New 7.1 hairstyle looks nothing like the winning hairstyle from the 2023 contest

[Anzaman]

So we get all of 1 new hairstyle in patch.. and this is the quality we can expect going onward then?

[starfarer]

I never thought I'd praise anything WoW did, but World of Warcraft - a game with a engine that's literally twenty years old - has been able to create Black hairstyles for years, but CS3 can't?

This is my issue. There's plenty ways to do curly hairstyles in a way that doesn't break the polygon bank. If CBU3 don't know how, they have connections - they can consult people for this! It's just so disappointing to see them not respect the artist's original vision.

[FedoraTheExplorer]

I really don't want to be mean but this is a multi-billionaire company... I don't believe it isn't at all impossible for them to create curly hair. I find it hard to believe it's a limitation of their systems when World of Warcraft, as mentioned, was able to implement black hairstyles.

[LukaLukaNightFeva]

Square Enix are so behind compared to other Japanese studios at this point that it's frankly embarrassing. I know it's not really comparable as they're in very different engines, but MH Wilds has a lovely variety of hairstyles of varying textures and lengths. Capcom are also a multi-billion dollar Japanese company, and they've been prioritising consulting actual members of the communities they're representing for years now.

I hope the statement about actually implementing the natural curls isn't a copout statement to save face, because this company seriously needs to do better.

[PaulusHamsteru]

Hello.

Thank you for all your feedback on the hairstyle that will be implemented in Patch 7.1. We would like to apologize for the major confusion we have caused.

For this patch, we started work to implement "Natural Curls" from the winning entries of the Hairstyle Design Contest, based on the idea of adding not only straight hair but also a variety of other hairstyles.

However, as the development work progressed, the light, delicate, and voluminous curls required for Natural Curls could not be implemented perfectly, despite implementation of the recent graphical update in FFXIV, due to limitations such as the polygon count.

Therefore, the finished result is a hairstyle that has not been implemented as Natural Curls, but as a wavy bob hairstyle, which is called "Doing the Wave" in-game.

However, since we did use the winning entry as a reference in the development process, we included a statement to that effect in the patch notes. We are deeply sorry that this has resulted in a great deal of confusion and concern.

Although we were not able to make it happen this time, the development team will continue to strive to implement many more hairstyles in the future. As for Natural Curls, which was not implemented in Patch 7.1, we will persevere in our efforts to look for other ways to implement this hairstyle.

We appreciate your feedback and hope you continue to enjoy FFXIV!

Time to upgrade the engine/rewrite the code or whatever works. I'm SICK of hearing the same excuses over and over again.

[Evermomo]

While I want to be sympathetic, the comment about polygons just isn't accurate to the state of the art. It may be management's or artists' understanding of the problem, but in some ways it's a dishonest (or uninformed) answer.

MMOs nowadays have polygon (Tris) limits of around 2000-2500 for a hairstyle. (That's about 1250 quads.) That may sound like a lot, but "low detail" characters like MMOs usually have tri counts between 10,000 and 20,000, with many of those in the face and hair, the main areas of detail. This is to a degree an assumption on my part, but one I make with some confidence.

So, it works like this; If you build the "base" of the hair with even 1,000 tris, you now have 1500 tris to make hair cards. Imagine 750 curls distributed around a head-- that's most likely the technique GW2 and other titles are using to achieve their effect. Obviously each curl itself will be a 2d plane, but if you distribute them at enough different angles, then it creates the illusion of fluff or volume. Bushes in the overworld are rendered in much the same way, albeit a lightweight version of that.

If I were to tackle this hairstyle, I would do it in this way; create a base of hair, with a bumpy form on top to imply the tight curl pattern. Then, imagine each section in chunks, and create layers of hair cards to build the volume of curls. Then, check the hairstyle from various angles to make sure the cards are best positioned to create the intended effect. If I had any tris left over, I would dedicate them to a few stand-out curls around the face or top of the head.

In short, it's technique, not technology. Whether it's 2000 tris or 20,000, it's up to an artist's imagination and talent to use the tools at hand. But I want to be clear that the company failed, not the individual artist that worked on the hair being released tomorrow. My real point is that while they may not know the correct technique, it can be learned. So I hope my message is helpful. I wish I had the time to make a demonstration in blender, but I can't promise it.

[BeoCat]

How are modders able to do this better than the official team? we already have full blown afros, jheri curls, dreads....

Because the modders don't take into account that the game has to also run on toasters so they do not care about stuff like optimisation and poly counts and complex shaders.

[Fawkes]

[Raim]

If the adjustments are so different that it barely even looks like the same hairstyle that was chosen, don't even bother trying to implement it and pick another one.

[vipicto]

What a lame answer. Small indie company SE, everyone.