Dawntrail character graphics update - opinions, requests and discussion megathread

[noumen0nn]

That's why. These aren't recreations in any manner at all. They literally are the same face models, probably with minor touch-ups.

This is absolute misinformation, and you don't even need to do any research to figure this out. I invite you to compare these two pictures: Look at the sheer increase in polygon count, you can see it clear as day on the ears alone. Not to mention that the shirt is quite literally a brand-new asset.

I suspect people who disliked the angle of eyelashes in DT's new models would have had an issue with the differences that do exist, though--narrower looking noses, heavier jowls, that sort of thing.

Every single person in this thread has been praising the mobile graphics, despite the visual differences that DO exist compared to the pre-DT PC graphics. You are inventing strawmen and arguing in bad faith, and you know it.

[Astronis]

This is absolute misinformation, and you don't even need to do any research to figure this out. I invite you to compare these two pictures: Look at the sheer increase in polygon count, you can see it clear as day on the ears alone.

That's what I said, same model with minor touch ups. Which, as I recall, is what you wanted from SE all along, right? Do you really, honestly and truly believe that Lightspeed remade everything from scratch? That they were not handed textures, models, text, and whatever else they needed from SE along with the license to make a FFXIV mobile game?

Every single person in this thread has been praising the mobile graphics, despite the visual differences that DO exist compared to the pre-DT PC graphics. You are inventing strawmen and arguing in bad faith, and you know it.

I've been in this thread from the start and have seen people complain about furrows over noses that are two shades darker in DT than in EW, so please don't tell me the people who complained about that wouldn't complain about other furrows being two shades darker. Nevertheless, once again, I understand why people like these mobile versions. They look good. Without seeing them in person and in game, I'd probably have been happy with them if that's what SE came up with a year ago. But by all means keep that telepathy machine plugged in.

[noumen0nn]

That's what I said, same model with minor touch ups. Which, as I recall, is what you wanted from SE all along, right? Do you really, honestly and truly believe that Lightspeed remade everything from scratch? That they were not handed textures, models, text, and whatever else they needed from SE along with the license to make a FFXIV mobile game?



I've been in this thread from the start and have seen people complain about furrows over noses that are two shades darker in DT than in EW, so please don't tell me the people who complained about that wouldn't complain about other furrows being two shades darker. Nevertheless, once again, I understand why people like these mobile versions. They look good. Without seeing them in person and in game, I'd probably have been happy with them if that's what SE came up with a year ago. But by all means keep that telepathy machine plugged in.

A 'touch-up' that involves this substantial of a polygon upscale, texture improvement and lightning changes IS a full graphics update, regardless of whether it was started from scratch or not. Calling them the same models is still dishonest, and I'm still skeptical that they are.

I have been here since day one as well. The people who are praising the mobile graphics and the ones complaining about the Dawntrail update are the same people. There were a lot of people nitpicking minor differences, yes, because not everyone has the same capabilities when it comes to describing and demonstrating visual changes between the old and new graphics. But the fact that the mobile graphics are this well-received, again, despite there being visible differences, is because the Dawntrail updates failed to preserve the overall visual style and impression of the faces, whereas the mobile version did not. If this was a necessary consequence of starting from scratch with a unified face mesh (Which is isn't, by the way, and a better-prepared team of artists given more time and resources could have done it with no issues), then they shouldn't have started from scratch in the first place. Putting aside the circumstances of their creation: We now have two versions of the game that are, in terms of graphical fidelity, improvements over the pre-DT PC/console version. One succeeded in making this update while preserving the look of the original characters, the other did not. That's all there is to it.

[Astronis]

A 'touch-up' that involves this substantial of a polygon upscale, texture improvement and lightning changes IS a full graphics update, regardless of whether it was started from scratch or not. Calling them the same models is still dishonest, and I'm still skeptical that they are.

I agree with you, it's a full graphic update. I do not believe it's dishonest to say they are the same models with touch ups, because they are clearly the same models with some upgrade work done on them rather than what SE did, which is attempt to recreate the original geometry of the various faces from one single base mesh. That's why I posted about it--I think calling Lightspeed's versions "recreations" is misleading. They look so much like the original models because they ARE the original models with a spit-shine and nice polish on them.

I have been here since day one as well. The people who are praising the mobile graphics and the ones complaining about the Dawntrail update are the same people.

So far, only a handful of the same people. Not all of them. This is a long thread. There has been a lot of nitpicking over extremely minor details, up to and including people listing the RGB values of colors being a smidge different. So yeah, I think those people would still nitpick.

I think faiarrow has it bang on--a mix between the two updates would have been the best possible outcome. There are some things in the DT update that are stellar and things the mobile devs did better. Some of what was lost is almost certainly because SE felt it necessary to standardize the base mesh. They made that choice, I am going to assume for a reason other than for the lulz, and I think SE did a very good (albeit not perfect) job given that constraint. Obviously you (and others) disagree.

[magitekwitch]

Just out of curiosity, can someone show pics of how miqo'te tails look on mobile? Did they upgrade them with more volume like the hairstyles, or do them still look like that low res X shape?

[Sairaag]

Just out of curiosity, can someone show pics of how miqo'te tails look on mobile? Did they upgrade them with more volume like the hairstyles, or do them still look like that low res X shape?

The X shape is still there. I made a gif with the fluffy tail: