to match their personalities and backgrounds and not designed with the intent of the "original data" that they claim to be more accurate. Regardless of how accurate the models now match the original data, I just don't think that's what the character designers were working off of.

[Doopliss]

Speaking generally though, characters were more likely to have been designed with these physical characteristics to match their personalities and backgrounds and not designed with the intent of the "original data" that they claim to be more accurate. Regardless of how accurate the models now match the original data, I just don't think that's what the character designers were working off of.

God, dude, I know we don't have "proof" one way or another, but...you're definitely right. It just doesn't make sense otherwise.

They 100% did not design any characters with the intent of the "original data" they reference in the PR-ridden lodestone response. As any good character designer would do, they used and made the best out of the limitations and tools they were given. Their eyes are no different from ours, and they definitely weren't designing characters with the thoughts of them having a different impression in the future. That would just be...insane? And bad character designing. I just can't, in good faith, believe anyone who would think otherwise.

There's no way that Cirina, with her gentle, airy and sometimes surprising disposition was meant to look so...tired and plastic in comparison to her old, more girlish and slightly less conventional-looking model. Sadu, the fierce, battle-loving Dotharl had her face intentionally made up of all of the sharpest feature options. You're telling me they're actually meant to be this much softer and rounded-out?

I also get sad seeing Margrat--the last custom delivery NPC from Endwalker--now with her sharp, longer and more mature features practically removed. It fit her erratic, nerdy busybody personality super well...and her custom delivery portrait still has the old model. It's weirdly depressing to look at. Now her features are also all rounded out, and a little more...droopy-looking. She lacks the emotion she once had.

[Turnintino]

Bumping to whine about the lighting, because it really is such an eyesore sometimes lol.



For the record, this is with character lighting turned all the way down, and yet he's fully illuminated in a completely shadowed environment, as if cut and paste from another image.

[CidHeiral]

For the record, this is with character lighting turned all the way down, and yet he's fully illuminated in a completely shadowed environment, as if cut and paste from another image.

That was a direct result of player feedback. It was previously much more subtle but changed after the first benchmark when people complained.

Environmental Lighting Adjustments

When characters were backlit or in shadow, the softened shading made details appear rather flat. As such, we made overall adjustments to characters' environmental lighting to preserve a three-dimensional appearance even when a character wasn't being lit. We also made minor adjustments to the overall environment, such as fog.

Source: https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...ecd574ad0d397a

Unfortunately that's the double edged sword of addressing feedback. Any change meant to appease one group of people is going to be disliked by another group of people. Fortunately in this instance while I do think it looks silly to glow in the dark it doesn't ruin my enjoyment of the game or anything.

[Turnintino]

That was a direct result of player feedback. It was previously much more subtle but changed after the first benchmark when people complained.



Source: https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...ecd574ad0d397a

Unfortunately that's the double edged sword of addressing feedback. Any change meant to appease one group of people is going to be disliked by another group of people. Fortunately in this instance while I do think it looks silly to glow in the dark it doesn't ruin my enjoyment of the game or anything.

I can appreciate their attempt, but I'd also argue the inciting issue wasn't ultimately addressed; the details of the character still look flat -- we're just also glowing now lol. But if the saturation were just turned down a bit to match the environment, it would make a world of difference, IMO.

I think their fix was strange to begin with, though, since all it seems to do is force character lighting, a setting we have in the game but not in the benchmark, where of course some players might've felt its absence. It also doesn't appear everywhere. By my observations, it only seems to act like this when the character is in shadow during daylight hours, so I'm not sure it's even entirely intentional.

[CidHeiral]

I can appreciate their attempt, but I'd also argue the inciting issue wasn't ultimately addressed; the details of the character still look flat -- we're just also glowing now lol. But if the saturation were just turned down a bit to match the environment, it would make a world of difference, IMO.

I think their fix was strange to begin with, though, since all it seems to do is force character lighting, a setting we have in the game but not in the benchmark, where of course some players might've felt its absence. It also doesn't appear everywhere. By my observations, it only seems to act like this when the character is in shadow during daylight hours, so I'm not sure it's even entirely intentional.

Personally I liked the softer lighting of the first benchmark and I think they should have let people actually run around in the world for a bit before making drastic changes, but it is what it is. It's definitely intentional though because you can see the same thing going on in their examples in that lodestone post.

[Iscah]

That was a direct result of player feedback. It was previously much more subtle but changed after the first benchmark when people complained.



Source: https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...ecd574ad0d397a

Unfortunately that's the double edged sword of addressing feedback. Any change meant to appease one group of people is going to be disliked by another group of people. Fortunately in this instance while I do think it looks silly to glow in the dark it doesn't ruin my enjoyment of the game or anything.

The base cause of the player feedback was the devs' introduction of the new "soft lighting" in the first place, which affected different skin colours in drastically different ways – my dark-skinned Miqo'te looked fine in the first benchmark but my pale-skinned Midlander was translucent.

Both of them looked fine in the old lighting and both of them look awful in the new lighting in different ways to the benchmark – pale seems prone to going featureless and puffy in bright light; dark has constant reflection from the fake cool-white spotlights that shine on everything now.

[Kaziek]

Bumping to whine about the lighting, because it really is such an eyesore sometimes lol.



For the record, this is with character lighting turned all the way down, and yet he's fully illuminated in a completely shadowed environment, as if cut and paste from another image.

This is one of the worst parts of the update in my opinion that affects everything and isn't race/face specific. Characters are just way too illuminated, and barely have environmental lighting colors applied to them. Looking at the difference between the night scenes in the EW benchmark vs. live really shows how off everything looks in comparison.

[lunartears]

Bumping to whine about the lighting, because it really is such an eyesore sometimes lol.



For the record, this is with character lighting turned all the way down, and yet he's fully illuminated in a completely shadowed environment, as if cut and paste from another image.

I've been replaying Heavensward lately (to help someone) and it's been so egregious that I complain about it every single time I enter a cutscene. Azys Lla was the worst one.
I can't forget about "how it's supposed to look"... Not to mention of course seeing how off all of the NPCs look now.

Also, it reminds me of my earlier post:

Found this video today: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgBEkzT8xhU
Good reference for the way that MSQ has been affected by the graphics update.

[CuteBucket]

This is one of the worst parts of the update in my opinion that affects everything and isn't race/face specific. Characters are just way too illuminated, and barely have environmental lighting colors applied to them. Looking at the difference between the night scenes in the EW benchmark vs. live really shows how off everything looks in comparison.

It's particularly egregious in many old cutscenes now, as have been posted previously in this thread. Oh, did a scene once have harsh, dramatic lighting in it for artistic effect? Not anymore!