Dawntrail character graphics update - opinions, requests and discussion megathread

[Sairaag]

I'll post my own main character as well. Here's the change from Endwalker to Dawntrail that I've been complaining about for a year now:



That completely different mouth shape, those rounder and heavier eyelids, the faded eyebrows and so on.

And then we have the mobile version:




I just had to post him in all backgrounds, because look: not only are the sharper lines back, the creases of his eyelids actually disappear under different lighting conditions again and he once more looks bright and alert! That's the default expression I chose. That's my lad. And the eyebrows are thicker and darker, too!

One thing I do prefer in Dawntrail and it's the fully closed mouth. I know some people with female Keepers at least wanted that gap back, however, so maybe there could be a toggle when they get around to updating the character creator.

[Sairaag]

I noticed immediately that in the mobile port both Midlander women and Lalafells have that dark, upper eye shading that gave their eyes that gentler appearance pre-DT.

I hate glazing macrotransactional mobile games for basically anything, but the fact they now have another version of the game with a different team that remade the models from scratch--who kept character design more accurate and consistent in many ways--is not a good look for them.

It bothers me a lot, really. I'm not planning to actually play this mobile version, but it feels bad to see how improved and faithful to the original model my character would look on mobile and not being able to have that.

[Jaltaer]

In a way I'm almost glad the mobile game is currently ARR only, and therefore doesn't have Au Ra as a playable race yet... I still mourn the loss of my character's old face and I think seeing a comparison with the mobile version, which would likely be a more accurate "upgrade" vs what we got, would just be too upsetting.
It's so frustrating knowing that likely part of the reason these models are looking better is because Tencent has more than enough money to throw at whatever - and XIV itself does bring in that level of money too, especially since they are licensing out the game for this mobile version! But Square would rather use that cash to fund literally everything but the game that's actually making them money. That's a discussion for another topic, though.... but I wouldn't be surprised if the subpar changes we got stuck with in the actual game were due to XIV seeing barely a fraction of what money it makes. Why care about actually upholding that promise to preserve the original appearances of people's characters when you aren't getting paid enough to do so...

[faiarrow]

I mean the warning about it being more faithful was there from the start... on the Chinese and Japanese language pages only for XIV mobile. Not the English one.

But I also like to stress that this studio also have been doing this under full supervision of CS3/SQEX. So this is just making the complacency comment Yoshida made in the PLL worse, imo. I am absolutely bitter. I have a lot of JP feedback to write again this weekend from this, not how I want to spend a day but here we are on the over a year long crusade now to get our characters back.

Because this is my character. This is what a femroe should look like. Not a super smooth doll face, someone with actual shapes and hard lines and something clearly non-human-esque going on. Even with the jewel eyes missing there's so much more that's normal she doesn't look uncanny anymore, and it's depressing that level of care went into a money-hungry mobile game vs. the (also money-hungry, given they're bleeding subs since pre-DT) main release.




(They even fixed the side lock issue in this version... something that not even the DT "upgrade" did - where they made it worse.)

[SchwarzwaelderTorte]

(psst how do I get my hands on the mobile version)

[faiarrow]

(psst how do I get my hands on the mobile version)

(slides this your way)

[Liamont]

C...Can someone check the eyebrows on Elezen male on the mobile version? From the screenshots earlier it looks to be much similar than the DT versions...

Actually I am also curious, are the expressions and emotes more faithful to EW? There's been some weird morphing of the mouth in particular when smiling for DT emotes. The JP thread has a lot of pictures of those, if anyone is curious.

[lunartears]

Could someone please re-create this female Lalafell character recipe in the mobile version?

Plainsfolk, Face 1: Jaw 4, Eye Shape 6, Iris Size: Small, Nose 6 (Skin tone: Palest you can get, Eyes and Hair: White, Hairstyle: Twin drills with the braid at the back (not sure what number it is), Facial Features: Eyeshadow)

It's a similar design to my own Lalafell character but without some minor details as I'm fixated on the facial structure and eyes.

It would be greatly appreciated, my phone storage is maxed out and I don't really want to go through the means of getting this to work on PC.

[faiarrow]

C...Can someone check the eyebrows on Elezen male on the mobile version? From the screenshots earlier it looks to be much similar than the DT versions...

Actually I am also curious, are the expressions and emotes more faithful to EW? There's been some weird morphing of the mouth in particular when smiling for DT emotes. The JP thread has a lot of pictures of those, if anyone is curious.

Recreating my character's husband in the CC and he doesn't have the weird caveman super muscle brow that DT gave us (Urianger has this problem too because they both use the same base face; half of it is the normal map is really weird on the new morph.) The mouths being like the ARR-EW models makes the expressions a lot better.

Could someone please re-create this female Lalafell character recipe in the mobile version?

Plainsfolk, Face 1: Jaw 4, Eye Shape 6, Iris Size: Small, Nose 6 (Skin tone: Palest you can get, Eyes and Hair: White, Hairstyle: Twin drills with the braid at the back (not sure what number it is), Facial Features: Eyeshadow)

It's a similar design to my own Lalafell character but without some minor details as I'm fixated on the facial structure and eyes.

It would be greatly appreciated, my phone storage is maxed out and I don't really want to go through the means of getting this to work on PC.

Sadly the twindrill style isn't in the game yet, but I did everything else per instruction as best I could. Hope these help ;;

[faiarrow]

Yeah white colours in mobile absolutely are more full on—just of like how white in DT is more extreme too for things like hair as well. The button nose actually being a proper button nose again though in mobile is just... it's like YES it can be done! It doesn't have to be a wireframe of 1000 points condensed really weirdly with human nostrils! But then... its stuck in mobile.

Also, did Roegadyn's pupils get bigger in DT, or is it just the black causing that effect? Something about the mobile ver comes across as more like EW (other than the coloured pupils missing).

Yeah they did It's part of what compounds the really weird thing going on with expressions for them because femroe expressions squint the eyes a lot and the huge black void makes it very... creepy? (idk how else to describe it.) If the pupils were coloured (a mock up example here) it does negate some of that but if they went the tencent way I'd accept it because at least it doesn't look heinous.