Dawntrail character graphics update - opinions, requests and discussion megathread

[PaulusHamsteru]

Wish they'd let us go back to pre 7.0 features. The new character looks absolutely nothing like my old character. And he looks even worse in game.

[Tahli]

My report about the problem that only(!) male slim midlanders have no normal visible belly button was also moved to 'working as intended'. Really annoying. :C
That hard line looks really wrong. Why did they do this? D :

I know! It's not only more inaccurate to the original shape, it just plain looks bad.

[Mewi]

I did notice improvements to my lalafell mouth not looking so strange in certain lighting. There are still issues with eye colors not standing out as much as they used to, lips not being right shape for multiple races.. etc.

[Adamantini]

I have no idea what they did with the /annoyed expression, but it's completely different. The inner eyebrows raise more and it gives it more of a concerned expression, but I didn't have the photos to compare myself, just that I KNEW it was different, so thank you for the evidence.

Sigh. I feel like this face is so unpopular that it won't get fixed. I'm trying to console myself a bit and tell myself it's not as bad as I think, but I love my boy. He's my rp main, I've been rping on him for a year now, he's based off of my late bunny. I CAN'T change him. But he's been changed... I can't get over how they made him softer. I wanted a strong viking man...

I've been bothered by the changes to my Viera's expressions since 7.0. My friends are already tired of hearing me complain about how empty or fake they look (all the smiles seem forced. It looks like it got a bit better in 7.1). I changed my character's lips because the ones I used before got too big and made my character always look sad. I also changed the eye color to something more vibrant because the new eyes felt lifeless. But the face? You can send me as many fantasia potions as you want, none of them will change it to anything remotely similar—it was unique. The others have always been rounder and focused on looking youthful.

I think its a combination of the light hitting our cheeks/chin different (look at how your bun's chin catches the light in your old pictures vs the new for the clearest example of what I mean) + the noses no longer being shaded to look flat like bunny noses. Its hard to describe but its like every update sands down the angular features a little more which makes the face feel increasingly puffy and round.

It might be that the shadow is helping the face in image 1, but if you look at the chin, you'll see that the face has definitely become rounder. When I logged in after 7.1, I was really bothered and tried several cities and different lighting conditions because something felt off about it. That’s when I came to the forum and found someone who noticed the same change. I believe that, since it’s rounder, even if I managed to run the BM with the new Viera, the shadow wouldn’t match the previous one because I feel like the cheeks are bigger. As the previous person said, it feels like my character gained weight.

[lunartears]

Not sure if this is appropriate to post in here but the newly announced FFXIV Mobile trailer seems to be using old graphical assets to a degree. There's not a lot of player face focus but the Dunesfolk eyes look a lot like the old version. I also noticed some of the eyes had the old catchlights.
I can't say for certain that they are fully using the old assets or to what degree the graphics resemble EW until it actually comes out, but it might be interesting to keep an eye on if you've also developed a fascination with the graphics update.



If playing a mobile version of FF14 is what it takes to see old characters faces then so be it.

[BeoCat]

Not sure if this is appropriate to post in here but the newly announced FFXIV Mobile trailer seems to be using old graphical assets to a degree. There's not a lot of player face focus but the Dunesfolk eyes look a lot like the old version. I also noticed some of the eyes had the old catchlights.
I can't say for certain that they are fully using the old assets or to what degree the graphics resemble EW until it actually comes out, but it might be interesting to keep an eye on if you've also developed a fascination with the graphics update.



If playing a mobile version of FF14 is what it takes to see old characters faces then so be it.

If the game is as big as the trailer implies, it probably started development during EW or earlier, so it would make sense for it to use older assets. I'm more fascinated about what engine are they using, because there's no way that crystalTools-Luminous hybrid monstrosity XIV and XVI runs on can run on mobile platforms.

[SchwarzwaelderTorte]

I've also been looking at this announcement lol

It is really interesting to see the eye highlights back to how they used to look, and even beyond characters the "atmospheric perspective" (the blue fog over distant landscapes, which creates added depth and also makes it easier to visually separate the foreground and the background) that was very present before 7.0 and almost completely gone post-graphical update is also back in this mobile version.
And yet, even if it looks "like the old graphics" there are still signs of improvements, like the metallic surfaces in the Gold Saucer look more reflective without being blinding, the lighting in the Titan duty seems to be a lot better, and even the shaders and textures on Titan himself seem more up to date.

But it's difficult to say if any of this will actually look like that on release, I think everyone here has learned their lesson in that regard... (some of those images have also clearly been painted over, like the grass on the La Noscea screenshot, and that Astrope mount looks almost AI generated...?)
(and we still have no clue what the gameplay will actually be like... or if this game has any bright future or will meet the same fate as many other Square Enix mobile games)

Also, I found out that on the Japanese (and Chinese) version of that title's website, there's a whole paragraph dedicated to how they tried to faithfully recreate the graphics, which has been curiously omitted from the English translation.
Again, at this stage it could just be PR talk with no substance, but it was interesting that they went out of their way to explain all that.

[lunartears]

Also, I found out that on the Japanese (and Chinese) version of that title's website, there's a whole paragraph dedicated to how they tried to faithfully recreate the graphics, which has been curiously omitted from the English translation.
Again, at this stage it could just be PR talk with no substance, but it was interesting that they went out of their way to explain all that.

This is pretty crazy to read.

Each race has its own unique production process. For example, in creating the Hyur male, it is important to convey a calm and friendly personality. In designing the textures for the character's face, we sought a naturalistic finish that accentuates the character's personality by avoiding excessive realism and flamboyant details and instead focusing on the style of the original work. In addition, in the creation of Lalafell, applying the same techniques as for the Hyur men would result in dark shadows on the face.

(DeepL translation)

[Khryseis_Astra]

This is pretty crazy to read.

Yeah that was one thing that struck me when looking through this thread, was that it felt like maybe there were too few hands doing the work for the graphic update. Each race should have it’s own process and it’s own artists working on them, and it feels like that didn’t happen. More like too few people being rushed way too much and working on too many assets, because a lot of the things that use to make the races look unique look really samey now.

If it’s F2P, or gets included with our subs somehow I might try it. From what I can tell so far, it’s a standalone game, so it’ll be interesting to see what all is included.

[IndraSyngiwyb]

Bump so it doesn't get buried.