Dawntrail character graphics update - opinions, requests and discussion megathread

[potatsdevourer]

I also think they changed the lighting again?
Your features look the same in shape (minus the eyebrows) but they appear different to me in the sense that they have more depth and nuance in their shadows and colours. There's a stronger gradient from shadow to light in 7.2 I think. That's not to take away at all from your frustration about the sculpt changes. The lighting itself just feels a bit more realistic now and makes "everything" it lights a tad more "well-rounded" if that makes sense.
Still wish they'd actually fix the faces of course.

Might be that they changed the lighting again. Based on patch note, the only thing that clearly stated was SSAO in relation to lighting, but it does not affect character.
Regardless, people would be less frustrated if they just (please) itemize the change. Now people are just playing spot the difference like it is Dora the Explorer lol

Also I have not take the time difference into account which might cause the subtle difference. Here is the condition:
1. These two photos were taken inside my apartment, with single imitation window on the side.
2. Light source is not from ceiling lamp, but from limelight
3. I changed the lipstick color actually, hence why there is subtle difference

[HawkeScream]

When I logged in, I thought something looked different with my character (elezen male), and that he looked more similar to what he used to before DT. A friend even said out of the blue that they thought my character looked more gaunt. But when I went into the inn to take comparison shots, it looks exactly the same as 7.1. Now I'm very confused at what exactly was changed, because it doesn't seem like anything was changed at all. Except he does look different somehow when not in the inn. I have no idea what's going on.

Also checked my Au Ra male and he looks just as bad as 7.1. Is it so difficult to ask for a list detailing exactly what changes happened, instead of us players needing to cross-examine our characters' faces to spot the difference?

This happened to me with my femhyur in 7.1. I couldn't see anything different or put my finger on anything in particular, but in game she FELT just a little more right than before with whatever they did. I'm happy for you it's a little better!

[Keiizah]

Miqo face 1's mouth still looks completely wrong, especially with certain mouth options. The lower lip's shape needs correction. It's not as noticeable if you don't use heavy lip colour, but if you do, the diffference in appearance is pretty big. Especially for mouth 4. The eyes do somehow seem kinda better though, but yea, they could still use some work I think.

Oh absolutely. I feel like this time lips became smaller (back to pre dt sizes), but still far from good. I don't use any lipstick, but I can't stand the smile they gave to literally everyone. It could easily be made into a toggle idk. I just hope they either make new lip options or give us old lip shape back, but at this point I don't know if the devs are reliable enough

[MoonNoire]

I knew something was off in my portraits. Characters no longer squint when they look down. Use a facial expression like /beam, /smile, whatever, and have the eyes point down and you'll get this result
Whatever they did to the eyelids has disabled this

[Araxes]

They definitely changed the fem highlander eyes, and to be honest, I'm quite impressed with it!

I feel now it's based on the original intention. The eyes look bigger, the outer corner lifted, and I also notice how they patched up the eyebrows, which was a nuisance for many.
And corrected the face paint position too! \o/

Thats amazing tbh! Fem Highlanders are such an underrated choice to play and i noticed that my Wifes alt had different eyes with DT. I am glad they fixed that.

[HawkeScream]

I knew something was off in my portraits. Characters no longer squint when they look down. Use a facial expression like /beam, /smile, whatever, and have the eyes point down and you'll get this result
Whatever they did to the eyelids has disabled this

I would submit that as a bug honestly.

[Loggos]

Might be that they changed the lighting again. Based on patch note, the only thing that clearly stated was SSAO in relation to lighting, but it does not affect character.
Regardless, people would be less frustrated if they just (please) itemize the change. Now people are just playing spot the difference like it is Dora the Explorer lol

Also I have not take the time difference into account which might cause the subtle difference. Here is the condition:
1. These two photos were taken inside my apartment, with single imitation window on the side.
2. Light source is not from ceiling lamp, but from limelight
3. I changed the lipstick color actually, hence why there is subtle difference

Oh ok that makes sense and is most likely the reason then.

And I 100% agree.
This whole "we are changing stuff but not telling you what" feels really disrespectful because it seems like they deliberately make communication on an issue people care a lot about as intransparent as possible. It sounds like they don't really stand by the changes they implemented and fear if we knew what was updated we'd voice our criticism again.

If they were confident and/or truly interested in being honest and open with us they would just tell us what changed. Currently it sounds like an "eat my cake but wanna have it too" scenario. "Say you changed something to make people happy and give them the feeling you care but don't actually tell them what you did to avoid any potential feedback and criticism".

Of course the result is the opposite. Now players feel even less good-will towards the devs because we get the impression we are actively being deceived for PR reasons while our concerns are ignored. That makes it feel like an active act of neglect and not just accidental sub-optimal communication.

[TheVegetable]

Oh absolutely. I feel like this time lips became smaller (back to pre dt sizes), but still far from good. I don't use any lipstick, but I can't stand the smile they gave to literally everyone. It could easily be made into a toggle idk. I just hope they either make new lip options or give us old lip shape back, but at this point I don't know if the devs are reliable enough

Agreed, 100%. I lost faith a while ago. Doesn't mean I'm going to stop bitching every patch until they fix it though, no matter how many expansions it takes.

[Leon-Valeren]

Despite all the complaints, very little changes has been done to miqo'te face 4. It is better than what we had at launch, but it's still has big glaring issues. Particularly with the eyes. The highlights are way too high, so you never see them on certain eye shapes and it makes character look dead inside.
Miqo'te face 4, no highlights are seen
Miqo'te face 1, looks fine, highlights are seen like they should be

Old problem's such as changed eye and lip shape (tho it did got better, but can't we really get rid of curved up lip corners??), making the expression look tired. it also conflicts with existing facial expressions, making them either too overly expressive 9sam problem was noted with m!aura face 1) and because mouth is still smiling, looks confusing with negative emotions like furrow (makes it look like he's smiling while being grumpy which doesn't make sense), there is no neutral emote anymore. Keeper's eye slight was also almost removed, it doesn't look as sharp and defined as it was pre-dt. New dawntrail eye textures also make colours look darker and it's not always fixable with fantasia

After an update skin looks grainy, it is especially noticeable on darker skin. It's also only present on the face, and ends around neck seam. It looks like what we had at last dt becnhmark, with sub-surface scattering looking weird, and giving character's slightly wax-like look

Thank you so much for writing this!!

all those points like i don't understand why they changed the face so drastically. Compared to other races that had more subtle changes i feel miqo'te especially have changed a lot.

Clearly hope they will rework the mouth somehow since it looks unnatural. Makes some cutscenes look silly with a smiling mouth while a serious cutscene plays.

Also miqo face 4 eyes 3 changed so badly... They look so dead and tired, no light in them like you mentioned and a strong shadow that hides eye colour even more. And seeker eye slit was changed to a more human form which takes away from the unique look it had before.

I just really hope they change it to be more like in endwalker since there aren't other options for serious looking eyes on that face so fantasia doesn't help.

[faiarrow]

Over a year of logging warcrimes honestly by the graphics team now ever since the femroe eye issue was brought up in October of 2023. Feels great. (Not.)





Sorry for the lighting being different in every single one of these. That tends to happen when the entire lighting engine is tweaked with every major patch as well as sub patch just about despite using the exact same saved camera and lighting settings in gpose.

7.2: we got our nose ash back! and thats it.

Face 2 specifically still has issues with:
Bulbous nose tip instead of a squarer shape like we used to have
Missing normal map for the eyebrows
Normal map for the lip literally being a ( shape

Femroe as a whole still have the issue of:
Our jewelled eyes are gone still, which is making a lot of expressions extremely awful because all smiling animations on femroe squint the eyes heavily. It didn't look bad before DT, but it's just offputting now.

I just want this with the eyes again CU3. It makes a massive difference.