Dawntrail character graphics update - opinions, requests and discussion megathread

[Daralii]

The texture improvements in dawntrail are great, especially for skin. Though some face textures still need a lot of work. I can't memorize them all but most the ones I noted were most of Male Midlander and Face 3 for Male Viera. Trancred notable had it too.
There is like, this sort of rainbow artifacting/splotches that shows up really badly when you zoom in, it looks pretty rough, like a low quality artifact. Compared to the tone I usually use which is Au 'Ra, which is quite smooth and detailed.

It's really baffling, since you'd think the homogenized features would have lead to less blatant errors like that.

[Turnintino]

It's really baffling, since you'd think the homogenized features would have lead to less blatant errors like that.

Textures like those on Miqo'te♂ Face 1 (the base that Koana uses), where you can see really distinct artifacting outlining the facial markings, reveal that they used some pretty rudimentary upscaling tech, with little to no retouching, except on textures where they decided to reduce the painted on shadows/contour or repaint finer details. So I'm not surprised there's more evidence of that elsewhere.

I feel fortunate that the faces I use for my main and alt escaped without those obvious flaws, but others were not so lucky.

[Luluna]

I am happy with some of the updates but when I look back on my old screens of my character I see the massive changes. I play a Midlander female and I loved face 1 and 2 but omg the eye bags on face one are still awful >.< and face 2 has lost it lovely shaped mouth and I am unable to fix this. I am now on a face I never really liked but it seems to work for me at the moment at least. I really feel they have made them look worse. I am unsure if anything can be done or even will be but I wont hold my breath.

[glitteringcosmos]

When I search for ff14 screenshots, the most I see..., people who are still actively posting are modders.
I guess, because they don't depend on the weird things that SE presents to us. x3
They do what they like with mods and have still fun with making screenshots of it.

Or because they have the means to fix the problems that SE created with this "update."

[glitteringcosmos]

I think one of my most-hated changes from the update is how many of the "painted-on" shadows they removed, ESPECIALLY from our eyes. I get that the idea is you don't need those with a more robust lighting engine. But the new lighting is barely more robust than the old, it absolutely does not re-add the feature depth and detail that was lost from taking out those shadows. Even if it WAS more robust, the painted shadows was a stylistic feature. The gradient shadow that blended into everyone's eyelashes? That is taken straight from an anime aesthetic; it was an expected part of the visuals, and its absence (or at least, SEVERE scaling back) is why there are so many complaints about characters looking wide-eyed or having thousand-mile stares.

this is 100000000000% how i feel about this! my miqo'tes definitely got it the worst, ESPECIALLY my main face 4 boyo with eye 3--the shape of the eye blocks a lot of the catchlight and the arthritic default idle pose means his head is tilted downward in 95% of cutscenes, further blocking out even MORE light from his eyes. he looks so dead now... my bright-eyed cinnamon roll...

[noumen0nn]

this is 100000000000% how i feel about this! my miqo'tes definitely got it the worst, ESPECIALLY my main face 4 boyo with eye 3--the shape of the eye blocks a lot of the catchlight and the arthritic default idle pose means his head is tilted downward in 95% of cutscenes, further blocking out even MORE light from his eyes. he looks so dead now... my bright-eyed cinnamon roll...

And it's doubly weird how there's no consistency across races with how they handled this! Lalafell and Viera both got to keep the strong shadows on the upper part of their eye, as if the artists knew taking that away would mess up the look of the character. But it messed up the look of every race, so just why? Why remove it at all?

[Daralii]

And it's doubly weird how there's no consistency across races with how they handled this! Lalafell and Viera both got to keep the strong shadows on the upper part of their eye, as if the artists knew taking that away would mess up the look of the character. But it messed up the look of every race, so just why? Why remove it at all?

A lot of artists/art directors are obsessed with things seeming "real", so they get rid of things like catchlights and baked-in shading and let the lighting engine do everything even if things looks worse as a result. You can see it in some environments, like Idyllshire, where the stylized direction is preserved in some textures but others are aiming for photorealism.

[DynnDiablos]

I have two complaints. For the most part, female hrothgar a lovely and I appreciate the quality put into their models. However, the new eye lighting seems to make some races look like they have cataracts, and I feel hrothgals get it bad. My pupils aren't as defined and look hazy.

Arms. In certain lighting, the female hrothgar arm seams can be seen, like a line from elbow to wrist. It is weird.

[Tahli]

However, the new eye lighting seems to make some races look like they have cataracts, and I feel hrothgals get it bad. My pupils aren't as defined and look hazy.

Also true for Miqo'te, unfortunately. I hope they adjust that.

[CuteBucket]

ngl I am not even LOOKING at the cutscenes at this point in attempting to finish a playthrough. I already know it's gonna be upsetting no matter which alt I try. Just reading the text (which, ouch, wtf did they do to the FONT anyways??) and trying to ignore anything but the back of my character's head (which still looks mostly right at least, just NO FACE, no eyes, and for Twelvesake no looking at any of the SCALES) to just... get through it :/

remember when we used to put so much time into gpose? Anyone? :c

On the rare occasion these days I open up my Gpose/screenshot folder, I see a list of years. Inside each year, a file for a month. Inside each of those, screenshot after screenshot, trying different angles and lighting and poses, full of my memories of this game.

The last file is June 2024.