Dawntrail character graphics update - opinions, requests and discussion megathread

[Daralii]

In what world was 7.0 functioning better? I had to make dozens of bug reports about expressions alone. Light shined straight through your hair like your head was a pane of glass. Philtrums were all puffy and several races were missing core clan characteristics. Characters with dark skin were shinier and it took until this patch for my female Highlander to have her baked-in makeup not look gross. Several scale textures were bumpy and misaligned and looked like they were done by AI. I understand being unhappy with some changes done post 7.0 (the limbal ring issues really screwed with my Face 2 Xaela girl as well, but at the same time the quality of her scales and face textures were way worse in 7.0) but I really struggle to take comments like this in good faith.

The textures for scales are still pretty fucked. They got rid of the artifacting around them after only one year, but they still look like they were put through some random website's free AI-powered sharpening filter.

[Doopliss]

The textures for scales are still pretty fucked. They got rid of the artifacting around them after only one year, but they still look like they were put through some random website's free AI-powered sharpening filter.

Ugh, that doesn't surprise me. I noticed in 7.1 that some face scales on the Au Ra faces I use looked better than before and were no longer "blobby", but I know they're still riddled with issues on other faces and the body. Still, I mean to say that like...whatever problems we have now are literally no worse than 7.0. Some things only finally got a little better. And these issues all started with 7.0, lol.

[Doopliss]

To give them a single reluctant thank you (it's ridiculous this level of change took this goddamn long), I do think ♀ Highlanders got the most significant adjustment this patch.

They changed the makeup a lot so it no longer only looks good on light skin. My dark skinned Highlander now appears to know how to apply eyeliner again! Although Face 2 (not shown here), specifically, still has its issues with its eyes being a completely new shape, even its makeup looks a lot better and brings it slightly closer to its original, "cuter" impression.

7.0-7.1:


7.2:

[Iscah]

Highlander men have been begging for eyebrows on their hands and knees for a decade.

You might want to look closer at your phrasing there...

[Windfire]

7.0 functioned better than 7.1 and 7.2 combined and think it just goes to show that Square Enix should have stuck to their guns and told us to get over it as they actually had something that works, emotes that functioned and a consistent visual style that fit with the rest of the graphical update. Even if it wasn't what people expected it wasn't this mess. We are experiencing death by a thousand cuts, your suggestion is no better than them continuing to do updates.

Uh no 7.0 didn't function properly either, emotes/expressions were borked as soon as they put out the new faces. Oh but they'll have an easier time making rubber faces in Hildedrand for master Yoshi so it all good! /S

[Taranok]

Throwing my opinion in, again (though maybe not earlier in this thread.)

Old Au Ra face 4 had a 'fierce' expression to it with a narrowed, angular face.

3/4 profile Left is EW, right is Benchmark 1.0.

This is 7.2


Straight on. Same thing, left is EW, right is Benchmark 1.0.

And 7.2.


Surprisingly, the devs have made a significant amount of progress with face 4, but it's still not quite right. It's not as obvious in the 3/4 profile, but the jaw and cheeks are still a bit wrong. The jaw, in this case specifically female xaela face 4 type 2 jaw, is a lot wider than it was in endwalker still. Especially if you draw a straight line parallel to the lips. The rest of the face is actually close to how it is, but the jaw is an area still messed up in this particular face. But at least appears to be close to the end of things that need tweaking on this face. Narrowing the jaw should fix the cheek issue, and bring the face closer to what it was in EW.

[Aniya_Estlihn]

In what world was 7.0 functioning better? I had to make dozens of bug reports about expressions alone. Light shined straight through your hair like your head was a pane of glass. Philtrums were all puffy and several races were missing core clan characteristics. Characters with dark skin were shinier and it took until this patch for my female Highlander to have her baked-in makeup not look gross. Several scale textures were bumpy and misaligned and looked like they were done by AI. I understand being unhappy with some changes done post 7.0 (the limbal ring issues really screwed with my Face 2 Xaela girl as well, but at the same time the quality of her scales and face textures were way worse in 7.0) but I really struggle to take comments like this in good faith.

I liked the way expressions looked on all my characters in 7.0, I never noticed a single issue with the hair; other than the fact the one I used to use didn't get updated and still hasn't been changed to this day... thanks Yoshi P. I liked the more pronounced philtrums. The scales looked a darn sight better than they did in Endwalker and before as I wanted them to be bumpier and have more definition like they did with Dawntrail's initial release and the second benchmark. The adaptive lighting based on your environment for the limbal rings in 7.0 was a cool change as was the light refracting through the horns for Au Ra. You may not be able to take it in good faith that there are many things people HATED and complained about for 7.0 that others liked and potentially loved, but like me, there are people who weren't completely averse to the idea of these things changing or becoming more defined or simply being different.

There are genuine issues with the graphical update; some of which you mentioned, but a lot of the smaller, nitpicky things should have been chalked up to the dev team wanting to define things more and accepted more openly, rather than immediately being vilified and treated like any small change labels the team as the absolute spawn of satan for daring to even touch our characters.

People have differing opinions and can, in fact, like something that others don't.
That's been the issue with the character graphics update as a whole.

There's too many opinions and too many ideas for what "looks" good to individual people. Whereas some could have been happy in the past, we're at a point where the majority is not going to be happy until they release a character creator that reintroduces every single option that has been patched out since 6.58 and 7.0 and that's just the long and short of it. The people complaining and providing feedback do not consist of a majority of players, for all the pages in this thread, for all the feedback and criticism people are levying on this issue, there are those who either are paying absolutely no attention or are suffering in silence because they know the moment they speak up in favor of the changes that have been expunged from existence that people are going to accuse them of white knighting or of making comments in bad faith for a mere difference in opinion.

[mallleable]

Thavnair won so hard with the zone updates. Thank you!

[Kimeraandrel]

People asking for the devs to scrap all of the character graphics update might have spent too long in a bubble in here...

[Turnintino]

For whatever it's worth, I echo the recent frustrations about the continued neglect of ♂ Miqo'te Face 4 (and all others, for the record).

Still waiting for these sculpt issues to be addressed:




Which affects Mouth 2 and all nose shapes but 6 (I wouldn't be surprised if there was something wrong with 6 as well, but the others are all permutations of the profile pictured here). Not to mention I'm still mourning our reduced eyebrow thickness... u_u