Dawntrail character graphics update - opinions, requests and discussion megathread

[Anarnee]

JP thread is full of a lot of the same stuff we have here, mostly seems like people are seeing no changes, but I think my favorite thing is how they seem to have effed the scene in Kholusia with the Exarch... One of the most important bits (In my opinion) in ShB with him.

I did spy one lala post about a fixed expression (however they note that nothing else is changed about the face, it's the same face I use for my Lala alt so I'm glad something was fixed...

私は要望したこと殆ど直っていませんでしたが、唯一直っていたのがララフェルのこの表情。

これができなくて寂しかったのですが、7.2で返り咲きました。ありがとうございます。

ですが、過去に要望した殆どが修正されておりません、相変わらず受け口のままだし、ヒューランも元の顔とはほど遠いです。
7.2では7.1ではできなかった口周りということだったので期待していただけにショックが大きいです。
引き続き修正はしてくれるのでしょうか･･･？はたまたもうこのままなのでしょうか？

[Metool42]

https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...ace-2-Eyebrows

This has been an issue since Dawntrail benchmark. How has this not been remotely adressed? I do not understand.

[Joralia]

I am not going to make more screenshot comparisons. I am seeing the exact same issues on my female Au Ra face 1's mouth shape... and the exact same softened, rounded eyes on my best friend's face 2 Miqo'te. I am much too tired of being ignored to make yet another graphic showing the same issues to the same devs who promised the same faces and never delivered. Disappointing.

[glitteringcosmos]

This has been and remains my main issue with this whole update. This is the combo I use for my character and he still looks so dead. I was afraid they wouldn't do anything about it because in the graphic update blog post they linked in the patch notes, they asked us to consider the eyes highlight "spec", and I hate that I was right about them not doing anything about it. I submitted a bug report months ago that was moved to accepted bugs but they still, STILL haven't done anything about it. It's so upsetting and I'm genuinely mad at the developers for this. I've tried to give them grace about a lot of my grievances about dawntrail, but destroying our characters is beyond the pale. I would even have given them a pass about ruining the pupil if only they'd give him some life back in his eyes, but they couldn't even manage that.

i mean, seriously. it is UNACCEPTABLE that only 2 of the 6 total options available for eye shape have eyeshine highlights that are not partially or fully obscured.

[red_fang]

Requesting a toggle or an option for the pre-7.2 face texture of Hellsguard Roegadyn without the darker smudge or ash mark, the Dawntrail skin made before this current patch.

While it's great that some of the Roes that wanted it got what they've been asking for, I liked the look before 7.2 and now I'm stuck with something I didn't want to begin with. After 9 months of happily playing with the updated face, I feel like it's unreasonable to have this forced in this manner instead of having an option for the mark as it's a noticeable change. Since the work is already done the old skin texture could be put in facial features as a toggle, which is all I'm asking for and not a reversion of the work already done in this patch.

[valphyrian]

I am BEGGING them to fix Male Miqo'te Face 4. I haven't been able to feel like I am playing as my character in eight months because of the model updates and frankly another free fantasia, while appreciated, does literally nothing to fix that if they aren't going to address the problems the face type has. As countless others have already pointed out, the eyes do not have a shine to them unless you use very specific options to allow the highlights to be seen, and it makes the character look lifeless. The forced upturned corners of the mouth in a smiling expression are horrible -- if I wanted that sort of a look for my Miqo'te, I'd use Face 1 or 3, but I don't, so I use face 4, so PLEASE fix it. I was so incredibly disappointed when I logged in this morning.

[Tarath]

Got myself a bit of a scare when looking at the portraits for my female Au Ra alt.


As MoonNoire already pointed out, new simper emote keeps the eyelids static.

Jittering shadows are still around as seen on the nose.

Doesn’t look like there’s any changes to the simper expression on my male Au Ra (or any expressions for that matter), but the simper smile is slightly milder on female Au Ra, which is nice.


Yet still male Au Ra has floating face scales and his eyebrows are dragged down towards his nose, and I made bug reports of those after the release of the second benchmark. (face scales, eyebrows bug reports)
Disappointing, but not unexpected considering they’re still in the “Accepted Bugs” status… which makes me wonder if all my reports are to remain there and rot…


Additionally there seems to be no changes to limbal ring glow as they’re still dependent on the light source for the amount of glow they’ll give.


However there seems to be a bit better highlight in the eyes now?
On the simper comparison for female Au Ra above the highlight seems brighter now, and the few cutscenes I’ve peeked at have quite lively eyes on NPCs.


Though the little goods cannot outweigh the overall disappointment these updates have been.

I miss my old character's faces…

[MoonNoire]

Requesting a toggle or an option for the pre-7.2 face texture of Hellsguard Roegadyn without the darker smudge or ash mark, the Dawntrail skin made before this current patch.

While it's great that some of the Roes that wanted it got what they've been asking for, I liked the look before 7.2 and now I'm stuck with something I didn't want to begin with. After 9 months of happily playing with the updated face, I feel like it's unreasonable to have this forced in this manner instead of having an option for the mark as it's a noticeable change. Since the work is already done the old skin texture could be put in facial features as a toggle, which is all I'm asking for and not a reversion of the work already done in this patch.

While what you're asking is completely reasonable, you are asking this of a development team that had to duplicate a midlander male face as an option just to bake a stubble onto it. Want to shave? That'll be 7€. The foundation upon which the game is built is so unfathomably bad that they believe they cannot (I'm more inclined to believe they simply don't want to) add any more customization options to existing faces. Highlander men have been begging for eyebrows on their hands and knees for a decade. Fashionistas have been requesting RGB-based color pickers for hair, eyes and skin for almost as long as the game's been running. The excuse has always been the same: "processing limits", as though games far older than FFXIV 1.0 didn't have those.

As if this game isn't among Square-Enix's top selling, highest grossing titles. They behave like an indie studio that's too small to make these changes, while swimming in money. In many ways, CBU3 reminds me of Game Freak.

These "fixes" are not geared toward actually fixing characters. Otherwise, we would have seen far, far bigger changes in the time Dawntrail's been out. They're geared towards making you think they care so you stay subbed for at least the entire Dawntrail patch cycle.

Do I sound angry? Yes, but that's because I love this game to bits. I know they can do better because the talent isn't gone. I just don't know why they're taking so long to correct their mistakes - mistakes that go beyond the scope of this thread.

[GrizzlyTank]

6.x, 7.0 and 7.2 Yeah not much change :<

[Metool42]

https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...ace-2-Eyebrows

This has been an issue since Dawntrail benchmark. How has this not been remotely adressed? I do not understand.

Btw they've clearly noticed these issues. They know about them.