Dawntrail character graphics update - opinions, requests and discussion megathread

[noumen0nn]

They told us they'd be very careful about preserving the image of the character, precisely because they were anticipating that people would be upset if things changed too much because they are extremely attached to their characters, but then they didn't manage to deliver on that front and instead arbitrarily changed things on the fly, and created this rift between players instead.

The current situation, at its core, is the result of mistakes in the planning (dare I say scheduling), direction, execution, and communication around the graphical update.

This is exactly what makes me so angry at the few changes we have seen. All they've done is adjust some normal maps here and there or tiny little details like makeup; it's not NEARLY enough for those of us who have demonstrated glaring dissimilarities between our new and old looks, but it is JUST enough to piss off some people who liked the new look.

[localareanetwork]

Fem Miqo eye 3 needs to be more angular still.

[Sairaag]

Looks like I forgot to remove the eyeshadow before taking the 7.1 screenshot, but other than that, where are the differences that necessitated issuing another free fantasia? It's been almost a full year since the first benchmark and the start of player feedback, and they still put up this much resistance against making the slightest of changes towards restoring face 1. Why is it so much to ask to at the very least have the eyebrows back to what they were? They were sparse to begin with, there was no reason to nerf them to this state. Looking at feedback from other Miqo'te players, though, they seem to have something against Miqo'te eyebrows in general.

Anyway, I'm too annoyed to write about the same details once again right now, but I think I'll try to redraw this face later to properly show what I mean.

[Aco505]

Why is it so much to ask to at the very least have the eyebrows back to what they were? They were sparse to begin with, there was no reason to nerf them to this state. Looking at feedback from other Miqo'te players, though, they seem to have something against Miqo'te eyebrows in general.

We're in dire need of an eyebrow thickness option separate from the eyebrow shape one.

[Hatsuoki]

I wouldn't have minded the speed of 3 NPC updated per major patch if it meant it was done right for everyone. Going through everything again for the male midlander face 6, I retract my earlier statement about possible eyebrow changes and haven't been able to find any changes other than the eyelid bug(?) I would really appreciate it if they could make a list of what they *did* change because I don't understand the lack of communication. They spent so much time talking about the polygons during live letters and now that it's live, it's silence. It's negligence. The grasses will get sliders but the important parts don't? This behavoir is so unlike them that I feel let down over and over.

[Gaddes]

They're just never going to touch the mouths, are they?
I've come to terms with the eyebrows still looking the same since 7.0...


but it really sucks just how different the mouth is and I feel like because it's an Elezen (and particularly a mouth type that isn't usually found on important Elezen NPCs) they really just won't do anything about it.


Did they specifically say this is the last time they're doing any face adjustments?

They also broke the scar on one of the eyebrow types... the other eyebrows have a straight scar, and type 6 has a ridiculous bump to it that the others don't...

[Liyinabi]

Fem Miqo eye 3 needs to be more angular still.

I think they mistook people wanting a more angular eye 3 on face 1/2/3 and gave face 4 all of the angles instead.

This patch, they changed face 4 eye 3's polygons on the inside of the upper eyelid to look cartoonishly boxy when viewed from an angle, to the point where the two eyes look mismatched because the outer part of the model retained its old smooth look. I think this is due to them inadvertently thickening that part of the eyelid when trying to make the upper part of the eye more angular when viewed from the front, leading to a bit of a derpy/uncanny side angle.

It looks like an error and I hope it is, because this has led to my miqo getting her pre-DT dead stare back. I can see the original intent/vision when viewing the character from the front, but the side view is where you notice that the eyelid is super thick and distorting the eyelash placement, and therefore the percieved eye shape.



I can't even look at her for too long now because of how derpy she looks, and the smoother eye shape is why I picked eye 3 to begin with. I'm even less of a fan of any of the alternative eye shapes, so I'm kind of just stuck with it until they make changes, if they do. Please roll back face 4 eye 3 and give all of those angles to the other faces' eye 3s instead.

[LuciaMirain]

Sorry for rant:
I think I would actually be happy if they fixed the mouths. Then I could ignore the ugly, lumpy eyelashes, the thinning eyebrows and the weird shadows on the nose that has completely removed any semblance of previous shape on my viera. The mouth is the worst though, the nose I could handle in gpose and try and direct the light in a way that it gives the correct shadows. But the mouth is so awful and plump that the only expression that works is /ponder. My character used to /beam but that is unusable now due to the weird banana shape that happens.

They shouldve just said that they were doing a graphical update and that some characters would probably change alot but here is a free fantasia and then just left it at that. The problem from the start has been that they said that we would put in work to make our characters not change too much and then that fell through so hard. Some races and faces got an obvious upgrade. And that is sort of what kills it for me. For viera females face 1 and 2 look the same if not BETTER than before. Face 3 and 4 are wrecked compared to before. Face 3 used to be the babyface, the sweet bunny with a small pouty mouth and now some of the options look like lalamouths. It is weird to see. Face four got so much filler that they look ridic, not to mention if you start comparing mouths between the faces the QUALITY of detail is so obvious. Face 1 has better quality overall in the textures. It is like they ran out of fuel halfway through the faces and slapped a "good enough" on 3 and 4.

[Hatsuoki]

This is with no camera tracking from either the head or eyes. Completely neutral position, using the ponder emote.

Okay they did change *something* but please? The mouths are still the same creepy, unnatural expression (easily replicatable -> any smile + any emote that moves their mouth).

To be completely fair, *this* emote in particular always looked a bit unnatural even in 6.58 but at least he no longer looks like he's passing out.

Sorry for rant:
I think I would actually be happy if they fixed the mouths. Then I could ignore the ugly, lumpy eyelashes, the thinning eyebrows and the weird shadows on the nose that has completely removed any semblance of previous shape on my viera. The mouth is the worst though, the nose I could handle in gpose and try and direct the light in a way that it gives the correct shadows. But the mouth is so awful and plump that the only expression that works is /ponder. My character used to /beam but that is unusable now due to the weird banana shape that happens.

For the most part, I could live with the graphics update if all they fixed were the mouths+expressions but it seems to be the only thing that they haven't worked on/made progress on. I just want to know that it's something that's coming.

Picture added for the people who thinks we're being picky about the graphics update:

Regarding the ponder emote, I hadn't spoken up about how anything looks on the female au ra face 2 because the midlander was butchered so much worse but if possible, I would like the emote to be adjusted to be closer to the old "ponder". It used to also look like a cute pout but now the eyes are comically enlarged. I understand it's supposed to look like an eyebrow is raised/one eye is squinted but it just looks completely unserious. There's a clear difference in impression between the two as well. The old one looks introspective while the new one looks like she's not comprehending.

[Araxes]

I guess at this point we have to accept that our Characters will never look the same again Not just faces but also skin textures are just ruined on many Characters. The smooth skin from before DT was replaced with dry, red, spotty skin. Especially Fem bunnies suffer from this.